Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES MAY 15, 2019 3:00 P.M. 5/15/2019 - 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 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 5.A.i. Awards Ceremony: May 15, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. at the Beane Conference Center Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised tonight is the Annual Awards Ceremony to recognize the good work of all of our Officers and employees throughout the year. He advised this coincides with National Police Week and his held each year during this week to recognize them. 5.B. Training No discussion. 5.B.i. Orders & Bulletins 5.C. Miscellaneous No discussion. 5.D. Resignations/Retirement Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised Officer Brewer-Croteau resigned to take a position with the Strafford County Sheriff's Department. Commissioner Tarr inquired when she was hired and Chief Canfield advised four years ago. 1/6  5.D.i. Patrol Officer Anna R. Brewer-Croteau 5.E. Hirings Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised there is a test scheduled for June 1, 2019 and there will be a physical agility test scheduled for the first Saturday of Motorcycle Week. He advised one person is in the background process and it is 2/3 of the way completed. He also advised that we currently have two openings, which included Officer Brewer-Croteau's position, one of which will be filled by the candidate currently in the background process, if successful, and we hope to fill the second position out of the testing process in June. Commissioner Tarr inquired if Officer Brewer-Croteau has already left or working on her notice. Chief Canfield advised she has left after having given a two week notice. 5.F. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Captain Chairman Whittum recognized Capt. Graton. Capt. Graton advised this past weekend was the Wake the Lake event, which went fairly well with no big issues. He advised the Memorial Day Parade is coming up, followed by Bike Week. Commissioner Tarr inquired how busy Wake the Lake was. Capt. Graton advised it was fairly busy with maybe 1000 people there. Commissioner Tarr inquired if there were any major incidents and Capt. Graton advised no. Capt. Graton advised there is training scheduled for May 23rd for the body cameras for those who are going to administer the training for the cameras, which includes Staff members and Sergeants. Chairman Whittum inquired if that will be here and Capt. Graton advised yes, at the police department. Commissioner Tarr advised that in the March meeting minutes, Chief Canfield had mentioned that we would be implementing more cameras. Capt. Graton advised there had been four officers chosen to wear the cameras so that we could get used to where to mount them on the uniforms. Chief Canfield recognized Lt. Butler's hard work in implementing this program,which took a lot of his time with the bid process and obtaining the equipment, and recognized Capt. Graton for installing the docking stations to save us money. He also advised there will be a great amount of work in Prosecution. He advised everyone has embraced the program and worked together to make it happen and thanks them for all of their hard work outside their normal scope of duties. 6.B. Operations Lieutenant Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Simmons. Lt. Simmons advised the last 30 days have been very busy, between the homicide investigation, SWAT call out last week and a couple of major incidents we assisted BCI in. He also mentioned the Memorial Day Parade and Motorcycle Week events coming up, but also advised he has started work on National Night Out and 4th of July. Commissioner Tarr inquired where National Night Out will be held this year and Lt. Simmons advised most likely on Strafford Street. He also advised one D.A.R.E. graduation just happened and there are a couple of more to go and the Laconia High School will be conducting evacuation training on Monday, which will be in four waves and not the entire school at one time. He advised we have also started the summer 2/6  schedule, indicating the School Resource Officers are still working in the schools, so Weirs coverage has not been posted yet, but will be coming up. 6.C. Training Lieutenant No discussion. 6.D. Investigations Lieutenant Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Butler. Lt. Butler advised it has been extraordinarily busy. He indicated Jeff Wholley is back on a part time basis and has been a great asset. He also recognized Officer Kira Goodheart, who has been on light duty, to assist with some of the cases that don't require leaving the building, and she has been a great help. 6.E. Legal Prosecutor Chairman Whittum recognized Pros. Sawyer. Pros. Sawyer also wanted to recognize Officer Wholley and Officer Goodheart, advising they have been a big help to him over the course of the spring in terms of follow up on cases. He also spoke of the body cameras and advised it will take a lot more time to prepare cases. He advised he won't necessarily watch the entire video for every case, but certain cases will require him to do so. He mentioned he watched a couple last night and this is only two instances where there was one body camera there. He advised both instances had multiple officers there, but only one had a body camera, but in the future they all will have body cameras, potentially resulting in multiple videos, which can be time consuming in looking for important admissions or utterances. He advised one case review took an hour to review just that one. He advised prior to body cameras, this same report would maybe take him probably ten minutes to review. He advised this will change in how he does his job, but believes it will be very helpful for the cases in terms of determining what to do with cases and it will shine a positive light on how we act as an agency. He advised the professional nature of our department will be highlighted by these videos. Chairman Whittum inquired if a victim is being recorded when being interviewed in the police department and Pros. Sawyer advised yes. He inquired if people are recorded if they come in to make a complaint or express a concern about something. Pros. Sawyer advised the policy will dictate as to what needs to be recorded and what will not be recorded. He advised the person will be advised if they are being audio/video recorded. 7. COMMISSION ACTION 7.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting Chairman Whittum advised he has a correction to paragraph #3 under 6.E. "Legal Prosecutor" on page 3, advising the paragraph should be changed to reflect that the word "not" be deleted from sentence #3. Commissioner Whittum inquired the time period for storing 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 built 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. On a Motion made by Commissioner Tarr, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of March 20, 2019 were accepted pending the above change. 7.B. Out-of-State School(s) 3/6  Chairman Whittum iinquired about a change in officers attending the Bike School. Chief Canfield advised originally Officer Moynihan was going to attend and still wishes to attend the school, but there was a cost to it, as well as the schedule only allowing for two officers to attend. He advised Officer Moynihan was very generous and knew that Officer McCormack wanted to attend the school and he offered his slot to attend to Officer McCormack, as he had just been given the Middle School Resource Officer position and he felt he needed to focus on that at this time of year and hopefully attend the school in the future. Commissioner Tarr inquired if Officer Moynihan's new position as SRO limits training he can attend. Chief Canfield advised it does not limit it and that first and foremost he is a Police Officer, whether working in the school or out on the road during vacation weeks, summer break or any other time, but in taking on the role as SRO and D.A.R.E. Officer, as well as teaching the Police and Teens Class, that will be the focus of most of his training. 7.B.i. Drug Interdiction and Conducting Complete Traffic Stops - Patrol Officer Erik Benoit Chairman Whittum recognized a Motion made by Commissioner Tarr to approve the above listed Out-of- State school, 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. No further discussion. Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Butler. Lt. Butler advised we are on par year-to-date. He advised a lot of April's hours were spent on the homicide investigation. Commissioner Tarr advised he doesn't really understand the numerical entries on this report, given what he knows is going on in the department. Lt. Butler advised if there are 3-4 detectives tied up with an investigation for a whole week, they are not taking cases or covering court, so those numbers are reflective of that. He advised Officer Wholley is still processing sex offenders, so that number will stay on track. 8.C. Monthly Traffic Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Statistics report. Chairman Whittum inquired if any of the accidents can be tied into the road construction. Chief Canfield advised he doesn't feel the road construction is a factor with the accidents necessarily. Commissioner Tarr inquired how long the Court Street project will go on and Capt. Graton advised it is a three-year process and Chief Canfield advised we are currently in year two. 8.D. Monthly Fleet Report No discussion. 8.E. Budget Print-Out Chairman Whittum recognized Capt. Graton. Capt. Graton advised we're right on par for the total budget line. He advised we used quite a bit of overtime for the homicide, with well over 350 man 4/6  hours during that eight-day period due to scene security 24/7, tracking down leads and staying over to assist with call volume. He advised the department pulled together and it was amazing to watch. Chairman Whittum advised it was apparent all of the departments pulled together and it was impressive. Commissioner Tarr inquired with the serious incidents in past few weeks if we are okay on covering the overtime. Capt. Graton advised we are pulling it from elsewhere in the budget. He advised overtime for drug arrests will come out of the Granite Shield Grant, for which we will receive reimbursement. Commissioner Tarr inquired if, pending no further serious incidents, if we should be okay and Capt. Graton advised yes. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised we received a thank you from Temple B'Nai regarding extra security that we spoke with them about with regards to the recent attack in New Zealand and the most recent one that occurred in San Diego. He advised we received thank you notes from Judi Lundh and Carole Veer thanking us for the volunteer appreciation gift. He advised a thank you to Off. Sedgley was received for work he did involving an incident . He also advised a thank you from Bob Champlin (Executive Director of the WOW Trail) was received for our work with trying to improving trail safety. He advised we are trying to get portable cameras on the trail in several different locations to help them with that. He advised that Miles Chase donated a bicycle to us for the Mountain Bike program and students at the Pleasant St. School made a very sizeable donation from funds they raised. He noted this is a prime example of the community coming together in a cooperative effort. He also stated a letter the Sheriff's Department was receiving thanking us for our assistance on a case. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. 10.A. Officer Reference Cards Chief Canfield noted there were two received through the on-line survey with both being very satisfied. 10.B. Overdose Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Overdose Statistics report and noted overdoses year to date are down significantly. He advised he is not saying the heroin problem is diminishing by any means, but that we are seeing a lot of Meth use as well and maybe more meth at this point rather than heroin. He advised certainly the overdose numbers being down are a very good sign. Commissioner Tarr inquired about the status of the H.U.B. Program as LRGH. Chief Canfield advised Eric Adams has been working closely with the Board of Directors at the H.U.B., which is also known as the Doorway at LRGH. He advised he does not have any numbers, but can get those by the next meeting. He advised things are very much on track and Eric Adams has been working very closely with them and thinks it is a very good assistance to him to have those services provided. He advised they are only provided during the day time at this point and are moving toward getting staff to make it 24/7. Discussion regarding the use of Heroin vs. Methamphetamine use in Laconia. 10.C. WMUR Comm Unity Committee Update Chief Canfield advised there was another meeting held and originally quarterly meetings were planned; however, will be more often to develop the next steps across the State of New Hampshire 5/6  working with communities to highlight the goodness. 10.D. Governor's School Safety Task Force Update Chief Canfield advised there is a meeting set at the end of June to review implementation recommendations and to make sure those items have actually been implemented and also to update the Task Force on where that is. He advised one of the things the Governor wanted as part of this committee was not only for them to develop a rapport that sits on a shelf and doesn't do any good, but he really wanted to see the implementation of the recommendations that were developed by the Task Force. He advised $30 million has been invested and possibly looking to invest more money to increase the safety for our schools. He advised this Task Force is making a lot of good headway, not only at our schools, but in schools across the State in the areas of safety and security. Chairman Whittum noted it was a very comprehensive document and Chief Canfield agreed, advising a lot of time went into it. 10.E. Budget Presentation Chief Canfield advised the presentation is set for next Monday night at 7:00 pm. 10.F. Motorcycle Week Briefing: May 22, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. at the Beane Conference Center Chief Canfield advised the Motorcycle Week briefing is set for next Wednesday, May 22nd, at 9:00 am at the Beane Center. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE 14. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizen in attendance. 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 3:33 pm. 6/6