Civilian Police Review & Advisory Board

MEETING MINUTES CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW AND ADVISORY BOARD September 14, 2023, 12:00 p.m. Public Safety Building, Main Level Conference Room 300 Spruce Street, Morgantown, WV 26505 Minutes by Catherine Fonseca 1) CALL TO ORDER: Call to order at 12:07pm Members present included Richard Burks, Catherine Fonseca, Dady Dadyburjor, Robert Cohen (Virtual), Rachel Fetty (Virtual), Megan Gandy (Virtual), Bryan Church (Virtual) 2) INTRODUCTIONS 3) APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES: May, June, July, August By-Laws Meeting. Rachel motions to approve; Dady seconds 4) NEW BUSINESS A. Nominations and Voting for Board Secretary: Catherine nominates Robert (Bob) Cohen for Secretary of the Board. Rachel seconds. Bob Cohen is voted for unanimously as Secretary, with the understanding that Catherine will assist with Zoom setup and minute-taking in Bob’s absence. B. Committee Reports i. By-Laws Committee Bob provides a progress report of bylaws drafting progress up to this point. Bob to prepare a new draft with specific ordinance language written, rather than references to ordinance sections. October 4, 2023 12:00pm - 1:30pm established for the next Special Bylaws meeting, which will be offered in-person with a virtual option Action: Bob to set agenda and reserve the Public Safety Building room; Catherine will supply a Zoom link Action: Bob to follow up and ask clarifying questions of Ryan Simonton, City Attorney, regarding the drafted complaints section of bylaws Action: Rich will send Board members information for accessing group email and sharepoint  ii. Training Committee Rich reports there is still no response from NACOLE, so will be investigating alternative training organizations specializing in community policing space NACOLE institutional subscriptions seem reasonably priced Rachel will pause request for funding until further progress has been made on selecting an appropriate training opportunity iii. Community Outreach Committee Discussion regarding the possibility of hosting a public forum in December to share ordinance, scope, and limitations of our Board. Some expressed opposition to a December meeting and stated a preference for waiting to hold a public forum until bylaws have been passed and publicized. Rachel posed the possibility of asking for funding from City Council in addition to training funding for hosting public meetings. This might be used for printing educational materials as well as purchase of refreshments for the public. Megan reported on her meeting with Jim Nolan to get input on a model or template for community surveys. His instrument measures personal belief regarding police efficacy. Megan proposed the possibility of using her service-learning class next semester to formulate a survey to gauge community perception of MPD Action: Place on the October general meeting an agenda item to discuss and plan the December public forum iv. Statistics and Reporting Committee Discussion of drafted Data Points for Statistical Reporting document. Requests made for district-level data for Recorded Crime Requests made for Arrests by Residential Status of Arrestee (e.g. Resident vs. Nonresident) data Requests made for racially-motivated or hate crime incident data Request for incident level data for Use of Force Request for civilian injuries and casualties data Board agrees to reporting and publishing on a quarterly basis Action: Catherine to revise the data point draft list to reflect the requests made by the Board and bring them again before the Board in the next general meeting. Once finalized, we can begin working with the Morgantown Police Department data liaison. C. Work Plan  i. Priorities for the remainder of 2023 Three priorities were discussed and established: 1. Discuss Case Study of 8/24/21 Incident at the downtown Morgantown Sheetz, optimally in November general’s meeting Lengthy discussion ensued regarding the appropriate next steps for approaching the Sheetz case study. Concerns were voiced that our Board should reach out and meet the new, interim Deputy Police Chief prior to conducting the Sheetz case study, in order to establish goodwill and not have a potentially contentious 'ask' be our first engagement with the new Deputy Police Chief. Other board members felt it was important to not stall progress on the Sheetz case study and felt that we should move forward by simply liaising with Chief Powell regarding the Sheetz case study, without involving the new Deputy Chief. 2. Hold public forum to educate the public about the Board, in December 3. Establish Board bylaws Action: Rich to invite the new Deputy Chief to October meeting and confirm whom the Board should liaise with. Action: Bob will send the memo regarding the Sheetz Incident to Chief Powell, with the intention of inviting him to our November meeting to discuss the incident. Ii. Priorities and goals for 2024 Five priorities were discussed and established: 1. Select and contract an annual training opportunity for the Board. 2. Establish automated quarterly statistical reports for publication relating to operations and activities of Morgantown Police Department. 3. Formulate a community survey instrument gauging police perception and establish a plan for its implementation 4. Fill Board vacancies (currently two), with the assistance of City Council 5. Set up email and shared drive; hold internal training for Board members to orient to shared drive. ADJOURNMENT: Dady motions to adjourn the meeting. Rachel seconds. Meeting adjourns at 1:09pm Upcoming meetings: Special Bylaws Meeting on Wednesday, October 4, 2023 (hybrid) from 12:00 - 1:30pm General Board Meeting on Thursday, October 12, 2023 (hybrid) from 12:00-1:30pm