Public Safety Committee

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE June 15, 2017 A special meeting of the Public Safety Committee was held this date beginning at 3:33 p.m., at City Hall, First Floor Conference Room. Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Councilmember Kathleen Wilson, Chair, Councilmember Shahid, Councilmember Wagner, Councilmember Lewis, and Mayor Tecklenburg Staff: Kay Cross, Susan Herdina, Janie Borden, Jack O’Toole, and Bethany Whitaker, Council Secretary Also Present: Members of the public, News Media The meeting was opened with a moment of silence by Chairwoman Wilson. Approval of Minutes On the motion of Councilmember Shahid, seconded by Councilmember Wagner, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the March 10, 2017 and April 4, 2017 minutes. Discussion regarding City of Charleston Fire department and Police Department Chiefs: Chairwoman Wilson said she was sorry of the news. She understood and thanked Chief Mullen for what he had done. She said he had been a wonderful Police Chief and had taken the City where it needed to go. The City owed him their deepest and sincerest gratitude. Mayor Tecklenburg said that he may defer to the Head of Human Resources because it was a work in progress. For the Fire Chief position, Chief Tippett was serving as the interim and he thought it was a week ago Monday that they opened the position and advertise it. They were thinking they might, given the popularity of Charleston. They would see how many applications they received, and they thought they may have been able to pull it off internally with the City’s own review. With the news of Chief Mullen’s retirement, they looked back a little more at what the City had done ten years ago when Chief Mullen was hired, and they were investigating not only the firm that helped at that time, but they had reached out to a couple other firms. They hadn’t heard back definitively from a couple of them. The intent was to do a National Search for the next great Police and Fire Chiefs of Charleston. Kay Cross stated that she had reached out to several consultants, including two that they had used in the past which were the firms that found Chief Mullen and Chief Brack. The firm that found Chief Mullen had not submitted their formal proposal but she should be getting that proposal by the next week. Both of those firms deal exclusively with police and fire and so one of the firms could not do both of the searches for them. They were also looking at a firm that could potentially do both searches. It was a company that did nothing but public sector. There were advantages and disadvantages to both. Using firms they had used before gives ease because they knew they had good results with them, but using a firm for both searches would provide a cost savings. Most any firm would give a significant reduction in the cost for using the same firm for more than one search. She couldn’t make a recommendation without having all of the details, but at that point, she wanted the Committee’s advice on how to move forward. They could do a Sole Source. Having to find two chiefs warranted a Sole Search if the members agreed, but they could also issue an RFP and do a search for a company. That would add at least an additional 3-4 months to the process, and then 4-6 months for a search if everything went exactly right. That was a decision they needed to make as a group on how to proceed. Mayor Tecklenburg said that the ballpark cost of doing an individual search was below his authority, so he could authorize them to proceed with the two separately, but when they combined them together, it bumped the number over $50,000 which would require a procurement process to kick in. He thought it would be a benefit to proceed. They weren’t in a rush but adding another 3 or 4 months to the timeline wouldn’t be helpful. He thought by the end of the next week they would have the responses and enough information to be able to make a decision. Councilmember Wagner said that he had the tendency to agree with Mayor Tecklenburg. They had proven sources, and he thought they needed to go with it. They should go with what they had and hope for the best. If it didn’t work, they would still have the other option. Councilmember Lewis said that he agreed with the Mayor. They needed to wait for next week to see what kind of responses they would get from the consultants and then determine which way to go. He said normally it was the Mayor that sent out the RFP and so it was great that City Council would be helping make the decision. Councilmember Shahid asked if there would be a conflict with one firm doing two searches. Ms. Cross stated she didn’t think so. In some ways, it would help streamline the process. The first step would be the creation of a brochure by the company. A lot of the information would be the same for the two chiefs, with certain differences. She thought as long as they used a nationally recognized firm that had a list of clients proven, she thought it would be fine. They would want to check references with other clients. Councilmember Shahid said that he would expect that the firm that had the ability to do the fire chief search could also do the police chief search. Ms. Cross stated that the firm that they used before could not be used to find a police chief