Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING JANUARY 25, 2023 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 1/25/2023 - 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. Swearing in of Patrol Officer Anna Brewer-Croteau Chief Canfield advised he is pleased to announce that Officer Anna Brewer-Croteau is returning to us. Anna grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts and graduated from Burncoat High School in 2005. She went on to Bridgewater State College, where she received a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice in December of 2008. Anna moved up to New Hampshire, where she married her husband Andy in April of 2009, and together they have three boys - Caleb, Carl and Cullen. Anna joined the Laconia Police Department in September of 2013 and became a Certified Police Officer in 2014. In April of 2019, she left us to work for teh Strafford County Sheriff's Office for a short period of time, before spending a few years at the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office. She has since decided to come back to her roots and return to us. City Clerk Katie Gargano conducted the Swearing In of Officer Anna Brewer-Croteau. 5.B. Commendations & Awards No discussion.  City Clerk Katie Gargano conducted the Swearing In of Officer Anna Brewer-Croteau. 5.B. Commendations & Awards No discussion. 5.C. Resignations/Retirement No discussion. 5.D. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield reported the following: Detective Horan will be traveling to Fairfax, Virgina to attend a Force Science Certification Course. One of the big emphasis in training right now is de-escalation and use of force. Force Science is a very well known institute where they study and interpret uses of force. Tony is our lead firearms instructor and is a very capable and good instructor and this will enhance his abilities to do that. A couple of detectives will be attending the Unexplained Child Death Investigations class in our goal to move forward toward our goal of certification as a major crime unit within our detective unit. They continue to work hard on support and maintenance on a number of open grants that we have. They are working on all of our new cars, which are in and are in the process of being equipped and will be on the road within the next month or two. This month's in-service training for all sworn personnel is Use of Force and De-Escalation training. 6.A.i. Orders and Bulletins 6.B. Chief - Operations Division They are heavily into planning for the 100th Motorcycle Week. We anticipate there will be an uptick in how busy we will be. The new dispatcher is toward the end of her training program, bringing them to five full time dispatchers. They are working on a new way of pulling statistics out of our scheduling software to account for officer time, particularly in the areas of training and other commitments, so hopefully we will be able to produce some charts and graphs to be presented to the Commission. 6.B.i. Hirings No discussion.  hopefully we will be able to produce some charts and graphs to be presented to the Commission. 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 December 21, 2022 were accepted as distributed. 7.B. Out-of-State School(s) Chief Canfield advised there are two out-of-state school requests. 7.B.i. Autism Awareness for Law Enforcement - Officer Thompson Chief Canfield this school takes place in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and is a a topic that we can do better in as far as training and awareness, not only on how to interact with autistic individuals, but also response if an autistic individual went missing and how to maybe locate them and protect them before something tragic happens. Officer Thompson had a particular interest in attending this course and there is no cost for the class. Commissioner Davis inquired if Officer Thompson is a School Resource Officer and Chief Canfield advised she is not. 7.B.ii. Crash Data Retrieval System Operator and Crash Data Retrieval Analysis and Applications Course - Sergeant Carlson and Officer Cote Chief Canfield advised this school takes place in Illinois. He indicated that as part of a grant program, we were able to obtain approximately $60,000 worth of crash data computer equipment to forensically download information from vehicle computer systems that were involved in serious car crashes. The cost is covered by the grant program and will certifiy them to use that equipment. On a Motion by Commissioner Davis, seconded by Commissioner Mello, and passed unanimously, the above two schools were approved. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Activity Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Highlights and noted some new categories have been added, causing some of the statistics to be from late in the year. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report. He also noted that we were approved for Granite Shield money, specifically to go out and work in drug areas or locate drug problems, so they have been heading that up and combining with patrol to get those extra patrols done. 8.C. Budget Reports  Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report. He also noted that we were approved for Granite Shield money, specifically to go out and work in drug areas or locate drug problems, so they have been heading that up and combining with patrol to get those extra patrols done. 8.C. Budget Reports Chief Canfield advised we are on track at 46.15% for the year and are looking good. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Report. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report Chief Canfield reiterated that the new cars are in and are being equipped. Chairman Whittum inquired when they would be on the road and Chief Canfield advised within 1-2 months. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO/FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield advised we received a nice letter from a previous police officer who used to work here and had been invited to the retiree luncheon, but was unable to make it. He was appreciative of the invite and we are looking to get him to come in and tour the police department, as he has never seen it. There was also a nice thank you letter from the father of a young boy in Massachusetts who happened to meet Officer Rick Bassett at the Pumpkin Festival. The letter included a photo of the boy in his police outfit and his father sent the letter noting the really big impression it had on his son. In return, we sent him a couple of commemorative items, a Cop Card poster and Cop Cards, as well as some other trinkets. His father commented in his letter that he wished his local police department interacted with the youth like our agency does. Chief Canfield advised he is very proud of Officer Bassett for the way he conducted himself. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield reported the following: We are once again supporting the Special Olympics Winni Dip fundraiser, which will be held the first or second week of March. As such, employees are allowed to grow beards, as long as they are kept neatly trimmed, if they raise $100 or more for the cause. This began January 1st and a number of officers have decided to participate. Some of the new technology spoken of recently includes the Spidr Tech software, which will send automated text messages and customer service feedback. We are working on getting that rolled out, as well as the Imprivata multifactor authentication and First Arriving software. It has been a lot of work getting these implemented, but we are moving forward and have meetings on them quite regularly. The employee satisfaction survey will be released within the next week or so. It's important to hear feedback from out officers and look for ways to improve working conditions or make things better. CALEA Accreditation year one was completed in November and there were no issued found to the credit of Robin Moyer and all of her hard work. The security fence project has been delayed quite a bit due to logistical issues on the company's part and hope to be done in the near future.  CALEA Accreditation year one was completed in November and there were no issued found to the credit of Robin Moyer and all of her hard work. The security fence project has been delayed quite a bit due to logistical issues on the company's part and hope to be done in the near future. De-Escalation training has always done for our National Accreditation. As a catalyst, we have been doing more of it. In 2020, the Governor came out with a Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community and Transparency, which requires a minimum of two hours of in- service training specifically focused on De-Escalation, Implicit Bias and Ethics. We have always far exceeded that and we certainly far exceed two hours of in-house training in this area. Since that date, we have had over 2500 hours of in-service training for the department. In 2021, we were awarded a $200,000 grant through the Department of Justice to fund De- Escalation. That funded four officers to become Certified Verbal Judo De-Escalation Instructors, as well as to obtain Axon Virtual Reality training goggles and equipment. Those items have arrived, so we are looking to get those implemented into the training program. We are looking to have all of our supervisory staff complete an instructor course as De- Escalation Instructors. Our eventual goal it to get everyone through the National Alliance on Mental Health Crisis Intervention training, which is a really good training, but is 40 hours long and logistically may take a while to get there. We have been working with New Hampshire Homeland Security on a tabletop exercise in March with a full scale exercise in April centered around an active shooter event at the Pleasant Street School. We have done these in the past and certainly some department wide training, which will incorporate other agencies, in preparation that God forbid we have such an event occur here we will be adequately prepared and trained to respond. An idea came from an officer about recognizing certain events, such as Autism Awareness or Domestic Violence Month, which other departments recognize. So we have been working on creating some patch designs that we will be able to be change out the left shoulder patch on officers' uniforms. Once those are done they will be presented to the Commission. We conducted interviews just before Christmas for the Assistant Prosecutor position. Unfortunately none of the candidates were selected for the position, so we will be conducting another interview process in March for a new batch of candidates. In preparation of filling that position, we have the need to create more office space. The upstairs work area is in the process of being renovated into an office. The copy room and other office supplies will be moved into what was a storage closet at the top of the stairs. We received a quote for this construction from a local company, which is not a super big project, in the amount of $50,000.00 to complete it. In turn, we asked Officer Rick Bassett, who is skilled in construction, if he would be willing to do the work, and he agreed to do so. So far we are into the project for approximately $1,500-$2,000.00. By the end, we may be in the vicinity of $3,000- $4,000.00 for the electrical work. It is nice to have an employee who not only is skilled to do this, but also is willing to step up and do something outside of their normal job duties. The Overdose Statistics were also reviewed. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion.  No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 14. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizens in attendance. 15. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular Meeting date of February 15, 2023 was confirmed. 16. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting was adjourned at 3:23 pm.