Public Safety Committee

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE December 1, 2016 A meeting of the Public Safety Committee was held this date at 3:35 p.m., at City Hall, First Floor Conference Room, 80 Broad Street. Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Councilmember Kathleen Wilson, Chair, Councilmember Dean Riegel (arrived at 3:49 p.m.), Councilmember A. Peter Shahid Jr., and Mayor John Tecklenburg. STAFF: Chief Karen Brack, Charleston Fire Department, Chief Greg Mullen, Police Department, Rick Markiewicz, Director of Safety Management, Susan Herdina, Assistant Corporation Counsel, and Bethany Whitaker, Council Secretary The meeting was opened with a moment of silence by Councilmember Wilson. Approval of March 3, 2016 Minutes On the motion of Mayor Tecklenburg, seconded by Councilmember Shahid, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the March 3rd minutes. Review of Vehicle Safety Task Force Report Rick Markiewicz said that the Task Force had already presented the report to Mayor Tecklenburg and had been in front of the department heads. The report was brought to the Public Safety Committee because of a fatality of a temporary employee assigned to the City in Environmental Services, who was collecting garbage. The Mayor asked the Task Force to come together and focus on the Vehicle Safety Policies and Procedures in the departments and divisions throughout the City. The other departments sent their policies and procedures and they were reviewed. They researched what they could do for other State and Federal agencies such as insurance companies, private sectors, and other environmental services. After they reviewed those, they had a pretty good picture on what they were missing and what they could do better on. There were 15 topics that kept coming up, and the focus was that, whatever they came up with needed to be achievable. The 15 points were consolidated down to 8 achievable points. The first recommendation that the Task Force came up with was the Safety Culture and how it could be driven by the executive level management for the employees throughout the City. Because the focus was on driving, they wanted to focus on a Driver Safety Campaign to get the employees involved, but it would not stop there. It would trickle down to a general safety statement that would focus on injuries as well. The reality was that studies said that once you started changing the safety culture, it would take an average of seven years. It was not a quick change but it was something they were passionate about. They had a lot of things in place and they had already kicked that off. They started a Safety Slogan Campaign focusing on driver safety that was revised, finalized, and sent out the day before the Public Safety Committee meeting. By the time he had left that day they had 22 people submitting slogans. The employees were getting enthused about it, which was what was needed for a good safety culture. They were planning on selecting a slogan on January 17th. The Safety Review Committee would get all of them a week in advance, and then would vote on the slogan that they thought was the catchiest and would apply the most to the situations with their employees. They needed the Mayor’s help to kick it off and had talked to him about that. The second recommendation was Responsibility for Safety with Additional Personnel. There were only two people in the Safety Management Division; Rick and Candace. The Police Department had their personnel and the Fire Department had dedicated safety personnel, but as far as general employees, they wanted to get additional safety officers to focus on Public Service and Parks. They said that because that was the biggest exposure they had, aside from Police and Fire. They had one position that had been budgeted for and they were waiting for City Council approval to see if it would go through. His understanding was that instead of assigning them to Public Safety and Parks, they would be in the Safety Management Division, so they would be able to help coordinate and find out where they were going. They were starting with driver safety but it would trickle down to every element of the Safety Management Division for the employees, including injuries and hazard assessments. Councilmember Wilson asked if that person would have a special focus towards Public Safety and Parks. Mr. Markiewicz stated that he and Candace had a good grasp on the other departments and divisions, but that was the position they wanted them to be in. The third recommendation was the General Policies. The City had a good general written policy and instead of having all of those separate, they wanted to combine things like cell phone use, electronic use, seatbelts, smoking, and texting. An element to that was the substance abuse and drug testing policies for people who were involved in collisions. That element was done and would be incorporated in the general policies. The specific policies that were going to be talked about would supplement the general policies. Councilmember Shahid asked about the State Reserve Fund, and if they had a protocol or training in place. Susan Herdina stated that the Insurance Reserve Fund and other Insurance entities in the State did offer training. Part of the recommendation was that they had integrated training. It was a program that they weren’t aware of until this came about so it was a good thing. They would definitely be taking advantage of it. Councilmember Shahid stated that it would become an issue if they were not in compliance with what they wanted the City to do. Ms. Herdina said that at that point, they had not had an issue with them, but they were certainly taking advantage of the training and would enhance their conversation about that. Mr. Markiewicz stated that he hadn’t made copies but this was from the Insurance Reserve Fund. They had an Instructor Certification Program, and they suggested that if