and vice versa. If they went with those two, they would be completely separate searches. She was talking with a national firm that does nothing but public sector that did a good bit of both for large cities. Councilmember Shahid said that if they waited a couple of weeks for responses it would be fine. Ms. Cross said that she thought she would have everything the next week. Chairwoman Wilson said that she was of the mindset that they did not need to pull the trigger and get this done as fast as they could. It took a lot to try and convince the administration to not just run at it. They needed to do national searches and she was very comfortable with the firms they had used in the past, but if there were others out there, she was not against issuing an RFP. They could wait on responses, and if they needed to issue the RFP they could do that. Cost played a factor, but getting the right firm to assist with the searches was the most important. The City did not have the internal expertise to hire chiefs. She had been through two fire chief searches and she could read the resumes and get a good feel, but to identify the specific characteristics, she didn’t think any of them, outside of the profession itself, had that ability. At that stage, her inclination was to wait until they heard back from the firms, and then asses what they had, and choose whether they move forward, or whether they would go with an RFP. They didn’t want to leave this open indefinitely, but they knew that they were adequately staffed, and were doing okay for the time being. She then asked if they had named an interim police chief and Mayor Tecklenburg said not yet. Councilmember Lewis said that he agreed and that he didn’t see any rush because Chief Tippett had been there and knew the City. Chairwoman Wilson said that they needed to do this as high quality as they could. They had gained significant quality in the past. Discussion regarding an independent audit of the City of Charleston Police Department: Mayor Tecklenburg stated that this matter arose over a year previously and the theme was “Was there any bias in the way the Police Department conducted itself”. Those concerns were brought up again by Councilmember Lewis in a Resolution that he had presented. He had to apologize to Councilmember Lewis because there had been a mix-up. Councilmember Lewis was applying for it to go to Tuesday’s Council Meeting, and Mayor Tecklenburg had set up the discussion for that meeting. They would talk about the matter, and take it to Council. He wanted to give some background on the matter. First, he wanted to say that the only bias in the Police Department that was intentional was a bias against people that broke the law. There was no intentional bias against any group for any reason, other than if they were breaking the law. The number one job of the City and the Police Department was to keep people safe. He had a packet of various information that he gave to the Committee members. First, was a report on the year-to-date crime statistics in the City of Charleston, which showed that violent crime was down 6.4% in the City, and overall crime was down 3%. This was during a time when the population had been growing, and the number of visitors had been increasing. He was proud of the department for doing its job well and keeping the public safe, as well as bringing down crime statistics. He didn’t think that was true in some neighboring jurisdictions. Charleston was blessed that it had only had one loss of life so far this year, while other jurisdictions had seen increases. He also wanted to bring to everybody’s attention that they had the ability for people to make a complaint and start an investigation whenever a person felt something had gone awry. In the last year, they had only had 17 complaints from outside of the department. They had internal complaints, where someone within the department might note something that needed attention or correction. There were more of those being reported than from citizens. Last year the number was only 17, and in 2015 there were only 18 complaints from citizens outside of the department. This year, to date, they had only received 1 complaint. He had shared this freely and openly that people could file a complaint by many methods. They couldn’t address a complaint within the department unless they were told. He liked to think that was a good indicator at what a good job the department was doing. Another key indicator that people looked at around the country was how many times force was used by the department. Last year that number was 266 times, which was consistent with the last three years. In 2015, it was 263. The vast majority of those ‘uses of force’ was when an officer physically restrained a person for a moment when they were misbehaving. Only 9 incidents occurred last year where a taser was used. They also recorded the number of times a taser was taken out of its holster, and that happened 35 times last year. The Police Department was able to conduct itself and keep its citizens safe with the minimal use of force, and that was forward and respectful way of doing business. He thought they should be complimented for that. There had been discussion that the department hid the numbers, but if someone looked on the website there were numbers on stops, use of