Police Commission Minutes 05/05/04

The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting on May 5, 2004. Present at this meeting was Chairman Dumont, Comm. Flanagan, Comm. Stenhouse, Chief Dubois, Capt. Pease, Capt. Allen, Lt. Callaghan, Attorney Grossman, Secretary Warburton, members of the Department, the public and the media.

A. Building Committee Updates. Chief Dubois advised that substantial completion is scheduled for the end of June. The electrical problem that’s been reported is still holding us up. We may be able to start moving some furniture in as early as May 20. That will help with regard to the final transition toward the end of June. The Comm. inquired if we can do this before the City accepts the building. Chief Dubois stated he is working on that issue with the City Manager, C.D.M. (Camp, Dresser and McKee) and Horne Construction. We test-fired a weapon down the range on April 14^th. The noise levels were better than expected given that not all doors have glass, and that ceiling tiles and carpets are still waiting for placement. We feel there will be little disruption in the building when all is complete. C.D.M. is working very hard on this project and the process is going well. We will keep you posted on further updates.

Chairman Dumont asked how much money we would value the furniture donation by Micros Northeast? Chief Dubois stated that if we bought this furniture new, it would have a value of between $25,000 and $30,000 dollars. There may be some other items that we can still get, such as dividers. It was suggested that the Chairman, on behalf of the Commission draft a letter of appreciation for the donation.

B. FY 04 Budget Updates: Discussion. Chief Dubois reported that we are on target and still expected to finish the year in the black. Changes made with regard to overtime monitoring in the past couple of months have had a positive impact on the payroll.

C. FY 05 Budget Updates: Discussion Chief Dubois reported that Capt. Pease, who will be working on this upcoming budget, has completed an analysis of the budget the City Manager presented to the council. Capt. Pease stated that he prepared a spreadsheet for the Commission to review of the budget book broken out with the recommended changes, particularly to the new positions. The public hearing on the budget is set for May 25, 2004. We are slated to make a brief presentation, estimated at 10 minutes, to the Council on May 18, 2004. Chairman Dumont commented that the power point presentation in December was longer than 10 minutes, how will we accomplish this? Chief Dubois responded that he will still have a power point, but it will be a shortened version highlighting things we think it’s important for the Council to consider. The Council will be allotted time to ask specific questions. One of the issues that will be discussed is the COPS Grant.

Comm. Stenhouse asked if we will be terminating the community policing program, or will we still be able to offer it in part? Chief Dubois said we will have some remnants of it, due to the restructuring and reallocating some resources to the patrol bureau. We will be able to do more in FY05, than we did in FY04 with community policing. Comm. Stenhouse inquired if what we do in FY05, will be the same as what was offered, in comparison, in FY00? Chief Dubois said no. Comm. Stenhouse said, then essentially we are going backwards.

D. DARE at Wm. Allen School This discussion takes place on review of a concern of a constituent last month. It is our plan through the restructuring to return the DARE Program and both SRO’s to the schools. Comm. Stenhouse asked since this letter, has anyone made any contact with the principal at the school? Chief Dubois stated he has not. Comm. Stenhouse recommended that happen, to put some closure to this matter. It was a series of events that caused the cancellation of the Program, which was unfortunate. I t is understood that the children were disappointed. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we plan.

E. Grand Jury Update Chairman Dumont requested that this matter be followed up each month. He inquired if any headway had been made on this process. Capt. Pease reported that 21 cases were disposed of from the backlog this month. He said that in reporting this last month, it seemed very dire. However, he discovered it’s not quite as bad as he thought. We found some clerical errors that were addressed and the fact that we have an excellent working relationship with Janice Rundles and the staff at the County Attorney’s office will go a long way to clearing up the rest of these cases.

F. Reverse 911 This remains on the agenda as we feel it’s a worthwhile program to have. It will come up first in the CIP request with the City Council. We have two items in CIP, with this being our priority item. If it does not get accepted in the CIP program, we will continue to look for alternate ways to fund it.

G. Fact Finder’s Report. Chairman Dumont stated the City Council rejected the fact finders report on May 5, 2004. He is glad they did, as the Commission had also rejected it. The Commissioners are highly anxious to get back to the table and move quickly to resolve this.

Comm. Stenhouse stated that the Commission has been concerned with the negotiation’s stalemate. The citizens have a right to know that the contract the commission originally approved some time ago had a generous wage offer, given these economic times. However, the wage offer was given in exchange for something the City wanted, which was more contribution toward health. The City has had a goal of getting everyone paying 20% of his or her health for at least four years. Comm. Stenhouse said he knows this to be true, because he was the City Manager working on that at that time. The other goal in the offer was for the Chief to retain more control of over time and leave issues. Part of the collective bargaining process is “quid pro quo,” getting something in return for giving something. The Commission stated the wish to formulate a contract that is acceptable. It may be difficult but we will work very hard to do so.

