Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSIONG MEETING JULY 24, 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 7/24/2024 - 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 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, 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 with 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  No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield reported the following: They have wrapped up the end of year fiscal budget. We came in under and within our budget for last year. They are working on several new grant opportunities, which will be brought to the Commission once the applications are complete. They are working on several projects within the department, including transitioning to the new firearms duty pistols, as well as completion of the fence project. This project is going on two years at this point, but we are working with the company and are hoping to resolve the issues with the gate and get the fence repaired. We have applied for a Federal grant from Senator Shaheen's office in the amount of $900,000.00 to building our storage facility building. That has been included on her Congressional Spending Plan in D.C., which is a good sign. In all likelihood we stand a good change of getting that approval. Commissioner Davis inquired how big the storage building will be. Chief Canfield advised approximately 80'x40' and will be enough to accommodate the command post, all the sign boards and the motorcycles, as well as evidence storage for all of our outside evidence, bicycles primarily and motor vehicles. This building will not only protect the integrity of the evidence, but will also protect the property for when it gets returned to it's owner. Commissioner Davis inquired if it will be heated storage and Chief Canfield advised it will be. Chairman Whittum advised Commissioner Davis has some outside contacts who may be able to assist in the construction of the building. 6.B. Chief - Operations Division Chief Canfield advised the following: They have completed the fall schedule and it has been put out for bid. It was a fairly busy 4th of July weekend, which took a lot of resources. Recruitment continues. We currently have three background investigations that are nearly complete. He hopes to see those this week and there may be 1-2 other applicants in the process. The patrol schedule continues to remain tight, but we are still able to get everything accomplished. It is the intention to put the School Resource Officers back in the schools at the beginning of the school year. They are working on planning Biketoberfest, the Wicked Weirs event and Pumpkinfest. 6.B.i. Hirings We took all of the applications for the applicants that applied to the Great Bay Testing Alliance down in Portsmouth. We cold called all of the applicants and it appears we have one applicant from that pool and hope to see more with the recent modifications to the pay scale.  6.B.i. Hirings We took all of the applications for the applicants that applied to the Great Bay Testing Alliance down in Portsmouth. We cold called all of the applicants and it appears we have one applicant from that pool and hope to see more with the recent modifications to the pay scale. Chairman Whittum inquired about any active hiring right now and Chief Canfield advised no, but hope to have something to present at next month's Commission Meeting for potentially three. 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 19, 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 Chief Canfield reviewed the Criminal Investigative Unit Monthly Activity Report. No further discussion. 8.C. Budget Reports Chief Canfield advised we are at the beginning of the budget year and are on track. Last year closed out nicely under budget. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Report. Commissioner Davis inquired if we receive any parking complaints for the area behind Wayfarer and that block where there is reserved parking for the Colonial Theater condominiums. He indicated he hasn't seen a problem there, but was curious. Chief Canfield responded he doesn't recall any issues with those spaces. He indicated there have been some parking issued downtown where people were getting tickets after obtaining permission, so they worked that out with the City Manager's Office to get some type of parking pass and that issue has been resolved. Commissioner Davis advised he believes people are respecting the signs and it seems to be working well. 8.E. Monthly Fleet Report They are working on the new replacement cars for the State bid that came through C.I.P. this year. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO/FROM THE DEPARTMENT We received a nice thank you from a woman thanking Officers Basset and Denutte for a tragic incident they helped her with. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO/FROM THE DEPARTMENT We received a nice thank you from a woman thanking Officers Basset and Denutte for a tragic incident they helped her with. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield reported the following: Year-to-date we have responded to a total of twenty-two drug overdoses, three of which are suspected drug overdose deaths. This is down very significantly from last year, where we responded to forty-seven overdoses. He assumes this is primarily due to the move from heroin/fentanyl to meth. During the week August 4th through August 8th is our reaccreditation cycle reaccreditation. We will be having a team of assessors who are flying in on Sunday, August 4th and will be here the entire week to conduct our reassessment process. This is a very lengthy and detailed week. Robin will be in touch with the Commissioners reference the schedule, as they will want to speak with the Police Commission, as well as other members of the commuinity. National Night Out is scheduled for August 6th from 5-7 pm at Opechee Park. We have invited the assessor and anyone he would like to invite to attend. We received approval from the National Guard that they will be bringing the Blackhawk helicopter again this year. There is also the possibility of them bringing a Lakota helicopter, which is used for counter-drug operations. Our Regional Accident Team has been very busy. The weekend before last we were at the fatal crash in Belmont, as well as the fatal crash on Saturday on the Bypass and the fatal crash in Gilford on Sunday. This has been a really busy time for the Accident Reconstruction Team, but this is quite a resource that we have, as well as other neighboring towns and jurisdictions to investigate these crashes. So far the National year-to-date line of duty deaths are at eighty. Last month for the SPIDR Tech program we sent 1620 text messages and received a survey completion rate of 18.2%. That was down slightly. It's unknown if that is due to visitors in the area who didn't respond, but it's still not a bad percentage rate. Chairman Whittum mentioned the comments made by citizens in the SPIDR Tech report, noting a couple of them were pretty negative in general. He inquired if we do any follow up on those comments. Chief Canfield advised we do, but it's a little difficult to discern what is an actual complaint. He indicated we are not going to make every customer happy and sometimes that is where those comments develop. He indicated we do follow up with the glaring ones that we can discern as factual. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion.  No discussion. 13. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 14. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizen comments. 15. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular meting date of August 21, 2024 was confirmed. 16. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Davis, secondee by Commissioner Mello, the meeting was adjourned at 2:18 pm.