Police Commission Minutes 11/01/06

Present at this meeting was Chairman Flanagan, Comm. Stenhouse, Comm. Dumont, Chief Dubois, Deputy Chief Allen, Capt. Callaghan, Capt. Dumas, Lt. Fricano, Chaplain Lachapelle and Secretary Warburton. Also present were members of the public, members of the Department and the media.

Paul Vatcher, 55 Temple Drive, Rochester. Mr. Vatcher spoke to the issue of the police log in the Rochester Times urging the Police Commission to leave it exactly the way it is, noting it is one of the most enjoyable things in the paper. He said, “Whomever puts it together does a tremendous job. It lets me know in a nice way, an interesting way and humorous way what’s going on in the City of Rochester as far as what the police are doing. It’s a nice, interesting and humorous look at what the police are doing.” This week there were 59 items printed and only 18 mentioned a name. If you had to and I would prefer you didn’t because it appears that the names are on there when it refers to criminals, or something that is criminal being presented to the public, the worst case scenario would be to not put any names in there at all. And I don’t think that you want to do that. “So my reason for being here is to ask the City Fathers to leave it just the way it is, and find some other means to include the reporting of what’s going on at the hospital.”

B. Automated External Defibrillators. Chief Dubois noted for the viewing audience that the acronym AED means “Automated External Defibrillator,” which essentially is a device which helps a lay person or person with limited medical training to deliver a shock to a potential cardiac arrest victim. We use them in combination with our CPR training.

The American Heart Association reviews the standards every five years. Recent studies show that changes to the standards will have a higher probability of success when shocking a patient. Our current units do not have the ability for upgrade to meet the new standards. We had initially planned to use grant funding to make the purchase upgrade, but we have found this equipment doesn’t meet the grant criteria.

Chief Dubois stated, “I reviewed our internal budget, and met with the finance director to have funds transferred from our salary line to make the purchase. Det. Frechette is obtaining information regarding vendors and I plan to make sure the transfer is complete and start the process to upgrade as soon as I can. We can then move forward with the training of the new standards and put the new systems to use.”

C. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA); Press Log Discussion: Chief Dubois first thanked Mr. Vatcher for his views (see public comment.). He noted that inadvertently this issue became a topic of discussion in the community. Many views like Mr. Vatcher’s have been expressed. A lot of people look forward to, enjoy and are thankful to the Rochester Times and John Nolan for writing it.

Chief Dubois said, I’m not going to ask you to make a decision tonight. I have a lot of information that may help you make a decision. But first, I offer a sincere apology that my error in judgement has put you in. The Commission has a long history of support and a philosophy of making sure the Police Department remains as open as possible. I know we have been doing the daily log like this for years and this is not the first time commanders have raised concerns with it.

When we began looking at the partnership with Frisbie Hospital, it became clear to us as a command staff we were going to have to look at releases to the press and information to the public to protect the individual privacy rights under HIPPA. Everything we are hearing from the outside is that we need to seriously look at this. In an attempt to involve the media, knowing at least one reporter had interest, that interaction put you [the Commission] in a bad position. I could have done a better job preparing the Commission for the onslaught and I apologize publicly for not doing that.

I believe we need to change the way we do the log. Not the openness, I support that. It’s a cornerstone and I enjoy the interaction I have with the media. That aid and support us and I want to do all I can to make information available to them.

We have to take a hard, serious look at the other side. The high standard we are held to to protect individual privacy rights. I’m not trying to restrict the public, but I have a professional obligation beyond my personal feelings about this issue.

The Rochester Police Department is the most open in the County with regard to making our log available to the public. Anyone can come in and look at that log. I commit to you we will remain the most open, because I know it’s important to you and I will do all I can to make sure that happens, while at the same time protecting individual privacy.

The HIPPA issue has brought this issue closer to the surface, but the right to know law, the driver privacy act, domestic violence laws, intoxication laws, are all designed to protect privacy. Doing the log the way we are puts us at risk of violation. Part of my job is to protect the Department and the City against risk. Secondary to this, by far, is the cost to the taxpayers to do the log the way we do. It is estimated to cost ten thousand ($10,000.) dollars each year, of a persons time to redact that log.

Chief Dubois discussed at length the log as it is currently provided, the amount of paper and time it takes, versus the log as he would propose doing it. He said, we can list the heading of the issue, but the detail of the narrative we should no longer release.

Comm. Dumont said we went through this same thing seven years go. Everything has been fine and we’ve had no problems from anyone until HIPPA. The Police Department is excluded from HIPPA. Why change? We are serving Rochester. They definitely want it. I got more calls on this than most other issues we’ve addressed. Personally I want it to stay the same way it is right now.

