Police Commission Minutes 01/05/05

The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting on January 5, 2005. Present at this meeting was Chairman Dumont, Comm. Flanagan, Comm. Stenhouse, Chief Dubois Capt. Allen, Capt. Taylor, Capt. Callaghan, Capt. Pease (Ret.), Lt. Gould, Lt. Dumas, Attorney Grossman, Secretary Warburton, members of the Department, the public and the media.

A. Building “punch list items” Update: Capt. Allen reported that of the remaining punch list items, the carpet in the elevator had been replaced as of this date. He further advised that the door lock to the secure area upstairs still needs to be replaced.

B. Winter Ban Enforcement; Leonard Street Tickets: This was an issue that was discussed at the December meeting. We did research those tickets and found they were issued within the proper time frame. The payment of the same has been recorded and we consider the matter closed.

1. SOP 28; Oper. Of Police MV, et al. Chief Dubois stated this was reviewed and revised so that the circumstances of pursuits will be narrowed to felony level crimes. It is before the Commission for adoption. The felony level crimes will offset or balance the risk of pursuit for the Officers involved. Comm. Stenhouse stated that he initiated this review request. He said, “I’m satisfied that this puts more controls on pursuits. Personally I would have preferred a policy that didn’t allow pursuits. However this is legitimate middle ground that allows for some exceptions.”

2. SOP 118: Incident Command System. As requested at our prior meeting, we did have the Fire Chief review this document. He was satisfied with the contents and that it does not conflict with any existing policies for Emergency Management in the City.

3. SOP 119: Use of Meeting Rooms. Chief Dubois stated that the City Manager is in agreement with the restrictions that we have adopted into the policy. This is similar to a policy in place at the Library.

1. Homeland One Grant. The State was awarded another one million dollars and it was the consensus to spend those funds by continuing the subscription to the Primedia Satellite Training and Information network in the State. The amount of funding available for Rochester will fund an additional seven months beyond our current contract. We will build the five remaining months’ funding into our operating budget for FY 06.

2. Homeland Security Competitive Grants: We had applied for these grants a few months back. We submitted a grant for the AVL/GPS and a grant for Reverse 911. We were successful in obtaining only the Reverse 911 Grant. The City Council accepted the funding for the Reverse 911 at the January 4, 2005 Council meeting.

If and when the Commission accepts, we can begin to work on putting this system in place. The Commission approved the grant and Chairman Dumont stated that he was thankful for the Council’s support of this project.

1. 2004 Homeland Grant. Capt. Allen reported this is another competitive grant. He is seeking the Commission’s authorization to apply for a “crisis communications negotiation system.”

Comm. Stenhouse MOVED that the Department applies for funds under the 2004 Homeland Security Competitive Grants for a crisis communications negotiation system. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.

2. Police Union Contract. Chairman Dumont stated that last night the City Council voted to pass and award the contract proposed between the Police Commission and the Police Union. We were delighted. At 8:30 this morning we got the news that the Mayor had vetoed the same.

When the Commission met the last time with the Union we agreed to go in and we fought for a contract that was the same as provided to the Fire Department by the City Manager. There were no differences at all. There was a 4.25% increase all the way through. It was all identical. When the City Manager passed the contract with the Fire Department, he bragged about how good a contract it was. We emulated that, and now it’s not such a good deal? I think there is something wrong there. This is so much less about the contract and more about being pro or con for the Commission. After talking to that group in the back room last night, they will never forget they lost the election with regard to retaining or abolishing the Police Commission. I think we gave the Council an excellent contract for the Police Union.

Comm. Stenhouse stated the Council passed the contract by a vote of seven to six and the Mayor vetoed it. I think its unfortunate that the majority was not followed by a minority. Our goal is still to have a viable contract for the men and women of the Police Department.

1. SOP 05; Adult Arrest Procedures. Chief Dubois stated that most of these are housekeeping changes regarding security and release of prisoners; including for bail, as well as other minor updates.

