GV faculty holds ‘White-Consciousness’ event

Associate Dean of Curriculum Jon Jeffries and MJ Creutz, Assistant Director for the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX, will be presenting in a five-part learning series to address ‘anti-racism’ at Grand Valley State University.

According to the event description posted by the Inclusion & Equity Institute at GVSU, the event aims to have individuals who identify as white intentionally engage in anti-white supremacy work to “better identify their own behaviors, to understand the systems at play and to learn how to deepen personal and institutional anti-racism commitments.”

The event is open to all who are interested but is specifically organized for white-identifying faculty and staff who are interested in developing anti-racist practices in their everyday lives.

The learning series begins on Oct. 12 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. over Zoom. It is expected those registered to attend the first event will complete the learning series, attending all five events.

Grand Rapids Police consult past detectives on unsolved cases

Due to empty positions and challenges in hiring new staff, the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) is turning to retired police detectives to help solve unsolved cases.

GRPD Chief of Police Eric Winstrom said there could be hundreds of families searching for more answers to unsolved murder cases for the city, an issue that led him to turn to former police detectives for consultation.

Windstorm said GRPD currently has a 75 percent homicide clearance rate, higher than the national clearance rate of about 55 percent. However, the success of the department doesn’t diminish the need to crack cases that have been put on pause and deliver answers to many desperate families.

“I never look at a murder case and say, ‘Oh, we’re never going to solve that,’” Winstrom said to MLive. “The opportunity is always there for something to break.”

So far, GRPD has re-recruited one police detective who retired from the department five years ago to assist on a few select homicide cases. GRPD is planning to invite back other retired homicide detectives to revisit unsolved cases, especially if they offer specific expertise on the case or have a previously established connection with those involved.

“There’s the cases that have concrete things that we can do right away that we’re going to be moving on, and then being that liaison to the family because the families want to talk,” Winstrom said.