they had a large staff, to send people to get certified, and that was one of the topics they were looking at to do. The fourth recommendation was the Driver-Operator Training Selection and Qualifications. This would supplement the general policy. The important thing was that it had specific training procedures for most pieces of equipment such as garbage trucks, fork-lifts, mowers, etc. It didn’t have to be fancy, but it needed to be something that was reliable. They could have standardized training, so each employee that used that piece of equipment could operate it and if they saw something that was not safe, they could stop the operation and contact their supervisor. The benefit to this was that if they had more people trained on different pieces of equipment, they could be interchangeable throughout different departments, especially if they had something happen again. They wouldn’t have to worry about training somebody when it was too late. The Safety Officer would help out quite a bit. Candace was certified through the South Carolina National Safety Council for distracted drivers, and they had just implemented that. They had a Vehicle Safety Review Board, and if an employee came before that board that met the criteria and somehow contributed to it, then each quarter they would have a cap for each employee, and have them go through the 4 hour Distracted Driver Program. Fleet would be a big portion of making sure that they were capturing the correct equipment, and they would know which piece of equipment each department had so they would not miss a piece of equipment. The fifth recommendation was Driving and Operating Records and History. Human Resources had requested this in the budget already. With the DMV, it used to be free annually for them to check the driving status of employees, but that was no longer an option because it was not free anymore. For one time, an annual check would be $7,000 for all of the employees. For $10,000, they would enroll in a program and each week they would get updates of the drivers they submit, and they would let them know if there was status in the employee’s driving, or if they were involved in a motor accident. For $3,000 extra dollars they would get updates regularly, and know if employees were not following procedures. Councilmember Wilson asked what the yearly fee was and how long the $10,000 was extended. Ms. Herdina stated that the $10,000 was for one year. The issue they had right now was that while they ask the employees to report any vehicle accidents they had on or off the job, they were finding that this was not happening. They thought that at the end of the day, it would be worth spending the money for the program, because they would be able to respond more quickly to the accidents. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that this would be automatic with the program, where before, they wouldn’t find out about an accident until they did the annual check. Ms. Herdina stated that right now, the only thing they checked regularly were the CDL licenses to make sure they were not expired. This would apply to everybody who drives in the City. Mr. Markiewicz said that Fleet had a program called Collective Fleet. They were trying to work out the best person to document this and make sure that they could run accurate reports, but they would be able to put in an employee’s name and unit number. They didn’t have an accurate way right now to see if there were trends per employee without going through to see if it was documented correctly or not. They were looking at the Collective Fleet programs for next year and would reach out to their sales representative to see if they could help the program to get reliable information on employees. Councilmember Riegel arrived at 3:49 p.m. The sixth recommendation was Reporting, Investigation, and Discipline. Right now, the employees involved in a collision or vehicle damage were supposed to contact their supervisor and fill out a form. They then would contact Law Enforcement (LE) and LE does a report. A copy of that went to Candace and Mr. Markiewicz. The employees then find out if they meet the criteria for drug testing and contact Fleet. Fleet would come out to see if a dollar amount categorizes them to get tested and if anything else didn’t apply, and then Fleet would take the damage and the information. Scott Newsome was the one who determined what collisions and damage came before the Safety Review Board which the Vehicular Review Board was a sub-committee of. The Board listened to the employee, asked questions, and voted between zero and four points. Zero was that the employee couldn’t do anything to avoid the collision or damage. Two was given if they could have done something to prevent it and four was a blatant violation of the law such as blowing a stop sign or a light. The current protocol was that if an employee received six points within a twelve month period, or ten within two years, that their driving privileges would suspended for 180 days the first time, and the second time it could mean termination. If their only job was to drive, then that could be termination on the first offense. That hadn’t happened since he had been working and he didn’t know if anyone had fallen into that category. They weren’t intentionally trying to get rid of employees but they wanted to correct the behavior that contributed to the collisions and damage. The Safety Review Board was looking to see if there was a better way to find the root cause and get that out to the employees and their supervisors. In the meantime, he and Wes Morgan came up with a form where if an employee got an injury that they contributed to, or could have prevented, when the Board made the recommendations, that form would be sent off to the department head. They then had twenty days to come back and say that they disagreed with it, and they could go to the Committee and say that they had heard them. Councilmember