2. SOP 14; Use of Force Procedures. This update adds “The Law Enforcement Safety Act of 2004" to our policy, which is an amendment to Title 18, Section 926B, of the US Code. This will allow Officers to carry out of State. It is a federal guideline and does not forego any State requirement. Comm. Stenhouse asked what will this actually do for us? Chief Dubois advised that it will help, particularly for those Officers who reside outside of NH by allowing them to transport their weapon to and from work. They are currently not allowed to do that. With this amendment if they choose to, they can.

Chief Dubois advised we are prepared to discuss the Bureau reports, but with all we have to complete this evening, we were only planning to do so if the Commission had any questions. The bureau reports were accepted with no further discussion.

Chief Dubois stated that we have several ceremonial matters to attend to this evening. It is nice to see such a large crowd. We note that the City Manager, the School Superintendent, and some City Councilor are present. We appreciate the support of the political leaders. Most important, though, are the families of the Officers being recognized tonight. An important part of the profession is the support system at home and to see so many of you here is really pleasing to us and we appreciate your attendance.

1. FTO Bar Presentation - Officer Eric Babine. Chief Dubois stated that the first award this evening is to award one of the Officers a field training bar or ribbon for his uniform. This is presented to Officers involved in training new Officers in field operations in the law enforcement profession.

The media has covered the turnover at the Rochester Police Department, noting that we are above the State average. It is important that we keep qualified training people. It helps us to get our younger Officers up to speed quickly so that may start to serve the citizens of the City.

We recruited Officer Babine from another Department to the north of us. He came with experience and training from this other Department that made him very valuable to the citizens of this City. He is an outstanding young Officer, and he does a great job. We recognized that Eric would be a valuable trainer early on in his career. He has done a great job in that role to date. We take these awards seriously and we hope that Eric will wear this with the pride that we give it to you with. We hope that he continues with his fine work. We really appreciate his efforts.

2. Oath of Office - Jeremiah Murphy. Chief Dubois stated that we will next give the oath of office to a new Police Officer, who in the coming weeks will find his way to Eric, or another field trainer. This young Officer was recruited from the Bay State, where we have had some success in obtaining good, qualified Officers. He has previous law enforcement training and worked as a part-time Officer in Massachusetts. He will spend four to eight weeks in training in-house and then he will go off to the Police Academy for twelve weeks. He will come back to us and spend an additional eight to twelve weeks in the field training program, prior to being released to solo patrol.

Jeremiah and his wife, Melissa came to the dias. Chief Dubois said, you’ve impressed us so far in the process and we are still impressed. We are happy to have you with us.

3. Oath of Office, Promotion - Sgt. Jason Thomas. Chief Dubois said asked Officer Jason Thomas and his Mom, Dale, to the dias. He said Jason has been with us for several years. He has been a field training officer and most recently coordinated the training for the entire Department as part of his assignment. He recently tested for promotion to Sergeant, and scored first.

A line supervisors job is very important. Tonight, one of the Commissioner’s said, “treat people right.” It will be Jason’s job to make sure that takes place. It’s a very important part of the profession that we uphold the public trust. The badge is a symbol of our public trust and it’s very important to us and these pinning ceremonies because of that. Jason’s role is to ensure that public trust is maintained. He has shown us that to date in his career and I know he’ll do a great job helping us teach younger Officers how to do that as well.

Chief Dubois said, today we have wives’, and mothers come and help us with these ceremonies. Mom’s and Dad’s instill the character traits that good Police Officers need to do a good job. Wives and the support system at home help them maintain that throughout their career, a career that can be difficult. As we go on throughout the night, I’m going to talk about some senior Officers and some of the things that they have done, to drive that point home a little bit.

4. Retirement Recognition, Capt. Robert Pease. Chief Dubois stated that the evening’s ceremonies have been sweet so far. But it’s going to get a little bittersweet for some of us as we proceed. We are at a point in the ceremony where we are going to honor a 22-year career of a retiring Captain of the Police department.

