Privacy policy

Last updated November 3, 2026

616 Dispatch is an independent site that lists fire, EMS, crash and police calls in West Michigan. This page explains what we collect about people who visit the site, and how we handle the information in the calls we publish. Questions: [email protected].

Visiting the site

• No accounts. You can use everything here without signing up or giving us your name or email.
• Analytics. We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are read. It sets cookies in your browser and sends Google the pages you view, your browser and device type, and your approximate location (from your IP address). Google's use of that data is covered by Google's privacy policy. You can block it with a content blocker or Google's opt-out add-on; the site works the same without it. We also count page views ourselves, without cookies: each page you open sends us its address, the site that linked you, whether you're on a phone, tablet or computer, and the town your IP address is in (as Cloudflare places it). Your IP address and browser are only used, scrambled with a code that's thrown away the next day, to count you once per day; they aren't stored.
• Server and security logs. Like any website, our hosting and security provider (Cloudflare) and our web server see your IP address, browser and the pages you request. We use this only to keep the site running and secure, and keep it briefly.
• Alerts. If you turn on alerts or follow a call, we keep your browser's push address (a link your browser maker gives out for sending notifications, which doesn't say who you are), the towns and kinds of call you picked, and the calls you follow, for 24 hours each. Turning alerts off deletes them; so does your browser ending the subscription.
• Tips. A tip you send, and the contact line if you fill it in, go only to the person who runs the site. They're never published as written and are deleted after 90 days. Ask us and we'll delete yours sooner.
• My towns. Towns you save are kept in your own browser. They never reach us, except as the list of towns your home page asks for.
• Your theme choice. If you switch between light and dark mode, that choice is saved in your own browser. It never reaches us.
• Maps. Map tiles come from our own server. If they can't load, the map falls back to OpenStreetMap's tile servers, which then see your IP address.
• Email. If you email us, we use your message and address only to answer it, and keep them only as long as the request needs.

We don't sell or rent information about visitors, we don't run ads, and we don't share visitor information with anyone except the service providers named on this page.

Information in the calls we publish

The calls on 616 Dispatch come from public sources: public dispatch boards and lists published by Ottawa County Central Dispatch, the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, Kent County Dispatch Authority, the City of Grand Rapids and MDOT, and public fire and EMS dispatch radio. See About for the full list. Before anything is published:

• Names are never published. Dispatcher notes and radio transcripts are cleaned automatically to remove names, phone numbers and house numbers.
• Locations are shown only to the block or intersection. A block's map point is placed at the block, never on a house, and a call's exact address isn't kept with the published call.
• Medical calls can show an age, sex and complaint as dispatch gave them, never who the patient is.
• Calls about a person in crisis are listed by type and place only, with no details.

Dispatch radio

Our own receiver records public fire and EMS dispatch radio. Recordings are never published and are deleted after 14 days. Each recording is transcribed on our own server; transcripts are deleted after 72 hours. To pick out a call's details and write its short summary, transcripts are sent to Anthropic's Claude service. Street addresses heard on the radio are looked up with the U.S. Census Bureau's and Kent County's public address services to place calls on the map.

Corrections and removal

If a call is wrong, or it identifies you or someone close to you, email [email protected] with the link to the call's page. We answer within 2 business days, and handle privacy and safety requests first. We can remove a call's details or location, or take the call down. You don't have to tell us why. See Contact & corrections.

Keeping records

Published calls stay online as a public archive unless they're corrected or removed. Database backups are kept for 30 days, and backup copies of the server (which include recent recordings and transcripts) roll over within a few weeks.

Children

616 Dispatch isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update it here and change the date at the top.