force, and all of the information someone would need. In addition to that, they were working with the National Institute of Justice on projects regarding data analysis and how that can help officer’s safety, keeping track of traffic stops, assist crime control and suppression. They had been engaged with the Illumination Project for the last two years, and included in the packet was the latest update on the Project including the Listening Sessions, and other strategies that were being worked on and achieved as they went forward. He wanted to give his own thanks to Chief Mullen for his incredible leadership, and to the fine men and women of the Police Department, who put their lives on the line for the City every day. Despite all of the accomplishments, the City was still willing to dig even deeper to see if there were any unintentional biases towards any group of citizens. That was what they were embarking to do, and prepared to do, by way of the Performance Innovation Program, that included hiring a specialist/contractor, who could do reviews and/or audits of how the City did business. That could include anything from efficiency to reviewing bias or disparity. That specific proposal was in the RFP that was put out last fall, and when they got a response from a number of consultants, they went back to them and asked, specifically, how they would address this question of disparity and/or bias in policing. They had received the multi-page response, which was in the Ways and Means packet when Council approved the consultant, NOVAK. Councilmember Lewis and Councilmember Mitchell both expressed at the last City Council meeting that they needed to move on with this and get it going. He would propose that since NOVAK had already gone through the process and been approved that they ask them, and they had asked them, if they would consider adding, in essence, a subcontractor, who would have specialty expertise is policing matters and bias/disparity, and ask them to be partner to NOVAK in performing this part of the review. Also in the packet was a response from Julia Novak, and she proposed to ensure that the project team had expertise in this engagement, NOVAK intended to partner with an academic special advisor who had extensive experience in researching and analyzing equity issues and law enforcement. He believed that they could become satisfied that the team had appropriate expertise to conduct this matter and that it would be efficient time-wise, because NOVAK was already approved. They were allowed to hire another sub-contractor to help them on any review, and they didn’t expect this to be an unusual circumstance, and it would allow the matter to go forward. They had already talked to at least one group, but they didn’t have the agreement yet. There were others out there if that group didn’t come forward. He also wanted to propose that they form a committee of staff, and a couple of Councilmembers who would work with the team at NOVAK and the expert addition, to review and refine the scope of what they would actually conduct. That committee could also advise/approve the subcontractor that NOVAK wanted to select. The City had the ability, within the contract, to review the subcontractors that NOVAK wanted included on the team. He would suggest 5 people (Councilmember Lewis, Councilmember Shahid, Deputy Chief Taylor, Susan Poteat, and Michael Whack) and allow them to review who NOVAK picked and work with them to set the scope/agenda of what they would do. The other long-term possibility was that if they conducted an audit and found that there were things that needed to be worked on, there was a program called COPS, and they had conducted interviews with them in the past week. They were busy right now and they couldn’t come down until the Fall. If they decided to accept the City, it was a multi-year program where they would dig in with an assessment and work on strategies. He thought that was long-range alternative, if needed. Councilmember Lewis stated that they had a process in the City. Whenever someone wanted to put something on the agenda, it was sent to the Clerk’s Office. Mayor Tecklenburg was out of town, and he had done what he was supposed to do. He sent it to the Clerk’s Office to go to the Committee. There were two Councilmembers that wanted to do their own Resolution, and so they asked Jennifer Cook for a copy of his Resolution. That afternoon, a friend of one of the Councilmembers had called him and said that they had seen his Resolution. He stated that he had done this Resolution because of all of the complaints they had received. He knew the Police Department did a fine job, but they needed to put this to rest. Someone needed to take the lead, and he had done that by submitting the Resolution. It was for information to go to City Council. If City Council wished to do anything with it, they would vote on it. It was his right as a Councilmember to submit Resolutions and he hadn’t accused the Police Department of anything. If a person wanted to submit a Resolution, it should go on the agenda before anyone received it. Chairwoman Wilson said that she understood what he was saying. She wanted to address the issue at hand. Councilmember Lewis said this was part of the issue. Mayor Tecklenburg said, when they had talked that Monday, that he would bring