Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES March 20, 2019 3:00 P.M. 3/20/2019 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Whittum called the meeting to order at the above date and time. 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. Chairman Whittum recognized Commissioners present - Chairman Douglas Whittum, Commissioner Thomas Tarr and Commissioner Frank Mello. 4.B. Chairman Whittum recognized Staff present - Chief Matthew Canfield, Captain Allan Graton, Prosecutor James Sawyer, Lieutenant Richard Simmons, Lieutenant Michael Finogle and Lieutenant Kevin Butler. 4.C. Chairman Whittum recognized a quorum has been established and there are three Commission members present. 5. PERSONNEL MATTERS 5.A. Commendations & Awards Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised the Department Awards banquet is scheduled to be held on May 15th at 5:00 PM at the Beane Conference Center. 5.B. Training Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Finogle. Lt. Finogle advised there has been quite a bit of training and Lt. Simmons has been working with the schedule and, despite manpower issues, we've been able to get people quite a bit of training. Commissioner Tarr inquired where we stand staffing wise and Lt. Finogle advised we are at 39 with 3 vacancies. 5.B.i. Orders & Bulletins 1/8  5.C. Miscellaneous No discussion. 5.D. Resignations/Retirement No discussion. 5.E. Hirings Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Finogle. Lt. Finogle advised there are currently 6 people in backgrounds and those are due by April 1st. He advised we will attempt to get whoever qualifies into the May 6th academy. He advised so far all are going smoothly and we are just getting into polygraphs with a couple scheduled this week. Commissioner Tarr inquired if any are certified and Lt. Finogle responded no. 5.F. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Captain Chairman Whittum recognized Capt. Graton. Capt. Graton advised he is in the process with Lt. Simmons of planning for Motorcycle Week. He also advised that the Wake the Lake block party is coming up, which is scheduled for May 10-12, which will be a repeat of the Biketember Fest they held down in the Weirs. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the event in September will also take place and Capt. Graton advised yes, as well as possibly some other ones as well. Commissioner Tarr inquired if we are able to bill for sponsored events such as these and Capt. Graton advised the event planner will be billed for the police details. Commissioner Tarr inquired if this includes Biketember Fest also and Capt. Graton responded yes. Capt. Graton advised we are also in the process of reviewing written directives for some upcoming training and making some adjustments to those. 6.B. Operations Lieutenant Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Simmons. Lt. Simmons advised we are bringing life back into our mountain bike program and feels it is a great tool. He advised Officer Rouse and Officer McCormack are interested and Officer Rouse found a school on his own. He advised we are looking into equipment and Miles Chase from MC Cycle has always helped us out a lot with t he bikes and will be donating a full bike set-up to us and we will purchase the second bike and he will match everything. He advised the Officers will be going to school in May and hopefully we'll have them out right before Bike Week and be able to use them for all of the events coming up. 6.B.i. Press Release(s) 6.C. Support Lieutenant 2/8  Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Finogle. Lt. Finogle recalled mention at a previous meeting about the simulator and advised it appears we will be getting the handguns with the new laser package hopefully by the end of this week and we will start working on getting that back up and running. 6.D. Investigations Lieutenant Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Butler. Lt. Butler advised we are status quo as far as cases. He advised Det. Wholley is missed and Sgt. BLack is stepping up and taking over most of his duties, but training and hiring has been a lot and there are not enough hours in a day. Commissioner Tarr inquired if he is still doing all sex offender registrations and Lt. Butler advised no, due to his retirement, and he will not be returning until the 28th. Capt. Graton advised when he returns he will again be doing all of the registrations on a part time basis. Commissioner Whittum inquired if anyone is covering those registrations during that time and both Capt. Graton and Lt. Butler advised yes. 6.E. Legal Prosecutor Chairman Whittum recognized Pros. Sawyer. Pros. Sawyer advised he is gearing up for when body cameras come on line, indicating he talked with Sgt. Bredbury from Gilford, as they has been doing it for over a year now. He advised he has also spoken with the County Attorney about what to expect and to let them know that they will be receiving more videos from Laconia. Commissioner Tarr inquired how they will be phased in. Chief Canfield advised we are doing a test program right now with 4 being deployed right now to work the kinks out of it. He advised our goal is to have them fully implemented by May. He advised they should all be here and will allow training over the next month or so and will be fully phased in before summer. He advised he hopes to have a presentation on them ready for the May Commission Meeting. Commissioner Tarr inquired about the costs involved with system and Chief Canfield advised we were funded 50% for this year and will be fully funded next year hopefully. Commissioner Tarr inquired about storage issues and Chief Canfield advised it is digital video, which takes a large capacity of storage. He advised the cameras themselves are not super expensive and the costs are with the storage. Commissioner Whittum inquired the time periods for storing the videos. Lt. Butler advised it depends on the level of call, with certain calls set to automatically delete. He advised there are many different categories, but someone does have to stay on top of it to make sure things don't build up that don't need to be there. He advised if something is set to be deleted and needs to be saved for some reason, it is a very simple procedure to do so. Commissioner Tarr inquired if defense attorney's are allowed by law to request and receive a copy of the video and Pros. Sawyer advised yes. He advised Gilford PD supplies the attorney with a password to be able to access the video off the internet and do not actually physically copy it. He advised they do make disks for the County Attorney right now and it is undetermined how we are going to arrange that ourselves with the County Attorney in terms of an actual disk for every case or give them access through the internet. 3/8  Commissioner Tarr inquired if this program has been well received by the Officers and Chief Canfield advised yes. Chief Canfield advised it has become the norm for police and across the country and, in speaking for our Officers here, it is a very positive thing. He advised Police Officers do a lot of good work and people don't realize when someone is violence or doing something wrong how it is handled. He advised he is confident in all of our Officers that they do the right thing and this will actually help and support them. Pros. Sawyer also advised that this will help with judges and juries to see the professional nature of our Officers vs. the people who Officers have to deal with in terms of how they appear in court. 7. COMMISSION ACTION 7.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting On a Motion made by Commissioner Tarr, seconded by Commissioner Mello , and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of February 20, 2019 were accepted as distributed. 7.B. Out-of-State School(s) Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Finogle. 7.B.i. Drug Interdiction and Conducting Complete Traffic Stops - Patrol Officer Jepsen Lt. Finogle described the above listed school and advised there is no cost for this school. Lt. Finogle also advised he has a last minute school to present that was not included in the packet. He advised the school is for the National Tactical Officers Association for Officer Joe Marquis, who is on the Swat Team. He advised this is a trade show and conference pertaining to leadership within the team, risk mitigation and team management. He advised this school is being held in Orlando, Florida and is being paid for by the team itself, so no cost to us. He advised this class is scheduled to be held August 18-23, 2019. Chairman Whittum entertained a Motion made by Commissioner Tarr to approve the above two Out-of- State schools, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Highlights Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Highlights report and noted the LPD volunteer hours included the Winni dip at the Margate. Commissioner Tarr noted the decline in motor vehicle activity and Lt. Simmons responded that being short handed contributed to that. Chief Canfield also noted that there was a lull in the Highway Safety grants for motor vehicle enforcement and weather also comes into play. 8.B. Monthly Fleet Report Chairman Whittum inquired if all of the new vehicles are in service and Lt. Finogle responded yes. 4/8  Commissioner Tarr inquired of Lt. Finogle if there are specific issues they should be focusing in the Fleet Report and Lt. Finogle responded that it all depends on how the vehicles are being operated and also indicated that higher costs are usually attributed to an accident. He advised in these cases the repairs are done by DPW and they put a cost value to that, even though it's only costing them their manpower. Chairman Whittum inquired if the pressure washer at DPW is back up and Chief Canfield advised that a new one was ordered and is expected this week. Chairman Whittum inquired about bringing the cruisers to the jail to be washed and Lt. Finogle advised this depends on the jail and it can be an inconvenience to get the cruisers up there. He advised this has been utilized, as recently Capt. Graton's car was done there while he was on vacation, or if we have a special need. 8.C. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Lt. Butler advised on we are on par with the same month last year, except for increase in sex offenders, as we have gotten a number of new ones. Commissioner Tarr inquired what the computer related category is and Lt. Butler advised this is Internet Crimes Against Children - called Cybertips. He advised we were inundated with an on- going case with a Federal agency that is going on in Laconia and all of the cybertips are coming to us. He advised we are an affiliate with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, so any cybertip that geolocates to Laconia or the Laconia area comes to us, Gilford or Tilton. Commissioner Mello noted 8 cases under computer related and Lt. Butler advised each one is a cybertip that has been forwarded through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as child sexual abuse images typically. He advised a lot of this is social media based. He advised there might be eight separate incidents, but all involve the same individual. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Statistics report. No further discussion. 8.E. Budget Print-Out Chairman Whittum recognized Capt. Graton. Capt. Graton advised we are right on par for where we should be. Commissioner Tarr inquired if we have a strategy for the last quarter for overtime and Capt. Graton responded that the #'s on the report do not take into account the reimbursement for the Highway Safety grant details, which are paid out of the overtime account. He advised with that being accounted for we are only 62% expended. Commissioner Tarr noted he is glad to see there is a great deal of training going on and inquired if we call in people to cover those shifts. Lt. Simmons responded most times we do not. He advised 90+% of the time we are not paying overtime for those away at training. Chief Canfield also advised we do not typically back fill shifts with overtime for vacations or training and only do so if we reach a critical level with manpower. Commissioner Tarr if one or more employees call in sick, do we call someone in to cover or go with who we have on duty. Lt. Simmons advised sometimes we'll have someone from the previous shift stay over for a couple of hours. 5/8  Chief Canfield advised we may also readjust schedules to make the training work as well. He advised scheduling is one of the considerations in approving the training when requested. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised there was a nice thank you letter received from the Alexandria Police Department. He advised we secured a vehicle they were looking for that was found in Laconia and they came down and performed a Search Warrant on it. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. 10.A. Officer Reference Cards Chief Canfield advised we received three cards for the month, all of which were A's. He also noted the sample card given to the Commissioners that all of the Officers have now. He advised this card has a spot for them to write the case number on the back, as well as a QR code for use with a smart phone to access a five question survey. He advised we will be transitioning to these and noted this was an idea that was brought forward by the Officers and is very user friendly. 10.B. Overdose Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Overdose Statistics report and noted that due to a death yesterday we up to 2 deaths for the year. Commissioner Tarr noted the numbers are encouraging so far and Chief Canfield advised he hopes the trend continues downwards. Commissioner Tarr advised he recognizes it is hard to pinpoint, but we can't really know how many people are out there who have private use of Narcan and don't really use emergency services. Chief Canfield advised we would have no idea who administers their own Narcan. He advised we were called to 2 overdoses on Friday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon involving the same person and same place. He advised both times he refused transport and instead he was revived with Narcan and taken care of by themselves. Chief Canfield noted the Hub is operational at LRGHealthcare and anyone calling 211 can seek the services of drug counselors and can obtain immediate referrals. He advised they can also walk into the main entrance of the hospital and get help instantly. He advised hopefully we'll see some positive effects from that as well. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the people we have seen so far are familiar to us or not and Lt. Simmons advised it can be both. 10.C. Laconia Motorcycle Week Briefing - May 22, 2019 / 0900 Hrs. Chief Canfield advised the annual Motorcycle Week briefing is scheduled for May 22, 2019 at 0900 hours with all other law enforcement partners at the Taylor Community in the Woodside Building. 10.D. Update: Governor's Task Force on School Safety Preparedness 6/8  Chief Canfield advised he gave the Commissioners a book containing the Governor's Preparedness on School Safety Task Force that came out about a week ago and that is the work of that committee. He advised the print-out he gave Commissioners were the recommendations that came out of that and a progress update. 10.E. IACP: Committee on Terrorism Chief Canfield advised he will be serving on this committee, consisting of two parts. He advised one is National and International Terrorism and the other is a working group for Homegrown Violent Extremists. He advised he sought after becoming a part of this and was selected. He advised we are a small State, but not immune to being a target of terrorism and homegrown violent extremists with some of the biggest events in the State. 10.F. IACP: HVE Working Group As stated above, Chief Canfield advised he will be serving on this committee. 10.G. Update: WMUR Project - Comm Unity Team Chief Canfield advised he had the first meeting of the Comm Unity Team with WMUR, which will be focusing on homeless, not only in our community, but throughout the State. He advised the team is made up a broad spectrum of people and will be an interesting group to serve on. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the number of homeless is pretty much the same this winter as it was last winter. Lt. Simmons advised he believes so. Chief Canfield advised it actually seems like they kind of of went "under ground", as there haven't been many calls involving the homeless for a while. Commissioner Tarr inquired about the cafe on New Salem Street and inquired what do they do and if they provide a place to eat and get warm. Prosecutor Sawyer advised they have showers and laundry facilities. Commissioner Tarr inquired if it's an overnight or shelter and Chief Canfield advised no. Lt. Simmons advised they have tightened up some of their regulations and haven't really had any issues over there. 10.H. Development of Recruitment Video Chief Canfield advised he reached out to WMUR and an off-shoot of WMUR for assistant with developing a recruitment video. He advised it is in the early stages, but hopefully we'll have a professionally made recruitment video to assist the Lieutenant's efforts with recruitment and hopefully get that on Facebook and some other more modern social media sites to increase our numbers. 10.I. Laconia Middle School SRO Chief Canfield advised Bryan Moynihan was selected as the School Resource Officer for the Laconia Middle School, which was supported by the City Council in our budget presentation last year. He advised he started on March 18th and is working with Principal to get that going. Commissioner Tarr wanted to confirm that we had 6 months funding for that position and Chief Canfield advised yes. Commissioner Tarr inquired if we would have 12 months of funding next year and Chief Canfield advised yes, indicating this is supported in the City Manager's recommendations. 7/8  Chief Canfield noted that Officer Moynihan was a great choice for this position and that he does a lot with the law program over there and he interacts with the children very well and will be a good addition to the school over there. 10.J. National Volunteer Week - April 7-13, 2019 Chief Canfield advised National Volunteer Week is April 7-13, 2019. He advised on April 9th we will be doing an appreciation recognition for them at 4:00 pm. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular or Special Meeting date of April 17, 2019 was confirmed. 14. OTHER BUSINESS 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS Dennis Lintz addressed the Commission and thanked them for the answers to his questions from the previous meeting provided by Capt. Graton. He mentioned that out of 60 counts, only 57 counts were covered. He advised the two things he's interested in are highlighted IPC report and is not listed on there are part of #57. He advised one is for Citizens Complaints and one for Non-Standard Complaints. He inquired what falls under those categories since April 1st is coming up next month. He also inquired if his report would fall under. Capt. Graton inquired what the April 1st date means and what that means when it comes around. Mr. Lintz advised April 1st is usually the date he Files a Notice to respond. He advised he did give a copy to the Commissioners themselves of things he has had concerns about, such as the rise in the crime rate and certain situations that happened where the use of informants has caused some problems. He advised it is not just here and there are other cases involved. He advised he would like to address this issue of what has happened. Capt. Graton advised Mr. Lintz if he looks in the packet sent to him for a response, under Citizens Complaints it explains exactly what Citizens Complaints means and advised Officers or employees who come into contact with a citizens who wishes to make a complaint any officer or employee of the department shall immediately refer the person to t he on-duty Watch Supervisor. He advised the on-duty Watch Supervisor would take the complaint. Mr. Lintz advised that back in 2016 that was Lt. Finogle and Capt. Graton responded he was not familiar with what he was referring to. Mr. Lintz inquired what the Non-Standard Complaint is and Capt. Graton advised that would be anything that doesn't fall in any of those categories listed. Mr. Lintz noted the sections are not numbered and Capt. Graton indicated they are all broken down into separate paragraphs. 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To RSA 91-A:3, II) No need for Non-Public Session. 17. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Tarr, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously, the meeting was adjourned at 3:37 pm. 8/8