Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING JUNE 19, 2024 Meeting took place at 2:00 p.m. in the Armand A. Bolduc City Council Chamber, Laconia City Hall, 45 Beacon Street East, Laconia, New Hampshire 6/19/2024 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Whittum called the meeting to order at 2:10 pm. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Chairman Whittum led the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Executive Assistant Lori Marsh. 4. ROLL CALL 4.A. Chairman Whittum recognized Commissioners present - Chairman Douglas Whittum and Commissioner Frank Mello. 4.B. Chairman Whittum recognized Staff present - Chief Matthew Canfield. 4.C. Chairman Whittum recognized a quorum has been established with two Commission members present. 5. PERSONNEL MATTERS 5.A. Commendations & Awards No discussion. 5.B. Resignations/Retirement Chief Canfield advised Jeff Wholley, who has been working for us part time for a number of years, has submitted his resignation. We will certainly miss him! Chairman Whittum noted he has worked for us for a long time and Chief Canfield advised he has, having worked for us full time for twenty years and then he stayed on part time for the past seven or so years. 5.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion.  he has, having worked for us full time for twenty years and then he stayed on part time for the past seven or so years. 5.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield reported the following: They have been very busy continuing with grant research, writing, maintenance and upkeep. These grants are very labor intensive and they have been working very hard on that, as well as the end of year budget wrap-up and the completion of a number of different projects around the station that need to be completed prior to the next budget year. In addition, they have spent a significant amount of time on the logistical preparations for Motorcycle Week, to include before, during and after the week. That consumed a significant amount of their time between placing camera trailers and cameras and all of the other logistical stuff they do. 6.A.i. Orders and Bulletins Sergeant Black will be attending the Police Response to Active Shooter Instructor Certification, being hosted by the Meredith Police Department. He teaches a lot of our active shooter training, especially our civilian response, so this course will enhance his knowledge. ACO Meaghan Abbott will be New England Animal Control Humane Academy at the University of New Hampshire on July 22nd to keep up to date on her duties. 6.B. Chief - Operations Division Chief Canfield advised he does not have a report for Operations this month. 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 Chairman Whittum, and passed unanimously, the meeting minutes of May 15, 2024 were accepted as distributed. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Activity Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Activity Highlights. No further discussion. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report  8.A. Department Monthly Activity Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Activity Highlights. No further discussion. 8.B. Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity report. No further discussion. 8.C. Budget Reports Chief Canfield reported the budget is on track and we will be considerably underspent for the year and are ending on a really good note. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic report. Chairman Whittum noted Union Avenue continues to be a heavy hitter and Chief Canfield agreed, noting that it's one of our bigger thoroughfares and there are a number of crashes on that street. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report Chief Canfield advised all of the new cars that we received last year are up and running. He noted that as long as the budget gets approved for the new year, we expect to receive four new cars and will be looking to start that process again once we hear word on the approval of the budget. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO/FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield advised we received a couple of nice thank you notes from two interns from the Huot Criminal Justice Program. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield reported the following: Members of the department attended the Wings & Wheels Open House event at the Laconia Airport. It was a nice event where they hosted an open house and had a number of different types of aircraft there for children to explore. We had our command post there, along with our police motorcycles, which a number of people enjoyed. On June 3rd we presented our budget before City Council. Last Monday night there was a budget work session of the City Council and they had no follow up questions on our budget requests, so hopefully that's on track for passage either Monday night or at some point in July. We conducted a presentation for a group at the Taylor Community regarding active shooter situations for civilians. Last week was a very successful Laconia Motorcycle Week. The weather was good overall. We saw moderate crowds that kind of ebbed and flowed throughout the week. The last Saturday was very well attended and had significant crowds, but