Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES JULY 28, 2021 3:00 P.M. 7/28/2021 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Whittum called the meeting to order on the above date at 3:02 pm. 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 Chief Canfield advised we have a tentative date of October 20th for our Annual Awards Ceremony; however, that date is not locked in and he will notify the Commission when it is confirmed. 5.B. Resignations/Retirement Chief Canfield advised we received a resignation from Officer Nate Hoffman, who was with us for a couple of years as a Patrol Officer. He indicated he resigned to take a position in the private sector in sales, having decided that a career in law enforcement is not for him. He will be missed and we wish him the best. 5.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion.  not for him. He will be missed and we wish him the best. 5.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield advised the following: They have been working very hard on a number of different grants. The recent grant they submitted was for a Justice Assistance Grant in the area of approximately $13,000.00, which was awarded to us based on our crime stats. This grant will be used for equipment. In addition, they have applied for a School Safety Grant. This was done in collaboration with the School District to provide some camera and security upgrades to some of the schools and fund what is called a "video wall", so we can monitor video through our dispatch center. We would not monitor the school cameras on a regular basis, but if something were to happen, this would allow us easy access and we would be able to pull those into either a command post location or into our dispatch center. That grant would also provide for some further active shooter training and safety threat assessments with all of our schools. We're hopeful that we are awarded that grant. The City Budget was approved this past Monday night, so we started our new budget cycle. They have been working on a new grant application for Granite Shield. Granite Shield is an initiative started several years ago to combat the drug problems across the State and is provided through the Governor's office. We applied for that as of today in the amount of $87,000.00, which will go to direct enforcement and investigation of drug activity within the City. We certainly do a lot with limited money. If we are gifted that grant, it will amount to close to a million dollars this year. This money does not come out of our budget or City funds and is Federal money. Commissioner Davis inquired who does the grant writing for the department and Chief Canfield responded that Lieutenant Gary Hubbard does the majority of it, along with McKenzie Harrington-Bacote from the school district, who works part time for us. 6.A.i. Orders & Bulletins 6.B. Chief - Operations Division Chief Canfield advised the following: It has been a very busy summer and they have been working to transition to the new patrol schedule from the antiquated Excel format. This move is into a more modern scheduling program called In-Time Software. This has required a substantial amount of training and transition time, but they are expected to go live with that scheduling September 5th. This will allow officers to view their schedules on an app on their phone, as well as submit leave requests electronically instead of coming into the police department and having to view the Excel spreadsheet. They have been working hard for planning for the Triathlon event taking place on August 22nd. This will have some major impacts on traffic and road closures. They expect that  September 5th. This will allow officers to view their schedules on an app on their phone, as well as submit leave requests electronically instead of coming into the police department and having to view the Excel spreadsheet. They have been working hard for planning for the Triathlon event taking place on August 22nd. This will have some major impacts on traffic and road closures. They expect that to be a busy day with a lot of officers working. Lastly, they have been working on the Fall schedule, which has been posted and bid out. 6.B.i. Hirings No discussion. 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 16, 2021 were accepted. 7.B. Out-of-State School(s) Chief Canfield advised a request was received from Officer Shaheen to attend the Reid Technique of Investigative Interviewing and Advanced Interrogation Techniques school in Boston, MA. This will be held from August 24th through August 27th and the cost for this school is $820.00. This is a nationally recognized interview and interrogation school that a lot of our officers have gone through and it leads up to being a better investigator. Officer Shaheen has family in the Boston area that he can stay with, so there will be no cost for housing or meals. The cost is directly for the attendance at the school. On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the above listed school request was approved. Chief Canfield advised another request for an Out-of-State school was received. He advised it was one of our goals and objectives for this year, but with COVID things were backlogged. He advised that is in the area of our Detective Unit. He indicated we are trying to get them a lot more specialized training, as everything they deal with now is either cyber crime, computer related crime, or cell phone crime. One of the goals identified with staff was their ability to investigate serious crimes, such as serious assaults, robberies, stabbings or homicides. He advised Lieutenant Butler has been working closely with the Attorney General's Office, looking into what type of training they need to become certified to conduct better investigations. We have always worked very well with the State Police Major Crime Unit in cases of homicides. A typical homicide investigation