Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING DECEMBER 21, 2022 Meeting took place at 3:00 p.m. in the Armand A. Bolduc City Council Chamber, Laconia City Hall, 45 Beacon Street East, Laconia, New Hampshire 12/21/2022 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Mello called the meeting to Order at the above date and time. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Commissioner Mello lead the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Executive Assistant Lori Marsh. 4. ROLL CALL 4.A. Commissioner Mello recognized Commissioners present - Commissioner Frank Mello and Commissioner Scott Davis. 4.B. Commissioner Mello recognized Staff present - Chief Matthew Canfield. 4.C. Commissioner Mello recognized a quorum has been established and there are two 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  No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield advised the following: They have been working hard on managing a number of different grants, as well as applying for new grants and new programs that we hope to have funding for the Spring. The Command Post is now up and running. We continue to work on the security fence around the perimeter of the at the police station, which is in the final stages and hope to have completed next week. Commissioner Davis inquired who the contractor is for the fence and Chief Canfield advised it is Premier Fence Company out of Massachusetts and they were the only company that bid on the job. Commissioner Mello inquired about the gate automatically sliding with the push of a button and Chief Canfield responded that it will activate with an RFID tag that can be put in the windshield of vehicles. He advised there will also be a switch in dispatch that they can use to activate the gate and there is a wire imbedded in the pavement on the inside of the fence in front of the gate that will trigger the gate when a vehicle rolls over it. 6.A.i. Orders and Bulletins No discussion. 6.B. Chief - Operations Division No discussion. 6.B.i. Hirings Chief Canfield advised we will have at least one candidate to be presented at the next Commission Meeting to be sworn in. She will be starting on January 3rd and is a returning officer who left a couple of years ago and has decided she would like to return. This is really good news and enlightening to hear that what she has seen in other police departments has caused her to miss working for the Laconia Police Department and speaks of how great our department is. She is already certified and will be up and running quickly. He indicated we are also working on two other background investigations that will hopefully be complete shortly, which will bring us up to full staff. Commissioner Mello inquired if the officer starting on January 3rd is the same one who worked for the Attorney General's Office and Chief Canfield confirmed she is. Chief Canfield indicated she left us on good terms and for a better schedule and has decided to return. 7. COMMISSION ACTION 7.A. Acceptance of minutes from previous meeting On a Motion by Commissioner Davis and seconded by Commissioner Mello, the meeting minutes of October 27, 2022 were accepted as distributed. 7.B. Out-of-State School(s) Chief Canfield reviewed two school requests:  minutes of October 27, 2022 were accepted as distributed. 7.B. Out-of-State School(s) Chief Canfield reviewed two school requests: 1) American Association of Polygraphers Annual Conference - Lieutenant Kevin Butler and Detective Daniel Carsen. Chief Canfield advised this will be held in Kansas City, Missouri from May 22, 2023 to May 26, 2023. Tuition, meals, room and travel will cost approximately $3,489.20. As a requirement of becoming a polygrapher, they have to attend annual training every other year and this is one of those requirements to maintain that certification. 2) Force Science Certification Course - Detective Peter Horan. the above school, as well as another training request. Chief Canfield advised this will be held in Fairfax, Virginia from March 20, 2023 to March 24, 2023. Tuition, meals and room will cost approximately $2,684.50. Force Science is the latest in use of force instruction, where they go into more depth with science, as far as the causes of use of force, to reduce use of force and learn ways to better instruct use of force. Tony Horan is our lead firearms instructor and has been to the basis Force Science certification course, but this is actually a certification to further that education and bring it back to the department. On a Motion by Commissioner Davis, seconded by Commissioner Mello, the above two school requests were approved. 7.C. Notice of Holidays - 2023 Chief Canfield reviewed the 2023 Notice of Holidays and requested approval by the Commission. On a Motion by Commissioner Davis, and seconded by Commissioner Mello, the 2023 Notice of Holidays was approved. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Activity Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Activity Highlights. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report, noting the number of training hours is mostly attributed to Fall firearms training. 8.C. Budget Reports No discussion. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Report. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report  8.D. Monthly Traffic Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Report. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report No discussion. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO/FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield advised we received the following: A letter from the Chief of the Bristol Police Department recognizing Sergeant Cameron for his participation in their promotional process. A nice letter from Judy Lundh, one of our volunteers, stating her appreciation for the Awards Ceremony and including some nice pictures from the night. A nice picture of some of our officers and employees who served Thanksgiving lunch at the Woodland Heights Elementary School. A nice picture of Officer DeNutte and Officer Mercurio, who decorated the Relief Association Christmas tree in Rotary Park. A thank you from Community Strategies Unlimited for hosting one of their training sessions. A thank you for Detective Howe for his assistance with a car seat installation. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield advised the following: Dr. Spead once again reached out to express his appreciation to the department and offered to bring by some food for employees working the Christmas holiday, which is once again very much appreciated. Some of our dispatchers in our Communications Center came up with the idea of "Spirit Week" for the week prior to the Christmas holiday. This is a fun and creative way to celebrate the holiday. Each day has a theme and in return the employee was allowed to wear jeans to work. It was nice to see the creativity and see the team building working up to the holiday. Our CALEA Law Enforcement Accreditation annual review is now complete and we reviewed a total of 213 standards, all of which were in compliance. This was a tremendous amount of work by our Accreditation Manager Robin Moyer and she did great work! The department is once again participating in the Special Olympics Winni Dip Fundraiser, as we have every year. Employees who raise $100.00 have the option of growing a beard for the month prior to the Winni Dip. We have purchased the Imprivata computer program that offers multi factor authentication and single sign-on and it is in the process of being installed. We are continuing to get the Spidr Tech program installed, which will lead to better "customer satisfaction". The employee satisfaction survey has been delayed slightly due to the lack of information, but hopefully be released at the beginning of January. Fall firearms has just been completed, as well as taser re-certification and CPR/first aid training.  program installed, which will lead to better "customer satisfaction". The employee satisfaction survey has been delayed slightly due to the lack of information, but hopefully be released at the beginning of January. Fall firearms has just been completed, as well as taser re-certification and CPR/first aid training. We held our annual Christmas luncheon at the police department today, which was well attended. Notification was received yesterday from Senator Shaheen's office that we have been approved for a grant in the amount of $200,000.00, which will be signed by the President prior to Christmas. This will provide for the technology wall in dispatch that has been spoken of previously. This will consist of a big screen, as well as another screen upstairs in the command room and another in the command post. This will allow us to pull video from multiple sources, such as school cameras, into the screens at the police department in the event of an emergency, and allow us to pull it up within seconds and locate an active shooter within the schools as we respond to an incident. The formal grant acceptance will be after the 1st of the year and we are very happy to receive that grant. He also spoke with Congressman Chris Pappas' office yesterday and they are also in the process of finalizing a grant in the amount of $96,000.00, which will be used for our evidence storage building. This is on the President's desk now and awaiting his signature, which is also anticipated before Christmas. Funding should be seen with the process started at the beginning of January for the formal acceptance. This was part of our CIP requests, but certainly this amount of money toward the total cost is a big chunk being saved by the City. This building will be a heated storage building that will allow us to store evidence inside and keep items out of the elements. A lot of times evidence may sit for a year or two prior to going to trial and when it actually does go to trial is may sometimes be rusty and corroded and DNA evidence has dissipated. We do have somewhat of a duty to protect someone's property if we're going to keep it, so this will allow us to store it inside to protect it a little better. It will also allow for storage of some of our more expensive equipment, such as the command post, sign boards and motorcycles, which we don't typically use throughout the winter. He also reviewed the Drug Overdose Statistics with no discussion. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 14. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizen attendance. 15. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular meeting date of January 18, 2022 was confirmed.  No citizen attendance. 15. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular meeting date of January 18, 2022 was confirmed. 16. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Davis, seconded by Commissioner Mello, the meeting was adjourned at 3:19 pm.