Four finalists to be the next Grand Rapids police chief will make their case to the public this Wednesday.
It’s a high profile job for a department with a history of civil rights violations, and allegations of racial discrimination.
Two of the four finalists have been involved in lawsuits over discrimination at their departments, one as a defendant, and one who is currently suing her former employer for allegedly discriminating against her.
The four finalists include Joe Trigg, the current interim chief; Eve Stephens, a former chief of the police department for the University of Texas at Austin; Rafael Diaz, who currently works for the police department in Kalamazoo; and Mark Bliss, a deputy chief with the Detroit police department.
The city is hosting a meet and greet with all four at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at city hall, followed by a public forum.
Here’s more about each candidate:
Joe Trigg
Trigg currently serves as the interim chief of GRPD, after former chief Eric Winstrom left for a new job in Pensacola, Florida. The city says Trigg has 25 years of law enforcement experience. He served as deputy chief under Winstrom, and appeared in the trailer for the documentary series All Access PD: Grand Rapids.
“Thank God for Joe Trigg,” Winstrom says in the trailer, smiling. “He’ll make a great chief if I get fired or something.”
“Better not happen.” Trigg says with a chuckle. “I’m goin’ with him.”
Trigg did not go with Winstrom to Pensacola, and instead is vying to replace him in Grand Rapids.
Eve Stephens
Stephens served as the first female chief of the University of Texas at Austin police department. Before that, she was an officer with the Austin city police department.
Her tenure at UT Austin was short-lived, and afterward, she sued the university for discriminating against her as an Asian-American woman. The lawsuit alleges she was forced to work under a university supervisor who was “cold, condescending, and unfriendly” toward females in her department. Stephens said she was fired without cause, just weeks after a positive performance review.
The case is ongoing, but the university has denied discrimination.
“Stephens’ immutable characteristics had no bearing on her separation from UT Austin, and her focus on them is a red herring deployed to avoid accepting personal responsibility for her choices and manner of performance,” the university said in its response to the lawsuit.
Grand Rapids city manager Mark Washington previously worked for the city of Austin, and a number of current Grand Rapids city employees moved from there to work with him.
Mark Bliss
Bliss is a deputy chief of the Detroit Police Department. The city of Grand Rapids said he has more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement. He was previously a candidate for the chief of police job in Olympia, Washington, according to a local news report.
Bliss was also named as a defendant in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the Detroit Police department in 2018.
The ACLU of Michigan filed the lawsuit on behalf of Johnny Strickland, a DPD officer who accused the department of a racially hostile work environment, and said he faced harassment because he is Black. The lawsuit claimed that Strickland inadvertently entered a crime scene when he was off duty, and his fellow officers screamed profanities at him and cuffed him, even as he told them he was a police officer. The lawsuit alleged that after Strickland was released from handcuffs, Bliss escorted him to his car and told him “This goes nowhere from tonight.”
The lawsuit claimed that when Strickland told Bliss he would complain about his treatment, “Bliss warned him there would be consequences and repercussions.”
A jury ultimately ordered the city of Detroit to pay Strickland $150,000.
Rafael Diaz
Diaz is a captain in the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, with more than 27 years of experience in law enforcement. He’s also a licensed attorney. In a promotional video posted by Cooley Law School, Diaz talks about his decision to go to law school in Grand Rapids, and how it changed his perspectives on policing. Diaz said he helped lead trainings on de-escalation and in handling people with mental health issues.
“When we encounter a situation, we want to take it from whatever it is, and calm everything down,” Diaz said in the video.
More information on each of the candidates is available on the city of Grand Rapids website.
