Police Commission Minutes 04/06/05

The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting on April 6, 2005. Present at this meeting was Chairman Dumont, Comm. Flanagan, Comm. Stenhouse, Chief Dubois, Capt. Allen, Capt. Taylor, Capt. Callaghan, Attorney Grossman, and Secretary Warburton, members of the Department, the public and the media.

A. Stacy Gilman, 576 Paulson Road, Farmington, NH. Mr. Gilman stated that he would like to put on record his dismissal and the coverage of the same in the newspaper. He requested to discuss this further in non-public session. Said request was granted.

Comm. Stenhouse asked for clarification under Patrol Bureau reports (page 4) if the arrests noted were criminal arrests. It was determined that number did indicate criminal arrests. Comm. Stenhouse asked that the minutes clarify that.

Comm. Stenhouse MOVED to accept the minutes of the March 3, 2005 minutes, as clarified and amended, and also to accept the minutes of the March 14, 2005 special meeting, as submitted. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.

A. Technology Updates (Bio-Key). Capt. Allen stated that he has received more support from several area Chief’s regarding this matter. We are working out an issue with the phone company for a high-speed phone line. Negotiations are on going and the project is moving forward rapidly.

B. Grant Updates; Homeland Security. Capt. Allen stated the Commission may recall that the Department had applied a few months ago for additional Homeland Security funds. The grant was approved at $18,839, which is slightly more than we had applied for.

The purpose of the grant is to purchase a crisis communications telephone system for the tactical unit. We would use this in situations of barricaded subjects and other hostage situations where making contact for negotiations is important. The grant has been forwarded to the City Council for approval. We are asking for the commission to accept the grant award and to move forward with the presentation to the City Council.

Comm. Flanagan MOVED to accept the Homeland Security Grant in the amount of 18,839, for the purchase of a crisis negotiations system, and to forward the same to the City Council for approval. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.

Chief Dubois opened this portion of the meeting inviting Fire Chief Norm Sanborn and Communications Supervisor Jayne Young to the dais, as part of recognizing the Communications Specialist in the Public Safety center with a proclamation. Chief Dubois stated this is an important and demanding job, as the proclamation states. “I want to express my own pride and appreciation for the work the communications center does in the City of Rochester.”

Fire Chief Norm Sanborn stated that in his fire career he has found the specialists to be the unsung hero’s of public safety. It takes a unique and talented person to do this job and do it well. I think it’s only fitting that we honor them. We expect them to be able to do several tasks at once and they are often taken for granted by both the public and emergency services. “I admire them and want to thank them on behalf of all the firefighters in Rochester. We appreciate what they do every day. They are the real hero’s and we are very proud to work with them.”

Comm. Supervisor Jayne Young said, “I get to see first hand the work that they do. The specialists that we have in Rochester are some of the most dedicated, skilled and trained individuals. They have a passion for wanting to help the public. I appreciate them every day.”

Chief Dubois asked Officer Richard Stanley and Officer Keith Dietenhofer to step forward. It was noted that Off. Dietenhofer was currently engaged in a police investigation and unable to attend. Chief Dubois said through the alertness of these two officers, they most probably averted a crime from occurring. They observed a suspiciously parked car and suspicious actions of two persons at a local business. Physical arrests were made. It is this kind of work that makes an impression on the community and we feel these officers should be recognized for their hard work. We appreciate the work they do every day.

Chief Dubois stated that Chairman Dumont will take the bulk of this presentation, however, he wished to recognize Keith and Fina for some outstanding work they have done in the community this past week. The Team is certified in drugs, tracking and article finding. This has become important to the profession, as suspects may throw things away that may be more easily found through a K-9 versus an investigator.

Chief Dubois said we have had a high profile crime under investigation in the City for some time. An article was found that we believe we can successfully link to this ongoing investigation. Late this afternoon we received a call for a burglary in progress. Officers observed suspects leaving the home and physical arrests were made. Team Fina was able to locate articles from that scene that will be critical to this investigation. Chief Dubois said, “Keith you are doing an outstanding job. You took that program where Vinnie Wallace left off and have excelled in it and taken it to where it is today.”

Chairman Dumont said that he plays a dual role, not only as a Police Commissioner in Rochester, but also as a County Commissioner. As a County Commissioner they wanted to have the jail investigated for drugs. A team of four dogs was brought in. He said that it was one of the most professional operations he has had the opportunity to observe. It was impressive to watch the interaction between the handlers and their K9 partners. He said, “I am so proud of our team and the work they do.” A certificate was presented to Keith and Fina for their assistance at the jail.

