Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety

The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS) is the department charged with police, fire and rescue operations in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It is the largest public safety department in the nation, with over 250 sworn officers. Each officer serves as a Police Officer, Firefighter, and Medical First Responder.

Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety
Abbreviation	KDPS
Agency overview
Formed	1983
Superseding agency	Kalamazoo Police Department and Kalamazoo Fire Department
Employees	257 (sworn officers)
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction	Michigan, USA
Location of Kalamazoo within Kalamazoo County, Michigan
Size	25.11 sq mi (65.03 sq km)
Population	74,262 (2010)
Legal jurisdiction	Kalamazoo, MI
General nature	Local civilian police
Operational structure
Headquarters	150 E. Crosstown Kalamazoo, MI
Agency executive	David Boysen, Chief
Facilities
Stations	6
Website
KDPS Website

Public safety model

The Kalamazoo Police Department and Kalamazoo Fire Department were merged in the 1980s with the goal of saving significant tax payer money while increasing the amount of police and fire protection for its citizens. The merger of the departments was a difficult process on reaching agreement with unions covering the fire department and police department. The difficult effort of the merger of the departments along with the successes was even noted by the United States House of Representatives in the Congressional Record.^[1]

As the largest public safety department in the nation, Kalamazoo Public Safety is now considered a model public safety department and often consults and trains other cities throughout the world on the public safety model.^[2][3][4]

Controversies

In 1995 a grand jury was convened to investigate missing cash and contraband from Kalamazoo Public Safety's evidence room.^{[5][better source needed]} Although much of the evidence and investigation remains secret and the US Attorney declined to prosecute, the city attorney at the time has publicly acknowledged that the incident happened^[6]

In 2013, the department received the results of a year-long, independent study it commissioned on racial targeting. The study showed that police in Kalamazoo were more than twice as likely to pull over black drivers than white drivers.^[7] Since this time the department has been working hard to confront the racial bias in its department and has received international news coverage for attempting to address the racial issues the department acknowledges it has.^[8]

In June 2025, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety blocked external access to its automated license plate reader cameras after it was revealed that searches of its camera data were being performed by other law enforcement agencies for "immigration-related violations."^[9]

Casualties

On April 18, 2011, while responding to a shots fired call in Kalamazoo's Edison neighborhood, PSO Eric Zapata was fatally shot. Officer Zapata was the first officer in Kalamazoo to be killed in the line of duty.^[10]