Citizen Police Advisory Committee

CITIZEN POLICE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES March 18, 2014 7:00 p.m. The Citizen Police Advisory Committee met in regular session on Tuesday, March 18, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. in the Executive Conference Room at City Hall, 800 Municipal Drive, Farmington, New Mexico, 87401. Members Present: Deb Dumont, Chairman; Chuck Culpepper, Patricia Simpson Members Absent: Rose Maez, Steve Grey, Lisa Martin City Personnel Present: Steve Hebbe, Police Chief Keith McPheeters, Deputy Police Chief Taft Tracy, Internal Affairs Lieutenant Casey Malone, Internal Affairs Sergeant Dale Bode, Sergeant Jason Eley, Assistant City Attorney Kim Parrish, Administrative Assistant Guests Present: Roland and Elaine Berkey I. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chairman Deb Dumont at 7:00 p.m., and there being a quorum of members present, the following proceedings were duly had and taken. II. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS Chuck Culpepper moved to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of January 21, 2014 as presented. Patricia Simpson seconded the motion. Motion carried. III. CHIEF’S REPORT, STEVE HEBBE CPAC welcomed Mr. Hebbe as the new Police Chief. He started on March 6th, and has been getting acclimated with the department. He gave his perspective of the Police Department up to this point. He’s also been meeting with employees and getting their perspective as well. IV. INTERNAL AFFAIRS REPORT Sgt. Casey Malone gave an overview of the January and February 2014 Internal Affairs reports. He mentioned a January 2nd investigation and a separate January 22nd investigation in which an officer and a cadet were not truthful during the investigations, who are no longer employed with the Police Department. There are still 2 cases open from 2013 that are pending. He stated that 2014 started out with a higher-than-average number of complaints, but has since gone back down. Lt. Taft Tracy presented the 2013 Annual IA Statistics Report and gave an overview. There were a total of 68 complaints investigated in 2013. Deb Dumont asked if the “response to aggression” complaints are compared to any national benchmarks, and if we fall within a certain range. Lt. Tracy said we have not compared ours with any national trends, but he has done an analysis of taser-use and we are right in the middle of the spectrum compared to other departments. Deb Dumont said it might be good to do these national comparisons just for information. Patricia Simpson  asked if the Police Department has felt a need to increase training when there are an increased number of complaints in a certain area. Lt. Tracy said they do look for trends and try to address any areas that could use improvement. V. TRAINING – BASIC RECRUIT TRAINING Sgt. Dale Bode discussed the San Juan County Criminal Justice Training Authority, which is a cooperative effort between all of the local law enforcement agencies, as well as the Communications Authority, Attorney General’s Office, and the NM State Police. We are the only regional training authority in the state at this time. Having this in place has several benefits, including monetary savings for things like travel costs associated with not having to send officers and new recruits out of town for training. He stated that they use Safety City for most of their training. They also do advanced trainings such as ethics training and tactical communications training. Patricia Simpson asked if the Navajo Nation Police use our training facility. Sgt. Bode explained that they use the track, but they are federally commissioned and have to do most of their training at a federal law enforcement training facility. VI. OLD BUSINESS The board members discussed May’s CPAC meeting. It was decided to keep May 20, 2014 as the next regular meeting. VII. NEW BUSINESS a. MEMBERS – None. b. CITIZEN INPUT – None. c. CASE REVIEW – Chuck Culpepper made a motion to go into closed session, seconded by Patricia Simpson, to discuss a letter sent to CPAC regarding IA Case #2014-0005. All voted in favor; motion carried. Following the closed meeting, during which the matters discussed were limited only to those specified in the motion for closure, a motion was made by Patricia Simpson to open the meeting for further business. Chuck Culpepper seconded the motion; motion carried. Chuck Culpepper moved to uphold the findings of Internal Affairs and the Command staff. Patricia seconded, and with all in favor, the motion carried. VIII. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Committee, and, upon motion duly made and seconded, the meeting was adjourned. ____________________________ ______________________________ Deb Dumont, Chairman Kimberly Parrish, Secretary