Citizen's Police Advisory Council

Charleston Citizen Police Advisory Council June 20, 2019 A meeting of the Charleston Citizen Police Advisory Council was held this date beginning at 5:32 p.m., at the City of Charleston Police Department, 180 Lockwood Blvd, Conference Room Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Thuane Fielding, Chair, Barry Wright, Max Milliken, Ryan Davis, Camden Norris Shields, Joe Lysaught (arrived at 6:00 p.m.) Also Present: Chief Reynolds, Reverend Kylon Middleton, Steve Ruemelin, Captain Walker, Deputy Chief Taylor, Captain Dustin Thompson, and Bethany Whitaker Welcome/Call to Order The meeting was called to order. Ms. Fielding stated that Ms. Outten had surgery and wouldn’t be in attendance. Reverend Middleton called the roll. Approval of Minutes  Review of previous minutes to ensure quorum was present and actions taken Ms. Fielding stated that she looked back at the guidelines that established the Council and the guidelines directed that in the absence of some kind of directive or instruction that they were to follow Robert’s Rules of Order. As a result, to do any voting, they should have a quorum. Simple majority was the definition if they didn’t have something in their own document. The total number of members they had was 18, so the quorum would be 10. Ms. Whitaker stated that they only had ten members at the September and January meetings. Ms. Fielding said that because they didn’t have a quorum, they would be in listening mode that night. At the November meeting, there were nine members present. At the March meeting, there were eight present. At both of the May meetings, they had seven members present. Reverend Middleton said that District six didn’t have a representative. That meant that it shouldn’t be factored in because that person didn’t exist. Ms. Whitaker said that according to the first memorandum every Councilmember appointed someone. Ms. Fielding said that it said that, ‘after receiving nominations from all twelve’. They didn’t know the nominations were received. Reverend Middleton said that Mary Alice Mack was never appointed by Council. She was added after and her name never went back to Council. Technically, she wasn’t even an appointed member. Peter Lawrence came to the first orientation and decided he would not serve. Ms. Fielding said that Barry Wright wasn’t on the list either. Ms. Whitaker asked if Mr. Wright took Barbara Bennett’s spot because she had never been to a meeting. Reverend Middleton said that he didn’t necessarily take the spot. Councilwoman Jackson had appointed Ms. Bennett and someone decided they didn’t want her to serve. They wanted Mr. Wright to serve, but Ms. Bennett had already been approved. In some instances, the Councilmember appointed too many people, and so the Mayor then made them his selections. Ms. Fielding asked what the total number of members because the membership section didn’t match. That section said ‘each City 1 Councilmember will select one advisory council member and the Mayor will select four advisory council members and two high school seniors to represent the City’s youth.’ When they added those up, it was 18. When they were deciding the quorum, it depended on the spots available, not the individual person. Reverend Middleton said that based on the past action, when looking at the quorum number, nine may have been a quorum based on the reality of appointed members. So, the question would be how many appointed members did they have and those people should constitute the quorum. Ms. Fielding said that was what she was asking because according to the guidelines, that was 18. Reverend Middleton said they only technically had 16 appointed persons. Ms. Fielding said that the guidelines that were established were a guide, but not something they had to follow. Reverend Middleton said they had to follow them, except that some persons were never appointed by Council, so they couldn’t control that. Ms. Fielding said that it did say that members will be selected by the Mayor and City Councilmembers. It was worth the argument because the minutes were to be published. Ms. Whitaker said that if they didn’t have a quorum, they couldn’t approve those minutes, which meant that legally, she couldn’t post them up. Ms. Fielding said that the quorum number was 16 then, and that needed to be written in the minutes so that new members knew that. Ms. Whitaker said that when they were looking back, they realized that they shouldn’t have ever been allowed to vote to have the ‘special meeting’ on May 9th because they didn’t have a quorum to vote for that. It was in the past though, and that couldn’t be changed. Reverend Middleton said that shouldn’t have been called a meeting though. Ms. Fielding said that the other issue she wanted to bring up was that they were calling May 9th a ‘meeting’ because it wasn’t to be a meeting. It was supposed to be an information session to bring some people up to speed on the audit. The minutes needed to reflect that they needed to modify the termination of what that actually was. It was an information session, not a meeting. Ms. Whitaker asked if she needed to label that as a workshop then, because she was there and took minutes. The public was allowed to come, so if anyone from the public ever wanted to hear that recording, they could. Ms. Fielding said that Ms. Whitaker and Mr. Ruemelin could discuss that and present it when they had a quorum. Chief