Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES OCTOBER 14, 2020 3:00 PM 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 Whittum, Commissioner Mello and Commissioner 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. CALEA Presentation By M.I.S. Robin Moyer Chief Canfield recognized M.I.S. Robin Moyer to do a brief overview of the CALEA accreditation process. He indicated the assessment took place in July and Robin will do a brief presentation on how we are working toward our assessment review by CALEA in November. Robin Moyer advised there are 484 total standards in Advanced Accreditation. Of those, she indicated we comply with 371 of those. She indicated 102 are not applicable by function and 11 are in a category that you can put non- mandatory standards into, just choosing not to do them if they are not mandatory. She advised that prior to the on- site assessment, each year we have a Compliance Service Review by a Compliance Service Member (CSM). She indicated they are able to log into our PowerDMS system where our standards are kept and they are able to remotely review a particular number of standards that they choose. She indicated they notify her a few weeks prior which standards they are going to review and then they log in and review them. Robin advised in the first year they reviewed 79 standards, the second year 177 standards, and the third year they reviewed 91 standards. She indicated in the fourth and final year, they reviewed 253 standards. She advised he wasn't supposed to do that many; however, he said that because our assessment looked so good, he just kept just signing off on things as he found them. She advised we actually did really well on our assessment and he stated it was an extremely good assessment that we did. Robin indicated that prior to the actual site based review, which was from July 6th through the 8th, all completed via Zoom meetings and telephone interviews, we met with the Team Leader, Rob Guise, and she, Chief Canfield and Captain Graton sat with him and decided what areas we would be reviewing. She advised they were basically areas of focus and, once those areas of focus were chosen, we selected people to do presentations or give background on those areas of focus. She advised the areas were community engagement, training, body worn and in-car cameras, property and evidence, labor/management relations, communications center, specialized units and assignments, and recruitment selection. She stated they conducted 29 interviews with the agency members, as well as members outside in the community. Of those areas of focus, she stated they didn't find any issues and, in their Executive Summary, they summed up all of their interviews with each of those people and didn't find any issues. Robin advised it is her belief that our review with the CALEA Commission will go quite smoothly in November. She indicated that will be an interview conducted via Zoom by a three-board panel, who will ask Chief Canfield questions about our on-site and about our agency. Chief Canfield advised you never know how important National Accreditation is, noting we have been doing this for approximately 10-12 years now. He indicated you go back to five years ago when we had the large President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, or the recent events that have taken place across the country over the past six months or so, and now you look at our State and the Governor's Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability and Community Task Force that he put together to look at New Hampshire law enforcement, National Accreditation hits so many of these key things that other agencies are not doing across the country or in our own State. He  indicated he believes there are 13 accredited agencies in New Hampshire that are Nationally Accredited out of all of the agencies in New Hampshire, which is not a lot. Chief Canfield advised the accreditation process that Robin run seamlessly and she doesn't speak of how much work it really is, is an incredible amount of work on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis, as it's an an on-going, living beast really. He noted that with the on-site that they do, they typically come out here and spend three full days going through the agency, which was done a little bit differently this year through Zoom, but it certainly was a examination that was very thorough. He advised 29 in-depth interviews of our employees alone speaks a lot and the assessors came out of that thinking we had no issues. He indicated it is a tremendous burden that Robin bears all the time and it is sometimes taken for granite, because it just gets done by her. When you look behind the scenes and look at how much work it is to meet the accreditation standards with proofs and then go through with the on-site and the November review with the CALEA Commission, it's pretty incredible. He stated to have an Accreditation Manager such as Robin Moyer, who does all of this without a hiccup, is truly amazing. Chief Canfield presented an Award to Robin on behalf of the department in appreciation for her Outstanding Performance and Dedication to our Law Enforcement Accreditation Process for the 2020 Re-Accreditation Assessment. Robin noted that in reading the Governor's Executive Order, it sets us up nicely to answer all of those questions and makes the Chief's job a lot easier. Chief Canfield agreed. Robin advised the Accreditation Review would be good to send to the Governor, because it points out directly that we are a Community Policing Organization and always have been to