Chief Dubois responded that we have had problems. We’ve initiated internal investigations because redactions were not made that should have been. These issues have not risen to the level of law suits, but we have made redaction errors. He continued stating, I enjoy the partnership with the media. But our mission statement says “the basis of all police action is the law and the credibility of the agency. I have an obligation to make this recommendation.

Chairman Flanagan said he remembers seven years ago what we went through. I’m going to review what you’ve given us, but I can tell you prior to this review, I wouldn’t change how we are doing this. Unless something significant comes from this I’m leading toward leaving it just the way it is.

Comm. Stenhouse said, “I work for a provider that is pooled risk. I wouldn’t want to put the organization I work for in jeopardy. However, my employer doesn’t provide liability insurance to the City. Some folks say we are applicable to HIPPA and some say we aren’t. A lawyer is going to provide you with a conservative answer, because that is what you pay them for. The government does provide for penalties from zero dollars to ten thousand dollars. I would think it would have to be a pretty severe violation or a course of action that purposely violated rights.

Chief Dubois said one thing that this review has done is that the redaction process is going to move to a higher level and be double checked. This is not a criticism of how it has been done, simply a secondary check due to the possibility of human error.

D. Landlord Association Update: Capt. Dumas noted that he spoke with the president of that Association, Stacy Gilman, just today. Mr. Gilman indicated that all was going well. There were a couple of meetings the Department had missed, but that has been remedied. Det. Bonneau will be attending the next meeting of this group. I talked with Stacy regarding this Association being a good group to work with on our ward-based policing initiative.

1. Call Response Time. Comm. Dumont brought up for discussion a recent six hour wait for an officer to respond to a home that had been vandalized. He said, “I understand priority stuff. But at some point, when someone waits six hours for a cop, that’s ridiculous. Can’t you get a commander or a detective to respond to those types of incidents? When you are backed up like that, what’s wrong with that?”

Chief Dubois stated I don’t think that’s a good idea for every time. You are right, six hours is not acceptable. We’ve all said that before. This is one instance. It is not abnormal. It is a fact that people are waiting extended periods of time for officer responses to lower categories of crimes, in excess of 100 times per month. If you divert detectives, working on major felony cases to these lower priority calls, then those cases will wait.

Chief Dubois said, “I don’t want to say ‘I told you so.” However, we have asked routinely at the budget level for more personnel, and the folks that make the funding decisions, while noting they understand the needs and priorities, are at the same time saying they can’t afford it, and the public says that’s acceptable. I know it will have an impact on the tax rate. I can tell you that yes, it took us an extended period to respond, but an arrest warrant has been issued for the person that caused that damage. We were still successful. Using response time alone is not a good barometer of effectiveness. I looked at the activity for that day and officers were tied up on other calls.

Chairman Flanagan indicated that he can’t sit and put all the blame on these calls on the officers. We are elected to solve the problem. We do need more officers. Chairman Flanagan produced a memo of information garnered from the Rochester Post Office indicating there are 13,737 possible delivery points in Rochester. Mathematically, if you assume there are 2.5 persons per household, we could estimate our population at more than 34,000. I don’t know what the FBI standard is on the number of officers per thousand.

The oath of office was given by Chaplain Lachapelle to Officer Brian O’Connor. Brian’s family was on hand to witness his achievement and his mother assisted with the badge pinning ceremony. Brian is new to law enforcement and will be attending the next academy.

The oath of office was also given by Chaplain Lachapelle to Lt. Joseph Fricano. Chief Dubois noted that Lt. Fricano comes to us with seven years experience with the Nashua Police Department, as well as service to in the US Armed Forces with the Marines, achieving the rank of 1^st Lieutenant.

Lt. Fricano’s family was unable to attend, and Chairman Flanagan did the badge pinning, while Comm. Dumont presented Lt. Fricano with a military service bar to be worn on his uniform. Chairman Flanagan noted that Lt. Fricano holds a juris doctorate which complements his position with the Department.

1. Patrol Division: Capt. Dumas stated that he recently made a presentation to the Council on the ward-based policing concept. A committee has been developed by the Mayor that will go beyond the ward-based policing and encompass the whole city, including involvement by the schools and PTA’s. We’ve got some good feedback to date on what we are hoping to accomplish with this. For example, in my conversation with Stacy Gilman this morning, regarding the Landlord Tenant Association, one of the issues that routinely comes up is the absentee landlords. You see each month vandalism and theft are routinely part of my monthly report to you. If we can get these community coalitions up and running they are our extra set of eyes and ears, they may have an impact and drive those numbers down.