I would ask Captain, (Ret.) Bob Pease and his wife and any family members he would like, to come up with you Bob, while our Chaplain does an opening prayer for this part of the ceremony

Chairman Dumont. “What do you say about a good man?” You’ve been a good man to the Department. I’ve only known you for five years and every time we hire a new Officer I say “treat people the way you would want to be treated.” You exercised that over the years. I hate to see you go my friend. Good luck to you in your retirement Bob.

Comm. Flanagan. It’s a pleasure for me to be able to address Bob tonight. I’ve known Bob since he came to Rochester. I had the pleasure of umpiring and coaching when he was involved with Little League. He’s shown the same nature and stature of a man as he did with his own children, with the public here in the City of Rochester – fair, caring, loving and compassionate. I hate to see you go. I’m glad for you that you are as twenty-two years is a long time. Everyone knows that behind every good man, is a better woman. Joanne, you’ve been a partner to him. I know it was tough. Bob, I wish you all the best in the future.

Comm. Stenhouse. Congratulations on your retirement. I enjoyed working with you for twelve years both in my role for the City, and now as a Police Commissioner. You were always a gentleman. You still are and always will be.

Chaplain Lachapelle. Bob I remember when you joined this Department. I spent the entire 22 years of your career with you, in some capacity. I wish you a lot of happiness and good health. There is much knowledge that is leaving this Department again. There have been many that have left in the past few months that had gained the knowledge exceeding 20 years. So again, I wish you all the best.

Chief Dubois said one thing we like to do, particularly when an Officer has the tenure with the Department that Bob does, is that we ask members of the Department that worked with him over the years if they want to say anything at this time. Most are bashful - they’ll say their things to Bob in private before he leaves. But I am always thankful to the folks that take the couple of moments to step up to the podium and say some things publicly, as it adds to our honor of this man. Two people have agreed to do that.

Becky Warburton, Administrative Secretary. “I got you a present!” Seriously, I grew up with Bob Pease. I joined this Department at the age of twenty-two. There is no pretense about Bob Pease. When we moved to the new building, I lost my office window. I have tons of plants so I walked around asking, “Can I use your window? Can I use your window?” I put two plants in Bob’s windows – and he hated them. When I would come to water them, I would say, “I’ve come to water your plants.” And he would say, “you know what you can do with those plants.” This plant that I have for you tonight is really special, because it is cuttings from a plant that I was given by Lieutenant (retired) Paul Moore. So I want to give this to you for your new office. We’re going to miss you.

Capt. Paul Callaghan. Bob, I wish I could say something funny right now, but I can’t. This is a bitter sweet moment for me to say good bye to you. You’ve been an excellent commander. You’ve been a great friend and a wonderful mentor.

I remember the first time we worked together 17 ½ years ago. I was this rookie and I stumbled upon a homicide. You were stuck with the unenviable task of making sure that I completed the search warrant and arrest warrant correctly. It lasted all night long. We had this old manual typewriter that I used to hunt and peck on that thing for about 16 hours, with him overlooking my shoulder.

I’m going to miss the times we spent together talking about politics, our families and our future goals. There is a reason why you were the first Ted Blair Memorial Award recipient. You were ethical, honest, straight and you did the right thing, all the time.

I learned if I had a question with computers you had the answer. If I had a legal problem or question, you knew the answer off the top of your head. If I had a personnel issue, you were there to guide me through it and offer help. And even when you brought me to the wood shed, you did it with fairness and with the best interest of the Department in mind.

You know I’m selfishly sad to see you go. I know you’re leaving us but you and Joanne will be able to relax and enjoy your time together with good health. Best of luck. We’ll stay in touch.

Chief Dubois said the Police Department is part of a larger group of employees, which includes folks in City Hall, the Fire Department, Public Works, Recreation, Library and the Schools.

City Managers over the years have tried to do their best to bring us together as one big happy family. Gary Stenhouse started having small social events’ city wide and we’ve had a lot of fun with that. At this time, City Manager Bob Steele will make a presentation.

