Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES JULY 22, 2020 3:00 P.M. 7/22/2020 - 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 Marsh. 4. ROLL CALL 4.A. Chairman Whittum recognized Commissioners present - Chairman Douglas Whittum, Commissioner Frank Mello and Commissioner Scott Davis. 4.B. Chairman Whittum recognized Staff present - Chief Matthew Canfield. 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. Resignations/Retirement No discussion. 5.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 5.D. Hirings 5.D.i. Swearing in of New Patrol Officers Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised we have hired two new Officers and recognized Captain Finogle to introduce them. Captain Finogle introduced Karlyn Brown and Steven Wells. He advised Karlyn just graduated from Anna Maria College in Massachusetts with a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice and Science and she has been a CRO with us for a couple of years working in the summers. He advised Steven has just completed a twelve year tour with the Coast Guard and ended in Portsmouth. Captain Finogle advised both are slated to attend the Academy in the Fall. Both Officers were sworn in by Deputy City Clerk Stacy Anders. Chief Canfield then introduced Officer Brown and Officer Wells to the Police Commission and welcomed them aboard. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised it is year end and we are waiting on final budget statistics; however, the budget looks good in wrapping up the last year and looks to be under budget. He indicated we started the new fiscal year on July 1st.  Commissioner Davis inquired where the City is with the process now and Chief Canfield advised the final meeting of the Council is this coming Monday night and it is his understanding that is the last Council meeting to approve the City wide budget. He indicated as of right now there have been no questions about what we have submitted in our budget proposal. Commissioner Mello inquired if there had been any cuts to the Police budget and Chief Canfield advised no. 6.B. Chief - Operations Division Chairman Whittum recognized Chief Canfield. Chief Canfield advised work has been done on a new patrol schedule and officers are now working twelve hour patrol shifts. He indicated this initially was done due to COVID and the officers liked the schedule and it has been done in other departments. He advised we had put together task force that was representative of Supervisors, Patrol Officers and Detectives, who worked together to put together and present a viable schedule, which was presented to him a couple of weeks ago. He advised we have implemented that schedule on a six month trial period. He indicated we have also been working on an MOU with the Police Officers Association and will bring that to the Commission when it is complete, as some changes need to be made with some of the things that are in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement that this schedule will effect on a temporary basis. He stated it is the intent to run this for six months to work any bugs out of it and, if no issues arise, continue with that schedule after December. Chief Canfield advised he attended meetings and conference calls in reference to Motorcycle Week, which will be held August 22nd through the 30th; however, the City is not approving any type of licensing, vendor permits or traffic orders. He advised he expects very little impact as far as policing the event and anticipates putting several additional officers on the first and second weekend, but we are not staffing like a normal Motorcycle Week and not bringing in any outside agencies. He anticipates it being similar to a 4th of July weekend. Commissioner Mello asked how many days the officers work with the new schedule. Chief Canfield advised he will get a copy of the schedule to the commissioners, but advised they don't work more than three days in a row, as he had concerns about the long shifts. He stated it depends on the week, as some weeks they work more and some less. Commissioner Mello inquired if the remaining days are days off and Chief Canfield advised that is correct, indicating they average 40 hours per week based on a 56-day cycle, which is broken up into two 28-day cycles, working 320 hours over the course of the two months. He indicated there is one 8-hour training day built into that schedule that we can utilize his a flex day, so if we need to add officers into the schedule that day we can, or we can use it as a training day. He indicated this should increase our training hours from 36 to 48 hours per year for basic in-service training. 7. COMMISSION ACTION 7.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of June 17, 2020 were accepted as distributed with no further discussion. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Highlights report and noted the Victim Services Unit is still operational at this time due to the Covid situation. No further discussion. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit statistics report. He indicated the majority of the time they were in patrol, but they are now back in the Investigative Unit as of now. He advised we are back to doing sex offender registrations in person; however, detectives are verifying their information over the phone and meeting with them outside in an open area in order to do the in-person verification. They are not allowed in the building as of yet. 8.C. Budget Reports Chairman Whittum indicated the budget looks excellent and there was no further discussion. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Statistics  Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Statistics report. Chairman Whittum inquired if the accidents on Court Street were vehicles coming out of Fair Street. Chief Canfield advised that would be his guess, as it's a tough intersection, especially turning left. He indicated he has worked with the City traffic liaison for the City Council and there was talk about clearing lines of site and some shrubs have been cleared out. He indicated there has been discussion about installing a traffic light, but no decision has been made as of yet. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report Chief Canfield advised last year's cars are on-line. He indicated if our budget gets approved, we hopefully will get the new cars sooner than last year and have them on-line by fall. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield indicated we received a nice thank you from the high school for our assistance with graduation exercises, as well as a nice thank you letter from someone just reaching out to thank us for all we do with everything that is going on nationally with policing. He also advised we received a thank you for a house check and another from someone thanking us for what we do. Additionally, he indicated another one was received from the Superintendent of Schools for helping with graduation. He also advised we have received a lot of nice support over the past couple of months given what is going on nationally and we are keeping a list, which he will get to the Commission soon. Just a number of drop offs of letters and food and it's nice we live in that type of community and we have that type of relationship with them. Chairman Whittum noted is is very much deserved. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield reviewed the Overdose Statistics report. He indicated they are trending about the same; however, overdose deaths are down, noting there have been two this year compared to nine last year. He gave an update on the Governor's School Safety Task Force. He stated we had our three day re-accreditation assessment at the beginning of July, noting it went very well. He advised they had no concerns or issues and they will do their report and submit it to the Commission on Accreditation and recommend re-accreditation. He indicated we should receive that report preliminary sometime next month and we will be up for re-accreditation in the fall. Chief Canfield also advised that the Elks Club, which Commissioner Mello is part of, will be presenting Eric Adams with an award for his work on August 22nd at 5:30 pm at the Elks. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 14. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular of Special Meeting date of August 19, 2020 was confirmed. 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To RSA 91-A:3) 17. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting was adjourned at 3:20 pm.