Chief Dubois noted that Lt. Scott Dumas could not be present, as he was also involved in an ongoing investigation. Lt. Dumas is a mid-level manager in the Police Department. It’s an important position. Part of his role is to fill in for division commanders when they are absent. Recently his division commander not only took vacation, but also attended a week-long school. During that time, Lt. Dumas worked diligently on two high profile crimes that can in to the Department. One was an armed robbery at Wal Mart and the other was a very detailed identity fraud case. Both the Investigations Bureau and Patrol Bureau along with other agencies at the State and Federal level worked with us on some of these issues, and arrests were ultimately made in these cases. It is a difficult job to fill in for a division commander, but Lt. Dumas stepped up and did an outstanding job. Therefore he is receiving a letter of commendation from the Department.

The Chief’s award, a recently adopted program by the Police Commission is being awarded this evening to Captain Michael J. Allen. The award is given for extraordinary or exemplary police work in many different areas. Capt. Allen has been at the command level for several years. He has overseen every bureau the Department has at one time or another and has been very competent in all of them. Over the past several months, Capt. Allen has been involved in several technology projects that will really bring the Rochester Police Department to the forefront from the standpoint of technology advancement.

Capt. Allen was directly involved with the oversight of the construction of the new police facility and he played a critical role with the architect in the design phases of the new facility. He was directly involved for oversight installation of Project 54, which is voice activated commands in the cruisers. He has been involved with upgrading and maintenance of radar systems, computer systems, mobile data terminals that we use daily in the Department.

Capt. Allen is critical and extremely important to the Department in grant writing, saving the City thousands of dollars. He has played major roles in the build up of our TAR and SAFE Teams, including the technology and training involved with those types of operations.

Chief Dubois said most recently Mike has been involved with our acquisition of AVL / GPS systems which will promote officer safety and tracking and additionally will be part of an information sharing network that will be housed here in the City.

This network will permit other police departments that desire to do so, an opportunity to work with us on information sharing capabilities that will allow all of us to better fight crime throughout Strafford County.

Chief Dubois said, “Mike has taken the vision of past Chiefs and moved forward with them. We talked about these things under the leadership of Chief Ted Blair and Chief Dan Auger and now have made it a reality.” You are an outstanding police officer and it is an honor to present this award to you.

Capt. Allen stated, “I am truly thankful and humbled by this award. The things the Chief mentioned that go with this award could not have been done without the support of the people that I work with, including the Commission, and also including the support of my wife. Thank you very much.”

Capt. Allen advised there are three separate proposals here. The first is a grant from Police Standards and Training. It is their standard reimbursement amount to cover the cost of attending the three-week command-training program at the Roger Williams University. This will cover the cost of sending Sgt. Jason Thomas to the training.

The second proposal is a technology transfer program. This is a federal program that has no matching funds requirement. It is more of an equipment acquisition program. We obtained night vision equipment through this program a few years ago. Through this program we are seeking a wireless video kit that will aid us in drug investigations. The application for the program is done over the Internet. We are asking the Commission’s permission to apply for these funds.

The third proposal is our standard application to the State for Highway Safety Grants. These must go through the City’s Public Safety Committee. The State runs on an October to September fiscal year, so this targets programs to be run next year.

1. Patrol Bureau: Capt. Callaghan stated that the comp stat report is self-explanatory. It shows the dedicated efforts of Patrol (in field and self-initiated activity) and that they have been working extremely hard. We are pleased with the results. With the recent resignations, we plan to have more of a presence of command staff officers doing street level work and interacting with the community.

Comm. Stenhouse asked if we are noticing any trends from analyzing these reports? Statistics will indicate certain things are or are not going on, or issues that may need to be resolved, or areas that we may need to spend more time on.

Capt. Callaghan responded with an example for accidents. We are analyzing the accidents. We did not have as many last year as we did this year. It reveals that year to date approximately 70% of our accidents is a direct result of weather conditions. So we are not as concerned with the increase. The same analysis of injuries as a result of accidents shows that year to date last year 20% of accidents were with injuries. This year, we are in the high teens percent of accidents with injuries.

We continue to work on our motor vehicle statistics. We have also used the K9 officer on foot beats. He made four drug related arrests in the down town area, in parking lots over the previous weekend.

Comm. Stenhouse suggested that the mapping portion of the reports identify the main thoroughfares into the city, so that when reading the map, you can gauge where you are. For example, if you did that with the DWI report you have a better idea of where some of this activity is going on in the City. It gives the Commission an idea where the centers of activity are in the city.

It was noted that we would continue to refine the report and include this information on all maps. Capt. Callaghan also stated we have analyzed DWI arrests for the past five years and can show locations where they happen.