Reynolds stated that he wanted to thank everyone who was there for their leadership. It was important to say that. They wanted to have a strong representation. There wasn’t a lot to vote on most times, so that wasn’t as big of an issue. They needed to be objective and separate from the Police Department. His controlling instincts were that he was great at getting a group together and creating conversations. That was what he liked to do, but that wasn’t his job. It was important to have these discussions, because it was an independent conversation about police issues that was really led by the members. There were a lot of people in the community that cared about the topic of policing and that were engaged who wanted to be a part of the conversation. He said all that because he thought they would continue to strengthen the membership. Even with a group of their size, he found it very valuable. He wanted them to be encouraged by that. Just because there wasn’t a ‘full quorum’, it didn’t mean it wasn’t important. The Mayor had called him who wanted to share his value for the members. Ms. Fielding asked if they would find the guidelines because the guidelines had information. They needed to look at the section on removal of members. It was unfortunate when they had to take action like that, but it was a reality. As they found going through the assessment just now, there were some 2 people who hadn’t come at all, or who hadn’t stated their intentions. They owed it to their Councilmembers to notify them that whoever they appointed was not attending or had said they weren’t able to do it. Public Comments Period None. Old Business  Updates: Organization Chart & Related Command Changes  CNA Updates Lieutenant Bruder stated that that the following Thursday, they would be holding a press conference. CNA was complete with all of their site visits to gather and collect data. There was no planned visits until they came back in September with the draft of the audit. If the data they had collected called for them to need another visit, they would have that discussion at that point. CNA was still accepting information from people by email. CNA had made preliminary observations and some of those had led to changes in the Police Department already. It also caused them to reevaluate some areas and they had upped their recruiting staff by one officer. They had 25 new hires since January 1. 52% were from under-represented groups. CNA had cautioned the department to not focus on all of the observations at this time, because they were not recommendations or findings at this point. Ms. Fielding asked when they decided that the press conference would be the next week. Lieutenant Bruder said they had been working with different people, and they had decided the previous day. Ms. Fielding said that she asked because there might be a notification issue. They needed to make sure that people were notified in a timely manner to be able to adjust schedules. Lieutenant Bruder said the Advisory Council was the first group to be notified in person. Ms. Fielding asked if the people who attended to CNA sessions would be notified about the press conference. Mr. Davis said that those people didn’t give that information. They wanted to stay anonymous. Lieutenant Bruder said it would be released in the paper and other media outlets. Chief Reynolds said that the main purpose wasn’t to have a big showing of a lot of people at the press conference. The challenge they had was that they were doing a lot of work, but it wasn’t being heard. They could be very transparent, but if no one knew about it at the end of the audit, it wouldn’t be maximizing the opportunity. The press conference’s purpose was to talk about some of the things that had come up thus far, and some of steps they had taken so that people knew that they were doing something and that it was meaningful. They invited people to be both their biggest critics and biggest supporters.  Nathaniel Rhodes Updates Chief Reynolds said that Captain Walker and Deputy Chief Taylor had been instrumental in this case and they could add things if needed. They included this because since the last meeting, they had done a press release. There had been some updates. The SLED investigation was concluded and they received a copy of it. There were no criminal charges based on the state investigation. When they became aware of 3 some of the things that occurred in that case, he immediately called SLED and asked for their assistance to do an investigation, independent from the City. SLED sent investigators the next day to do interviews of people involved. Subsequently, they did a lot of investigative work and wrote a report up. They had a critical incident review board, where their team reviewed the facts and the cases and gave feedback. They finalized the report after that and it was then conveyed to him and sent to the Attorney General’s office. They then issued a letter that they were not going to criminally prosecute in this case. That was the main purpose of the separate investigation. The Police Department couldn’t made a conclusion to their administrative internal investigation until they had that. He didn’t have a lot of new information about the case, as far as the facts and what occurred. When they got that update, they also concluded the internal investigation. They released the reports. The officer was no longer a police officer, however he was an employee in the