We talked some about the lower priority calls. When we put our focus on certain types of crimes, such as DWI, some of those other calls will suffer. We actually took advantage of a recent temporary alternate duty assignment, using that officer as a station officer and evaluated that position and how we might be able to handle some of these calls over the phone, having communications in dispatch shift those calls over to that position. Those instances the Chief talked about, people waiting, were minimized. People come into the lobby they see a person sitting there during those busy hours. Sgt. Bossi did an excellent job evaluating that. It showed us enough that we are going to try to implement that immediately versus waiting until the next rotation and hopefully impact that in a positive way.

Comm. Dumont inquired if the station officer had to be a police officer. Capt. Dumas responded it does not have to be. With the volunteer program we are looking at, we can assess some of these calls and see if we can put a volunteer in place there, maybe in the off hours. There are some agencies that train volunteers to take low level police reports. We can train civilian personnel to do that. It is an area we can look it.

2. Support Division: Capt. Callaghan stated that the Investigations Bureau continues to work on some high profile cases. There are some quality of life cases that continue to plague us such as car break in’s. We have tied one of those break ins to a commercial burglary and have made an arrest in that case.

Our juvenile prevention program has done a lot of work over the previous month. Coordinator Deb Houle has created a survey that the school has accepted and will begin using. This is a tool that will help us evaluate what we do well and what we need to improve on.

We had twenty one people attend a Project Safe Neighborhood gang activity training in Bedford, NH recently. There were police officers, juvenile probation officers, juvenile coordinators, business leaders, city department’s and members of the Rochester interfaith council attending. We plan to set up a meeting to strategize and develop ways we can improve juvenile prevention in the city.

3. Executive Report: Dep. Chief Allen stated that as Capt. Dumas had discussed in his report, we have been using an officer on TAD for the station officer. We recognize that response time has been issue for some time. We are always looking for ways to be proactive with the resources we have, but we do the best we can with what we have. There is some value to having the station officer to address these lower priority calls so that may be addressed more timely.

Deputy Chief Allen noted the new cruisers have all been changed over and the front line is operating and in good shape. We do have some issues with repairs and cost items for some of the back fleet creeping up on us.

Our Crime Analyst is doing a very good job. She recently developed a daily update that covers all the major events of the day, trends and patterns that she sees. This is a “real time” update that officers are getting in briefing that is really paying dividends.

Deputy Chief Allen reported that he recently attended a planning board meeting and participated in a discussion on how the planning process impacts public safety. It was a good opportunity for the Department to do some education in that area for the board as well as for the public regarding the impact approved projects have on the police department regarding calls for service and time invested. This ties somewhat into the population comments noted by Chairman Flanagan.

We were notified today that the JAG grant funds are available from the County. The funding amount is Twelve Thousand One Hundred Dollars and 00/100 ($12,100.00). We met with the staff last week on proposed ways to spend those funds. We will have a list to submit to you at the next meeting, and we will work with the County to make sure those things meet the requirements of the grant. That is what happened with the AED purchase. They didn’t fit the grant.

1. Cruiser Repairs Transfer . Chief Dubois advised that he made a transfer in the budget, with the approval of the finance office to remedy expenses in the maintenance line. There had been some media attention on this issue. Basically that line is almost completely spent. No one is panicking, but we researched and made some sacrifices in other areas. We are looking at next years budget also, as what we do this year will impact that.

A. Appreciation and Recognition: Specialists Bruce Daigle and Carol Griffin, and Support Staff Roberta Young are recognized for their work which resulted in successful audit of the State Police Computer and NCIC files. Spec. Helen Leonard is nominated for the Jaycees Specialist of the Year award. Off. Jeremiah Murphy is nominated for the Jaycees Officer of the Year award. Off. Pinkham is recognized for valuable assistance in administrative tasks to include work in the evidence locker, competitive bid research, and the equipment locker. Off. Jackson is recognized for the efforts put forth during his time as a School Resource Officer. Off. Kusnierz and ACO Sue Paradis are recognized for assisting in the communications center. Off. Boudreau is recognized for his work in firearms and simunitions training.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to enter a non-public session at 8:33 P.M. for the purpose of personnel and legal matters. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse. The motion PASSED by roll call vote, Comm. Dumont-yes, Comm. Stenhouse-yes, Chairman Flanagan-yes. The non-public session closed at 8:40 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Dumont, SECOND by Chairman Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to award merit increases, based on passing evaluations to the next step in the contract for the following: Officer Paul Kusnierz, Officer Joseph Rousseau, Officer Jeremy Aucoin and Officer Keith Mackenzie. The Motion was SECONDED by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.