Civilian Police Review & Advisory Board

MEETING MINUTES CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW AND ADVISORY BOARD Regular Meeting November 9, 2023, 12 pm In person at the Public Safety Building and by Zoom Members present: Rich Burks, Catherine Fonseca, Bob Cohen, Rachel Fetty (by Zoom) Also Present: Brian Butcher (in person), Karen Watson (by Zoom) 1. Call to order: 12:09 p.m. 2. Minutes were approved from the regular meeting of October 12, 2023, the special meeting of October 24, 2023, and the Community Outreach Committee meeting of November 3, 2023. 3. OLD BUSINESS A. Committee Reports: i. Bylaws Committee The Board reviewed the suggestions for changes to the proposed Bylaws made by City Attorney Ryan Simonton. The Board then unanimously voted to approve the Bylaws with those suggested changes, and directed Bob to send the completed Bylaws to the City Clerk. ii. Training Committee Rich reported that he has put in a call to Jim Nolan to try to arrange training, but has not yet heard back. iii. Community Outreach Committee The Board agreed that the large meeting room in the lower level of the Public Library would be a good place to hold a public forum. The problem with the Library is that the elevator to the lower level will be undergoing repairs from late November until some time in January. Of the available days in late January and early February, the consensus was to arrange for the public forum on February 5, with February 8 available in case of bad weather. Bob is to make arrangements with the Library. Rachel and Megan will work on a brochure for the Board. Rich and Bob will develop the program for the public forum. The Board also discussed attending neighborhood meetings around Morgantown. Brian Butcher said that representatives from the various neighborhood associations regularly meet at the Neighborhood Coordinating Council, and suggested that Board members arrange to go to the next meeting of the Coordinating Council, which comes up in a few days. It was decided that Rich and Catherine will go to the meeting of the Coordinating Council to set up a process for Board members to attend neighborhood meetings. The Board next discussed the “Zoom Bomb” which occurred at the meeting of the Community Outreach Committee on November 3, 2023. The “Zoom bomb” made some members of the Board very uncomfortable. It was agreed that Megan handled the situation well by first trying to restore order and, when that was unsuccessful, putting the disruptive people in the Zoom “waiting room”. iv. Statistics and Reporting Committee Catherine reported that “Proposed Data Points” is complete. It was agreed that Catherine and Rich will contact Police Chief Eric Powell to set up a meeting to discuss how to use the MPD’s data collection system to obtain the information sought in the Board’s Data Points. The meeting should include the MPD officers who are responsible for processing the data obtained by the MPD. Bob will also attend this meeting along with Catherine and Rich. B. Case Study of 8/30/21 Sheetz incident The Board reviewed the questions that Board members intend to ask regarding the August 30, 2021 incident at the downtown Sheetz. Catherine will upload the body camera footage to make it available to all Board members. Rich will contact Chief Powell to see if he is available to meet to discuss the incident at the Board’s next regular meeting on December 14. C. Board vacancies Karen Watson indicated that she may be interested in applying for one of the two vacant positions on the Board. She and the Board discussed the application process and what the Board is currently doing. Regarding people who had previously applied for a position on the Board and had not been appointed, Brian Butcher said that City Council would probably want to re-interview them if they are still interested in serving on the Board. 4. The meeting was adjourned at 1:26 p.m. Minutes prepared by Bob Cohen