Citizen's Police Advisory Council

Charleston Citizen Police Advisory Council September 18, 2018 A meeting of the Charleston Citizen Police Advisory Council was held this date beginning at 5:30 p.m., at the City of Charleston Police Department, 180 Lockwood Blvd, Training Room Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Rhett Outten, Vice Chair, Doris Grant, Joe Lysaght, Camden Norris Shields, Kevin Smith, Savannah Wray, Chris Bryant, Max Milliken, Mary Alice Mack, Erin Groeber, Michael Golden, Barry Wright, J. Robert Haley Also Present: Chief Reynolds, Steve Ruemelin, Dr. Kylon Jerome Middleton, and Bethany Whitaker, Council Secretary Welcome/Call to Order Ms. Outten, Vice-Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting. They were a team and everyone’s comments and thoughts were all recognized in the safe space of the meeting. Review of Advisory Council Guidelines and FOIA Mr. Ruemelin stated that the Guidelines were written over the course of a year. There was a steering committee that was chosen by Chief Mullen to help draft them. It had consisted of 8 citizens. Most of them were very active in civic manners. They also had people from the Police Department that were represented on that committee and he had sat in on it, as well. Chief Mullen, and Interim Chief Taylor had both participated. The Mission Statement was the most important part of the document and that was a statement written by one of the members in April, 2017. It set the goals of what they were trying to accomplish. He encouraged them to read it every once in a while. The Purpose overlapped with the Mission Statement and gave some specific examples of how they were to go about achieving the Mission. If the Mission was the primary guiding light, then the Purpose was second to that. When they chose how many members they would have, the consideration was having enough diversity. Chief Mullen had actually wanted a lot of people on the committee, at least 25. Some other people had come up with different numbers. What went to Council was that each Councilmember would get 1 member, and the Mayor would have 8, and then 3 high-school students. That would have added to 23, and the Chief would have been represented, as well. When they went to Council, they said that was too many people, so the Mayor agreed to give back 4 of his appointments, and they went from 3 to 2 high-school students. Hopefully, they had enough diversity, but were of a size that everyone could have a chance to speak. The appointments were not limited to district. If a Councilmember felt someone in a different district would be a good representative, they could appoint that person. The Mayor could balance out, if there wasn’t enough diversity from who the Councilmembers had picked. When it had gone to Council, many people had expressed the opinion that they should have young people on the council. Hopefully, they would have a good influx of youth to give fresh perspectives. There was also discussion about 1 whether individuals with criminal records should be allowed to serve, and it was determined that they should be, because they could bring another perspective. They would have 3-year terms, except for the high-school students, who would serve one year, although they could come back as regular members. They could serve up to 2 consecutive terms, and some may agree to serve less than the full 3-year term. Some may agree to serve a year or two beyond, and the idea was that they would always have a full-group of members. The initial Chair and Vice-Chair were appointed by the Mayor. The Chair would serve for one year, and then the Vice-Chair would serve the next year. After that, the members would elect their Chair and Vice-Chair. The idea was that they may not know each other at first, but after a couple of years, everyone would know who the leaders were and who wanted to be the Chair. The Police Chief was a participant, not just a representative. So, they would be getting input from the top of the Police Department. The Facilitator’s role in the Guidelines was to assist in deliberations and decision-making, by serving as a neutral and honest broker. The Facilitator was not there to preside over the meeting, decide what they would talk about, or how to make the decisions. There would be someone from the Clerk of Council’s office taking the minutes and keeping the record. Everything that was said would be taken down and be part of the minutes to be part of the record, and it was open to the public. There were no secrets. Minutes would be shared with the members, and they would be trying to figure out how to put them on the website. Meetings were designed to be quarterly, or more frequently as needed. They needed to notice the meetings in advance and the Robert’s Rules of Order would govern the formal procedures of the meeting. The Conditions of Service were fairly simple. It was summarized that they would respect everyone in the room and they couldn’t speak on behalf of the Council unless the Council agreed on a position they wanted to take. If they missed three consecutive meetings, without cause, they could be removed by majority vote. Some of the highlights of Actions and Tasks were that members were to educate others about the Police Department. The Department was hoping to get information about how they could do their job better, but also educate the public, through the Council, as to procedures, so that the public had a better understanding about why the Police Department did certain things. The members were to serve as conduits for communication between the public and CPD, make recommendations for improvements, aid in recruitment/hiring, etc. Information available to the Council would be no different than information available to the general public, however there were some limits. When someone requested anything through the FOIA, records that were less than two years old, they had ten days to respond. 99% of the time, they would produce something. After they notified a person that they had the records, then they had 30 calendar days to produce the document. If the record was more than two years old, they had twenty days to make a determination and then 35 calendar days to get the information. They were generally much quicker than that, unless it was a large request. They could charge for the cost of search, retrieval, and redaction, but usually on smaller requests or for the media, they didn’t. Certain things were not subject to FOIA. This included tax returns, medical records, education records, adoption records, and library records. Body camera footage was not subject to the FOIA, so the public couldn’t just walk in and ask for footage. Oftentimes, if it involved an issue of public concern, such as if a mother were to say her son was treated unfairly by the Police, they wouldn’t give out the footage, but they would invite her and the son and an 2 officer to come in and view the footage to explain what was going on. He believed one of the reasons that it wasn’t available was the logistics of the redactions. They would have to take out information from the footage. Video was available in a criminal or civil case to the defendant, attorneys, prosecutors, and the Jury. It just wasn’t available through FOIA. Kevin Smith asked about the Dashboard Cameras and Mr. Ruemelin stated that was different. There was no exclusion on that and they did give that footage out, unless it met other exemptions. He continued and stated that certain employment records, autopsy photos, videos, and recordings weren’t subject to FOIA. Juvenile records, DSS child abuse and adult abuse records weren’t given out. People that were not entitled to FOIA were individuals serving a sentence of imprisonment, unless there was a criminal case and they needed the records to defend themselves. Exempt from disclosure was information of a personal nature where public disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy. Specific Law Enforcement exemptions were that they would not release information if it would interfere with law enforcement proceeding, if it invaded privacy, or if it disclosed the identity of an informant, etc. They could give out expunged reports, if they were redacted. It was a crime to solicit personal information for commercial purposes, such as getting information from people who had accidents, so you could represent them. At some point, executive sessions had been talked about and he wasn’t sure how that would apply to the committee, because those situations were limited. He anticipated that what they would be talking about would be open to the public, but certain individual employment matters, contract negotiations, government security matters, investigation discussions, business recruitment could go into executive session. FOIA prohibited outside meetings to circumvent the FOIA requirements, so they couldn’t meet under other circumstances all together. A few of them could meet together and talk, but if they had a quorum, which was half the membership, then it would be an official meeting and had to be noticed. Joe Lysaght stated that he thought they could go into Executive Session if they were talking about an individual or tipster. Mr. Ruemelin stated that he thought the purpose of the Council was to focus on big picture type issues such as racial bias, or any issue in the public realm that people were talking about. If there was a crime committed in a members neighborhood, that would go to one of their officers to investigate and afterwards, they could talk about the issue and would have access to information that the public would. Chris Bryant said that in the guidelines, it said there were still 3 high-school students, so that needed to be updated. For elections, it contemplated the Vice-Chair becoming the Chair, but also said there would be elections of a Vice-Chair and a Chair. Mr. Ruemelin said that the Chair would serve for one year and the Vice-Chair would serve as the Chair the year after that. During the third year, the Council would then select the Vice-Chair and a Chair. Mr. Bryant said that during the second year, if there were no elections, there would be no Vice-Chair, because the Vice-Chair would become the Chair. Mr. Ruemelin stated that the Council could determine how they wanted to solve it. Camden Shield said they