The City of Rochester, NH - Police Commission Minutes 01/07/09

The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting in City Hall Council Chambers on January 7, 2009. Present at this meeting was Comm. Levesque, Comm. McManus, Comm. Bemis, Chief Dubois, Deputy Chief Allen, Attorney Grossman, Chaplain Lachapelle and Secretary Warburton.

No public comment was offered. However, Comm. McManus noted on behalf of the Police Commission he wished all our citizens a very happy and prosperous New Year. The Commission recognizes the tough economy and commits to fulfilling their obligations and giving all proper protection.

A. Review Bid and Award: Forensic Video Analysis System. Deputy Chief Allen advised that the bids for this unit closed on December 5, 2008. We received one bid from Ocean Systems, in the amount of $14,481.00. This falls within the budget amount we set, with the funds coming from the Shea-Porter Cops Grant.

Deputy Chief Allen stated that this company is well known with a good reputation and an extensive resume with state and federal government. We have also budgeted money for training on the unit. This will allow us to take video or still photo evidence and enhance the video or image to help us further identify the images. This is advanced equipment. The state lab has the same system.

Comm. McManus MOVED to award the bid for the Forensic Video Analysis System to Ocean Systems in the amount of $14,481.00, funds to come from the Shea-Porter Cops Grant. SECOND by Comm. Bemis and PASSED unanimously.

B. Overtime Report July- December 2008; Discussion. Comm. McManus noted that the report includes monies from outside details worked, which the city collects an additional 25%. He said that the Council has discussed restructuring fees. Has the Department given any thought to this?

Chief Dubois said that the majority of those numbers are from detail work, which we don’t mandate. However regular overtime could be from an arrest at the end of a shift. That is not voluntary but it needs to be done. We don’t mandate anyone to do detail work or shift coverage unless I get a phone call prior to that taking place. That hasn’t happened in more than two years.

Chief Dubois replied if a contractor requests it we’ll provide it. If we think there is a need we might mandate it, but that would be if we get complaints or we see things that give us a concern for the safety of the public. Then we would contact the contractor and put an officer in place.

Chief Dubois replied that we have 54, plus 3 part time officers. The numbers on the chart for rank and file officers is probably a typo. The command numbers are right, and include from Sergeant and above. Other departments might not include the sergeant rank when describing command officers. We didn’t challenge the numbers given to us by other agencies.

(1) February 2009 meeting. Comm. Levesque stated that the Commission was meeting at the Police Department due to an event at the opera house. He stated that it might be beneficial for us to move the meeting date by one day due to available parking.

Comm. McManus MOVED that the February 2009 Commission meeting would be held on Thursday, February 5, 2009 at the Police Department for the reasons as stated. SECOND by Comm. Bemis and PASSED unanimously.

(1) Volunteer Service Award: Judi Blair. Chief Dubois stated we would be taking a few minutes to honor a long-term service volunteer. We had planned to do this last month with the other awards, but she was not available. Chief Dubois invited Judi Blair up to the stage.

Chief Dubois said that Judi has worked with the Department volunteering for approximately 13 years. This has been primarily in our prosecution office, a very busy office than can get overloaded at times. Prior to volunteering, Judi had maintained friendships with the staff, myself included. Her volunteerism has been very beneficial to the Department and to the City.

Our most significant connection to Judi is through her husband, former Chief Ted Blair, who we honor each year by giving an officer a memorial award in his name. Her service over the past 13 years is coupled with a career as a spouse of a police officer and showing support to a police officer that rose up through the ranks from a patrolman all the way to the office of the Chief in a career that expanded longer than two decades.

To Judi Chief Dubois said, the contribution that your family has made to this City is significant. We appreciate your 13 years of service, both for the work you provided and the friendship you’ve provided to us.

B. Asset Forfeiture Funds. Chief Dubois stated these funds are the result of drug investigations done jointly with the DEA or task force. We apply for our share of the funds and they are automatically deposited in a fund set up for this purpose. This did go to the Council last night for supplemental appropriation.