something and had spoken to Chairwoman Wilson. He was the vice-chair, and he didn’t know that Mayor Tecklenburg was going to do that. They could do what they wanted to do. He wouldn’t vote on this, and he hoped that his Resolution would be on the City Council agenda. They would discuss it then, and whatever the wish of Council was fine with him. Councilmember Shahid thanked everyone for their comments. He asked if they could get the documents that Mayor Tecklenburg had handed out to the Clerk so it was part of the official record. He had met with representatives of CAJM with Councilmember Seekings the previous Thursday to address the audit. They were trying to get a handle on it. After that meeting, he had heard that a Resolution was brought to the Clerk’s Office. He asked if he could receive a copy, and wanted to see where they stood, because the discussions were fruitful. Councilmember Lewis said that he thought the regulations were that it would go to the agenda committee. He said he was sure that Councilmember Seekings wanted to do his own Resolution. He was being accused of trying to divide the Council and wasn’t sure how a Resolution could divide Council, when they were representatives and had a right to discuss things. Councilmember Shahid said that he hoped that anything he had done had not given Councilmember Lewis that impression. He thought that Councilmember Lewis’ intentions were pure and sincere as to what needed to be addressed. He appreciated the Mayor’s comments. He had been a Lawyer for 36 years and served as a Public County Defender for a number of years. He had served in the United States Attorney Department of Justice. This was unlike anything else, dealing with criminal work, because you were involved on a one-on-one basis. His relationship with police investigations was unique and he had the unique experience to be on this Committee was wanting to form. He appreciated Mayor Tecklenburg asking him to serve. The document that Councilmember Lewis had brought to their attention was important, and they needed to address it. They needed to address the issue of police behavior. In his experience, he had never had any question about the department using unfair practices or biased practices. He had seen practices in other departments that raised suspicions about whether their practices were systematic, but not with the City Police Department. There were certain officers that acted inappropriately from time to time, but it wasn’t department wide. He wanted this addressed and wanted a reasonable solution. Councilmember Wagner said the Resolution started off with words like ‘Charleston has led the world’ in whatever the racial bias allegation was. He was looking at statistics and wanted to know where that statement came from, otherwise the Resolution meant nothing. If someone couldn’t back a statement in a Resolution with a fact, it was a waste of time arguing. He had no problem with the Resolution in itself. He had said that he thought they needed to stay the course. They had started a course of self- evaluation, and he agreed 100% that they shouldn’t do anything until the evaluation was done. The new twist, making sure NOVAK hired qualified people, was completely legitimate. They had received an RFP from Madison, Wisconsin and his biggest problem with that was that every state was different in regard to the relationships between people and citizens. Hispanics along the Texas border were treated differently than Hispanics in Charleston, SC or Madison, WI. This was simply a numbers game. He thought the group was trying to get across that in Wisconsin they didn’t have Hispanic make-up, therefore the police there would be treating those people differently. 5 unjustified stops there would be more significant than in Charleston, SC and they may have a bigger complaint. He was trying to figure out what the real complaint was, because they weren’t seeing any numbers. If it was out there, and they had a problem, he thought the Police Chief would like to know about it as well, and it would’ve already been taken care of if it was there. It wasn’t off the table if they needed to do something special. He had a short discussion with Mayor Summey about what was going on in North Charleston. He said that North Charleston didn’t want to just be good, they wanted to be the best. As far as the make-up of the new committee, he thought it should be made up of three Councilmembers and two staff members as opposed to three staff members and two Councilmembers. He would volunteer for that, and he was sure that Chairwoman Wilson would as well. He didn’t have a massive resume, but he had two sons that were Police Officers, and he had done audits all of his life. They needed to check the facts in the Resolution as they went forward. They needed to remember that the traffic stops they were talking about happened frequently along the border because that was where many of the drugs would be picked up. That type of stop was necessary. Councilmember Lewis said that he hoped they hadn’t missed the boat. The people weren’t just talking about things that had happened this year in Charleston. This was years of things. They needed to understand what the Resolution was talking about. Chairwoman Wilson said that she as getting shot at and she didn’t attend the Agenda Meetings. Mayor