police department. He worked in a non-sworn capacity as a forensics person in the crime lab. There was still a civil side to this case which could take a long time to conclude. Ms. Fielding asked what non-sworn police work entailed. Chief Reynolds said that was a good question because one of the concerns was why he didn’t get fired. His answer to that question was that with every case they had, they looked at whether the employee was truthful, forthcoming and if they cooperated and answered questions. In many cases, it was easy to fire someone. In this case, the officer was honest and forth coming. He explained what he did and what his logic was. Chief Reynolds said he didn’t agree with that and it led to circumstances that weren’t acceptable, however as an organization they looked at it and asked what they could do better and differently. So, instead of just firing someone and checking a box, they thought about the body cameras, the retention schedules, the training and supervision, and signing the form. They asked what they could change and not just make the officer a scapegoat. The department had made a lot of changes and they were continuing to make changes. A sworn officer had the ability to make an arrest, to use force, to pursue, etc. For him, he had to look at what the best outcome would be. He hit the pause button, read the interviews, consulted with other people, and made a decision. The former officer no longer had the power of arrest. He no longer had a badge or weapon, or the authority of being a police officer. They felt it was a fair outcome that he would still be an employee. Mr. Wright asked if that prohibited him from being a police officer in some other municipality. Captain Walker said they submitted a summary to the Criminal Justice Academy laying out everything that their investigation entailed. It would come up before their panel and they would vote on his future moving forward. Mr. Wright said he thought that was the best decision and a good way to handle it. They were still allowing him to work, and they weren’t judging his future. Ms. Fielding said that she heard that they had changed the form and asked if they figured out what happened that caused the lack of knowledge of the form until the National News came. Chief Reynolds said there were a lot of things that didn’t happen in the process that should have. The form was one of them. Body camera footage was one. Not having a supervisor on the scene was another issue. This was a good conversation to have because they could just move on, but they were talking about changing policy, supervision and training. Everything that fell under Captain Walker was training, policy, and internal affairs. They put all that together under one umbrella. He asked Captain Walker to share what they were doing in training. They were changing the culture, not just addressing one incident and 4 moving on. There was a whole series of failures in this incident in the entire agency. Captain Walker said that they were assessing the first line supervisors and making sure everyone was on the same page as far as accountability and oversight and notifications. In this incident, a lot of things fell through the cracks. Certain things weren’t caught at the line and command level that played a part of things not coming to the forefront. They did a hard reset. During incidents like this, they did a full evaluation, and that was where they were currently. For the first line supervisors, they were reassessing what they were giving the Sergeants as far as being able to make decisions, when to make notifications and touch base with their subordinates. They were also doing a complete evaluation of the policy manual. Chief Reynolds said that they had all agreed that DUI impairment was a significant public safety challenge that they had in the City. No one would argue that. Their officers were also put in a challenging position because the way the laws were written, they were really written in favor of the defendant. It was that way in many states. They were stuck with that. So, as an agency, they needed to master their craft. When it came specifically to DUI cases, which this was, they needed to know what they were doing. In this case, they didn’t. They had what was called a ‘wet lab’. Basically, they had a controlled environment and they had people that drank in each class. It was a 32 hour class. In each class, they could have twenty officers who were being trained in field sobriety. New officers got this training at the Academy, but officers who had been on for a period of time may not have had the training. Heather Maloy was their newest attorney. She had done a lot of litigation work and training at the Academy. Her position was full time, assigned to the Academy. For the wet lab, an officer could go into that environment and do all of the tests. They could see the effects of the alcohol on a variety of different people. These are things that police officers needed to know how to do. They were raising the bar. It was a cultural issue, from top to bottom. As bad as the event was, it was making them better. Mr. Shields asked if they could report back to the Advisory Council after the report was done to let them know what they found and what they intended to do to keep working on those things. He understood the DUI problem, but that incident exposed a lot of other problems. He would like to know what they were doing moving