B. Accept drug forfeiture funds to be added to Account 910. Chief Dubois stated that this forfeiture was from a 1999 drug case, totaling $637.26. It went before the City Council last evening for acceptance. We anticipated and assume that it was accepted.

The Commission was advised that Attorney Grossman had reviewed all the updates. Most of the updates are part of our ongoing effort toward accreditation. Some of the policies still have Chief Vittum’s and Chief Blair’s name on them. As we make those changes, we take the opportunity to review the policies and make any needed adjustments.

Comm. Stenhouse advised his concerns with SOP 28, the policy containing pursuit procedures. He said he is not opposed to the housekeeping changes presented, but he is not a strong proponent of police pursuits. “Anyone can pick up a national newspaper and find a report detailing wreckage and carnage caused by high speed pursuits. Some of these pursuits may not really have been initiated for the immediate protection of life and property. I’m not saying this has happened in Rochester and it’s difficult to make a judgement call. However, I personally think our policy on this matter is too liberal. I don’t want to see people getting hurt. That includes our people, as well as innocent bystanders not involved in the chase. “

Chief Dubois stated that these concerns are being raised across the country in law enforcement and we will undertake a review of our policy in that regard. Our policy currently allows for officer discretion with supervision intervention. We haven’t done an in-depth review on this for some time.

Comm. Flanagan MOVED to waive the second reading and adopt the updates to Standard Operating Procedures 5, 14, 17, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27 and 28. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.

1. Patrol Bureau: Lt. Callaghan presented this report. He stated that both the Motorcycles are up and running. The OHRV was used last month. The K-9 team was re-certified in drug detection, and will be tested every six months. Fina has been with the Department now for a year.

As part of our compstat model we did some traffic analysis around the City. One area we chose for a traffic study was Brock Street due to the high pedestrian traffic with the schools there, the Babe Ruth field, etc. We did an intensive patrol for four days between 4:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. just documenting speeds of almost 200 cars per hour. The analysis revealed that 95% of the cars were traveling 39 mph, in a posted 30-mph zone. We did intensive traffic enforcement and stopped 49 cars, making one arrest for operating after suspension. We did the same enforcement several days later and stopped 25 cars, making two arrests, one for operating after suspension and one for transporting drugs. The compstat model will get the community involved through education and in the analysis of crime.

2. Investigations Bureau: Capt. Pease reported that there is not much new to report. Most of the division is status quo. We reported earlier on the grand jury issue of last month. One good thing to report is that we have no pending cases. All have been assigned. Patrol services has been working closely with ISB and hanging onto cases, allowing ISB to concentrate on priority crimes, crimes against persons. The specialty assignments are busy and are all status quo as well.

3. Administrative Bureau: We are comfortable where we are with the budget. With regard to the ongoing issue we’ve been having with computer software, we’ve decided to just move forward. The problem is that we were waiting for the system to have a natural run down of its memory, but as soon as it does, it resets itself. We’ve decided to install the upgrade and have the necessary staffs on had to deal with this. History has shown the computers will be down for twice as long as the anticipated number of hours. However, this long-standing issue is coming to an end, by us forcing it to happen.

4. Communications Bureau: Chief Dubois reported that we are working jointly in Communications to reclassify some call categories in the software to make them more consistent. This will aid us in the compstat model with regard to data entry. Supervisors have increased their attention to the data entry and the Supervisor is spending a lot of time interacting with the staff as all levels of the Department from investigations to patrol need to be up to speed for this process to work.

1. Bottled Water. Comm. Flanagan brought up the fact that he has traveled the state and visited other municipal buildings. As we are going to be moving into a new building, he suggested we consider purchasing bottled water. There are municipal rates available and he is being told it would be less than $500.00 per year. Comm. Stenhouse commented that he is not personally in favor of bottled water when the City has a very fine water product. It sends the wrong message. A government that provides water to its residents should be providing it to itself. Chairman Dumont said he didn’t have any issues with it.

2. Speed Trailer, Chairman Dumont inquired into the speed trailer and the recent problems we’ve been having. Chief Dubois reported that we have the unit back. There has been a software upgrade, which should help. It is out on Summer Street this evening and the Downtown CORE hopes to utilize it in the future.

A. Appreciation and Recognition. Letters sent on behalf of or recognizing Department members this month include: The Dept. thanks Micros Northeast for furniture donation to new police station. The Dept. thanks Liz Russo of Sexual Assault Support Service’s for an informational training session. The US Dept of Justice thanks Det. Blair for participation in a survey.

Comm. Flanagan MOVED to enter a non-public session at 7:33 P.M. for the purpose of personnel and legal matters. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse. The motion PASSED by roll call vote, Comm. Stenhouse-yes, Comm. Flanagan-yes, Chairman Dumont -yes. The non-public session closed at 7:53 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Flanagan. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.