Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES MARCH 17, 2021 3:00 P.M. 3/17/2021 - 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 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. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield advised they have been working on completing the FirstNet switch over. This is a program that runs independently as a separate cellular network and started in 2001 after 9-11 when First Responder communications didn't work due to the cell phone sites crashing caused by overload. He indicated the New Hampshire statewide contract was awarded to AT&T. He stated we switched over our staff phones, as well as all of the computers in the cars. In the event of a big emergency or during times of Motorcycle Week when there is an increase in cell usage, this would allow our devices not to be throttled or slowed down. He also indicated the following: All of the new cars are on line from last year's Capital Improvement budget. Officers are completing this month's training, being Officer Down Rescue Training and Less Lethal qualifications. One good thing from COVID is that there has been a lot more training available on-line through Zoom sessions or other similar platforms. We have managed to push out a lot of training to our officers through this medium. Some of the on-line training that officers have completed includes Bias Based Policing, De-Escalation and Duty to Intervene. This is something we decided to institute before the finding of the Law Enforcement  Accountability Task Force that was developed by the Governor and recommendations were put in place. We are ahead of the curve on that and all of our officers have received that training. 6.A.i. Orders & Bulletins Chief Canfield advised there is a training school for The Reid Technique of Investigative Interviewing and Advanced Interrogation Techniques for Detective Howe, Detective Benoit and Officer Goodheart in Tilton at the end of this month, as well as a class for Surviving Stress for Dispatch Brunelle, also being held in Tilton, and a class a class attended on-line by Detective Neri for Drug Unit Supervisor. 6.A.ii. Out-of-State School Chief Canfield advised we currently have one polygraph operator, being Lieutenant Kevin Butler. This school is a very intensive school, probably one of the more intense school in the police realm. This would certify Detective Daniel Carsen and would allow him to come back and complete the minimum requirement of thirty polygraph examinations underneath the tutelage of Lt. Butler, at which time he would be able to operate independently. By sending him to this school now, it would allow him to get certified and complete those minimum polygraph examinations before Lt. Butler retires. This would be the succession plan to keep the ability to do polygraphs. We do a lot of polygraphs between criminal and backgrounds and it would be nice to have a second person certified to run them. The class is being held at the Counterdrug Training Center in Pennsylvania and the class itself is free of charge, as is housing, so the only expense would be meals. We also included in the training request the cost of flying Det. Carsen home twice during that time frame, possibly for Memorial Day and Easter weekend. He advised this is a big commitment on Det. Carsen's part to leave his family for that long. Chairman Whittum inquired if Det. Carsen requested this training or was he requested to attend. Chief Canfield advised Det. Carsen expressed the most interest in attending the class and it is a very competitive school to get into, as the wait list is backlogged. We were able to get him into the class due to our succession plan. Commissioner Davis inquired who actually runs the class and Chief Canfield advised it is run by the National Counterdrug Training Center located in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. Commissioner Mello inquired if that is a military base and Chief Canfield advised it is through the Army National Guard, who offer a lot of counterdrug training classes. He advised they also participate in a lot of counterdrug type of things, such as fly-overs. 6.A.iii. 2020 Attrition Summary Chief Canfield reviewed the 2020 Attrition Summary, indicating one sworn officer left for Stratham Police Department to be closer to where his fiance works in Massachusetts and one civilian moved to Texas. 6.A.iv. 2020 IPC Summary Chief Canfield advised an IPC is a personnel complaint. The majority of personnel complaints we receive are self policing reported by supervisors. However, if anyone from the public complains about an officer, an IPC would be generated. Chief Canfield reviewed the 2020 IPC Summary. 6.A.v. 2020 Use of Force Summary Chief Canfield reviewed the 2020 Use of Force Summary. He advised it speaks volumes to the training officers receive and the on-going training we do, indicating the majority of our Use of Force is very low in comparison to the total number of physical custody arrests we make. If most of the hands on are broken down, the open hands on could be anything from someone pulls away and they just grab their hands and handcuff them, which would be the majority of that 105 count, versus a closed hand, which would be some type of strike or something like that. Chairman Whittum indicated this speaks highly to their common sense also and Chief Canfield agreed, stating you perform the way you are trained. The better trained you are and the more confident you are in your abilities and skills, you are less likely to jump to use of force and more likely to try talking to the person to attempt to de-escalate the situation. He advised this definitely speaks to the quality officers we have and the training they receive. 6.B. Chief - Operations Division Chief Canfield advised the following: They have been working on the summer schedule. Over the past year since COVID began, officers were initially working 12-hour shifts. This resulted in their desire to work 12-hour shifts on a regular basis, which lead to the development of a schedule committee, which has worked over the past year to study the possibility of working 12-hour shifts on a regular basis. This committee has done a lot of work and conducted a number of surveys of personnel and they have solidified the schedule, moving forward with working the 12-  hour schedule. Overwhelmingly two thirds of the employees wanted to work that schedule in patrol and it is beneficial for their time off, as well as the time they are working is a little more efficient. Operations has been working on the summer schedule, getting that into place, as well as the final transition to the In-Time software that we have been working on since Fall. This will allow most of the schedule to be done electronically instead of using an excel spreadsheet and manually adjusting the schedule. They have also been working on the Pro-QA software for dispatch. This will standardize the way dispatchers take emergency calls. This will prompt the dispatcher with certain questions depending on the nature of the call and this information will be pushed out to the mobile data terminals in the cars as the dispatcher is taking the information. This would replace the way we do it now, which is to think of the questions themselves first, obtain all of the information, and then they dispatch the call. This will speed up the process and get more thorough information right from the start. We are looking for a late Spring roll-out for this. Commissioner Davis inquired about the former State School property and if the 911 center will be impacted by the sale of the property. Chief Canfield advised he is not familiar with what would happen. 