our core, and that was one of the big items on the Executive Order. Commissioner Davis inquired if the standards are the same for all agencies. Robin indicated we do Advanced Accreditation and some agencies can opt to do what is called Tier 1 Accreditation, which is less at 181 standards to be met; however, they are the same standards and you have to prove them in the same way. She advised a lot of the mandatory standards are the same, whether or not you are Advanced Accreditation or Tier 1. Commissioner Davis also agreed that it meets the Governor's Order. Robin noted that even the Tier 1 will be able to meet those requirements in the Executive Order. She indicated in some cases some of the standards are easier for a larger department to meet than a smaller department, just by the means of having more opportunity for proofs. She stated she knows the Strafford County Sheriff's Department was accredited for Law Enforcement and it was a challenge in meeting some of those standards, because their functions are different from a law enforcement function. She noted they are law enforcement, but a lot of the things that they do are different from the day to day patrol function. She indicated their standards were a little harder to meet and they had to show how they do things more so than proving it on paper. She stated it definitely can be done small or large. Chairman Whittum inquired if this remote process was more difficult than previous assessments. Robin advised the challenge was the organization of it. She stated luckily Finance Director Glennn Smith had his Zoom account and we had our department's Zoom account, and between the two we were able to schedule all of the interviews. She stated the true challenge was coming up with the schedule, making sure everyone was there on time when they were supposed to be and making sure it went off without a hitch, sometimes running two meetings at the same time. She stated that because we had the City Hall account and our account, both Team Leaders were able to run their assessments at the same time. She stated in some ways it's easier and she indicated she has spoken with other assessors and they kind of miss the ability to be hands on and get a real good look at the department and just sort of grab people as they walk by and interview them, but at the same time it keeps it right on the money and you're able to actually talk with more people because of running such a tight schedule. She indicated it has it's pluses and minuses that she has heard from an assessors standpoint. 6. PERSONNEL MATTERS 6.A. Commendations & Awards (Refer to above Accreditation Presentation). 6.B. Resignations/Retirement No discussion. 6.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 7. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS  7.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield advised Captain Graton has been working on our CIP presentation, which will take place tomorrow night at 6:30 pm at City Hall. He indicated we will be asking for three new cruisers, replacement of several portable radios, as well as a police technology request. 7.A.i. Orders & Bulletins 7.B. Chief - Operations Division Chief Canfield advised we just completed a testing process to fill one position, which was conducted last weekend at Laconia Middle School. He indicated the Middle School was very helpful in opening up the school and allowing us to use it, which worked out to be a very good site to conduct the written test and then the physical fitness test right afterwards. He indicated the candidates were able to shower there and then completed oral interviews. He advised we typically participate in the Great Bay testing process, which is a regional testing effort; however, that has been sidelined due to COVID. Therefore, we ran our own testing process with about twenty applicants, and the top two candidates were referred for Chief interviews to take place on Friday. He advised both candidates were highly spoken of throughout the process and it looks good to fill the one position we have. He also indicated we are working through a new scheduling software that will assist with scheduling and leave requests. 7.B.i. Hirings 8. COMMISSION ACTION 8.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of September 16, 2020 were accepted as distributed with no further discussion. 9. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 9.A. Department Monthly Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Activity Highlights report. No further discussion. 9.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics report. He indicated Detectives have been taking more cases as of late and have been working some very significant cases that hopefully will be brought to conclusion very shortly. Commissioner Mello inquired about the sex offender registrations being down. Chief Canfield advised the numbers will vary due to the time of month or by registrants moving in and out of Laconia. 9.C. Budget Reports Chief Canfield advised the budget is right on track, still being at the beginning of the budget year, but it's looking good. 9.D. Monthly Traffic Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Statistics report. Chairman Whittum noted Union Avenue and Court Street are always consistently at the top and Chief Canfield advised they are just have very high traffic volume with congested areas. 9.E. Monthly Fleet Report Chief Canfield advised two of the new cars are in and the third is expected shortly. He indicated we are looking to get those on the road within the next month or two. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT  Chief Canfield reviewed the Drug Overdose report. No further discussion. He advised he participated in a conference call with the New Hampshire Chief's of Police Association, along with the new Director of the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council, John Scippa. He advised there was discussion of the Governor's Law Enforcement Accountability Act and those 48 recommendations, as well as changes to the academy. He advised currently the Academy is running a day academy and there is no overnight academy like in years past. He indicated they anticipate this will continue. He indicated it costs over a million dollars to house and feed them every two years, He indicated that as part of the reduction in their budget, they cut out the overnight lodging and meals. He advised he does not think that will change and, in speaking with Director Scippa, he is in favor of continuing it as a day academy, but maybe extending the academy from 4 months to 6 months. He stated that is something that remains to be seen. He indicated the curriculum is being updated, which we'll see probably with the January academy, to reflect some of the changes with the Governor's Task Force. He advised we have integrated the Dragon Law Enforcement dictation software. He indicated officers underwent training last month and they are using to dictate their reports directly into the records management program, which will hopefully speed up the turnaround time for reports and keep officers on the road a lot more than being in patrol room. He advised the police department security is once again a problem, advising we had four vehicles that were parked in the back parking lot near the impound lot having their tires slashed. He advised one vehicle belonged to a dispatcher and the other three were police vehicles. He advised over the years we have had many issues with vandalism in the back parking lot of the police station, so we are working to secure some type of fence on the back side and left side somehow. He indicated we have been working with Public Works on that. He advised the dispatch center participated in a joint exercise, along with the Gilford Police Department and Lakes Region Fire Dispatch. He advised was almost a full day exercise testing their ability to adapt and adjust should certain systems go down, whether it be phone lines or radios, and how we can switch to another agency or Lakes Region Fire Dispatch in the event something fails and the inter-operability of it. He advised he participated in an FBI conference call with the Director of the FBI on October 13th in regards to election security regarding some of the changes coming about. He indicated he will be doing the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference this year, which will run October 21st through the 23rd, which will be meeting virtually. As part of that, he indicated he will be participating in the sub-committee meeting on the Terrorism Committee, which he was appointed to two years ago. He indicated his term expires this November; however, he has been nominated to be re-appointed to that position. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 14. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular or Special Meeting date of November 18, 2020 was confirmed. 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS Chairman Whittum recognized City Councilor Cheney. Councilor Cheney advised the City Manager mentioned last night the Police Department's motor vehicle effort and Councilor Cheney wished to tell Chief Canfield and the Police Commission how pleased the City Council was to see the increased police activity and particularly the fact that the public isn't swamped with summonses, but rather more visibility. He indicated he and Chief Canfield have talked about this several times and he thinks it is good for the department and good for the City, and he wishes to compliment Chief Canfield and the men and women of the Police Department for the effort put in and they are looking forward to more. He advised the department has made a tremendous effort and it's appreciated and, speaking for the Council, they are very pleased. 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To RSA 91-A:3,II)  RSA 91-A:3,II(a): The dismissal, promotion or compensation of any public employee, or the disciplining of such employee, or the investigation of any charges against him/her, unless the employee affected (1) has the right to a meeting, and (2) requests that the meeting be open, in which case the request shall be granted. One a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, in accordance with RSA 91-A:3,II(a), the Laconia Police Commissioner entered into non-public Session at 3:29 p.m, for the purpose of dismissal, promotion or compensation of a public employee. Roll Call Vote to enter Non-Public Session: Chairman Douglas Whittum Yes Commissioner Frank Mello Yes Commissioner Scott Davis Yes At 3:44 p.m., the Non-Public Session ended on a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, with a unanimous vote. Public Session reconvened at 3:44 pm. Chairman Whittum inquired if there was a Motion to Seal the Minutes. A Motion was made by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, because it was determined that the divulgence of this information would likely render a proposed action ineffective. Roll Call Vote to Seal the Minutes: Chairman Douglas Whittum Yes Commissioner Frank Mello Yes Commissioner Scott Davis Yes Motion passed. 17. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting was adjourned at 3:46 pm.