Each year we do yearly goals and objectives and for FY08 they were to (1) Build and improve Relationships Internally Through Team building and effective Communication. (2) Build and improve community relationships through effective communication. (3) Enhance preventive policing through public and private partnerships.

We had a good year closing out FY08 and we are half way through FY09. In achieving our goals for the year we made great progress with the RUN (Rochester United Neighborhoods) programs with the assistance of the Police Commission and other elected officials. We expanded the use of comp stat system holding ourselves accountable for the results making people feel safer in the city and involve more line level interaction. We had improvements to our SRO training programs in both the high school and middle school. We joined forces with area departments forming a joint tactical team operation. We developed an active response vehicle currently used by patrol sergeants, that provides emergency response to high profile calls.

We increased our training for at the line level for patrol officers on our interaction with youth in the city. One area we were not able to accomplish this year was our work on accreditation. Our goal of reaching national accreditation was not possible due to funding issues.

As we go into FY09 we’ve increased our use of part time officers in order to offset and reduce costs, while providing the same level of service to the community. We have decreased our mid-level managers and increased our line level officers to provide better service. We have also seen a reduction of full and part time officers that were previously appropriated. We feel that trend may continue into 2010.

Even with those things we had great success with grant-funded programs, items that we went out to bid for. We’ve received a crime scene vehicle; a significant expense, cruiser cameras in the front line vehicles and improved training in the area of how we deal with the mentally ill.

We’ve increased our development level training through the Covey 7-Habits training at various levels of the Department this period. We’ve added an updated first aid program for officers to respond and help people who are injured in the city. And Officers are providing defibrillator services at the front line level.

Even with reductions we have significantly reduced property crimes, which are down 12% while arrests in that same category are up 12%. Our violent crime is down 14%, while arrests up 11%. Our traffic enforcement shows an increase of 19% through the use of a targeted traffic enforcement officer. Our arrests from traffic stops are up 30%, DWI arrests are up 23%, and our warnings are also up 19%.

I am very happy with these results. I couldn’t be more proud of the police officers and civilian staff of the police department. We done this while no growth, for the most part, took place within the police department.

As we plan for FY10 its important to note that there will be no additional growth given the circumstances we under and we will have to continue to expect officers and staff to produce these type of results with less resources. We plan to do that with increased attention to existing employee development, and growth through in-service and in-house training programs that we will run.

What we look to do in FY10 is to maintain the current staffing levels that we have. We are scheduled to upgrade our fleet as part of a three-year cycle program. That’s a critical and expensive part of our budget but its one we are going to have to advocate for. It is critical to our ability to provide direct emergency services to the city.

Our previous plans to achieve state or national accreditation really have to be put on hold for now. It’s an expensive process, one that we couldn’t justify putting into the budget proposal given the limitations we are faced with from the finance department in the city. We are going to have to focus and think we’ll be successful in focusing technology upgrades via federal sources versus local taxpayer resources.

D. Bid for Evidence Collection Vehicle: Review and Award. This vehicle is funded from the Shea-Porter Cops grant. We received only one bid, from Sirchie in the amount of $149,883.00. This is a specialty vehicle that is more than just the chassis; it also includes all of the equipment, and training in the use of the equipment.

Dep. Chief Allen replied that others do make these vehicles, but he is unaware of any that can also provide all the equipment and the training. This is not a sole vendor issue. We placed this on the web, and in the paper. Any company that inquired could have also received the bid by mail, fax or email.

Comm. Levesque said policing is a specialized area. Maybe if you looked hard enough there might be other companies that can do this. But they too have the opportunity to go on the website find that we were looking for a bid. It does look a little strange when you only get one bid for this item or one bid for that item. I want to give you and the Chief the opportunity to clarify that to the public and the Council that you just don’t have that many people doing this specialized work.