runs the same course as a serious assault or felony level investigation. They are looking to increase their ability to investigate those types of crimes, which would entail specific schools they would need to attend. The first one would be Death and Untimely Death Investigation school, and then the advanced school in order to be essentially blessed by the Attorney General's Office to take the lead on those types of cases. He indicated this would enhance our ability to work with Major Crimes and conduct the homicide cases, but it would also increase our ability to investigate our major case investigations. He advised the memo was unfortunately not distributed soon enough, as it was just received yesterday, but it outlines the plan to get our Detective Unit to that level. There is a school in December and, if we were able to get them enrolled, we would have to get them registered soon, as it fills up very fast. That request would be to send seven Detectives to Las Vegas, Nevada from December 6th through the 10th to attend the Basic Death and Homicide Investigation school. According to the Attorney General's Office, they acknowledge the training and abilities that they already have. The next step is to obtain  He advised the memo was unfortunately not distributed soon enough, as it was just received yesterday, but it outlines the plan to get our Detective Unit to that level. There is a school in December and, if we were able to get them enrolled, we would have to get them registered soon, as it fills up very fast. That request would be to send seven Detectives to Las Vegas, Nevada from December 6th through the 10th to attend the Basic Death and Homicide Investigation school. According to the Attorney General's Office, they acknowledge the training and abilities that they already have. The next step is to obtain that certification. The total cost of sending them would be $12,160.00, which we would offset $4,026.00 of that from the Justice Assistance Grant. We would take the remaining approximately $8,000.00 out of our training budget. He advised it is certainly a significant amount of money, but this is an effort that establishes real expertise in our Detective Unit. Between the FARO laser scanning that they have done, the accident reconstruction and crime scene, abilities to do that in the DRONE footage, and digital photography, this is the next step to get them that expertise to investigate these crimes to a further extent. Chief Canfield advised there will be much more information forthcoming on that certification for the Detective Unit at another time by way of a presentation to the Commission. The immediate need is to hear this request and consider that for approval. On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the above outlined school request was approved. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Highlights report. He advised we have been putting a big emphasis on traffic enforcement in an effort to curb some of the complaints of distracted driving, erratic driving and speeding complaints. He also indicated that of the 65 accidents, 30 of which involved injury, at least half can be attributed to the Motorcycle Week time frame. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit statistics. He indicated that the number of search warrants is reflective of the type of police work as far as investigations of phones or computers, which require search warrants. He advised to do thirty search warrants in a month time frame is a lot. He also advised that of the 29 patrol shifts covered, most can be attributed to Motorcycle Week. Finally, in reference to the polygraph exams, he indicated Detective Dan Carsen has returned from polygraph school and is operating under the tutelage of Lieutenant Butler in order to get his required number of polygraph examinations before he is actually certified to conduct them on his own. He recognized this is a great mentorship we have going on and this will be a plus for our detective abilities. 8.C. Budget Reports Chief Canfield advised our budget year was fine as of the end of the fiscal year and we have started a new budget as of July 1st. Chairman Whittum inquired how much money was turned back to the City. Chief Canfield advised we were close to breaking even with some purchases that were made at the end of the fiscal year of radios for our command post. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Statistics  Chairman Whittum inquired how much money was turned back to the City. Chief Canfield advised we were close to breaking even with some purchases that were made at the end of the fiscal year of radios for our command post. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Statistics Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Statistics report. No further discussion. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report Chief Canfield advised with the start of the new budget we had been approved for three new patrol vehicles. He indicated these were ordered on a tentative basis last March and we just received word that they are about four and a half months out. Chairman Whittum noted the new Explorers appear to be quite a bit cheaper than the previous ones in reviewing the Fleet Maintenance Report. Chief Canfield advised they do fluctuate in price, depending on who is awarded the State bid. He advised they also changed the models, so that might have attributed to it as well. Commissioner Davis inquired if this is a State bid or if it is just local. Chief Canfield advised it is a State bid and he believes this year it was awarded to Portsmouth or Londonderry Ford. He indicated we went to Irwin Motors and asked if they could match the State bid price and they were able to do this. He noted it is nice to give business back to a local business in Laconia rather than purchase from out of the City. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO AND FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield advised we received a nice letter from the Director of New Hampshire Police Standards and Training thanking Master Patrol Officer Tyler Babineau and Patrol Officer Tyler Rouse for their assistance with their defensive tactics program; another nice letter was received from someone he had met during Motorcycle Week; another was received from a resident on Arch Street thanking us for our assistance during a tough situation; another one for a house check; and lastly, one from a family we assisted. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield advised the following: We will not be hosting National Night Out this year due to logistics and scheduling and the way Spring and Summer has fallen; however, we will resuming the Citizens Police Academy in September. He indicated Officer Eric Adams will be heading that up and will be looking for people to attend. We have a Staff meeting and training coming up at the end of this month. This will involve a training with Primex, in which we will be doing Behavioral Analysis Assessments for all of our Staff and supervisors in an effort to learn better ways of communicating with each other and learn the communication styles of other supervisors. He indicated he has had a number of conversations with Rick Alpers from Primex, who has been very helpful. We hope this will be a benefit for our leadership team. We continue to work on policy review. A couple of years ago we had contracted with the Daigle Law Office Group to do legal review of a certain number of policies every year. Even though we are CALEA accredited, all of our policies meet national CALEA accreditation standards. We thought it was important to put all of our policies and procedures before a legal review, which to his knowledge has never been done. We have made some good improvements through this and we will be looking to issue out a few more of those reviews sometime in the Fall.  We continue to work on policy review. A couple of years ago we had contracted with the Daigle Law Office Group to do legal review of a certain number of policies every year. Even though we are CALEA accredited, all of our policies meet national CALEA accreditation standards. We thought it was important to put all of our policies and procedures before a legal review, which to his knowledge has never been done. We have made some good improvements through this and we will be looking to issue out a few more of those reviews sometime in the Fall. The COP cards were submitted a while ago and we are looking forward to receiving those and using them as a way to connect with the youth in the community. He met with Alan Beetle, the owner of Patrick's Pub, who does a lot with the Children's Auction. Although Alan has stepped away from some of that, he is still doing the "Community Challenge", which consists of different organizations and businesses coming up with teams to raise $2,500.00 to benefit the Children's Auction. He advised we will be creating a team within the Police Department to work together to raise that money. On October 6th the New Hampshire Chief's Association will be doing a fund raiser that they do every year, with the exception of last year due to COVID. He indicated they work with McDonald's to promote and better law enforcement across the State. This will be done in nearly every community that has a McDonald's and it will be held on October 6th from 4-7 pm. He indicated they also recognize Police Officers in the community for excellence in community policing, so he will be submitting the names of a few of our employees for that award, which hopefully they will receive. Lastly, Chief Canfield reviewed the Drug Overdose Statistics. Chairman Whittum inquired how long it takes to determine if a death is a result of an overdose. Chief Canfield advised a lot are recognized pretty quickly, but as far as actual confirmation it can take a while to receive the toxicology report, sometimes taking months. Chief Canfield advised the current report lists one overdose death; however, we have at least two that have been confirmed. Most likely that number will go up once we receive the results back. He noted they are actively working on one that occurred recently, of which we hope to make some charges for providing the drugs that led to the death. He noted they can be lengthy and difficult cases to prove, but between the work that Detectives are doing on that, in combination with what Eric Adams is doing, we are making a difference. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion . 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion 13. OTHER BUSINESS Commission Davis inquired about the current staffing levels now that Officer Hoffman has resigned and Chief Canfield responded that we currently hold two vacancies. He indicated he spoke with the two Captains today regarding how we are going to proceed. Great Bay typically does a test every quarter and so far they haven't done anything since COVID. He is not sure how long we will wait for them to open back up before we look to do something ourselves so that we can get the ball rolling on filling those vacancies as soon as possible. 14. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizens in attendance. 15. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE 14. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizens in attendance. 15. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE A Special Meeting was scheduled for August 4, 2021 at 10:30 am at the Laconia Police Department. The next Regular Meeting date of August 18, 2021 at 3:00 pm was confirmed. 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To RSA 91-A:3,II) No Non-Public Session held on this date. 17. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Davis, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously, the meeting was adjourned at 3:35 p.m.