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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS & THANK YOU’S From Chief Harry Dolan –
I sincerely want to thank everyone in the City of Grand Rapids family for all of their exceptional input and effort. In particular, I want to thank the Police Department’s Senior Management staff: Deputy Dan Ostapowicz and Captains Kevin Belk, Pam Carrier, James Farris, Vic Gillis, Phil Jager, Curt VanderKooi, and Vern Snyder. An action-oriented group, they showed tremendous discipline and commitment in putting in all of those long hours making the tough decisions. I truly applaud your dedication and your wisdom. I would also like to thank the City Agency Leadership for their willingness to work with us more closely and for their willingness to commit to be potential co-locators at our Neighborhood Police Service Centers.
Special thanks to the Department Advisory Committee and chair Sergeant Joann Woodfield, and to all of the workgroup coordinators. Within a terribly tight timetable, you solicited broad input from everyone in the department, tremendously enriching the quality of the final product. A special note of thanks to Lieutenant Carol Price, not only for her work in facilitating sessions with her fellow lieutenants, but also for being a beacon for community policing within the department for all these years. I hope that everyone in the department will join me in thanking Sergeant Betsy Macicak of Staff Services. When I say that we could not have done this without her, that is no exaggeration. Indeed, I am counting on her to make sure that we keep on track as the plan is implemented over the next five years. Thanks also to Officer David Kiddle for his able assistance under pressure, as well as to the rest of Staff Services, including Karen Mendez, Kelly Criner and Officer Kelly Swanson.
My personal thanks to Bonnie Bucqueroux of policing.com, whose Strategic Planning Support Team provided us the guidance and the support to meet our tight timetables. A decade ago, Bonnie and I sat outside a reception at the FBI Academy in Virginia, talking about how much we wanted to help Bob Trojanowicz fulfill his vision of what community policing could be. Bob did not live long enough to see police take their rightful roles as partners in community-oriented government.
How gratifying to find that the City of Grand Rapids, under the forward-thinking leadership of Mayor John Logie, City Manager Kurt Kimball, and the City Commission, is eager to embrace these concepts and take them to the next level. Thanks also to the others on the Strategic Planning Support Team: Drew Diamond, Police Executive Research Forum; Captain Tony Kleibecker, Michigan State University Department of Police and Public Safety; Dr. Carl Taylor, Michigan State University’s Institute of Children, Youth, and Families; and Dr. Joanne Ziembo-Vogl of Grand Valley State University’s Department of Criminal Justice. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Neighborhood Associations and the citizens of Grand Rapids. Many of you took time away from your families in the evening to attend our Neighborhood Meetings, where you provided your best thinking and advice. You have already worked hard to make Grand Rapids a great place to live and work and raise families, and I look forward to working with you even more closely to implement this ambitious, exciting, and comprehensive plan. |