Chief Dubois said to elaborate on the specialty. We not only asked for a vehicle, we asked for one to supply us with very specific forensic gathering needs and to train us on everything the vehicle comes with. That means a vendor has to deal with a company that provides the vehicles, a company that designs the vehicle, a company that equips the vehicle and a company that trains us on all that equipment. That’s a complicated bid. There are just not a lot of companies that market that many things under one vendor.

Comm. Levesque commended the Chief and command staff on ensuring proper training for the officers whenever we seek new areas of expertise. I get emails and it says we are doing this and officers are being trained. We are doing that and officers are being trained. Hats off to you Chief and the command staff as you really see that the officers are well trained in the field of police work. I appreciate that and I’m sure the public does.

Comm. Bemis offered that at one time he worked on bids for a Ford dealership. They would price out the chassis, or special bodies, etc. He does have contacts if we are interested. He noted that many dealerships would choose not to bid if its not cost effective for them.

Chief Dubois said I’m happy with what we have. We think we are going to get the product we want, it’s at a price that’s reasonable and that is why we are before you tonight. Otherwise we would have rejected it and gone back out to bid.

Comm. Bemis said we bring this up in the event there is a hurdle with the Council, as they like to have more than one bid. It’s unknown how they will react. If you had a couple of more bids it might be easier.

Dep. Chief Allen stated he is not aware of another company that can provide all of the components we are asking for from one vendor. There may be vendors that can do a piece here or a piece there. This vendor does the vehicle, all the specialized equipment; they manufacture the equipment themselves, and they provide the training on it. I don’t know of anyone else that does that.

Chief Dubois said that we work with the finance department on these bids to ensure they are in compliance with the city bid policy, and we further comply with the regulations of the federal government. They stipulate that anything costing more than $100,000.00 cannot be a sole vendor. You have to go to a formal bid. Even if the federal government didn’t require it, the finance director would require it. We are all working for the same City Council. This is done with his review.

1. Standard 32.1.1 Police Officer/Personnel Selection: Update, First Reading. Chief Dubois stated this was the addition discussed at the last meeting, which allows for a voluntary exit interview with the Commission.

2. Standard 41.3.2.4 Mobile Video Recording: New, First Reading. Chief Dubois asked the Commission to discuss and act on this policy this evening. If the Commission is not comfortable, he would ask for the endorsement to put the policy out as a general order. The equipment has been installed and officers have been trained in the use. To wait another month to begin using it could be an issue.

F. FY 10 Budget: First Review. Chief Dubois stated that our FY10 budget shows an increase of 3.8%. The dispatch side, which you don’t deal directly with, has a 1.7% increase. We are ready to send the document over to City Hall, given any input you’d like to talk about tonight. We have no increase to any operational lines over what we spent in FY09. The increase is to maintain current staffing, salaries and benefits. There were some issues with increases to heating fuel, but there has been a decrease in pricing over the recent months.

As you look forward, the months ahead show reductions of service at the county level, which will have a direct and dramatic impact on this police department. The State is faced with funding issues that will force costs to the local level and impacting local police departments.

I am concerned with the reductions at the county level in the Domestic Violence program. These are services and resources we rely heavily on, both in service to our victims and in prosecuting in excess of 150 cases per year. These are complicated cases that involve human family issues. This will tax our prosecution office and staff, and we will have to make adjustments for. I realize those adjustments will not come through increased funding. But it is going to have to come from some place within our existing resources, which will tax other areas of our department.

We will work closely with the Commission and the other elected folks as we wrestle with these issues in the future. Prosecution at least has existing resources to move into, but all the victim resources we just don’t have. This is an important population of the community and one that we lead the County in providing services to. The loss of this support of this program will cause us some issues.

Each year we submit a planning document for the years ahead. Really what it has turned into is a reactionary document of what we will be able to provide given the limitations of this tax cap. I think we are going to be wrestling with these issues in the years to come.

We are going to change our focus a bit. We will focus more on being a highly effective police department, but I think that can translate into us becoming a less efficient police department in some areas. This means an increase to our ability to respond to low priority calls in a timely manner. We are already seeing some reduction in our ability to do that based on the reductions made to date. That’s not without proper attention of this commission and the prior commission ensuring we make it a priority. I am confident we are doing all we can in that regard. I also project that our ability to remain efficient and effective will become taxed. We will steer our people toward being more effective in crime reduction and making sure people are safe as our number one priority.

The budget has been a working document, right up to today. This is the most recent copy. If the Commission has questions based on the other documents we can answer them. I’m giving you updated information that has been entered as recently as today by the finance department. I’m confident this document is ready to go to the finance department and the city manager, if you accept it.

Chief Dubois replied that we don’t know what that number (tax cap) is. That final number will be tabbed by the finance director and looked at from the Council. From there we may have to make adjustments as needed to these initial projections. Although we’ve completed our portion of the document, this has really just started, and is subject to review.

We have made some great progress with the media. Our liaison has established relationships with the local reporter. That’s helped us in getting information out to the public. We are using our website more and referring people to the website for information and particularly for crime reporting as it saves us time and funding.

Under our training goals and objectives we have increased the use of internet training for things we previously did in the classroom, reducing the cost of that training significantly while still providing good training

In the area of improving and building on community relationships increased our ability to deal with public service announcements through metrocast and through the city’s own staff on the gov channel, good PR there. Improved community relations through our work with substance abuse coalition which is headed by the Mayor, and working closely with them and dovetailing other resources with them that helped them receive a very substantial grant during this time period.

Our programs such as domestic violence links, CIT Programs and other website enhancements are to better educate the community about the work we are doing. The music studio operating out of the middle school is something that is helping us promote and work with various age groups in the city.

Interaction with other departments in the city, particularly the department of public works in dealing with snow and storm events, particularly the recent issues we had with the generator are good examples of things we talked about.

We have plans to work with a seatbelt safety promoter targeting folks particularly in pick up trucks. Statistically that is a group that has very low seat belt use. So we have some plans to work with them and promote driver safety with that group into the future.

(2) Support Report. Although no public report was provided, the following are the highlights of this report. The activity of the bureau remains high. The crimes against person’s detectives are working on updating registration files and preparing for the upcoming changes to the Federal reporting requirements for all sex offenders. The current number living in Rochester is 107.

The drug unit took part in some multi jurisdictional enforcement this month and they have several ongoing investigations. The Salvation Army burglary was solved, along with several previously reported burglaries after interviewing a person already incarcerated at the jail. The evidence team has been utilized several times this month for crime scenes.

The ice storm this month put a significant strain on our Communications Center due to call volume and equipment problems related to failure of our backup generator. The center handled more than 3400 phone calls between 1600 hours on Thursday December 11, through 1230 hours on Tuesday December 16, 2008. The center responded well to equipment issues the resulted from the power outages.

The center personnel participated in training this month including TAC (terminal agency coordinator) training, which is responsible for our SPOTS computer and NCIC compliance. Three specialists attended weapons of mass destruction training.

The center handled 4562-recorded calls for service in November. 4010 were attributed to police, 371 were EMS and 181 were fire calls. The busiest day in the center was Thursday and the busiest hour was between 1600 and 1700 hours.

All sworn members completed the requirements for annual training as required by Police Standards and Training. Additional training during the month included the Primex Supervisors Academy for the communications center supervisor, Domestic Violence Investigation training for all Sergeants and FTO’s, Police Prosecutor school for Capt. Callaghan, traffic control training to all personnel below the rank of Lieutenant by the Local Government Center, a SWAT leadership class sponsored by NHTOA, forensic interview training for two detectives, defensive tactics instructor training, all officers on the in-car video cameras and lastly there was training on the new speed trailer and related software.