Tecklenburg said that he apologized to Councilmember Lewis for any mix-up. He was out of town when the Resolution was submitted, and he had already spoken to Chairwoman Wilson about discussing the matter. He asked if the Resolution could be submitted to the Chair to be reported on Tuesday. Councilmember Lewis said that every Councilmember had a copy, and whatever Mayor Tecklenburg’s were, he would speak on Tuesday at the Council Meeting. Chairwoman Wilson said that she wanted to offer comments about NOVAK. She understood that NOVAK was coming in to do an audit. She was sorry this was going on. With the piece they wanted to add, her train of thought was that they were going to find another company, and that NOVAK wouldn’t handle that. She assumed that the City would do the leg work and put out an RFP. Mayor Tecklenburg said that they had already approved NOVAK as the overall consultant, which included, specifically; the review that some people feel needed to be done. They were already engaged and had been hired to do that. His proposal was that they allowed them to proceed, but by way of adding another member to the team, that ensured that they had the expertise required for this kind of review. The existing contract, which had gone through the City process, was approved by City Council he believed unanimously, and allowed for that to occur with the City’s blessing. Chairwoman Wilson said that what she was trying to say was that NOVAK wouldn’t go out to find their buddies to do the audit, but reach out and find qualified companies. They could bring the companies in and it was fine if NOVAK wanted to be clearing house. They could bring it to this new committee that Mayor Tecklenburg was proposing. Staff should be an advisory component to the Committee. She said that this was the problem with procurement, staff was the majority. They should form a Committee of Councilmembers with staff support and advice. That was her understanding on how it would proceed. Mayor Tecklenburg said that it didn’t require an RFP at this point. Chairwoman Wilson said they didn’t need an RFP, but she didn’t want them bringing in their buddies. They should get a couple of choices. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that the committee he was proposing would not only give the review of who NOVAK presented. It could also work with the team, as the process went through, so that some members of Council would be engaged throughout the scope of what they would measure. Chairwoman Wilson stated that they shouldn’t throw out the tremendous body of work that Chief Mullen had done with the Illumination Project. He came up with something groundbreaking that had tremendous potential. They shouldn’t throw that away because they were so fixated on the audit and perceived problem. They should look at the process, the data that had been collected, and what gains they had made with that. There had been no discussion on how that would dovetail into a transition with a new Chief. A corporation, in general, didn’t change major policies, and then add a new department head. It was done in reverse, and that new person would have a hand in molding the new policies. Mayor Tecklenburg said that this didn’t detract from the Illumination Project. They were doing an excellent job, and he thought it dovetailed with the Illumination Project, because it could help form new strategies for the Illumination Project. That could help resolve what needed to be resolved. It was the working model. Chairwoman Wilson said that she would protect that project and wanted to see it continue. Councilmember Shahid asked Chairwoman Wilson what the difference was between what she was saying and what was proposed. He asked if NOVAK would provide a list with potential contractors and the committee would make the final decision as opposed to NOVAK making the decision of a contractor. Chairwoman Wilson said that she thought the committee should be very Council orientated, and that was how it should unfold. Councilmember Shahid said that NOVAK would make a suggestion and the Committee would make the selection and Chairwoman Wilson said that was correct. Mayor Tecklenburg asked if he could propose them to ask NOVAK to solicit proposals from at least three firms or companies who were experts in the field of policing, specifically bias and disparity, and that those three firms would come back to the Public Safety Committee for them to select one, with Council’s approval thereafter and move forward. He asked if that was acceptable. Councilmember Lewis said it would need 7 people to pass and he had done what he wanted to do. The discussion needed to move on to City Council. Chairwoman Wilson said that this was listed as a discussion item so it would go to Council. They needed to add it to the agenda if they were going to take action on it. Councilmember Shahid said that when they reported to Council, this could go on there. An ordinance to amend the Code of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, Chapter 21, Article IX, Section 21-191 to add a separate offense for opposing or resisting a law enforcement officer who is serving, executing, or attempting to serve or execute a legal writ or process or resisting arrest in order to ensure that the city’s code does conflict with state law and to remove references to