could add a clause that a Vice-Chair would have to be elected at the end of the first-term. Ms. Outten said that could be on the agenda for the next meeting. Mr. Ruemelin stated the policies and procedures were on the website, as well as data that showed where most of the calls were, what types of incidents they were responding to, etc. He would also email information about FOIA. Erin Groeber asked, if the Council wanted specific information, if they had to make a formal request. Mr. Ruemelin 3 said no, but they would only get the information that someone would get through a FOIA. Chief Reynold said they were trying to put a frame around it and set some ground rules, so that as they moved forward with the conversations, everyone understood how things worked. Mr. Ruemelin said they would provide as much information as they could. Mr. Bryant said they shouldn’t expect any ‘secret’ information, but they were a body that could give voice and information to the CPD. Mr. Ruemelin said that was correct, but there wasn’t a lot of ‘secret’ information. It was just protecting individual’s rights and identities. Advisory Council Updates and District Reports Ms. Outten said that any questions or requests they might have could go to Doctor Middleton. He could help them answer questions and clarify things. They all needed to do Policing 101 and Ride-Alongs. It would be very helpful and would make them a better, well-informed Council. They had the Police Chief there, and they were all there to understand his perspective. This was time to hear him speak. She welcomed Chief Reynolds. Chief Reynolds stated that many of them had done their Policing 101 classes and/or Ride-Alongs and wanted to hear how that went. Camden Shields said that Policing 101 wasn’t long enough. It made an impact on him. Their job was hard enough as it was, but then they put the pressure of making decisions in a short amount of time, coupled with making decisions that had to do with people who weren’t thinking clearly, left him appreciating what the Police Department even more so than before the course. When they got in the simulator, he was nervous before they even started. They all felt the same way, because the importance of the situation was made real. That was something that most citizens didn’t think about, much less be put in that position of what it was really like when officers were faced with those tough choices. Joe Lysaght said that he would agree with that. The weapons portion, for anyone who hadn’t been around weapons or used weapons, was an eye-opener. Even when they were prepped, it still became difficult. The exercise on the traffic stop was informative to him with the positioning of the cars. The position that the detective took, and the manner in which it was done was an eye-opener because they identified themselves. They wanted to see the hands and then they were able to see all of the ‘gimmicks’ that a person could do, such as dropping the license. He tried to talk the person down when he jumped out of the car. Then, he reached down on the inside door and spun around with a knife, the first thing he did was disable the guy’s arm. On an average, most of the other students picked up on the situation and didn’t get too close to the car. Most citizens had no idea what the officers had to do every day and every minute. Doris Grant said she realized the important part that training played. Officers were trained to have to overcome their natural instincts. Mr. Shields stated that as an athlete, they were trained over and over again on what they were supposed to do. That was because they could expect what their opponents would do. It became apparent to him during the class that this was not a game. The ‘opponent’ was not reasonable and they couldn’t expect what they would do. Barry Wright stated they had been told it would be ‘routine’ traffic stop and he figured out that there was no such thing as ‘routine’. After they all went through it, he realized something about stress levels. The stress levels would go up, and then they have to come back down because they may go do something entirely different afterwards. He asked where the resident therapist or psychologist was and was told that they had resources. He knew now why officers responded some ways. At the end of the 4 day, officers just wanted to go home. J. Robert Haley stated that he was ‘dead’ within 30 seconds of the traffic stop. He wished everyone would take the course, and especially the shooting and traffic stop exercises. He wished that body-cam footage could be accessed because then people could see clearly how quickly things could spiral out of control. He understood the limitations and concerns. Officers weren’t paid enough, so that told him it had to be a calling. He had a great deal of empathy for what the officers had to do. Mr. Lysaght asked if it was correct that an officer spent 36 weeks in training. Chief Reynolds said it was about that. There was 6 weeks of Pre-Academy, 12 weeks in Columbia, and then 16- 19 weeks of field training. The training never stopped. Mr. Lysaght said that the Police Department might benefit from a marketing program that would inform people what sort of training officers had to go through. Savannah Wray stated that she appreciated Policing 101 because it showed her first-hand how difficult it was to accurately estimate intuition and how much room for error there was in such small amounts of time. Mr. Bryant stated that the portion that was most impressive to him was everything that was not the high-pressure situation and everything that helped them function well in those situations. That would be things such as taking the 4th Amendment seriously. Even though there was nothing ‘sexy’ about the first part of Policing 101, there was a reason why he didn’t receive phone calls about the CPD and blatant 4th Amendment violations in the same way as other departments in other parts of the State. There was balance and that wasn’t to detract from anything that had been said, because it was important to recognize the difficult that officers faced oscillating from high-intensity to low-intensity. But, in each of those situations, officers were interacting with citizens within the framework of concrete individual rights and the first half of the day spoke to that, in a way that the individual exercises did not. The presentation to the public needed to touch on both aspects, because he thought people came from one of two silos: Police are always right or Police are always wrong. They needed to show that there was merit to both sides. The problem wasn’t necessarily a CPD problem, but it needed a broader perspective. They needed to go above and beyond with being transparent that maybe went above and beyond the statute. Max Milliken stated that he enjoyed Policing 101 and thought that it should be introduced into schools. He thought that a lot of the fear that people had stemmed from the fact that they didn’t realize that officers had fears, well. Kevin Smith stated that he hadn’t gone to Policing 101 yet, and he knew that he would under-appreciate the level of stress of the job. He would ask if officers appreciated the stress level of citizens when they were stopped. Citizens could say that they understood the job and that the officers didn’t get paid enough, but officers needed to understand the citizen’s stress level, because they didn’t know what the officer would do. Mr. Haley stated that the officers had become social workers by default, because the legislature hadn’t been willing to do what it needed to do. Mr. Milliken stated that he wasn’t saying there should be any sort of bias. He would always respect the CPD, but other kids grew up being told the officers didn’t protect them. Mr. Shields stated that if the PD could get out ahead and say that they knew what the constitution was and were going to teach the citizens, it would be helpful. They could teach citizens about the fourth amendment and how it was designed to protect them and how they upheld it. Ms. Outten said the Illumination Project worked on a lot of those things. She believed that part of the Police Academy Training could possibly be going into the schools. It took empathy both ways and transparency of the process. Mr. Smith said that they would have extreme individuals on either side and it would take monumental change to get them to 5 understand both sides. He knew that if they just sat there and told the CPD how great they were, they wouldn’t be helping them ‘sharpen the iron’ or get better. Mr. Lysaght asked if there was any ‘down-time’ for an officer if they experienced a situation where shots were fired. Chief Reynolds said there was and he would answer that question in his update. Update from Chief Reynolds Chief Reynolds stated that, unlike in sports, there wasn’t someone blowing a whistle. It was a lot different, what they trained their officers to be prepared for. One of the biggest compliments was from a parent saying ‘Thank you for preparing my child for this job’. There was a lot they had to do to prepare individuals to become officers. A lot of that happened before they were even hired, in terms of character and integrity. They talked about the importance of diversity, and there was a lot of diversity in the room. They weren’t just there to talk about how great the CPD was. He was thankful for the feedback and showed a good beginning to the conversation. There was so much that went into hiring. They could spend hours talking about recruiting, retention issues, diversity, and the things that made up a good Police Department. It didn’t happen easily, and they had to be very selective. There was a large number of people who said they wanted to be officers, but didn’t get hired for a number of issues. It was resource intensive, and a large commitment to get the positions filled. In terms of priorities, there was no priority greater, other than operations in the field, than the hiring process. They had approximately 450 sworn-in positions. Of that, they were about 50 short, operationally, in a time when they should be growing. That wasn’t from lack of support of the Mayor or Council, but a function of hiring, attrition, and retention. It was his goal to have all positions filled and be hiring for future vacancies. They had lost 12 officers in about