Civilian Police Review & Advisory Board

MEETING MINUTES CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW AND ADVISORY BOARD Regular Meeting February 1, 2024, 12 pm In person at the Public Safety Building and by Zoom Members present: Rich Burks, Bob Cohen, Megan Gandy, Catherine Fonseca, Rache Fetty (by Zoom), Bryan Church (by Zoom) Also present in person: John Evans (research assistant to Megan) 1. Call to order: 12:01 p.m. 2. Minutes of the regular meeting of January 11, 2024 were approved on motion of Megan seconded by Catherine. 3. OLD BUSINESS A. Committee Reports: i. Training Committee Training of the Board by Dr. Jim Nolan has been scheduled for February 15, 2024 at the WVU Main Library from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The training will be about community policing. Catherine will set up a Zoom link. ii. Community Outreach Committee – Public Forum on February 8 Brochure – The brochure is ready to be printed. Rachel will coordinate the printing of the brochure with the City Clerk. Publicity - Outreach has been or will be made to the NAACP, Pride, Project Rainbow, Health Right, Community Kitchen, churches, social work and sociology students, the Morgantown Police Department, the Dminion Post, Metro News, the Daily Atheneum, and television stations. Survey – Megan will bring paper copies of a survey about the MPD that attendees can fill out. It will also have a QR code. Program – Megan will prepare paper copes of the program we agreed on at the January 11 meeting, to be given out to attendees. In reviewing the program, it was noted that there is presently nothing on the City of Morgantown website which provides the community information about filing a complaint about the Police Department. Refreshments – Rachel will handle refreshments for the public forum.  iii. Statistics and Reporting Committee In view of the Public Forum and other Board activities in February, it was decided to wait until March to schedule a meeting with Chief Powell and MPD data base technician Angie Bell to discuss the “Proposed Data Points for Statistical Reporting”. B. Case Study of 8/30/21 Sheetz Incident The meeting with Chief Powell on February 29 will be a Special Meeting of the Board. Bob will prepare an Agenda and send it to the City Clerk for publication. 4. NEW BUSINESS Megan has been in touch with Morgantown Communications Specialist Hollie Gregory, and reported that the 2023 Annual Report/ 2024 Work Plan has been distributed to City Council. Catherine will check with the City Clerk about the Report being sent to the City Manager, Chief of Police, and President of the Police Civil Service Commission. In that the Wi-Fi service for Zoom was inconsistent in the meeting room of the Public Safety Building, it was decided that Bob would check the Public Library as a site for the Board’s meetings. 5. OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT None. 6. The meeting was adjourned at 1:07 pm. Minutes prepared by Bob Cohen