Shahid asked if, in the event of a violation, they were taking any sort of corrective measures at that point. Mr. Markiewicz confirmed that they were. Councilmember Shahid asked if they were addressing the violation even if it was minor. Mr. Markiewicz said yes and that if the employee came before the Board for an injury or collision, and they were found to contribute to it or there were points assessed to it, then that report went out to the department head with recommendations from the Board after listening to the employee to see if they could re-train them or do hazard analysis. Councilmember Shahid asked if that happened if it was something minor and Mr. Markiewicz said yes. Councilmember Shahid asked if the employee received a letter of caution or if there was a warning that would be filed. Mr. Markiewicz said yes and that it was simple. If an employee wasn’t wearing a pair of gloves and got a sliver, they would get recommendations based on that. So this went down to the smallest thing someone could think of. The seventh recommendation was Inspections and Maintenance. With the incident in July, the pre-test and post-test checks followed the DOT requirements, but on there they didn’t have a back-up alarm specified. Since then, they had already made the changes to have that put on the forms. That was done as soon as they identified it. In addition to that, they were coming up with a “go, no-go” checklist. They wanted to make it clear to employees that if something was not working on the vehicle, they could not take it out. They had to go to the shop and get another one, or have them fix it right away. One of the examples was the windshield wipers, because if it was a sunny day, you could go, but if it was raining out, it would be a no-go. They were trying to figure out how to do that that made it simple for the employee to figure out, without constantly having to question it, to see if it would work. For the maintenance, the perception was that if they brought the vehicle to the shop, they wouldn’t get it back in time, and then they were down a day of work. So they were still trying to figure this out with the “go, no-go” and keep everyone moving throughout the day with what they needed. The eighth recommendation was Enforcement and Review. If they didn’t have the enforcement of the discipline, there would be people who didn’t follow rules, and if they were not made aware of it with consequences they would never follow the rules. They were working with HR for progressive discipline to establish if there was a trend or if it was a one-time thing. This would need to be looked at on an annual basis to make sure that a process hadn’t changed that nobody knew about, and make sure they weren’t putting employees in harm’s way if something had changed and wasn’t identified. Councilmember Shahid asked if the policy would be reviewed by each employee that was driving a city vehicle. Mr. Markiewicz said that they had discussed that and they had employees that drive every day, as well as employees that drive less regularly. They were trying to figure out how to capture that and make it feasible to get everybody in the class. The class for defensive driving was an 8 hour course the first time, which was a full day, and every 3 years there would be a 4 hour refresher course. When they brought that up, there were a few department heads that made a little noise because they didn’t know how they would give up an employee for 8 hours or even 14 employees for 8 hours. They were trying to figure out how it would work for the people that were driving all of the time. He thought that what they were leaning towards was that they wanted to get the people who had the greatest exposure to driving taken care of first. After that, they could approach how to cycle through other employees. Councilmember Riegel said that this would be a good investment of time if they had fatalities that their employees caused and that four to eight hours might be a minimal investment, given the alternative. Councilmember Shahid asked if the Police and Fire Departments had different policies. Chief Brack stated that they already had some of the things in place that Mr. Markiewicz had talked about. They had the yearly checks for licenses to make sure everyone was current and they did drug testing and random testing after every accident. Many of the things existed for them but it was still a very positive movement, and there would be things in the program that their folks would be subject to as well. She stated that she thought it was great. Mr. Markiewicz said that when they got the policies and procedures back from departments throughout the City, the Police and Fire Departments were on top of the things that they had written down, and documentations that they provided. Second was Public Service. They had documentation on how to back up a garbage truck and certain other procedures. Traffic and Transportation had the pre and post check inspections, but the other departments and divisions just followed the generic City policy and didn’t have anything specific, especially in writing. Councilmember Riegel stated that he had found out that they were having a shortage of CDL drivers and asked if that was still a problem. He stated that he had given some names and trainers to Human Resources to try to mitigate the problem. The problems he had seen with the CDL drivers were that they were only making $41,000 and they could go work at the port all day long for $60,000, and be home in bed that night. It was an income issue. He stated he had hoped they were mitigating the problem, but it seemed as though they weren’t. Mr. Markiewicz stated that he couldn’t accurately say that, but that from what he was hearing, it was still a problem. Councilmember Riegel stated that it was a matter of economics and that he thought the trainer had retired from Fleet who trained drivers. Mr. Markiewicz said that he wasn’t sure who that would have been. The supervisors would help the employees get their CDL, but he wasn’t aware that there was one employer who was a trainer. Councilmember Riegel stated that it was typically a certified individual who did the training. There was a man who was a certified DOT trainer that he had given to Kay Cross to reach out to. This man was willing to come in to fill the gap for a fee until they could get their own in-house staff. He said he knew that was a problem; because whoever the in-house trainer was had done a marvelous job. The problem they were having was that many of the drivers were aging out and retiring. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that they did not have an in- house trainer when he became Mayor. He thought if they had one, it had been some years ago. Part of the hope, was that the new employee could help fulfill that role. Councilmember Riegel said that he would check with Ms. Cross and see what she had been talking about. Mayor Tecklenburg said he wanted to commend Mr. Markiewicz and the Task Force. The recommendations they had come up with were very solid and it was a timely review for the City to do. As Chief Brack mentioned, even the Departments that had their own act together better than others, had learned from them and everyone else in the process. This was what led to the recommendation of extra public safety and an employee for the City in this year’s budget. Councilmember Riegel stated he also wanted to commend Mr. Markiewicz on this. Mayor Tecklenburg asked if all of City Council had received this and that it would be a good idea for Council to have access to this document because it was a very good document. Mr. Markiewicz said it was going to them. Chairwoman Wilson said that in terms of getting the chance to read through this, there were Councilmembers who wondered what went on in the Committee sometimes and that they could distribute it electronically. Councilmember Shahid said it sounded comprehensive. Councilmember Riegel asked if they could see a reflection of reduction in the vehicular insurance rates and liability rates. Mr. Markiewicz said that Fleet Management handled the vehicle insurance, so he would have to ask them that question. From his perspective, he would like to see a tremendous reduction in our injuries. Updates: Fire Department- Chief Karen Brack Chief Brack stated that she only had a couple of short updates on things they had been working on for a while. The first was a program that they were lucky enough to have extra funds for. The program was called TeleStaff. This program was a scheduling program they wanted for efficiency in scheduling their people for overtime and also for accountability. They had been working on the implementations program for this year and were ready to put it out fully. What it would do, was hire back according to need. They were taking the human element out of it and making it completely electronic. The computer would follow a paradigm and model that they had set, would make the phone call, and then try to hire an individual for that place. It would fill vacancies by an order that they had set up in the system. It would do a few things for them such as: taking off administration load from the chiefs, cost-savings, and feeding everything back to the reports they got from the consolidating dispatch center. It would automatically populate all of the incident reports. They had been excited about it. They would run the program for about 6 months to make sure that everything was working right, because it kept up with all of the hours of the employees. She would like to see it used as electronic time keeping in about 6 months. That was an area that they could gain efficiency because they were still using paper time sheets. Every two weeks the Battalion Chiefs had to deliver 300 timesheets and then pick them up. One small glitch was what they called Gear Time, which was the time in the morning when the guys put their equipment on and off the trucks. They were working on that, but she was excited for the potential to get to electronic timesheets. Councilmember Riegel stated that they used their phones as their time clock. Chief Brack stated that this did not interface with the current program they had. It had the potential to do that. She stated she didn’t know if they would get that far with it, because they were the only organization that used that for that purpose. She thought that it had potential to go down that road in the future and that had been an exciting piece of software they were trying to use, because they had so many work sites. The second update was that one of the grants that they had brought to Council last session was a grant for training and equipment for SWAT paramedics. They had put body armor on all of the trucks. If they could obtain a grant, the direction was to go towards having trained SWAT medics that could help in active shooter situations and then work closely with the SWAT team so they could support their efforts and try to help them out in life-threatening situations, and potentially make a difference in outcomes. They were excited about that grant and the opportunity. Councilmember Riegel asked what other departments in the Lowcountry had personnel that have vests and what the other departments were doing. Chief Brack stated that North Charleston had just started putting body armor on their vehicles. Mount Pleasant had not gone there yet but Charleston County EMS did have body armor on all of their medic units. They had a few SWAT medics as well. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that Mount Pleasant was in the exploratory stage like everyone else. Chief Brack said that this was not as progressed here as it was in other areas. They were all finding their way through this together and in tandem, especially with North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and the City. Councilmember Riegel asked what their needs were as far as the grant and things such as vests, budget, and expense. He said if they needed it, then the City needed to get it. Chief Brack stated that she appreciated that and that they received the vests through Council a month before. They had those, but they didn’t have the carriers. CPD lent them carriers so they could get the plates out. The grant was for about $98,000 and it would need a 10% match. They were waiting on that, and most of it was for equipment and training. The training was the big piece to this. If there was anything else, she would bring it to Council. Councilmember Riegel asked what was involved in the training and stated that he had scheduled Trevor Shelor who was marvelous resource. He was going to speak in the January meeting on how to deal with active shooters in the workplace. Chief Brack stated that last year they were fortunate to move towards paying paramedics so they could keep them. The first thing they needed was people who were trained in advanced EMS skills. This was advanced medical training to handle the severe traumas. Treating gunshot wound victims was very different than treating another injury. It was going to those high acuity situations and training people how to deal with those situations. Councilmember Riegel stated he thought it was more about personal protective equipment, but it was more medical. Chief Brack said that it was how to work cooperatively with CPD or any department so they were not getting in their way, but they were there to support them. When they got the victim, they could get the victim out as a team. Councilmember Riegel asked about employee turnover and training. Chief Brack stated that they had a recruit class starting in February and they currently had 22 candidates that would be in that class. That may change, because they still had their psychological evaluations to go through and they were just finishing up backgrounds. They would hold a second class this next year that would start in January and would coincide with the last part of the first one. They hoped to get 20-25 candidates from that class. They lost 33 people this year and it was hard to keep up with the attrition rate, but they would keep adding classes and trying to build the numbers. Councilmember Riegel said that they might start with 25 in a class, but when he attended the graduations there was normally a shift. Chief Brack said that they tended to lose a significant portion of the class, such as 4 or 5 people. They had a tough class with 26 weeks of training. They wanted them to walk out the door and be able to perform as a Charleston Fire Fighter that first day. Police Department-Chief Greg Mullen Chief Mullen stated that he had a few things to go over. He wanted to make sure that they get all of that information and it would be in the record. They put an update out the previous week about the progress with the Illumination Project. There was a ten point press release that went out about the things they had accomplished. He wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of that and that they were going to try every 60 days to do an update so that everybody in the community would know what they were doing and where they were at. They had signed up with the White House Police Data Initiative which was an open data initiative that was designed to help with transparency. They had three data sets that they hoped to put up in January of 2017. They were working on that right now, which would include calls for service, crime data maps, traffic stops, and use of force. He wasn’t sure exactly which of those would go up first, but they were hoping to have three of them in the portal by January, so everyone could look up information they had submitted. There would be portions of that information that would not be uploaded but demographic, age, and location information would be available for research. They had changed a few policies. One was that for a consent search, officers had to get a written form signed before they do that search. This was different from a reasonable suspicion or probable cause search. That was a good thing for people to understand what they are actually agreeing to. Councilmember Riegel asked if the citizen refused to sign the form, would the officer be done. Chief Mullen stated they would be done. That was just on the consent search. They would continue the listing sessions. They were working with a group of community influencers to continue those into 2017. They had their first meeting with that group, and the second was scheduled for December to continue to train and educate that group so they could do the listing sessions. One of the things that he thought was very important was that they had identified liaison officers for all of the various groups that are in the City such as AFFA, the Hispanic Community, Military, and other activist organizations. That was working out well for them. Some of the groups that they were putting together were to look at different things in the community, and to address criminal and negative behavior, dealing with social determinants. They had people from the hospitals looking at the schools to come on board, and to prevent people from getting into the criminal cycle. Many times, Police were the ones who would get blamed when they had very little to do with what was happening to generate that type of activity. They were working with those groups to see if there was something they could do. One of the things that was most exciting about what they had done was that there was a process called Collaborative Reform where a Police Department that was going through a difficult situation such as a shooting, or community-police tension, would go to the Justice Department/Cops Office and have them do a voluntary review of their organization. North Charleston was going through the process now. So far, there had been eight of those done across the country. What they decided to