Public Safety Advisory Commission

Minutes UN Public Safety Committee Commission Regular Meeting Minutes OF Thursday, October 19th, 2023 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. UPPD/ 3612 Drexler Dr W FI 1. Call to Order CI Meeting called to order at 6:02PM by Amy Booth 2. Roll Call AL Public Safety Commission Members Present Ruthann Reim James Feore Emily Calhoun Pete Whipple Guests Matt Kaser, UP City Attorney, Public Safety Commission Members Excused Kim Nordby Amy Booth Diane Bendixen Staff Present Jennifer Hales DO Non-Voting Member Present Chief Pat Burke, UPPD Assistant Chief Scott Adams, WPFR N Members (voting or not) not present Torey Heidelberg, UPSD ME 3. Approval of Minutes CU Pete Whipple made a motion to approve the minutes, seconded by Ruthann. Unanimously approved. 4. Public Comments No public present 5. UPPD / WPFR/ UPSD report outs T WPFR: Interesting summer with brush fires. 72 brush fires in 2022, 171 in 2023. The weather conditions played a huge role in that. Problem areas: greenbelts and common areas that are not maintained regularly. Launched a new training consortium. They are teaming up with other fire departments to work together on training, rather than trying to do everything. University Place City Hall 3715 Bridgeport Way West Tel 253.566.5656 University Place, WA 98466 Fax 253.566.5658 www.CityofUP.com  Looking for paramedics – high turnover rate and seem to always be looking. It is getting much more difficult. Connected Care hit 500th referral. Has been doing this for 16 months. The last 6 months has been 30-40 referrals from crews. Most of those people are no longer calling 911. There is about 3% that continues to use 911. Fall safety days on Saturday at 5000 Steilacoom Blvd. Trader Joes will be there handing out goodies. UN Trunk or treat events are coming up at several schools. UPPD: Coffee with a Cop was a great event! Business Impact patrols/ shoplifting emphases going very well. Riteaid said they are on track to have a OF 25% reduction in their total loss (6 months this year compared to the last 6 months of last year). There is a boost in morale with both shoppers and staff. UPSD: N/A FI 6. Homelessness in UP – City Attorney Matt Kaser & Chief Pat Burke Matt Kaser: Homelessness is not a crime. CI How do we handle it as a community? How do we respond to this as a community? There are symptoms and causes and there is no easy answer. AL There are some directives that came out of the 9th circuit that dictate how cities can address homelessness with policies. There appears to be some interest at the Federal supreme court level to potentially take on some of these challenges. There is no easy answer right now. Stay tuned. What sorts of existing laws are on the books to address symptoms of homelessness? DO UP’s response, when we see encampments, - typically a team is on scene within about 45 minutes of when the call comes into City Hall. The team includes members of code enforcement, patrol & often public works. Chief Burke: Pulled some numbers from SS911. There is no call for “homelessness” so it can be difficult to find homeless contacts that are embedded in other call types. It is difficult to look at trends. It can be N difficult to compare to other agencies because the calls may not be tracked the same way. There is nothing that jumps out at Chief related to homelessness in UP. ME • Most contacts are dayshift and early in the morning (unwanted person, suspicious person) • Occasionally, we might get multiple calls on the same person. Aside from those few cases here and there. It is not a big problem. CU • • Anecdotally: patrol indicates there is NOT a big problem/ spike in the issue • COO will be helpful in triaging these types of concerns in partnership with patrol • There are many other public safety priorities in UP It is important to have a plan in place. In our city we have a good working plan in place. 7. Initial workplan discussion Parks & Public Safety: Kobiyashi safety Traffic safety/ speed cameras: flash vote and subsequent focus group T page 2 8. Other business At the last meeting Commission members asked for some information about the police blotter. In the last 90 days the Police Blotter has seen… - 3,817 views - 1,123 different users UN - - 3.4 average views per user 1 minute and 27 seconds, average engagement time (worth noting that this is the highest engagement time we’ve had on a page in the last 90 days) The police blotter is the 3rd highest visited page, falling just behind the City Calendar, #2, and the City’s OF homepage is #1. Amy – asking if anyone else is interested in being Chair of the commission. Commission will discuss Chair & Co-chair at the next meeting. FI 9. Adjournment No further business on the agenda – meeting adjourned at 7:38PM CI Respectfully submitted by: Jennifer Hales Public Safety Administrator UPPD AL Approved as submitted/amended 11.16.23. DO N ME CU T page 3