overall it was very safe public safety wise. We had a total of 46 custodial arrests for the week, three of those being in the first weekend and 13 in the second. We had 4 DWI arrests, 5 arrests for Disobeying an Officer, 2 for Resisting Arrest, 1 for Simple Assault, 2 for Simple Assault - Domestic Violence, 1 for Violation of a Protective Order, and 13 arrests on warrants. We had a total of 19 motor vehicle crashes for the week, 239 motor vehicle stops, issuing 31 summonses and 166 written  We saw moderate crowds that kind of ebbed and flowed throughout the week. The last Saturday was very well attended and had significant crowds, but overall it was very safe public safety wise. We had a total of 46 custodial arrests for the week, three of those being in the first weekend and 13 in the second. We had 4 DWI arrests, 5 arrests for Disobeying an Officer, 2 for Resisting Arrest, 1 for Simple Assault, 2 for Simple Assault - Domestic Violence, 1 for Violation of a Protective Order, and 13 arrests on warrants. We had a total of 19 motor vehicle crashes for the week, 239 motor vehicle stops, issuing 31 summonses and 166 written warnings. Those statistics are City wide and not just in the Weirs Beach area. Considering the number of people who attended the event, these numbers are considered to be very low. This week is our CALEA full file review. Robin has been working with our assessors going through our accreditation files in preparation for our on-site re-assessment that will occur in August. They will be coming out here for three days in person to conduct interviews and do the actual on-site. As far as new technology, the bid has been awarded for our on-line citizen crime reporting. According to the company, this will take about six months to be fully implemented and will allow citizens to go on-line to report certain types of crimes, thereby reducing our officers' time in going out to a location and taking the physical report. This will not be for all crimes and just certain crime categories without suspects. We received notice from Senator Shaheen's office that our grant request in the amount of $850,000.00 for a storage facility has been included on her Washington, D.C. requests. Typically, being a Senior Senator, if that's included on the D.C. requests we stand a very good chance of approval. That, combined with t he $96,000.00. that we received from Congressman Pappas' office, will give us just about a million dollars to complete that project, which we should be able to do at zero cost to the City. He was recently asked to be a part of the Board of Directors for CASA New Hampshire. CASA is the court appointed special advocates and trains and recruits volunteers to be special advocates for children of abuse and neglect cases. It will be his honor to serve on that Board of Directors and be involved in that organization. He is continuing with the Governor's New Hampshire School Safety Task Force and they have another meeting coming up in the next couple of weeks where they will be updating and revising safety recommendations for schools throughout New Hampshire. The COSSAP Grant that funds Detective Adams' position has been extended through September, 2025. In addition, they just came out with another grant that we are looking to apply for, which would included an embedded social worker within the police department to assist in those efforts. That grant amount is 2.2 million dollars and would allow us to continue that program further and expand on what Detective Adams has done. He has been working with the hospital to plan and participate in an active threat drill in August. In reference to SPIDR Tech, in May we sent a total of 1,778 text messages, which was up 11% from the month before. There was a survey completion rate of 25.3%, which was up 5.1%. For the 2024 overdose statistics year to date, we responded to 20 overdoses with 3 suspected deaths. 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 July 17, 2024 was confirmed. 16. NON-PUBLIC SESSION (According To 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 a right to a public meeting, and (2) requests that the meeting be open, in which case the request shall be granted. On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Chairman Whittum, and passed unanimously, in accordance with RSA 91-A:3,II(a), the Laconia Police Commission entered into Non-Public Session at 2:25 pm. Roll Call Vote to enter Non-Public Session: Chairman Douglas Whittum - Yes Commissioner Frank Mello - Yes At 2:40 pm, the Non-Public Session ended on a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Chairman Whittum, with a unanimous vote. Public Session reconvened at 2:41 pm. Chairman Whittum entertained a Motion to seal the minutes, moved by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Chairman Whittum, and passed unanimously, because it is determined that divulgences of this information likely would render a proposed action ineffective. Roll Call Vote to Seal the Minutes of the Non-Public Session: Chairman Douglas Whittum - Yes Commissioner Frank Mello - Yes 17. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Chairman Whittum, the meeting was adjourned at 2:43 pm. On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Chairman Whittum, the meeting was adjourned at 2:43 pm.