Chief Dubois added that some other things the report shows is the outstanding work Lt. Gould has been doing in theft reduction in the City. We’ve done some target hardening with certain businesses, as well as education for shoplifting prevention. This is beneficial as it gives us good feedback to use as part of our education process. We are seeing results in this program that mirror the State’s “Looking Beyond the Traffic Ticket” program. Our work in the area of drugs we are seeing a lot through routine intelligence and investigative work with our drug unit. These are early results but they look very good. We continue to work at the Lieutenant level for ways to analyze and address these issues.

Other areas the report includes is risk management. We show an increase in use of force reports this year over last year. This can be attributed to better reporting of these incidents. We have always been mindful of sick time, but applying the comp stat process this has traditionally never received this kind of look or review.

Comm. Stenhouse stated it will be great when we have three to four years of statistics to compare. This, while realizing it’s in the infancy stages, is good stuff. Chief Dubois concurred. This program is allowing us to interact with other Departments on a whole different level than before. For example, we are involved with the CORE program down town and that helps the City from an economic standpoint.

Chairman Dumont inquired into the amount of time to generate this data. It concerns me, if doing this is taking away from street level work. Capt. Callaghan replied that the reports are generated at the Captain level, with support staff from information garnered through statistics.

Comm. Stenhouse commented that based on where he lived previously, one statistic in Rochester that alarms him is the domestic violence statistic. He said, “I know we work with agencies and have a county-wide program that we work with.”

Chief Dubois stated we are putting a lot of resources to that area. We have one person assigned to that who works closely with the County program. You will see several categories going down. We strongly believe that because there is more attention to that area of law. We are doing compliance checks on offenders and this is showing early results. We are doing what we can to reduce repeat offenders. Our officer is using a risk assessment form that he reviews with the reports. He’s made three arrests on repeat offenders with that information.

Chief Dubois responded, “I’ve done a lot of reading and attended training at the IACP convention in Los Angeles. I personally spoke to Chief Bratton, who created and introduced the comp stat model. He has used this model in New York, in Boston, and in Los Angeles. He has been successful every place he has worked and used this model.”

“However, this doesn’t come without resistance, at several levels. We have made drastic changes to the way we police this city. We are light-years ahead in using this process. This is being looked at from several ways than the original Bratton plan. You have to tailor this program to your organization and community. Thus we would use it differently than agencies in other communities or states. We would use it differently than say, Portsmouth, or Boston, or New York.”

Chief Dubois said, “I have heard the comp stat model discussed in the State by other Chief’s, some pro and some con. I concern myself with the City of Rochester and the people of Rochester and use the feed back that I get from all levels.”

Comm. Flanagan asked about the time the command staff must put in to this. Could their time be spent better elsewhere? Are we getting a good bang for our buck from staff, or taking too much time to do this?

Chief Dubois replied that Comp stat is forcing accountability to the police. It is forcing commanders to come up with solutions to make an impact. For too long we have heard excuses about lack of personnel and money. The commanders are held to a high level of accountability. This program does take time. But our early results are showing it’s worth the time. We are getting better results with a reduced work force. The stats before you are showing more results with less staff. That’s the result of hard work and goes hand in hand with why we are honoring these officers.

Comm. Stenhouse commented that he works in an industry that is very data driven. “I personally think this is the way to go. If you use this data correctly, you concentrate resources on what is really going on, not what we think is going on. This is a real-time use of data. “Boots on the ground” so to speak.” “My dad was a cop. This has set traditional law enforcement on its ear. Some people don’t like change. But you have to do it.”

Chief Dubois stated we have to continue to evaluate this. Our progress has been rapid. We have become accustomed to doing the job the way we do. This is extremely important stuff and I appreciate the questions.

2. Investigations Bureau: Capt. Taylor reported that the success of comp stat in Patrol has driven the review of the support side of the house and other areas they can report out on. You will see in Communications we have reported out on calls to the center by shift, by priority and by radio and phone traffic. This is showing the tremendous workload that is shouldered in that Center. We are also tracking the prosecution more closely. There is a mammoth amount of paperwork that flows in and out of that unit. They have just one full time and two part-time staff. We are also tracking Detective case management to determine how much time per month detectives have to work on the cases they are assigned. Putting this information side by side with other time off reasons allows us to realign their priorities.

3. Administrative Bureau: Capt. Allen reported that we are just over 72% spent in the budget year. This is slightly under where we should be. Overall, our bottom line is looking good. We have had to transfer several dollars into the electricity line. We also anticipate making more transfers into electricity and heating. We are working closely with the business office in those areas. We do anticipate coming in the black this year.

