Police Commission

LACONIA POLICE COMMISSION MEETING DECEMBER 18, 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 12/18/2024 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Whittum called the meeting to Order at 2:10 p.m. on the above date. 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. Resignations/Retirement - Administrative Assistant Deborah M. Sawicki Chief Canfield thanked all those in attendance to celebrate Deborah Sawicki and officially recognize her for her many years of service to the City of Laconia. Deb began her career on October 22, 1979 as a Clerk/Typist. Throughout her career, she has held positions as Secretary II, Civilian Supervisor, Administrative Assistant and Administrative Assistant to the Chief of Police, having served seven different police chiefs in those years. During this time, she received several Letters of Commendation and an Honorable Service Award, as well as many letters and notes of appreciation for all of her hard work, which is a tribute to her competence and dedication to the department. Deb has been a very dedicated and loyal employee for many, many years and contributed in so many ways in order to help shape this organization into what it is today. In addition, and most importantly, she is a great person who truly loves this department and all of her co-workers. She was always interested in hearing about their lives and families. As she stated in her letter of intent to retire, her children grew up with her LPD family, having attended many different department functions as well. Deb is a friend to all and hopefully her many great  her competence and dedication to the department. Deb has been a very dedicated and loyal employee for many, many years and contributed in so many ways in order to help shape this organization into what it is today. In addition, and most importantly, she is a great person who truly loves this department and all of her co-workers. She was always interested in hearing about their lives and families. As she stated in her letter of intent to retire, her children grew up with her LPD family, having attended many different department functions as well. Deb is a friend to all and hopefully her many great memories throughout her years will carry forward in her new journey in life. Deb, your hard work, professionalism and wonderful disposition will be greatly missed. Thank you for your amazing accomplishment of 45 years of service to the Laconia Police Department. I wish you great health and great adventures in your retirement. Thank you and congratulations! 5.B. Commendations & Awards No discussion. 5.C. Promotions/Classification Change No discussion. 6. COMMAND STAFF REPORTS 6.A. Chief - Support Division Chief Canfield reported the following: They have been busy working on grants management. A lot of these grants are labor intensive and take a considerable amount of time. They are still working on the Imprivata project and hopefully they are making some headway. They recently instituted the Signal Side Arm technology, which is a device that is attached to each officer's duty holster. This automatically activates an officer's body cam if that firearm is removed from the holster. They will not have to worry about multitasking by having to turn their camera on and it should activate automatically. The budget was submitted at the beginning of December for the next fiscal year. The most notable increase is to outside contracted services, which is contractual. That's the biggest increase and there are no additional requests for personnel. 6.A.i. Orders and Bulletins 6.B. Chief - Operations Division Chief Canfield reported the following: They have been doing on-going patrol schedule maintenance as normal. They have been working hard on recruiting, as difficult as it is. We currently have two entering the academy at the beginning of January. We also have one full time certified person who is nearing the end of his field training and will be going solo shortly. We just hired an officer this past Monday, who will be introduced to the Commission at next month's meeting. He was a Community Resource Officer for us this past summer and has just graduated college. We currently have one certified candidate who is in the background phase. If he is hired we will be left with three vacancies.  We just hired an officer this past Monday, who will be introduced to the Commission at next month's meeting. He was a Community Resource Officer for us this past summer and has just graduated college. We currently have one certified candidate who is in the background phase. If he is hired we will be left with three vacancies. Motorcycle Week planning will be sometime in January or the beginning of February. 6.B.i. Hirings 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 October 16, 2024 were accepted as distributed. 7.B. Out-of-State Travel - Special Olympics Winter World Games 2025.Officer Bassett Chief Canfield advised there is a request for Officer Rick Bassett to attend the first leg of the Torch Run in Italy. Officer Bassett has been very involved with Special Olympics here in the State of New Hampshire, organizing our leg of the torch run, as well as participating in the summer and winter games, a lot of which has been done on his own time, just because he has been very involved and is a passion of his. Because of his work with Special Olympics, he has been recognized within the Special Olympics leadership community and they have asked him to participate in the lighting of the cauldron, the blessing of the torch and then run through multiple cities in Italy at the World Winter Games. They have offered to have him travel there with 100% of the expenses covered by Special Olympics. The request would be that he attend World Winter Games at the beginning