City Council Committee Agendas

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING JANUARY 7, 2015 Present were Mayor Jill Boudreau; Council Members Bob Fiedler, Mark Hulst, Ken Quam, Dale Ragan, Gary Molenaar, Mike Urban, Joe Lindquist; Chief of Police Jerry Dodd; City Attorney Kevin Rogerson; Fire Chief Roy Hari. The meeting was called to order by Councilman Gary Molenaar. December 3, 2014 Meeting Minutes were unanimously approved. CHIEF JERRY DODD Advised there is an addition to the agenda (K-9), which he will address later and then introduced Lieutenant Chris Cammock and Sergeant Mike Don to speak about the SMART Team On-line Child Exploitation Investigation. LIEUTENANT CHRIS CAMMOCK Reminded Council he had initially addressed them in 2013 when presenting a draft of the SMART Team and explained the effectiveness and efficiency. Driving force behind the Child Exploitation Investigation was Prosecutor Rich Weyrich. The SMART Team had four goals.  Send message Skagit County won’t tolerate this type of criminal activity  Raise awareness of vulnerability to children  Holding offender accountable  Exercise SMART Team Sergeant Mike Don (MVPD) and Sergeant Bob Wischhusen of Burlington PD were the leaders of this investigation. SERGEANT MIKE DON Provided a synopsis of those involved and what occurred during the On-line Child Exploitation Investigation.  Six arrests over the three week period; individuals who actually committed criminal acts, showed up to meet the child, and were arrested at pre-designated meet spot.  Offenders, ages 17 to 55, came from Stanwood, Anacortes, Mount Vernon, Everson, and Mercer Island. Most had minimal criminal histories.  One offender pled to 41 months Child Molestation Second  One offender pled in minor court – custody until 21 years old PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING 01/07/15 PAGE 1 OF 3   140 people inquired into our profile. We will always have to stay on top of technology. Mount Vernon PD is fortunate we were able to put money and resources into forensic technology training as MVPD was the lead in this incident. Detective Jerrad Ely’s training and knowledge was paramount to the investigation. Chiefs and Sheriff Board would like to see this type investigation continue and SMART may look into doing another operation this year. Lieutenant Cammock met with the Skagit Valley Herald early on, told them what we were doing, and asked for their cooperation during the investigation period. Metropolitan areas were amazed MVPD has such a positive working relationship with the media. CHIEF JERRY DODD Updated Council on progress of K-9 Luther’s medical condition. Decision has been made to retire Luther; this occurred just prior to Christmas. Chief Dodd provided council with resolution to surplus K-9 Luther. Luther will retire with the family of his current handler, Officer Zach Wright. Some of Luther’s accomplishments include the following.  Certified as K-9 Generalist in 2006  Over 500 hours initial training  WSPCA certified since 2006  WSPCA certification as Master Handler Team in 2008  Over 1,500 hours of maintenance training  Deployed 1,300 deployments  340 arrests  80 deployments (objective meet)  220 evidence finds  Over 200 agency assists Mark Hulst asked about possibility of having two dogs in the future so we don’t go for a year or more without this valuable tool while attempting to replace “retired” dog.  PD looked at a dog from Victoria; however, he didn’t work out.  Because we need to move quickly if a dog becomes available, Chief Dodd asked the Council if out of state travel approval requirements could be adjusted for operational purposes to find a suitable dog. o Discussion among Council Members and City Attorney Kevin Rogerson about adopting resolution re out of state travel. o Council would like to be updated regularly.  At tonight’s meeting, Council will make approval of out of state travel request until police dog is located. PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING 01/07/15 PAGE 2 OF 3 Chief Dodd then provided a PowerPoint presentation to the Council about the use of body cameras and where it fits into MVPD and our philosophy.  Most departments are phasing in body cameras  Department of Justice is mandating body cameras for specific departments  Privacy issue concerns  Still a lot of unanswered questions  MVPD will not have body cameras unless we first have a policy addressing them  Data storage, retention, disclosure protocols o Financial considerations  Community outreach  More research needed CITY ATTORNEY KEVIN ROGERSON Discussed Commercial Vehicle Parking Ordinance update  Definition of commercial vehicle  Recommended $50 penalty for illegal parking of commercial vehicle o Allow discount if fine/ticket is paid quickly o Penalty increases for additional tickets  Need for public education on Commercial Vehicle Parking Ordinance update o Provide notices to public and interested parties  Ordinance is effective five days after adopted  Proposed putting ad under legal notices in Skagit Valley Herald FIRE CHIEF ROY HARI Provided update on Washington Surveying and Rating Bureau  No changes as of this date  Discussion of PUD standards  Have agreed to come up and do a test  Have agreed to come up and do an on-site pilot test on our hydrants Chief Hari also discussed fire sprinklers in areas where infrastructure improvements must be made.  Can’t get building permit because there’s not enough water to safely sprinkler buildings  There’s an area in our City that’s zoned commercial but unable to erect commercial buildings due to this particular restriction o Developer has to put in infrastructure. Meeting adjourned at 7:01 PM. PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING 01/07/15 PAGE 3 OF 3