forward. Chief Reynolds asked what additional they were looking for, because he felt like that was what they were doing. Mr. Shields said he would want specific details. Something in writing might help. If they had something in writing, it could generate some more questions for the Advisory Council to come back with. Chief Reynolds stated that the audit would touch on a lot of things that would be in writing. Mr. Shields said he wasn’t trying to make any more work for them, but having it in writing or having a meeting where the main agenda was to go through all of the changes. Mr. Milliken said he was at the West Ashley police station the day before. He got to witness their ‘wet lab’. The proctors that ran it were very critical of some of the older officers that were conducting field sobriety tests. They were making sure that the officers were very clear in their instruction. One of the proctors had even told one of the officers to go back through and read the packet of information. Ms. Fielding said those were two different things. Mr. Shields was asking for some sort of bulleted listing of the findings from the evaluation and the remedial actions. Mr. Shields said he thought that would beneficial because it would generate more ways that the Advisory Council could help. Mr. Davis said that the more things they had in writing the better. That way, they could share it if someone asked for information. 5 Chief Reynolds stated that he had been there for about 14 months and he could write a book. On one hand, they still had a civil side to this, so they had to be sensitive to what they put in the public. He had dealt with many cases that had led to termination or resignation. The overall document that would incorporate all of these things would be the audit. Mr. Shields asked in general, what they had identified within the department to make sure something like this incident didn’t happen again. That was what he was referring to. There didn’t need to be details about the case. The more transparent, and the more things were in writing, the better the whole process would be. Mr. Lysaught referred to the DUI and the laws. He thought they had two areas of attack and he wanted to hear what others thought. He thought the Advisory Council should charge forward through the political channel because they could do that with their various contacts of people they knew. He would be hard pressed to believe that any representative or senator in the State of South Carolina would be opposed to tightening down those laws. It was hard on the officers to correct what was happening. He didn’t know what they could do or what their boundaries were regarding their interface to the politicians. He thought they should go to the legislators. Chief Reynolds stated that they could look at many cases of people who had been killed by drunk drivers. There was a lot they could do and he would find it of great value if the members wanted to help. They would find that it would be an education because not everyone wanted to jump on board with ‘common sense’ legislation because there were large lobbies behind the scenes that were pushing buttons. If the Advisory Council wanted to, he would love to schedule a meeting with M.A.D.D. They represented many of the survivors of those who had been killed from drunk driving. There was some very common sense legislation that should pass. He had spoken at the Capitol steps with the governor, with M.A.D.D, on legislation to have an ignition interlocking device for people that were repeat offenders so that they couldn’t drive their car while intoxicated. That would be a great idea and would have an impact. Mr. Lysaught said they had to step over the fence. They could beat someone at their own game playing by their rules. Chief Reynolds said that South Carolina was one of the worst states for DUI’s and Charleston was twice the State’s average. Ms. Fielding said that this was a good discussion to continue. She suggested putting it on the next meeting’s agenda, to discuss in a little more detail. Mr. Lysaught asked if they had performance appraisals done on all of the officers. Chief Reynolds said yes, but it wasn’t a major factor in their performance. He would love to see it be a little more substantial one day. Mr. Lysaught said that performance ratings were critical elements in any work environment. They didn’t know what was going on until after the fact. Somehow they needed to get the legislator to wake up and the media could help. Chief Reynolds said he was touching on a lot of things, none of which he disagreed with. With the DUI piece, there were many different pieces. The bottom line was that they could make it better. If they saved one life, it was worth it. He was passionate about that and they were focused on that as an organization. They couldn’t focus on everything overnight, but they could get better outcomes. Ms. Fielding said it would be good to hear about the evaluations of officers and if those evaluations were a factor in the promotion of officers or if it was simply about taking a test. Chief Reynolds said that could be an item that they add to the next agenda.  