Crime Commission Meeting

CITY OF MADISON HEIGHTS CITY HALL - EXECUTIVE CONFERENCE ROOM, 300 W. 13 MILE RD. CRIME COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES FEBRUARY 22, 2022 AT 3:00 PM CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 3:03. Welcome to newly assigned Council member Sean Fleming. ROLL CALL PRESENT Martha Covert Jeffrey Hilliard Deliza Lee Lisa Lenart-Cynowa Anthony Roberts Council Representative Sean Fleming ABSENT Alison Fleming Council Alternate Representative Quinn Wright ADDITIONS/DELETIONS None APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approval to adopt the minutes from the regular meeting of October 12, 2021. Motion made by Roberts, Seconded by Lee. Voting Yea: Covert, Hilliard, Lee, Lenart-Cynowa, Roberts, Council Representative Fleming EnterTextHere MEETING OPEN TO THE PUBLIC No public present. REPORTS 1. Chief's Report Dispatcher Ed Bicego passed away from illness. Not only did he work as a dispatcher in Madison Heights but he was also a Police Officer and Dispatcher for the City of Hazel Park. We received our accreditation at the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police conference. The MACP will be presenting our actual certificate at an upcoming City Council meeting. We are currently working with the City to assess the wages and benefits of the police officers to be more competitive with other cities. We have had trouble obtaining and retaining patrol officers since there is a shortage of applicants and so many departments are hiring. We have made some policy changes in hopes of obtaining and retaining officers such to allow beards  (with length restrictions) and tattoos, bullet proof vest are bought with grant/forfeiture funds so that officers don't have to purchase, uniform allowance is paid at time of hire instead of at the end of the year. We should have a staff of 51 officers, however we are currently at 45 so we are six down from where we should be. In addition we have one on injury and one who will shortly be on maternity leave. We created a recruitment team of five officers that is going to all the different academies trying to recruit soon to be graduates. Officers, except those assigned to special units, will be moving to 12 hour work shifts. Command officers will remain at 8 hour shifts. Chairperson Cynowa asked, "How is being down staff effecting crime and staff?' We have not seen any effect on crime since we have been put plans to place to make sure the road is covered such as pulling officers out of special units. We have overtime policies to help prevent burn out along with the change to 12 hour shifts which will elevate much of the overtime. Commissioner Roberts stated that the city needs to provide more incentives to attract new hires. The City already provides defined benefit retirement, paying for the police academy, and transfer of seniority to officers city from other police departments. It has been difficult to attract officers from other cities when they are using their ARP funds to give officers a big raise whereas the city has opted to use it 2.5 million dollars in ARP funds to renovate city hall. 2. City Council Report Nothing to report. NEW BUSINESS 3. Police Ride Along Commissioner Hillard stated he has already talked with Chief Haines about commissioners doing a ride along with police officers to get a better understanding of their job and needs. Chief Haines provided ride along waiver forms. Members who are interested can fill out the forms and bring back to the next meeting and Commissioner Hillard will facilitate with the chief for dates and times. He also stated that members should also spend some time at the court to get a better understanding of the judicial process. Commissioner Covert stated she will look into to that with the court and bring back information at the next meeting. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 4. Strategic Plan of Action a) Stats - Commissioner Roberts that the summary of crimes is available in the Annual Report. Asked that the 2021 get forwarded to the Commission when it is complete. Also can use crime mapping and the dashboard are available for viewing on the city webpage. b) Communications - Chairperson Lenart-Cynowa requested a police department organizational chart. Chief Haines sated he will have Suzette email a copy to each member.  c) Community Collaboration - Commissioner Hillard asked if the police department has written goals so they can see what the department already has planned. Chief Haines stated he currently working on the 2022-2023 fiscal year goals and will forward it to the members when complete. COMMISSION COMMENTS Councilman Fleming - The meeting went well and he feels as though the commission is heading in the right direction. Alternate Commissioner Marentette - Asked is commission business done on personal emails subject to FOIA? Chief Haines responded yes. He will check with IT to see if we can assign commissioners city email address, however we are limited to the amount of addresses we are allowed. In the mean time, please keep to only official Commission business that is otherwise available to the public, such as agenda and minutes. Alternate Commissioner Monaghan - Been working with Lt. Siladke, who has been amazing, on the domestic violence task force. They have been having problems with the Oakland County Prosecutors not wanting to try domestic violence cases, especially those involving strangulation without death. They are trying to work with the Oakland County court to get them to prosecute these cases since they are not only dangerous people in a domestic situation but a danger to the public as a whole. Commissioner Lee - Victims of domestic violence often don't want to press charges against their offenders making prosecution more difficult. Chief Haines - The department is having the same issue with the prosecutor's across the board not prosecute on cases. We have not only seen it with domestic violence but also with resisting and obstructing a police officer. Commission Hillard - Good meeting. Commissioner Roberts - Agrees with commissioner Marentette comment about emails being able to be FOIA. Maybe a separate email address should be looked into. Commissioner Covert - How can officers identify the members of the Crime Commission? Should commissioners have ID badges? Chairperson Lenart-Cynowa - Good meeting. Looking forward to the April 12th meeting. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:00 pm. Next meeting is scheduled for April 12, 2022 at 3:00 pm in the Executive Conference Room at City Hall. NOTICE: Persons with disabilities needing accommodations for effective participation through electronic means in this meeting should contact the City Clerk at (248) 583-0826 or by email: clerks@madison- heights.org at least two working days in advance of the meeting. An attempt will be made to make reasonable accommodations.