city police department horses which are no longer utilized by the department. Chief Mullen stated that their prosecutors felt like the current ordinance might be too vague, and needed to be cleared up, specifically to address that ‘resisting’ needed to be consistent with case law to go along with an arrest. The way it was written was that the person being charged with ‘resisting’ did not specifically need to be under arrest or in a situation where they would be arrested. They wanted to clear that up to narrow the charge and clear up any areas that could be misinterpreted or become a legal technicality in front of a judge. The new version was very specific and was consistent with the most current case law. Councilmember Shahid asked if this ordinance paralleled the existing statute on resisting arrest. Chief Mullen said that was what it was supposed to state. The City statute was broader and so they narrowed it, so there wouldn’t be issues with interpretation. On the motion of Councilmember Shahid, seconded by Councilmember Lewis, the Committee voted unanimously to approve an ordinance to amend the Code of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, Chapter 21, Article IX, Section 21-191 to add a separate offense for opposing or resisting a law enforcement officer who is serving, executing, or attempting to execute a legal writ or process or resisting arrest in order to ensure that the city’s code does not conflict with state law and to remove references to city police department horse which are no longer utilized by the department. Updates: Fire Department- Interim Chief John Tippett Chief Tippett stated that Sunday, June 18th was the Tenth Anniversary of the Charleston 9. They would have a memorial at the memorial site. He hoped they would be able to attend. They would be doing an extended program in honor of the tenth anniversary. They were doing a luncheon for some of the family members on Saturday at the Fire Department Headquarters and Mayor Tecklenburg would be making some comments. They had three fire stations in various forms of construction. Fire Station 14 (Carolina Bay) was the one that was the most up and coming. The construction seemed to be going well and barring any significant weather changes or issues, they were looking at a completion date in late August with occupancy soon afterward. Station 20 (Cainhoy) was under construction as well with the framing up. Siding had been put on it and they were starting to do interior work. It was scheduled for a July opening, but had been delayed because of the weather. Station 11, which would replace the existing station on Savannah Highway, was going before the DRB on June 19th. Budget preparation was underway for 2018, and staff had been working hard. Their recruit class had started two weeks prior, and they had 22 recruits which would help fill the vacancies. They should have it evened out by the end of the year. They would be advertising for another class to start in January 2018. They would return the application process to 18 years old with no experience which should help promote local applicants and achieve diversity with the concerns that had been raised. The Captains exam was under development and scheduled for July and September and an Engineers exam was under development and scheduled for August, which would also help fill vacant positions. They had two new pumpers that had come in for Bees Ferry and Daniel Island. They expected them both to be in service within 30 days. That would allow them to replace two pumpers at Stations 14 and 21. Councilmember Shahid stated that they had 22 recruits, and asked how many they had lost since the beginning of the year. Chief Tippett said he would have to look at numbers but it had probably been between 8-10. That was from all forms of things like new jobs and retirement. Councilmember Shahid said that he had mentioned that the 22 would fill in vacancies. Chief Tippett said that when they did the Captains exam engineers would move up to Captain and Assistant Engineers would move up to Engineers. Those firefighting positions would then be filled. Councilmember Shahid said that the 8-10 had been a drop since 2016 and asked if there had been any other discussions on pay raises. Chief Tippett said yes and they planned to bring it forward for 2018. Councilmember Shahid asked when the budget workshop would be and Chairwoman Wilson stated that they had generally done it closer to the fall. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that they were asking for a workshop in late July to discuss flooding and resiliency and was considering talking about the procurement process. He didn’t know if they would be ready to have a meaningful discussion about budget in July but they could have it prior to October. Councilmember Shahid said the sooner the better. Councilmember Wagner said that this was 60% of the budget and it had been a few years since the Fire Department had received raises and it was harder to retain people without that. Mayor Tecklenburg said that he was in favor of giving them more raises, but they did have this extra requirement from the State for retirement, that they were obligated to pay now. Police Department- Chief Greg Mullen Chief Mullen stated that they had just finished Spoleto and had no incidents during the Festival. There