Police Commission

4/19/2018 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at the above date and time by Chairman Whittum. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Chairman Whittum lead the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Executive Assistant Lori A. Marsh 4. ROLL CALL 4.A. Police Commission members present Laconia Police Commission members present were Chairman Douglas A. Whittum, Commissioner Thomas K. Tarr and Commissioner Frank R. Mello, Jr. 4.B. Staff present Chairman Whittum recognized Staff present: Chief Matthew J. Canfield, Captain Allan L. Graton, Lieutenant Richard E. Simmons, Lieutenant Thomas E. Swett and Lieutenant Michael P. Finogle. 4.C. Chairman recognizes a quorum has been established and there are three Commissioner members present Chairman Whittum recognized a quorum has been established. 5. PERSONNEL MATTERS 5.A. Commendations & Awards Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised the Police Department awards banquet is scheduled to be held on May 15th at 6pm at the Beane Conference Center. 5.B. Training 5.B.i. Orders & Bulletins Chairman Whittum recognized Lieutenant Finogle. Lieutenant Finogle advised Officer Sedgley completed FTO school and the department has completed the yearly handgun qualifications. 1  5.C. Miscellaneous - Laconia Links No discussion. 5.D. Resignations/Retirement No discussion. 5.E. Hirings Chairman Whittum recognized Lieutenant Finogle. Lieutenant Finogle advised Connor Sutherland completed in-house training and on is on a one-week shadowing program until the academy starts in a week and a half, at which time he will be gone for 16 weeks. Commissioner Tarr inquired the current status of vacancies. Lieutenant Finogle advised we are currently running four background on candidates and one has been submitted to Chief Canfield. He advised there is a tentative start date of July 9th. 5.F. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. DIVISION/BUREAU COMMANDER'S FORUM 6.A. Operations/Support Division Commander Chairman Whittum recognized Captain Graton. Captain Graton advised he wished to recognize Commissioner Mello, who attended the funeral for Officer Sean Gannon in Massachusetts. 6.A.i. 2018 Motorcycle Week briefing Chairman Whittum recognized Captain Graton. Captain Graton advised planning for Motorcycle Week continues with Lieutenant Simmons sending out a schedule to outside agencies to see what they can fill and that most of the Laconia Police Department employee schedule is done. He advised the Motorcycle Week briefing will be held on May 30th at the Taylor Home with a department photo at the police department prior to the meeting. 6.B. Support Division No discussion. 6.C. Operations Division Chairman Whittum recognized Lieutenant Simmons. 2  Lieutenant Simmons advised we are moving into the summer schedule and it is tight. He advised we will not be able to utilize any of the new people during the summer. He also advised that we are planning for several events in addition to Bike Week, to include Memorial Day and the 4th of the July celebrations. He advised the Laconia Little League parade is this weekend. He also advised that Officer Don Kimtis will be returning for the summer and is a great asset. Lieutenant Simmons advised he and Lieutenant Swett continue to do Active Shooter Training and have done a couple recently. He recognized Officer Holly Callanan for a job well done at the job job fair at Community College, recognized Officer Kevin Shortt for doing a presentation at the Community College, and recognized Officer Bryan Moynihan for a great job done with the D.A.R.E. Program. He also advised National Night Out planning under way. 6.D. Detective Division 6.D.i. Offender Registration Information Chairman Whittum recognized Lieutenant Swett. Lieutenant Swett mentioned the materials included in the packet on sexual offender registration. Chairman Whittum inquired how much time is spent on one individual's registration. Lieutenant Swett advised a new registration takes longer. He advised a re-registration is probably 20-30 minutes and a new registration would be a bit longer than that, due to having to go through everything for the first time. He advised that some of the Tier 3 offenders are four times per year, whereas a tier 1 or tier 2 may be twice or annual, depending on where they fall. He advised it's a significant amount of time. Chairman Whittum recognized that 80-100 people at 20-30 minutes each is a lot of time over a year. Lieutenant Swett advised especially for the ones who are coming in four times. Commissioner Tarr advised he was surprised that the reporting requirements are the same for Tier 3 and Tier 2 and inquired if he was reading that correctly, as they are divided by the severity of the offense, but have the same reporting requirements. Lieutenant Swett advised he is not aware of why the tiers are set up that way. He advised that in looking at the categories, it's sex crimes vs. crimes against persons in general. Commissioner Tarr advised he didn't realize that First Degree Murder is part of this registration program. He also inquired how many sex offenders are in Laconia. Lieutenant Swett advised it's about 70 right now. He advised we average between 60-100. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the Police Department has a sex offender compliance unit? Lieutenant Swett advised this is handled by Detective Jeffrey Wholley for the most part. He advised the State Police also does spot checks. 6.E. Legal Division No discussion. 7. COMMISSION ACTION 3  7.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting On a motion made by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Tarr, and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of March 15, 2018 were accepted as distributed. Commissioner Tarr inquired about the differences between the monthly report given to the City Council and to this commission. Chief Canfield advised this was due to the reports being run by two different people at different times of the month. He advised both were accurate; however, this has been simplified and corrected. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Highlights Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield referenced the statistics outlined in the Monthly Activity Report contained in the packet. No further discussion. 8.B. Monthly Fleet Report Chairman Whittum recognized Lieutenant Finogle. Lieutenant Finogle advised we just received one of our newest cruisers back from the shop after having been involved in an accident. He advised today we took possession of 20 cruiser kits to protect against biohazard and Carfentanyl scenes if we're processing vehicles. He advised each car will have a kit to protect the officers for such threats. 8.C. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Lieutenant Swett Lieutenant Swett advised there was an uptick in initial cases and is explained by the amount of patrol shifts that detectives are covering and they are taking a lot more initial cases. He advised he and Lieutenant Simmons are monitoring pretty closely to keep cases flowing in a logical way. He advised there have been a lot of training hours and detectives are providing coverage, especially during firearms training. He advised background investigations area also pretty time consuming and has resulted in a certain amount of hires and some were disqualified, but the backgrounds still had to be done. Commissioner Tarr inquired if polygraph exams are in conjunction with the hiring process. Lieutenant Swett advised that they are done for criminal cases and hirings, 4  and some are done for our law enforcement partners in the area, especially if there's a conflict for one of the other polygraphers in the area. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Statistics No discussion. 8.E. Budget Print-Out Chairman Whittum recognized Captain Graton. Captain Graton advised we are on track as we head toward the end of the year. He advised at the end of last month we were at 72.29% expended, which is under the predicted 75.00%. Commissioner Tarr inquired if he foresees any problems for remainder of the year and Captain Graton advised no. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised we received a nice thank you letter from UNH Chief Paul Dean reference Officer Joseph Marquis, who went to UNH and assisted with an Active Shooter training . He advised UNH is one of our law enforcement partners and they reciprocate back when we need help in the same category. Chief Canfield advised there was an anonymous generous donation to Greater Lakes Child Advocacy Center supporting a need for food and clothing. He advised there was also a nice thank you letter from Mr. Beaudoin reference Officer Megan Denutte. He also wanted to recognize Officer Bryan Moynihan for completing the D.A.R.E. graduations. He advised this was his first year and for a first year D.A.R.E. Instructor he did an outstanding job with not only teaching the program, but building a rapport with the kids. Commissioner Mello advised he attended three graduations and recognized Officer Moynihan for a tremendous job. Chief Canfield advised Officer Michelle Cardinal taught D.A.R.E. for many years and mentored Officer Moynihan and even showed up to several graduations on her own time and shows the quality of people we have. Lieutenant Simmons also recognized Part Time Dispatcher Alexandria Swett for wearing the Daren suit, even with a broken fan in it, which was pretty tough. He also recognized Officer Kyle Jepsen for having volunteered. He also wished to thank Commissioner Mello for attending the graduations. Commissioner Mello advised it's pleasing to see kids and how they react. Chief Canfield also advised we received a thank you letter from the Clary family for attending calling hours and also a thank you for a ride-along, as well as a thank you letter from the Gilford Police Department for providing coverage when they conducted training. 5 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised Officer Moynihan has taken on a teaching role at the Middle School that is modeled after a Junior Citizen Police Academy. He advised it's an after school program for 2 hours per week for 10 weeks, again building that rapport with the students and will hopefully lead into them doing a more formalized drug education program, which is what are hopes are for next year. ChIef Canfield advised he has been doing a lot of work on the Governor's Task Force for school safety. He advised they have had a number of task force meetings, as well as some sub committees that he is on. He advised that in combination with that, Lieutenant Swett has been working on doing a table top exercise/board game on May 7th for our immediate law enforcement partners and EMS partners. He advised it's a command and control training focused on an active shooter event. He advised we will be working on that, as well as doing some more active shooter training, some more table top exercises, and culminate in a Full Scale Exercise that will be held in October involving all of our Belknap County law enforcement partners. He advised we look at the school shooting that happened in south Florida and want to learn from the mistakes that might have been made or things that could be done better and bring that here to our training program in the event something were to happen here. Chief Canfield advised we have been working on union contract negotiations, as well as changing our survey. He advised that in reference to the blue cards we currently utilize for the citizen surveys, we are looking at changing them to be a little more user friendly for the officers, changing it to more of a business card format modernized with a QR code on back that can be scanned and completed electronically, which should save us some printing and postage costs, but more importantly we will hopefully receive more responses. Chief Canfield advised that in reference to the Active Shooter presentations, it's a very good community awareness training that we provide. He advised there is a huge demand and is something in addition to their regular duties. He advised this topic is certainly on the hearts and minds of everyone and to be able to go into different businesses and groups and provide security assessments and ideas to make it safer and educate them on what to do or on some signs to see before an active shooter occurs is invaluable. He advised it also develops a rapport and opens up a feed of communication. 10.A. Performance Assessment Report Cards No discussion. 10.B. Overdose Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield referenced the statistics outlined in the Overdose Statistics report contained in the packet. He did recognize that in the statistics is lists 2 for 2018; however, it's actually at 5 that are suspected at this point, although the toxicology reports have not come back on all of them, but we are looking at a total of 5 fatal overdoses. 6  10.C. Non-Union Classification Compensation Plan Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield referenced the Classification Compensation Plan included in the packet. He advised this is for non-union City employees. He advised it was created by the City Manager and will be submitted to the City Council on April 23rd for their consideration, which reflects the cost of living increase, which would go into effect on July st, as well as the new health insurance plan. He advised after going before the City Council, we will be looking for a Commission vote in May. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular or Special Meeting date of May 16, 2018 was confirmed. 14. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS Chairman Whittum recognized Dennis Lintz. Dennis Lintz introduced himself and indicated he is a resident of Laconia. He referenced a handout he provided to the Police Commission and Staff prior to the meeting. He spoke about a 2016 situation on a notice to respond he filed about the situation and, if not taken care of, the crime rate will rise. He advised that in 2018, Laconia has been rated as the most dangerous City in New Hampshire. He advised change needs to start from the top, referencing the police. He advised that it also needs to come from the landlords also. He indicated these people need to be proactive to correct certain safety issues which cause these scenarios to happen. He indicated that today, on April 19th five years ago, he believes a situation could have been avoided if they had just listened to someone a little more reliable than just drug informants without any verification. He advised it is his wish that everyone take what he said to heart. He advised it has to come from the police and the landlords. He requested a moment after closure of the meeting to explain more to the Commission. 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To RSA 91-A:3, II) Chief Canfield advised there is no need for Non-Public Session. 17. ADJOURNMENT 7 Chairman Whittum entertained a Motion to adjourn the meeting, motion made by Commissioner Tarr, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 3:24 pm 8