of March. Chairman Whittum noted this is an honor not only for him, but for the department. On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the above Out-of-State Travel request was approved. Chief Canfield advised he has another request that didn't make it on the agenda for Captain Allan Graton and Sergeant Richard Carlson to attend Axon Week in Phoenix, Arizona, April 22nd through April 24th. We use Axon for a lot of our products, including the tasers and our body cameras and cruiser cameras. The week is covered for free by Axon as far as attendance at the conference, but we would be responsible for travel expenses. Sergeant Carlson is our lead taser instructor and has never been to one of these events, so it is important that he attend. That being said, his attendance will be based on the patrol schedule. It would be his recommendation that both Captain Graton and Sergeant Carlson be allowed to attend. On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the above request to attend Axon Week request was approved. Commissioner Davis inquired if Officer Bassett will stay for the entire World Winter Games event and Chief Canfield advised he will. 8. REVIEW OF MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS 8.A. Department Monthly Activity Highlights Chief Canfield reviewed the Department Monthly Activity Highlights. No further discussion. 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 currently at 44.23% of the way through the year. Our salaries are at 42.71%, so we are trending just under, but are on track. Commissioner Davis inquired what the time frame is for the budget and will it be a usual time frame in terms of presenting it to the City Council. Chief Canfield advised typically the City Manager presents his overall City budget mid to late March, so our budget presentation will probably be sometime in May. Sometimes it runs into the first week of June. It has to be adopted by June 30th. They do have the option to carry it over to July 31st, at which time if it's not approved by the City Council, it goes into a default budget. 8.D. Monthly Traffic Report Chief Canfield reviewed the Monthly Traffic Report. 9. CORRESPONDENCE TO/FROM THE DEPARTMENT Chief Canfield advised we received several nice correspondences throughout the month. One in particular was in honor of a woman's father, who was a retired Captain out of the Bloomfield, New Jersey Police Department. She and her husband dropped off food for the department. Another notable one was from residents of Long Bay. They are very nice people who reach out to him ever year and make a donation of $200.00 to the Laconia Police Relief Association. 10. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Canfield reported the following: He attended a meeting with Commissioner Mello at the Knights of Columbus. They have an interest in working collaboratively to develop a Police Athletic League. They have some resources they could offer to supplement some of the things that are a little prohibitive in creating such an organization, but it was a very positive talk and he looks forward to more meetings and hopefully they can get it up and running. The department participated in the Children's Auction again this year by answering phones, which was a good time. The held the annual retiree luncheon yesterday and it was great to see a lot of old faces from the department. We are partnering with the Manchester Police Department. They recently hired a crime analyst and they've created a real time crime center. They also have a monthly meeting we would be looking to attend, most likely virtually. The connection on information is where it's at nowadays and partnering with the largest agency in the State is a good partnership, in addition to helping us set up a real time crime center in the future here in Laconia.  We are partnering with the Manchester Police Department. They recently hired a crime analyst and they've created a real time crime center. They also have a monthly meeting we would be looking to attend, most likely virtually. The connection on information is where it's at nowadays and partnering with the largest agency in the State is a good partnership, in addition to helping us set up a real time crime center in the future here in Laconia. He, Captain Graton and Accreditation Manager Robin Moyer attended the CALEA Accreditation Conference in Jacksonville, Florida in mid-November. That was for our re-accreditation cycle, which takes place every four years. We appeared before the review commission and it was voted on to have us be re-accredited unanimously. This is a very positive thing and is a tribute to Robin and all the work she does. Chairman Whittum inquired how departments are accredited in New Hampshire . Chief Canfield advised last he checked it was around 13 or 14 agencies that were nationally accredited. He indicated there is a move to do a State Accreditation, which is about 100 standards, where CALEA is just under 500. But it is not the same. Chairman Whittum advised this speaks highly of the Chief and Command Staff, as well as the department as a whole. Chief Canfield advised at this point we have been doing it for a long time and it's a way of life and we police ourselves well, we are accountable to our policies and we are accountable to the way we do business and he is a big believer in the accreditation process. 11. OLD BUSINESS No discussion. 12. NEW BUSINESS No discussion. 13. OTHER BUSINESS No discussion. 14. CITIZEN COMMENTS No citizen comments. 15. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING DATE The next Regular meeting date of January 15, 2025 was confirmed. 16. ADJOURNMENT On a Motion by Commissioner Mello, seconded by Commissioner Davis, and passed unanimously, the meeting was adjourned at 2:30 pm.