GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The police chief in Grand Rapids is defending a decisionto put two officers in patrol cars after the shootings in Dallas.
Chief David Rahinsky says officers are in pairs to offer “emotional support” to each other. Besides the deaths of five Dallas officers, he says this week is the ninth anniversary of a fatal shooting of a Grand Rapids officer and the fifth anniversary of a mass shooting in the city.
Rahinsky says officers need “someone to listen to, someone to talk to.” He says that’s the purpose.
But the local head of the NAACP says it might be sending the wrong signal to the public. At the same news conference Friday, Cle Jackson asked how minorities should “double up” to protect themselves from questionable police stops.