Bob Steele, City Manager. It is a real honor to make this presentation tonight. The Mayor asked me to fill in for him this evening because he had other commitments. Although I’m a relatively new comer to the administrative family of the City of Rochester, I have been involved in the business community here for a great many years. I’ve had the opportunity to observe Capt. Pease in his various Police functions over the years. He has truly been a gentleman in the way he conducts himself and in the way that he handles issues, addressing them in a very factual, businesslike, yet compassionate, way.

In my duties as the City Manager it has been joy to work with him in his administrative functions over the last 10 months or so. I will truly miss him in that respect. On a personal note I wish Bob endless good health and happiness in his retirement and I’m sorry to see him leave. On behalf of the City I want to present him with this token for his many years of service to us here. Bob was presented with a granite rock in the shape of the state of NH, with the following engraved quote:

Chief Dubois said we have a fraternal organization in the Department called the Rochester Police Benevolent Association which does charitable work in the City and also does a lot of work helping Officers and their families in times of need. For instance, we have two Officers that are on active duty mobilization with the US military. One is in Iraq at this time and his family is here. The RPBA does a lot of work with that Officer’s family to help them out. Another thing that they do is make presentations at the time of retirement. The President is not available, so I will ask Chairman Dumont to make this presentation.

Chairman Dumont said, “On behalf of this Department we are proud, really proud to present this to you.” Capt. Pease was presented with a shadowbox containing a uniform shirt depicting his insignia and ribbons achieved over the years.

Chief Dubois said I get a chance to say a few words just like the other members and I never turn down that opportunity. Bob, I want to talk to you publicly a bit about my thoughts about you.

You and I started in the profession about the same time 22 years ago. We saw a lot of people come and go. To be frank, I’m glad some of them went. All in all the majority of Officers, particularly those that reach retirement age, they retire with honor and it’s sad to see them go.

I can tell you that of all the people that have retired in my time, and there’s been some really good ones, I’m going to miss you the most. It’s a difficult profession, and it’s difficult to maintain strong relationships in this profession over a long period of time. Everyone has said tonight you show consistency. You’re a gentleman, respectful and compassionate. It’s always been there and it’s helped you earn that place in my heart. You’ve been a great person to work with over the years. I want to tell a few stories.

I just told you how I felt about Bob. I rely on him a lot. He’s always backed me up and helped me out. We had a difficult decision to make recently in the Police Department. I got the command staff together – the Lieutenants, the Captains and Bob and I asked everybody’s opinion as to how they would handle the situation. Every Lieutenant, every Captain said they would handle it in the same way, which was in direct conflict with how I wanted to handle it. So I looked down the table to my old salt down there and I’m thinking Bob will bail me out. I said, “Bob will you tell me how you’d handle it please?” And I was hoping I would get something close to what I wanted to do so I could at least have some support. I didn’t get it from him this time. I didn’t get even close to it.

I ended up not listening to him or to any of the other commanders and that thing just blew up in my face and I really regretted that to this day. I’m going to miss you Bob, and I wish I had listened to you a few more times.

The other thing I want to talk a bit about is your character. We started on the job together, and we tested for promotions together, all the way up. We tested for Sergeant together, Lieutenant together, Captain together and we even went up on the Chief’s job together.

Our first promotion together was for Sergeant. We had been studying together for a long time. He actually designed my study plan for me. I didn’t know how I was going to go about studying. Bob said this is what I’m doing and he gave me a plan and I used it, saying I’ll do the same thing.

So the day of the test, at the oral board, we are getting ready to walk in. I was the first one to go in and Bob said to me, “Do you know the nine Supreme Court Justices of the United States?” I said, “of course I do, Bob. But just in case you don’t know, tell me what you think they are.” So he told me. Well, I really didn’t know and when I walked in that was one the questions they asked. We came out of that and I was like 2/100ths’ of a point ahead of him. I ended up getting promoted, thanks to Bob giving me the answer.

That’s how tests work in the law enforcement profession. A crazy question can make the difference. Bob’s character allowed him to give me the answer right in the middle of a competition that was very important to both of us. We both ended up making Sergeant in close proximity to one another.

Something else happened in my career with Bob that impacted me even more about his character. It really taught me a lesson early and has helped me throughout my career.

We were both young officers. There was a commander of the Department that the Union wanted to take a vote of no confidence against. And I liked this commander. I liked him a lot, not only as a person, but as a commander. The president of the Union who was a Sergeant at the time walked up to me, a young Officer, and he said, “I want you to sign this petition.” I looked at it and I didn’t want to sign it, because I liked this commander. But I didn’t have the strength to say no.

That would mean more to the law enforcement Officers than anybody else here, because this is a very unique profession. We want to conform with brother and sister Officers. If that goes too far, it can lead to corruption really quick in a Police Department. Now what I was doing wasn’t corrupt, but it was certainly not what I had wanted to do. My parents had taught me better.

I signed the petition and it went through. I went up to Bob after and I said, “Hey Bob, did you sign that petition?” He said, “Hell no, I didn’t sign that petition. I like that commander and I wouldn’t do that.”

It made a difference to me and from that day forward, I learned the importance of holding true to your core value system, particularly in this profession. People like Ted Blair, Bob Pease, they always had that, or at least they always demonstrated it to me. And thanks to you Bob, I was able to demonstrate that a little bit more in my career. So I thank you for that and I thank you for everything that you have done for me at every level that we have worked together. I’m going to miss you more than anyone else that has retired here. You’ll always have a warm spot in my heart.

Chief Dubois said, the next thing we try to do and I think we always fall short in this area, we try to honor the spouse if it applies to the retiring Police Officer. We’re kind of special in the profession here in Rochester. We’ve had four Officers retire this year, senior Officers, good Officers, every one of them retired, happily married, with the same spouse that they originally got married to. That may not sound like a big deal in a lot of professions, but in this one, it’s a huge deal. It takes a special person to be the spouse of a Police Officer.

Commissioners and others have talked about some of the things that we have to do in this job. Officers like Bob Pease come up through the ranks, in supervisory roles, investigative roles, helping young Officers with homicides – those are taxing times for a Police Officer and they are very taxing on the Officer’s family. Bob’s got good kids, happy kids, a happy, healthy family and a very loving wife that I have never heard him say one bad thing about in the 22 years I have known him. A lot of cops couldn’t say that either. Bob can. That’s something that you should be proud of.

Joanne, you should rest assured that the support that you’ve given him allowed him to help a lot of people in this City over the years. All the things that we’ve talked about, compassion, caring and the stuff that he’s done in the City is really a direct result of you and the boys and the support that you gave him from home every day. He’s a guy I never saw come in to work unhappy. He’s a lucky man.

Chief Dubois said the last thing we do is we have a tradition of issuing Officers a retirement badge. I talked about the badge being a symbol of the public trust that we hold in the community. So when Officers leave here with career honor and distinction and Bob has certainly done that, this means a lot. I said earlier that some Officers left the profession and I’m glad they’re gone. I mean that. We get rid of people that don’t honor that badge. We fire them. We don’t give them a final salute. Bob has earned all the honor that he’s getting tonight. And part of that is the retirement badge.

Before we make that presentation, we will have Bob’s wife, Joanne, take his active badge from him and present it to the spouse of the Captain that is replacing him. Could we please have Captain Callaghan, his wife Susan and his children come to the dias please.

Joanne will then present Bob with his retirement badge, as Susan present’s Paul with his active Captain’s badge. We’ll ask Chaplain Lachapelle to take part in this also by giving the oath of office for Captain to Paul Callaghan.

Comm. Flanagan said, “as she pins this on her husband I want to share one thing with you. I hope you find it easy to remember this. In a lifetime a lot of people walk in and out of your life, but friends leave footprints on your heart. Bob, you’ve left a lot of footprints on our hearts.”

Bob Pease. I did want to get up and take an opportunity tonight to thank everybody that I’ve worked with over the years. I don’t just mean the Police Officers. We’ve had some really tremendous Police Officers over the years. But I have had the opportunity to also work with some fine support staff and a lot of them are here tonight. I am really thankful for you being here. I appreciate all you did because you worked hard too and I greatly appreciate it.

I’m very happy that Ron Lachapelle was here because I do remember way back when I sat in front of the Commission and begged for a job. And they hired me. Ron was a Commissioner at that time, so I’ve been able to remain close to Ron over the years and I’m very happy that he’s here tonight with me because he has been an important part of my life over the 22 years.

The Yeagley’s are here, Ray and Sue, good friends of ours. Ray is the Superintendant of our Schools. One of the best that we have ever had and I’m appreciative of you and Sue for being here as well.

And my friends on the Fire Department. I couldn’t get up here without thanking them. In Rochester we have a very close working relationship with the fire department and we have some great people over there as well. I couldn’t get up here without recognizing the great men and women of the Rochester Fire Department.

I’d like to thank the Police Commission and the various Police Commissioners whom I’ve worked for over the years because they have had a great impact on my career. Because they are the ones that have said when I move up and when I don’t. They’re the people that have, in large measure, guided my career as well. I am thankful to have the opportunities which they gave me to grow and progress in the profession.

Gary Stenhouse, I really enjoyed working with Gary when he was the City Manager. I thought Gary was one of the most competent City Manager’s that I have ever seen. It was tremendous to work with him as City Manager and I was thrilled when he got elected to the Commission because I knew he could bring that to the Commission.

I want to thank my family. My sweet wife. Married almost 27 years. That’s longer than I have been a Police Officer. She’s had to put up with me a lot longer than you folks. But I am thankful to her because the Chief was right, without my wife behind me I could have never completed this career. When I was supposed to be at home helping to raise my sons, and one of my son’s, Dan, is here tonight, I wasn’t. I was here working and my wife had to do it alone. So she is as much a part of this career as anything I have ever done. I want to thank her for that and to let her know that I love her.

To all the Police Officers that I’ve worked with over the years, I just want to say I know there were times when I was hard on people. That’s because I took this profession very, very seriously and to those people that worked under me, I expected them to take it just as seriously. This is very important work we do. Lives’ can be ruined and families can be destroyed. There’s a lot of good or bad in the way we do our job. I expected it to be done well, all the time. So I just wanted all of you to know that when I pushed you, I was trying to stretch you and push you to be better than what you were, in hopes that you could progress and grow as well.

I’d just like to close by telling Chief Dubois, Dave, I’m going to miss you the most too because you and I came on the department almost at the same time. We’ve grown up on the Department together. And we have had a great working relationship through those entire years. Even though we were going up against each other competing for promotions all those times. That never stood in the way of the fact that I respected him as a person and his abilities to do the job. I knew that he respected me too. Regardless of what happened in those times, it never affected our working relationship of twenty-two great years. We’ve done some really neat stuff together. I want to thank everybody for being here. City Manager Bob Steele, thanks to you too.

A. Appreciation and Recognition. Letters recognizing Department members this month include: Capt. Allen is thanked by Durham PD for coordinating use of the range. Det. Funk is thanked by Pack 237 for tour of Station. Off. Babine is recommended to receive the FTO (Field Training Officer)Bar for his uniform. Off. MacKenzie and Fina are thanked by Portsmouth PD for assisting in the “education enforcement sweep” at the high school. Det. Dugas is nominated as Employee of the Month.

Comm. Flanagan MOVED at 8:20 P.M. to hold a non-public session 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 9:00 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Stenhouse. SECOND by Chairman Dumont and PASSED unanimously.

The Commission entered non-public session at 8:45 P.M., following a recess taken for the closing ceremonies in recognition of the retirement of Capt. Robert Pease.

Comm. Flanagan MOVED to promote Jason Thomas to the rank of Sergeant, effective January 1, 2005. His salary will be set as provided in the union contract. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.

Comm. Stenhouse MOVED to promote Paul Callaghan to the rank of Captain, effective January 1, 2005. His salary shall be set at $63,000 per year. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.