6.B.i. Hirings Chief Canfield advised we have one person to be presented as a candidate at the next meeting to fill one of our two positions, stating the background is complete and we are looking at an April start date. 7. COMMISSION ACTION 7.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commission Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of February 17, 2021 were accepted as distributed with on further discussion. 7.B. Acceptance of Laconia Police Commission Attendance Report - 2020 On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the 2020 Laconia Police Commission Attendance Report was approved. 7.C. Commission Vote: Out-of-State School.NCTC Polygraph Program.Detective Daniel Carsen On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the Out- of-State school, NCTC Polygraph Program, requested by Detective Daniel Carsen, was approved. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Highlights report. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics. 8.C. Budget Reports Chief Canfield advised we are currently at 61.54% of the budget year. Based on regular salaries, we are trending just over 2% under budget and the overall budget is trending about the same. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Statistics. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report Chairman Whittum inquired about car#3 listed on page #2, where the total costs for the vehicle exceeds the purchase price of the car. Chief Canfield advised he will research this and obtain an answer. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT  Chief Canfield advised there were two nice thank you letters recognizing officers and the department. In addition, a couple of surveys were completed on-line, one of which involved our department responding to a vehicle blocking a driveway. He advised he spoke with this gentleman back, due to the very low survey score he provided, and he was very satisfied with the explanation and appreciated the call. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield advised the following: He spoke with Councilor Cheney, who had a scheduling conflict and could not attend today and he sends his apology. He reviewed the Overdose Statistics. The Cop Card Program started last year, which was sidetracked due to COVID, is back on track and we hope to have it go to printing at the beginning of May. There will be a date in April when a photograph will be at the department to take any photos that still need to be done and we would like to include a Police Commission card if the Commissioners are interested in participating. He indicated this ia a good program that we have had for many years and kids love the program and still ask for cards all the time. This is a good thing to initiate positive interaction between the officers and kids. We received a grant for $2,500.00 from Meredith Village Savings Bank to support this program. We are in the process of putting up three tv's at the police station, one at the head of the stairs as you come up the stairs, one by the top floor elevator doors and one by first floor elevator doors. He advised this will enable us to utilize a relatively inexpensive messaging software to push messages out to those three tv's for internal messaging. This will be a positive way to communicate with staff versus emails, which sometimes people delete before they even read the message. This will include positive messages, such as good work by certain shifts, birthdays, births of children, or anything positive that people will see in common areas when walking by. We are hoping to have this up and running by Police Week. Commissioner Davis inquired who will manage that platform and Chief Canfield advised Executive Assistant Marsh. National Police Week is the week of May 9th to the 15th. We typically hold our awards ceremony during that week. This has been pushed Nationally to just doing virtual events and then they have chosen a week in October when they will do the in person events. We have followed suit and will do some things to recognize the officers on shift and then hold our awards ceremony hopefully in October when we are through all of this COVID stuff. He was asked to be part of a Governor's Commission on Methamphetamine Trafficking in the State of New Hampshire. It is his understanding in speaking with the Colonel of State Police that they are looking for liaisons throughout the State to gather information on methamphetamine trafficking and then be part of this commission to study how we can better manage this throughout the State of New Hampshire, as a lot of methamphetamine is coming from south of the New Hampshire border and this is not a community by community problem and is a Statewide problem. He indicated he is not sure exactly what that will entail, but he looks forward to being a part of it and working to curb the next thing that is coming down the pike, and that is Methamphetamine. He advised it is a very dangerous drug that causes people to do crazy things and he certainly wants to be a part of keeping that from coming into our State. As he indicated in the last meeting, he is part of the Home Grown Violent Extremist sub-committee for the IACP Terrorism Committee, which is a weekly meeting in order to develop a presentation and present that at the mid-year virtual conference sometime later this summer. Commission Davis inquired if the simulator is up and running and Chief Canfield indicated it is and that we currently have five people certified to run the system. He welcomed commissioners to come in and see a demonstration. 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 April 21, 2021 was confirmed. 15. CITIZEN COMMENTS 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To RSA 91-A:3,II) 17. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting was adjourned at 3:31 pm.