had been significant increases in opioid overdoses around the country. They were seeing that in the City. A year before they had introduced Narcan, and they had a number of Narcan deployments, which had saved individuals who had overdosed. It was important to note that not all Departments in the State were using that, and it had saved lives, and was an important element to their plan of being the best Police Department they could be. They had gotten the final report back from the recent re-accreditation and they anticipated on July 29th to be receiving the Gold Standard. If they did not get it with excellence he would be disappointed, because there were no findings in the process, and on policy issues they needed to address. They were one of six agencies selected by the National Institute of Justice to participate in a data analysis and research project. They were meeting on Friday to begin the process of identifying what areas they were going to examine and how they would go about increasing the capacity in the organization to be able to analyze data in a better way. They would also help with the Whitehouse Police Data Initiative that they had been working on. All of the information was either online with them or through other agencies, and they were working on putting up arrest data and traffic crash data. He encouraged them to look at that and at any other Police data in the state to see if they could find that data and didn’t think they would. They had two grants that were in application. One was for hiring, and they wanted to have ten officers. They wanted to expand the community action teams and they also wanted to add two officers to the community outreach initiatives that would give them a better opportunity to continue with the programs they had implemented. The second grant was a micro-grant that would allow them to bring in a training group that would help implement a new use of force model, which was called ‘Integrated Communications Assessment and Tactics’. For years there had been individualized communication classes on how to assess situations when you arrive and individual classes on tactics, and now they had taken all of those things and talked to officers and leaders to come up with a training program to integrate these things. They were also working to bring a program that would talk about community policing. As reports were being done in other departments, they were posted on the COPS website. They had identified 5 of them to begin with, and the Command Staff had looked at the recommendations provided to other departments and identified the ones they were in compliance with, and those that they could tweak they were tweaking. They were looking at the ones now that the might not be in compliance with to be pro-active about how they were addressing issues that were being identified in other departments. One of the strategies talked about looking at the community as a whole and they had created the ‘Pharmacy Initiative’ which was bringing together people from the medical community, One80 Place, and mental health to go into different segments in the community and help identify what they could do from a holistic perspective to address things that were driving people into crime. This would help minimize so that they wouldn’t get into the system to begin with through creating healthy communities and healthier individuals. They had been meeting on that for 3 months and were about to launch the initial process. Listening sessions had been going forward and they had about 500 additional individuals in those sessions in 2017. The last one they brought together students from Ashley Hall and Burke to have discussions and learn from one another. They had also implemented policies that he thought would be important. One was dealing with transgender individuals. One of the strategies was identifying how they worked with different communities that were different and how they got to know more about the things that were important to them. They did this by creating liaison officers, which they had done with five different community groups within Charleston, one of which was the LGBT-Q community. One of the policies they had been working on, with the input of that community, was how they dealt with those individuals from the transgender community specifically. That would be implemented with other policies. They had moved into the new facility on Mary Ader and the officers were very appreciative of that. They had also moved to the new training facility at the upstairs and were no longer ‘nomads’ moving from place to place. The Federal Government was hiring at a high rate. ICE was hiring 10,000 agents and officers, Secret Service was hiring 4,500, and the FBI was hiring a large number as well. He knew of 7 people that would be leaving in the next two months to go to those agencies. They weren’t experiencing people leaving to local agencies; they were seeing them go to Federal Agencies or getting out of Law Enforcement completely. He appreciated the support of the Committee and he knew and had confidence that the Police Department would be fine; because they were staffed with the most professional people he had ever worked with. Having no further business, the Public Safety Committee adjourned at 5:02 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary