Progressive Activists Send the Grand Rapids Police Chief to Florida

Grand Rapids — Departing Police Chief Eric Winstrom’s farewell news conference last week was an exercise in performative unity between the city’s law enforcement and the progressive city administration led by City Manager Mark Washington. But it also allowed Chief Winstrom to carefully drop the hammer on his soon-to-be former boss.

The announcement that Winstrom was named police chief for Pensacola, Florida, wasn’t a shock to those aware of the growing political tension in Grand Rapids. Once a deep-red conservative enclave, Grand Rapids has undergone a remarkable progressive shift in the last decade, and with it has come an embrace of far-left policy and politics.

Chief Winstrom took command of GRPD in April 2022 and was immediately confronted with the tragic police shooting of Patrick Lyoya. The release of bodycam footage overwhelmingly absolved the officer, but local, state, and nationally elected Democrat officials immediately placed blame on the police. Washington threw the department further under the bus by suspending and calling for the termination of officer Christopher Schurr.

Winstrom weathered that storm and several others during his four-year tenure, but the cracks in the veneer were clear to see, even as the department made incredible strides. But that excellence may have been the problem.

HBO docuseries “All Access PD: Grand Rapids” dropped last year, giving an in-depth view of the department’s day-to-day operations. The eight-episode exposé went well beyond ride-alongs and became an overnight sensation. The show revealed GRPD was an exceptionally competent department with sensational success solving serious crimes in the city.

But some within the city were less than impressed. Word quickly spread that City Manager Mark Washington and several other elected and appointed officials in the city were angered by the show’s depiction of the GRPD’s exceptional policing. Local police were shown as a community benefit, rather than a problem for progressive activists to lament.

Pensacola’s reputation for being a deep-red conservative municipality is well-known, so it was impossible not to attach politics as a component in Winstrom taking that job.

Attempts to reach Chief Winstrom for comment prior to Friday were not responded to, and the subsequent press conference with Mark Washington caught the city by surprise given the conciliatory tone and manner by both men during the opening minutes. But when a reporter raised the idea that “left-wing” politics by elected leaders was the reason he was leaving, Winstrom paused and collected himself.

The chief was clearly swallowing down his true thoughts and briefly fumbled for words before he spoke the truth.

Winstrom admitted that it’s harder to work in a city that isn’t “reflexively pro-police” and mentioned the adverse response to the HBO docuseries, stating, “I thought it was a positive thing; a lot of people thought it was a good idea to expose the city to a documentary series of what the police department does on a day-to-day basis.” He continued: “There were people that were mad that it was coming out, not because there was anything wrong with it, but because it showed us in a true light… a good light.”

Winstrom revealed that several unnamed city officials were upset with the series because they were seeking to show the department in a negative light for personal gain. He noted that “high-performing successful cities have high-performing successful police departments, and intelligent politicians who want best for the city understand that.”

With Mark Washington only feet away, it’s safe to say the Winstrom’s parting comments were a shot directly at him.

Washington closed with an HR-approved statement that a national recruiting firm would be employed to find and hire a new police chief, undoubtedly screening for candidates who parrot the right kind of politics and subscribe to the correct notions of liberal criminology.

Buckle up, Grand Rapids. Politicized policing is your destiny.