Comm. Flanagan feels that the Police Commission should periodically meet with the Police Officers. He stated he would first like a meeting of the Commission with all patrol officers and detectives, with the staff present. He would then like a separate meeting with just the Commission, the sergeants and the staff present.

Comm. Stenhouse said that he would need more data and rationale behind the request before he would agree to such meetings. He said, “We have a command staff in this Department and we should not willy, nilly run off and start holding meetings as an administrative body. I don’t want to do it until I know the reasons and rationale behind it. If those reasons are personnel issues, we can do that in non-public sessions. I need more data.”

Comm. Flanagan said the last time it was done; both Commissioner Beaudoin and Commissioner Lachapelle were Commissioners. Chairman Dumont advised he had participated in such meetings before.

A. Appreciation and Recognition. Letters recognizing Department members this month include: Off. Lt. Gould recognizes Off. Chris Mangum for MV work completed in the previous three months. Off. Jeremiah Murphy and Off. Eric Babine are thanked for their response to a call regarding a lost pet. Chief Billert of Conway P.D. thanks Off. MacKenzie and Fina for assistance in a search at their school. Off. Kusnierz is recognized by Lt. Gould for extra effort in locating a suspect of a crime after he had left the scene. Prof. Bruce Lindsay thanks Off. Macaione for speaking to his Economics class at the UNH. Off. Jim Fox is nominated for the Looking Beyond the Traffic Ticket award. Off. David Loconte is thanked by Fire Capt. Giguere for assistance in a suspicious fire investigation.

Comm. Flanagan MOVED to enter a non-public session at 8:05 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 9:20 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Stenhouse. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.

Comm. Flanagan MOVED that merit increases, based on passing evaluations, as outlined in the Union contract, be granted to Officer Andrew Jackson and Officer Brenden Bentz. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.

The idea for this week was borne in 1981 by Patricia Anderson of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department in California. Since then, through the work of many, Congress set aside the second week of April each year to recognize these essential individuals nationwide.

It is often said that dispatching, although a profession, is more like a calling. According to Chief Thomas Wagner of Loveland Colorado, “Dispatching is a calling that requires them to play the roles of; therapist, doctor, lawyer, teacher, weatherman, guidance counselor, psychologist, priest, secretary, supervisor, politician and reporter on an eight, often twelve and sometimes sixteen-hour shift.” He continues in his Tribute to Dispatchers stating, “Dispatchers have two constant companions — other dispatchers, and stress. They depend on the first and try to ignore the second.”

The Rochester Public Safety Communications Center is staffed with exceptional employees, (eight full-time and one part-time) who are experienced, well trained and dedicated to the profession. They work all hours on the clock, including weekends and holidays to ensure public safety dispatching for the citizens of Rochester. They are often criticized and infrequently thanked. Their most valuable compensation at the end of the day is the personal satisfaction of a job well done.

The Rochester Public Safety Communications Center employees are held to a standard of perfection — 100% accuracy and efficiency. They cannot afford to be wrong, for safety could be compromised. They must, therefore, be very adept at multi-tasking. On an average shift they are observing multiple radios, phones, panels, surveillance and computer equipment, while on constant alert status for the safety of 30,000 residents and other visitors in the City. They log an average of 4,089 calls for service each month, and acknowledge and document an extraordinary amount of radio and telephone traffic. In the month of January 2005 alone that translated to 46,127 phone and radio transmissions.

Not everyone is suited to the calling of this profession. Communications Specialists in our center are subject to an intensive screening process, which includes, oral boards, extensive background checks, a medical and polygraph exam before they are given an opportunity just to train for the position. Following that there is the difficult task of sustaining perfectionism every day, every hour, regardless of the conditions. We applaud those who succeed in the “calling” and understand those who could not.

Communications Specialists in Rochester share more than 65 years of combined total experience. We heartily thank Specialists Eileen Douglass, Edith Lewis, Michael Beaudoin, Bruce Daigle, Carol Griffin, Nichole Collins, James Gannon, Kathleen Jovin and Jay Daigle, for their dedicated service to the City of Rochester. While some of them have only been with us a few weeks, most have been with us, literally, for years. In this small way, we acknowledge that we could not succeed in the public safety sector, fire services and law enforcement without them!

You don’t need National Telecommunicator’s Week to honor your public safety dispatchers. They are a selfless group who understand their contribution to this profession. But, it’s still nice for them to hear from those they help that they’ve done a good job.

A proclamation will be issued by the Police Commission, at their regular meeting of April 6, 2005, at 7:00 P.M. in City Hall, Council Chambers, to recognize and honor our Rochester Public Safety Communications Center team.