Update: New Community Policing Office 6 Captain Thompson said that coming out of some of the CNA observations, Chief Reynolds had created a new office of Community Orientated Policing and made him Captain over that position. They were doing things like community events, going to neighborhood meetings, and getting out in the community. They had put new furniture in their office and his hope was that they would have staffing for that office in the next month, so that they could be open seven days a week. The staffing would come from the community action teams, which had been part of the Team 1 and Team 4 patrols. There would be a sergeant, and five officers. One Team would work Monday-Thursday, and the other would be Friday- Monday. The coverage would be 9 AM-7 PM. The discussion was to have someone in the office so that people could come in without an appointment and help them address issues they may have. They were looking to have a rough draft of a strategic plan for community outreach. That would be looked at by civilians and officers. They were looking at real-time technology and ways to get information out fast to the community. They would have a renewed focus on foot patrols. They would be sending a lot of things out through social media. Ms. Fielding asked if they were talking to the radio and TV stations to get positive press. Captain Thompson said they would be doing that. Lieutenant Bruder said they were also working on the web page. They would need to discuss at some point what information people would like to see on the website in reference to their individual contact information. Ms. Fielding said that he could coordinate with Reverend Middleton about what to put on the site and where. New Business  New Advisory Council Members & Orientation Mr. Ruemelin stated that they had had a few calls about the recruitment of new members. Legal was talking to the various councilmembers to fill positions that have expired. There were some members who wanted to stay on and would be reappointed. There was an active effort to make sure that the positions were going to be filled with people that would hopefully be interested and show up to the meetings. Chief Reynolds said they wanted to give the Advisory Council a full slate. They wanted the positions to be filled. Commissioner Updates in Districts and Concerns Mr. Shields said that in West Ashley, there were several lights that didn’t work well. That was what he was hearing mostly. Ms. Fielding said that Coming Street at the Crosstowne was still an issue as well. The lights were out of sync. Chief Reynolds said that if they had an issue like that, they didn’t have to wait until the meetings to voice a concern. Mr. Milliken said he didn’t represent a district, but he represented the youth still. He wanted to voice his concern about the amount of firearms stolen, specifically out of the parking lot by the Riverdogs stadium. There had to be something that the officers who worked those games could do to prevent that, whether it was reminding people parking to lock their doors, or to post signs. Chief Reynolds stated that Mr. Milliken was a fellow with the City of Charleston. He was at many events. There had been many 7 guns stolen from unlocked vehicles. They had a string of thefts that they were working on from the Riverdogs game while people were at the game. They were working on that. Charleston Police Department – Information/Updates  The Police Fund Captain Thompson said that they had met with some staff about the Police Fund. In those meetings, the Chief asked that they brought it up to the Advisory Council. They were looking at revamping it and getting it out into the community. So, if anyone wanted to attend the information meetings, they should get in contact with him. The date wasn’t set yet. The Chief Speaks – Information/Updates Chief Reynolds stated that there was a comprehensive group of people that were working on the opioid problem. They had a forum at the College of Charleston. The amount of overdoses was large. It was important to note that they had violent crime in the City. Just the past week, they had a 16 year old who was doing landscaping and was shot. Less than 24 hours after that, they had a shooting which ended in a homicide. They were a few stolen vehicles that they were recovering in that community. There was a lot more they needed to do. They still needed to police their communities. Some people would say that they needed to build public trust. He would agree that was a high priority, but they also needed to police still. The CNA audit was challenging them to do it in a way where they treated people with dignity and respect, so that there wasn’t unfair treatment in the community. They didn’t want to depolice, but they had to do in a way that was professional and consistent with the best practices and policies. That was why they had legal training at the Academy. In the last few weeks, they had created a site and it was really amazing. They had redone their job descriptions. They had been a big demand from the community to put an SRO in every elementary school. There had been an editorial in the paper about it. It was something that would continue to get a lot of attention. The good news was that people wanted officers in all schools, but the challenge was that there were a lot of schools and it would be hard to have one in every school. It was a dilemma and it would have an impact on the budget. Chief Taylor and a few other officers had received recognition at Mother Emanuel for their help with everything regarding the anniversary. Next Steps / Adjournment Having no further business, the Advisory Council adjourned at 6:58 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary 8