a one month period for a lot of different reasons, none of them bad. A few went to Federal agencies, to be airline pilots, and military. It was a process to get people hired and they went to many places for recruitment and they would continue to be strategic and intentional with that. They had to treat people with dignity and respect. They wanted people that had the ‘gift of gab’. During training, he would generally put a lot of different things up on the board such as defensive tactics, driving, report writing, and intermixed would be interpersonal communication skills. He would ask what was the most important and would circle ‘interpersonal communication skills’. That was what kept officers safe, and usually drove the best outcomes, avoided risk, and how they got things accomplished. This skill didn’t come naturally for everyone. It was easy to think that officers should do all of those things well, but it took a lot of training and a good hiring process. There were many situations that happened such as natural disasters, shootings, trying to save a child, responding to a collision, which happened too regularly. No one would ever get used to it, but they did have resources such as peer- support, chaplains, and psychologists. They could pull people off-line after high-intensity situations. It had an effect. Some officers developed PTSD and suicide, in the police profession, was off the charts. At the end of the day, they wanted everyone to be safe and go home. The sanctity of life was important. They focused on techniques that could slow the spiral down such as communication skills, CIT training, etc. They needed to be prepared for every situation. He had heard them discuss the pay of officers and the police profession was a calling, but it wasn’t a bad job. They had pension, take-home cars, and the 6 ability to work overtime. However, if that was the only reason someone was doing it, it was the wrong reason. They also didn’t want to hire people who just wanted to go out and shoot things or be some militaristic person. In the old days, that was how they recruited, and what someone recruited for was what they got. They wanted to recruit people who wanted to solve problems, work in a diverse community, who had compassion, and wanted some level of patience and understanding. The storm that had just occurred was a huge endeavor for the City. They were thankful that they didn’t get hit, but a lot of people had and the Mayor had offered up help to other areas. Right now, they weren’t getting requests, but if there were, they wanted to make themselves available. On Monday, they were meeting with three vendors for the audit. He had recused himself from the voting, because he knew a lot of the vendors. There would be one selected and they would know soon where that would go. It would take a little bit of time to form a contract, and get it funded. There was an issue brewing on James Island with some shootings, mainly in the County, but they were working to coordinate together. Doctor Middleton had helped with some outreach with Team 4 and Team 1. They had a fairly large meeting with the LGBTQ community a few weeks previous and a lot of work had gone into outreach with those communities. There was a discussion that week at Burke High School from 6-9 and the topic would be racism and the history of racism. He introduced their new PSO Director, Captain Walker, who was doing an audit of their Internal Affairs Division and he had brought in outside entities and their accreditation people to look at the policy to make sure they were doing what they needed to be. They had reorganized the department and he was selected because he was a great leader. He also dealt with the training academy, as well. Captain Walker stated that they had brought in different entities such as SLED, Mount Pleasant Internal Affairs, and the Accreditation Manager, who were going back to see how they could improve what they were doing. There was room for improvement and they would write up a proposal and present it to the Chief. He was excited to be there. Chief Reynolds stated that he was planting seeds for dialogue and discussions. They could have policies all day long, and they had some great ones, but the harder piece was the culture. They needed to explore what their culture was, if they valued leadership, and if they executed well, at all levels. There was always more they could do to invest in their people. If they wanted to create the culture of accountability, they had to invest in all levels of the organization. Captain Walker encouraged everyone to do the ride-alongs. Kevin Smith stated that a lot of people had submitted information for ride-alongs but hadn’t gotten one scheduled yet. Captain Walker said he would follow-up. Chief Reynolds asked if they could email Doctor Middleton, and he would make sure they got the ride-alongs scheduled. Public Comment Gary Harris stated that they had a good start, but it wasn’t too early to begin to think about who would replace them. They should encourage others to take the Policing 101 class. Having no further business, the Charleston Police Advisory Council adjourned at 7:04 p.m. 7