(1) Communications Center. Comm. McManus inquired as to whom is in charge of the center. Who is in charge for particular issues? Like the generator, which I understand isn’t going to happen again. Is there a name?

Chief Dubois replied that there is a line supervisor, who’s name is Jason Cole and there is a department head and his name is David Dubois. We also have mid level management in that structure. We rely heavily on our public buildings and grounds people. The DPW Commissioner, the Deputy Chief and I, along with line level supervision are confident we have worked out those issues that have received some publicity. We are confident that whatever issues there were they were overcome. Supervisor Cole, the dispatchers and Buildings and Grounds responded quickly to our needs and we were able to provide all the services we needed to provide.

Comm. McManus said that at the Council meeting the previous evening there was discussion about a back up generator. He said I was on the Council when they built the police building. We talked about it. I hope we can find the money and that it doesn’t have to come from your budget to have a back up generator. I know it’s on your wish list.

Chief Dubois replied that it’s on our list to seek federal grant funds. He said with the back up generator he wants people to know that the infrastructure to the electrical work is all done. It’s a matter of having a generator with the correct plug in system. Its only needed if our primary generator goes down for an extended period of time. With the modifications and changes we have done to our practices, the likelihood of that happening is very low. But I think we should prepare for it, as the center is crucial for the safety of the city. The other thing to add is that there are other generators in the city that could be used for that. With this recent emergency they were occupied running other city services. There were so many needs in the city; we really taxed the equipment we have.

(2) Information. Comm. Levesque asked about getting the names of officers involved in various things, such as a cruiser accident or an injury report. Why doesn’t the Commission get that information?

Chief Dubois stated the information is available. This is not anything the Commission isn’t entitled to know, however, he is careful about what he puts in the email updates. He is cautious particularly about the release of medical information and having that out on the Internet. Just call me if you need more detail on anything I send.

Comm. Bemis said when this Commission first took office there was good input from the Chief and Deputy Chief but it seems to have waned. The situation with the ice storm, the Commission should have had that information. We’ve had more emails in the last two weeks from you, than in the first two weeks of the month.

Chief Dubois replied, to be blunt, the generator was a non-issue. The staff responded well and it was no more than a blip on the radar. I know others are inquiring about it. I knew about, and our staff and DPW folks respond, as I would expect. In emergency service there is always chaos and if we can’t adapt in chaos, that’s a problem.

Chief Dubois said it’s hard for me to gauge sometimes what you want to know. But I’m a phone call away. I try to give a synopsis email of things of importance. But I have to be careful and cloak what I put in an email.

A. Appreciation and Recognition: the Newbury MA Police thank “Team Fina” Officer MacKenzie and K9 Fina for assistance with a K9 drug sweep at local school. The Department is thanked by the Chamber of Commerce for participation in the annual holiday parade. County Commissioner Paul Dumont recognizes Sgt. Burke for work on the crisis intervention team. The Pomeroy family thanks the Department for assistance with evacuation to the shelter during the recent ice storm. Off. Chris Mangum and Jerry Murphy are recognized as City Employees of the Month.

Commissioner Bemis MOVED to enter a nonpublic session at 8:13 P.M. pursuant to RSA 91-A: 3, paragraph II, section A (personnel) and section E (legal.) SECOND by Comm. McManus. The motion PASSED by roll call vote, 3 B 0, with Comm. Bemis, Comm. McManus and Comm. Levesque voting yes. The non-public session closed at 8:48 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. McManus, SECOND by Comm. Bemis and PASSED unanimously.

Comm. Bemis MOVED to approve the evaluations of Det. Jamey Balint, Off. John Harding Off. Dominique Benoit, Det. Robert Frechette, Det. Ken Tapscott and Off. Eric Ball and to award any adjustments as may be entitled pursuant to the contract. SECOND by Comm. McManus and PASSED unanimously.