Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES JULY 17, 2019 3:00 P.M. 7/17/2019 - 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, 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 No discussion. 5.B. Training No discussion. 5.B.i. Orders & Bulletins 5.C. Miscellaneous No discussion. 5.D. Resignations/Retirement Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. 5.D.i. Retirement - Lieutenant Richard E. Simmons Chief Canfield advised Lt. Simmons will be retiring as of the end of August. He advised he will be going to work for Homeland Security doing School Safety Assessments and working on those drills. He advised he will be missed by the entire department and he has done a really good job, having been with us for 23 years. He indicated there will be a retirement luncheon on August 21st at 12:30 at the Police Department. Lt. Simmons thanked Chief Canfield and advised this is a good opportunity that he didn't want to turn up, not knowing if it would come up again. He advised he has learned a lot here and considers the City and Laconia PD as his extended family. 1/6  5.D.ii. Resignation - Officer Andrew Kuc Chief Canfield advised Andrew Kuc, who was a Probationary Police Officer, and who graduated from the Academy and entered into the Field Training Program, decided this job was not for him and tendered his resignation. 5.E. Hirings Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised the Great Bay test was held and also the PT test the first week of June. He advised Interviews have been completed and they are now conducting three background investigations. He advised currently we have three openings, with the retirement of Lt. Simmons making it four. He indicated we have been working through several issues involving several backgrounds, but hopefully we'll have those open position filled as a result of this with a start date of August 4th, with the hope of getting them into the September Academy. Commissioner Tarr inquired about the policy of only Sergeants being able to apply for Lt. Simmons' position and if there is a minimum amount of time established for a Sergeant in the policy. Chief Canfield replied it's two years. Commissioner Tarr if there are any substitutions allowed, such as they did this before somewhere else in a supervisory type setting. Chief Canfield advised he does not believe the policy specifies and just speaks to having two years as a Sergeant. He believes anyone with two years of experience as a Sergeant, whether here or somewhere else, would be eligible. Chief Canfield advised the promotional process for Lieutenant and Sergeant is underway and the announcement has gone out and will be conducted with the plan of having people in place by the time Lieutenant Simmons leaves in order for him to maybe get someone taking his place up to speed. He advised the Sergeants process is a little bit more formalized, being a 10-day/2 week training program where they are doubled up with another Sergeant and go through a training program. He advised the Lieutenant program is not so structured, but the plan is to have someone sit down with Lt. Simmons and go over the big major tasks to get up to speed. 5.F. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Captain Chief Canfield advised Capt. Graton is on vacation and advised that we haven't received the final budget numbers, but believes it is on track, as well as the Motorcycle Week budget numbers. He advised he believes they came in too late for the packet, but we were under almost $20,000.00 on our Motorcycle Week budget. Commissioner Tarr inquired if that gets turned over to City Hall or if that is money we have in our budget. Chief Canfield responded that is something that reverts back to City Hall, as it's a budget specifically for Motorcycle Week. 6.B. Operations Lieutenant Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Simmons. Lt. Simmons advised we just got done with the 4th of July events and everything went well. He advised there was a large early morning attendance at Weirs Beach and the plan should be for more manpower next year, which he has already met with the new Director of Parks and Recreation to discuss. Commissioner Tarr inquired if there have been any incidents with the large attendance and people being turned away and Lt. Simmons advised not really and just some minor incidents, with attendance being mostly decent families, but just so many. 2/6  Chairman Whittum inquired if a lot of them are bused in and Lt. Simmons advised he didn't see any buses and thinks they are mostly just cars. Lt. Simmons indicated that National Night Out is coming up on August 6th at 22 Strafford Street from 5-7pm. He advised he anticipates this will be a very large one, as it's being held in the big parking lot of an apartment building. He advised the Laconia Housing Authority has been helping out and we have a lot of invites out. He advised he believes this is going to be a really good National Night Out providing we get good weather for it. Lt. Simmons advised we are also starting to ramp up for the Citizens Academy in September and a press release for that went out yesterday. 6.C. Training Lieutenant Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised three members who are assigned to the Regional Accident Investigation Team will be attending the Investigation of Motorcycle Crashes being held at t he Gilford Police Department. He advised this is a pretty intensive school, as are most accident reconstruction schools, and is a class that doesn't come around very often and are usually out-of-state. Chief Canfield advised both of our School Resource Officers (Steve Orton and Bryan Moynihan) attended a two-day School Resource Officer conference in Concord. He also indicated that Officer Joe Marquis will be attending the National Tactical Officers Association conference and trade show in Orlando Florida, which is paid for through a Homeland Security grant. Chairman Whittum inquired about the Motorcycle Investigations and noted there will be three people out and inquired the logistical impact. Chief Canfield advised one is a Captain and the other is a Sergeant, so Lt. Simmons will work with the schedule and either a Staff Officer or floater Sergeant will cover the Sergeant's shift. He advised Officer Howe will be covered just because it's only one officer. Chairman Whittum inquired about coverage for the second two school requests, with initially there being two officers out and then halfway through there is a third officer out. Chief Canfield advised certainly training and those types of assignments are a drain on scheduling; however, it's a matter of balance and the need for quality training for which we get better results and the ability to do more. Commissioner Tarr noted this was a bad year for motorcycle accidents and inquired if all of those were in the Laconia Police Department jurisdiction. Chief Canfield advised those were Laconia only. He indicated nine of those were injury accidents, some pretty severe, but none were fatal. 6.D. Investigations Lieutenant Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Butler. Lt. Butler advised there is nothing new and they are just working around vacations lately. 6.E. Legal Prosecutor No discussion. 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 June 26, 2019 were accepted. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 3/6  8.A. Department Monthly Highlights Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Highlights report. No further discussion. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Lt. Butler. Lt. Butler advised the number under polygraph exams for 2019 year to date should be should 15 and for the month of June it should be 1. Chairman Tarr inquired if they were new hire polygraphs or for criminal investigations and Lt. Butler advised it's probably 70% for new employees and 30% criminal. He advised that although a lot of criminal polygraphs are scheduled, 90% of them don't show up. Commissioner Tarr inquired if they are recorded and the person is given information ahead of time that they are being recorded and Lt. Butler responded yes, advising it's a very structured and lengthy process. Commissioner Tarr inquired if they are done in-house or contracted out and Lt. Butler advised he does them himself. Commissioner Mello inquired about the being up ten more on the sex offenders and Lt. Butler advised that we have had a number move in recently and Jeff Wholley covers most, if not all, of them. Commissioner Tarr inquired if we know roughly how many sex offenders are currently registered in the City of Laconia and Lt. Butler advised we hover just around 90-100 and it is pretty constant. Chairman Whittum noted that in looking through properties for sale on-line, agents have a section that shows a small map where sex offenders are located. Commissioner Tarr inquired who supplies that information and Lt. Butler advised it is supplies by the Police Department, which Chief Canfield confirmed and advised it's public information. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the maps are current and Lt. Butler advised they are. Lt. Butler indicated it is only for certain offenders, as not all offenders are public list offenders. Lt. Simmons noted they only have ten days to register when they move. Commissioner Tarr inquired about compliance with people moving in/out and Lt. Butler advised it's not a huge issue and more fail to notify the Police Department about Facebook accounts they are using. Commissioner Tarr inquired if we work closely with Probation and Parole and Lt. Butler advised no. He advised Probation actually helps us out, as anyone who is on probation who is a sex offender is guaranteed to be on the ball. He advised it's the ones who are off probation who may forget and are the harder ones to manage. 8.C. Monthly Traffic Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Statistics report. Chairman Whittum advised when he came off Beacon West onto Beacon East, there is an island with plants and you can't see cars coming because of this and he actually had to get way out into the main travel lane to see. Chief Canfield advised he will look into that. 8.D. Monthly Fleet Report No discussion. 8.E. Budget Print-Out No discussion. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield advised a nice thank you letter was received from Commissioner Mello and another was received from a person who does not live in Laconia, but who has a boat docked at Irwin Marine at the end of Appleton Street and had a good interaction with Officer Cardinal and was impressed with how she 4/6  remedied the situation and security she provided. He indicated he believes this person is a high ranking official from the Navy Reserve. Commissioner Tarr advised he understands their concern, but also understands resources and reality. He inquired if there is any kind of game plan to swing through that area. Chief Canfield advised it was put out to patrol as an extra patrol, so during their uncommitted time the car that works that area will spend some extra time in that area. He advised the call volume down in that area doesn't support it, but it is a perceived issue and the security of seeing a cruiser drive through helps. Chief Canfield also advised that a nice thank you letter was received recognizing Officer Kimtis, who helped a family who was broken down on Weirs Boulevard. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield on August 7th he will be attending the School Emergency Planning meeting that will include the fire department, school department and Homeland Security, to talk about their school safety plans when the school year starts off. He advised some of the command leadership from all of the schools will be involved in that workshop. Chief Canfield also advised we helped out with the ride for the Fallen Seven that started from the Broken Spoke with about 3000 motorcycles. He advised it went off very well with only some parking issues. Lt. Simmons noted there was only one accident. Commissioner Mello inquired if this accident was before the ride and Lt. Simmons advised it was during the ride. 10.A. Officer Reference Cards No discussion. 10.B. Overdose Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Overdose Statistics report. Commissioner Tarr noted an article he saw where an area Chief was giving his opinion about overdoses in a nearby town in the Lakes Region and it was his opinion that straight up Fentanyl use and, therefore overdose deaths, were down because users now are mixing Fentanyl with other drugs, reducing the affect of Narcan to some degree because of it only works on opioids. He inquired if this is something happening in Laconia? Lt. Butler stated we are definitely seeing a downtick in Fentanyl, however, no so much as far as mixing the two together. He advised we have seen an uptick in cocaine, being powdered cocaine and not the crack, but people don't overdose on Meth. He advised if they take Meth with a heroin chaser or vise versa, and you Narcan them, they are just going to come up fighting. He advised the Meth is going to still be there and Narcan doesn't do anything to the Meth, but it does neutralize the opioid. Chief Canfield advised that from January to June for the Doorway Program at the hospital, there were 258 calls for that six month period, which is the first six months they have been opened. He advised they have handled 86 walk-ins asking for help and 133 of the 258 calls were opioid related. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the Doorway is able to distinguish where these people come from and Chief Canfield advised no. He advised they could be from anywhere, but certainly the hospital here is the catch bin for all of the Lakes Region. He advised he knows they have run into that problem with the Safe Stations Program in Manchester and Nashua, where people from this area, 5/6  Portsmouth and Concord were going down there to seek help in their Safe Station Program, so it actually drove their numbers really high, when most of them weren't from those cities. He advised it is difficult to tell, as those numbers do not reflect people just from Laconia. 10.C. National Night Out - August 6, 2019 Chief Canfield also reminded the Commissioners that National Night Out is on August 6th. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular or Special Meeting date of August 21, 2019 was confirmed. 14. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizen comments. 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 3:30 pm. 6/6