do, was to go and look at the reports that had been done in other cities, and each cities report will give a number of recommendations of what that particular department could do to strengthen their policies and practices. They looked at five of those Collaborative Reform’s from Fayetteville, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Salinas, and they came up with over 100 recommendations that came out of those cities. They had some MPA students from the College of Charleston working with the Riley Center and compare those recommendations that came out of the reports, with what they were actually doing now. As a result, they were able to determine that about 78% of the recommendations that came out of those departments were already being done by Charleston’s department. The rest were either in progress, or they needed to start doing them. They had reviewed with the Command Staff, and they were now working on implementing the recommendations that they were not doing. They took 5 DOJ reports that have been done, proactively reviewed them, and were implementing them. They thought this was important because they were learning from other departments and recommendations. He didn’t know anyone else that was doing that. It was a great way to learn, and identify in our department what needs to be improved. With the help of Mayor Tecklenburg, they had started a Clergy Council. They had a couple of meetings with them that had gone really well. That would continue to grow and be a big part of what they did throughout the community. They had started to collaborate with the Charleston County Libraries, because one of their strategies was that they wanted to start teaching their officers about the history of how Law Enforcement in the communities had a lot to do with how people receive them today. There was an opportunity with the county library to start a Civil Rights History Program that would be available for all of their officers. Part of that might be going around to different places in the City and talking about the history in those locations and how that might have impacted some generational beliefs that had now created some potential for mistrust among the police in the community. The RFP for the Peak Academy is out. They were meeting the next day to look over the RFP’s and make a selection on which consulting firm would be working with them. For 60 days, Chief Mullen was very pleased with the progress they were making thus far and they were on a very good path. Another thing that was important was that this report and this process had been taken by Senator Tim Scott to the Department of Justice. He was talking with them about the potential to use this as road map for other communities. He was going to have a group of chiefs, clergy members, and the nominee for attorney general there in early December to talk with them about that. He was very excited about what it might be and how it could be implemented in other places. Chairwoman Wilson stated that this was comprehensive and remarkable. She said that Chief Mullen had kept them on the leading edge all of the time and that she commended them. She was sorry she couldn’t be more involved with the Illumination project, but that she had supported it since the moment she had heard about it. Councilmember Riegel stated that they had done a great job and asked for an update on the headquarters in West Ashley. Mayor Tecklenburg left at 4:28 p.m. Chief Mullen thanked the Committee for acting so quickly on the rifle plates. They had all been delivered and were out in the field, with the exception of around 70, that were for people that were on FMLA. The body camera program had gotten a reimbursement approval for around $100,000 from the State. They would continue to ask for more because the State was supposed to fund 100% of that. They had gotten about 96% back so far. They were adding in-car cameras to the fleet. This would take them to over 100 in-car cameras, in addition to every officer having a body camera, and they were continuing to build that out. Councilmember Shahid asked what cars had in-car cameras. Chief Mullen stated that they were spread out all over the city and that not every car had an in-car camera. The State said that they were going to fund all of the in-car cameras as well. Up to a few years ago, when you would ask it would be a VHS recorder, and the storage was impossible. They started their own purchasing of digital cameras. They were up to about half of the fleet with in-car cameras. Every few years, the State gave 30-40 more and when they received a grant they would buy 15-20 more. Their goal was to have one in every car but it was taking a while. With the body cameras, you get so much more than you do with the in-car camera because that was a fixed camera. If something happened on either side, you wouldn’t see it and it was not the best quality. If you stepped out of view of the camera, it was no good. They were moving in that direction and had very good equipment in the cars now. They were able to purchase cameras now that work with their infrastructure and all of the other camera systems. They had one system that worked, and it was growing very well. They received about $1,000,000 worth of grants recently for equipment, traffic officers, an elder advocate, and they were putting in a grant for a data initiative. They wanted to try to create a dashboard that would allow people to look at the data they were putting up. Chief Mullen stated that he publically wanted to commend the men and women of the Police Department for their performance over the period of time. They had really been getting beat up and he was tired of them getting beat up. He didn’t know of anybody or any Police Department that had addressed as many multiple protests, special events, and critical incidents, or had gotten multiple awards and commissions that his officers had gotten. He wanted everyone to know that he was very proud of them and that they were doing a wonderful job. Councilmember Riegel asked what they could do to make their lives easier. Chairman Wilson said people needed to stop beating police officers up but they couldn’t change the public. Councilmember Shahid stated that it appeared to him that it wasn’t what our officers are doing, but that people are reacting towards our City’s Officers as a general rule. He asked if Chief Mullen thought it was something else. Chief Mullen stated that he thought it was a problem nationally and he felt that in our City’s case, there was a very vocal minority of people that constantly talk and present information that was incorrect. There wasn’t any rebuttal to that by people in the community or other people in leadership positions. When people could stand up and say that Police Officers are stopping people for no reason and that the police are operating under racist practices, and there was no rebuttal, it made the officers feel like that was what everyone must think. This one group was constantly saying these things, and there was no rebuttal other than Mr. Hicks, the officers wondered why other people weren’t stepping in. Councilmember Riegel stated that was why he had asked the question. The Committee had extremely dedicated public service individuals. He asked what they could do as officials to support Chief Mullen and Chief Brack. He said that they were willing and ready to do whatever needed to be done. Chief Mullen stated that he thought it would be appropriate if there was some sort of correspondence or letter to the editor from Council that would say that they heard all of those things and appreciate them, but they recognize that the Fire Department, Police Department, and other public safety officials were doing everything they could every day to make sure that all of the citizens and visitors are treated fairly. There was not any indication that the officers were racists and they weren’t trying to negatively impact anyone. Councilmember Riegel stated that they were spoiled in the City of Charleston, and that many people didn’t appreciate the leadership it has had in the Fire and Police Departments. He stated they had a strong message and he didn’t know how to get that out better. Chairwoman Wilson stated that it was probably something that could come from the Public Safety Committee. What was interesting was the media did not come to the Committee. A sound bite or a sentence was not able to address this, and that was all of the contact she had ever had from the media. She said they see Organizations stand up and blast the Police Department, but nobody had ever come to the Committee for their side of the story and what they felt about it. If they did, it was cut down to a sentence or a couple second sound bites. She said she was sorry she hadn’t thought of it, but that there was room for a strong statement coming from the Committee, if not Council as a whole. If Council wanted to sign on, she thought that would be entirely appropriate, but that there was something they could craft. Councilmember Riegel said let’s do that and that he would support that 100%. Councilmember Shahid said he was glad that Chief Mullen had brought this to their attention because he assumed everything was okay and that he didn’t realize there was an issue to that level. He knew about the one organization but thought if they would just ignore them, they would go away. He said they were there to support them, and he hoped they knew that. His concern was the morale of the officers, and if they were happy. This was a mission and a profession for them, and they were providing a great service to the community. They didn’t have a community without the officers. He said whatever they need the Committee to do, they would do. Chief Mullen stated that for the past two years, it was constant. It was one thing after another. Everyone else was having a wonderful time, but the Police and Fire Departments were going to a protest. Everyone else was able to express themselves, which is what they were there to protect, but he hadn’t had anyone saying that officers were mistreating them. The people who were vocal in their presentation, you would think that the officers were the worst people in the world. He said there would always be room for improvement, but the men and women were sacrificing a lot, and they were out there every day making sure that people could do things they wanted to do safely. Chairwoman Wilson stated that she tended to go to her very quiet island in her cul-de-sac. They all live in these places, and knew that these things were going on, but didn’t see it. Councilmember Riegel said that was absolutely the point and if they had heard his speech, he had yelled at Reverend Darby. He told Reverend Darby that he was sick and tired of him taking a broad brush from whatever was happening in other communities in the country, and painting the City of Charleston. Chairwoman Wilson stated that they needed to remember that these guys were human too. She said she would never forget Rusty Myers and his email. Rusty was the head of Team Three for a while and is now a Marine guy. She said that it was the most touching email when they allocated the funding so quickly at Council for the Ballistic Armor. She said that this purchase had done so much for morale. She said she was bad at this, that they need to hear feedback, and that they could do better. Councilmember Riegel stated that for years he had stopped every military man and woman and thanked them, but had never stopped the police officers or fire fighters and thanked them for their service. He said that whenever he saw blue now, he stopped. Chief Mullen said the Contract had been let and that they start next week. They were supposed to be in the building in West Ashley by the end of March. Having no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:46 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary