Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 9/18/2019 - 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, Prosecutor James Sawyer, Captain Allan Graton and Captain Michael Finogle. 4.C. Chairman Whittum recognized a quorum has been established and there are three Commission members present. 5. PERSONNEL MATTERS Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised we will be swearing in two new Police Department employees today. Captain Finogle invited Evan Shaheen to the front. He advised Evan is from Methuen, Massachusetts and is 22 years old. He advised Evan has a four year Criminal Justice degree from U-Mass Lowell. Captain Finogle invited Jonathan Mercurio to the front. He advised Jonathan is 22 years old from Nashua. He indicated Jonathan worked four seasons with Marine Patrol and has a four year degree in Criminal Justice. Captain Finogle indicated both Officers came on a couple of weeks ago and will be attending the January academy. He indicated they will be doing the in-house training and field training before the academy. Both Officers were then sworn in by City Clerk Cheryl Hebert. 5.A. Commendations & Awards No discussion. 5.B. Resignations/Retirement No discussion. 5.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 1/6 6.A. Captain - Support Division Chairman Whittum recognized Captain Graton. 6.A.i. Training Captain Graton advised we have an Out-of-State training request for Robin Moyer for the ICon User Event, which is a user conference for IMC, which is our records management system. He advised this is a yearly conference that she attends to find out where the company is going and what their suggestions are for getting changes to the software that different department find a need for. He advised this school in North Falmouth, Massachusetts on October 16th and 17th. Chairman Whittum noted there were no travel expenses indicated and inquired if she is provided with a vehicle to travel to the school. Captain Graton advised she could be provided with one, but she will probably be taking her own vehicle so she can go other places while there. Chairman Whittum inquired about reimbursement for mileage and Captain Graton advised she has not requested this as of this time. 6.A.ii. Hirings No discussion. 6.B. Captain - Operations Division Chairman Whittum recognized Captain Finogle. Captain Finogle advised we just had Biketemberfest this past weekend and and are now working on the operational plans for Chaos and Kindness and the Bluesfest coming up this weekend. He advised the Bluesfest will be a much smaller scale event than the Chaos and Kindness vent. Chairman Whittum inquired about any projections for attendance. Captain Finogle advised we haven't been given a solid number, but we are expecting a few thousand. He indicated the numbers given have been pretty sporadic, anywhere from 5000 to 30,000, but we've been told more realistically closer to 5,000. Commissioner Tarr inquired if this past weekend was pretty quiet for Biketemberfest and Captain Finogle advised there were a few incidents and we will be doing an after-action review so that we can plan for next year. He advised it appears the event is growing. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the police department is being reimbursed for the cost of police presence? Captain Finogle advised yes. Commissioner Tarr inquired if they had to pay this advance and Captain Finogle advised yes. 6.C. Legal Prosecutor Chairman Whittum recognized Prosecutor Sawyer. Prosecutor Sawyer advised in touching on body cameras again, Officer Goodheart has gone back to patrol and Jeff Wholley will be be taking over her responsibilities. He advised Wholley was doing the County Attorney redactions and now he will be doing his redactions as well. He advised we have utilized a different process, which will be more efficient in terms of notification using the IMC case management system. He advised there will actually be a record of when redactions are requested and also a record of when it is sent either to the County Attorney or to defense counsel. He indicated this will be very easy to access. He advised this will be in addition to there always being a record through Axon that shows what has been redacted and who is receiving it. 2/6 7. COMMISSION ACTION 7.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting On a Motion by Commissioner Tarr, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of August 23, 2019, were accepted. 7.B. Out-of-State School(s) 7.B.i. iCon User Event - M.I.S. Robin Moyer Chairman Whittum entertained a Motion by Commissioner Tarr to approve the iCon User Event school requested for M.I.S. Robin Moyer, 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 Monthly Activity Highlights report. No further discussion. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield reviewed the CIU Monthly Activity Report. Commissioner Tarr noted there was nothing listed for recovered property this year compared to last year. Chief Canfield advised he is not sure why that reads that way and will check into this and that it may involve drug forfeiture seizures. Prosecutor Sawyer noted that this number is just for BCI and not the entire department. Chief Canfield advised he will get clarification on this for the next meeting. 8.C. Monthly Traffic Statistics Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Report. Commissioner Tarr inquired of the approximately 900 tickets issues in two months, who tracks the compliance with payment on these tickets. Captain Graton advised parking tickets are paid directly to City Hall. Chief Canfield questioned if he was inquiring about parking tickets or motor vehicle tickets and Commissioner Tarr advised parking tickets. Chief Canfield affirmed that they are tracked by City Hall. He advised if the subject does not pay the ticket and they are a Laconia resident, then they cannot register their vehicle until payment is made. Commissioner Tarr inquired if the police department has any involvement with non-payment and Chief Canfield responded no. Chairman Whittum inquired about those who are not Laconia residents and Chief Canfield advised they were looking at software that would link the different City Clerks with Town Clerks so subjects would not be able to register their vehicle, no matter which Town or City, until payment is made on a ticket, but he's not sure if that is operational yet. Chairman Whittum inquired about an Out-of-State resident resident and Chief Canfield advised they do get letters for enforcement, but nothing beyond that. 8.D. Monthly Fleet Report Chairman Whittum recognized Captain Graton. Captain Graton advised the ACO truck will be on-line by the end of this month. He also advised there is no timeline for the new SUV's to be built and shipped, but all of the equipment for the new vehicles has been ordered and will be ready for when those arrive. 3/6  8.E. Budget Reports Chairman Whittum recognized Captain Graton. Captain Graton advised we are on track. Commissioner Tarr inquired if we are still paying overtime for those employees who were out from the incident last week. Chief Canfield advised all of those employees, with the exception of one, are back to work. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield advised we received a nice thank you from the Belknap County Sheriff's Department for our assistance with Soulfest. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised received our CALEA re-accreditation dates. He advised every year they go into our files and review approximately 25% of the files and look for compliance with proofs. He indicated we have also been scheduled for May, 2020, along with our on-site, which will be the beginning of next July. He advised at that time we will be visited by CALEA assessors and they will do an actual physical on-site assessment. Chief Tarr inquired if we are given advance notice of what standards will be reviewed and Chief Canfield advised we don't and that they do this randomly and electronically. He advised they could be the same ones they did last year or could be other random ones. Commissioner Tarr inquired if they check ones from last year where we may have shown deficiencies, to make sure corrections have been made and in addition to the 25% they do. Chief Canfield advised he isn't aware of any deficiencies last year; however, if there were some deficiencies, there would be a compliance check on those. Chief Canfield advised we will be working to increase some traffic presence in the area of Watson Road and Scenic Road in response to a petition done by the neighborhood in those locations regarding a lot of motorcycle noise and speeding violations. He also advised we will be working with a resident on Province Road, who explained an issue with problem vehicles traveling fast in that area. He advised we will be working to put the STAT pack out there, along with the radar board, and do some extra enforcement in those area. Chief Canfield also advised we recently acquired new duty firearms and we will be looking to do the acquisition of those and, if everything else comes in, we will be swapping over all of the Officers' handguns in October to the Glock handguns. He advised these will be 9mm instead of 40 caliber. He advised this will be done through a transition with Glock, where they give us credit as a trade-in value, so our initial output to obtain the new firearms is relatively minimal verses the cost, which was paid for out A of our Drug Forfeiture Account. Commissioner Tarr inquired what the reason was for the changeover? Chief Canfield advised they do get worn out, as the handguns sustain a lot of holster wear, as well as active wear, and in addition there are studies out there that are backed by the National Institute of Justice and the FBI which recommend the transition to 9mm. He stated it is much easier for a smaller frame officer with smaller hands to shoot accurately. 10.A. Website Survey Chief Canfield advised one survey was received with positive results and they were very pleased with our services. 10.B. Overdose Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Overdose Statistics report and overdoses are down significantly. Commissioner Tarr noted this is good news and definitely trending in the right direction. Commissioner Tarr inquired if we have seen much manufacturing in the City and Chief Canfield 4/6  advised we haven't seen a lot at all recently in comparison to five years ago when we saw a lot of it. 11. OLD BUSINESS 12. NEW BUSINESS Commissioner Tarr advised that he heard there were going to be big numbers for the Chaos and Kindness event and that they have advertised across the country. He inquired if the department has an idea of what to expect. Chief Canfield advised both Captain Graton and Captain Finogle have been working on it a lot and have put a lot of time into the planning. He advised he believes Captain Finogle has developed a plan that will react well and adjust with whatever happens. He advised we are planning on approximately 5,000 attendees. Chief Canfield also noted that this coming Sunday, September 22, 2019, our Honor Guard has been invited to the New England Patriots football game in Foxborough and will be presenting the colors as an Honor Guard before the game and that this is an honor. 13. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular Meeting Date of October 16, 2019 was confirmed. 14. OTHER BUSINESS 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS Dennis Lintz of Laconia approached and noted Commissioner Tarr has asked a lot of good questions. He noted the statistics on the overdose deaths and inquired if there has been a comparison of the statistics for overdose deaths and overdoses and how many people have not repeated because they have actually died. He inquired if this plays into the statistics being used by the department. Commissioner Tarr inquired if he could repeat his question. Mr. Lintz advised that the people who have overdosed and died due to drugs, they are no longer on the statistics as an overdose, but rather a death. He advised that during the time he has noticed, there have been a lot of these people who have overdosed several times, so they are on the statistics several times over as an overdose, but not a death. He advised that when we have a death, with these numbers, what are the numbers of the real people who are actually doing this. He indicated this has to reflect on the statistics of what has been an overdose death and who are survivors and does that make a difference on why these statistics are lower on the deaths. Is is because some or most have deceased. Chief Canfield advised that if he understands the question correctly, that may be a factor; however, there are still four overdose deaths total and t he total number of overdoses is down by a third of what they were last year, so he doesn't think it would have effected it that much. He advised people are not overdosing forty times before they die in the same year. Mr. Lintz clarified that his question is if they overdose and die, have these people overdosed previously and survived and how does this play in the statistics. Chief Canfield advised most likely yes, they probably have overdosed several times before they actually die, but it hasn't dropped the statistics that much. He indicated there were four overdose deaths and the overdose statistics are down one third from where they were last year, the actual overdoses. Mr. Lintz advised he was not sure if we were understanding his question in comparison of the people versus the death rate and whether these are repeats and no longer repeated as a difference. He inquired how many times these particular individuals show up on the statistics as a survivor. Chief Canfield advised we don't track it that way. 5/6  9/18/2019 - Minutes 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To RSA 91-A:3, II) 17. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Whittum entertained a Motion by Commissioner Tarr to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously. THe meeting was adjourned at 3:27 pm. 6/6