Police Commission Minutes 12/06/06

Present at this meeting was Chairman Flanagan, Comm. Stenhouse, Comm. Dumont, Chief Dubois, Deputy Chief Allen, Capt. Callaghan, Capt. Dumas, Martha Swats, Attorney Grossman, and Secretary Warburton. Also present were members of the media.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to accept the minutes of the November 1, 2006 regular meeting, with correction to the typo on page 2, (offer, not officer). SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse. The motion to accept the minutes PASSED unanimously.

A. Accreditation Update. Capt. Callaghan reported that we are moving forward and anticipate being ready for the mock review in February. That may lead to a few issues we would have to tidy up, that would take four to six weeks to work out. We are wrapping up the second stage and are starting to look at national accreditation. At first blush we estimate that would be a 1-½ year process. The difference between the State and National accreditation is the financial aspect. You may see this discussion in future budget discussions.

Chief Dubois stated that we are confident we will have the state part done on the time line we set. National would follow if the City desires to do so. We will gather information on cost issues as time goes on.

B. Automated External Defibrillators. Deputy Chief Allen noted that we have worked up a bid for the purchase and worked with the finance office on transferring funds to our equipment line to make the purchase. The bids will be advertised this week, closing on December 21^st. We will bring the bids to the next meeting for review and award.

C. Landlord Association Update. Capt. Dumas reported that the next meeting of the Association is December 7, 2006. We will have members of the Department attending, including me. As noted previously, Stacy Gilman is the President of the Association, and Attorney Steven Hyde represents them.

D. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); Press Log Discussion: Chief Dubois stated that all the research has been completed and is in the hands of the Commission, including the response we were waiting for from Frisbie Hospital. The City Manager has signed the contract and it is currently with the hospital attorneys’. We have some minor equipment upgrades to make so that we can communicate with the medical staff, but we have the staff in place and are ready to go.

Chairman Flanagan stated, “I read all the material sent, the material from Paul and the Local Government Center opinion.” He said, “knowing we have signed a contract with Frisbie the only thing that I could say as long as we do not break any HIPAA laws, I do not want the log to change at all. If we have to pay someone to go through it again, so be it. I am a strong proponent of the people having the right to know and I’m not going to change my mind. “

Comm. Stenhouse stated that he has spent a lot of time with this. All the discussion on if we are a covered entity under HIPAA has been made moot by the signing of the contract with Frisbie. The City has signed on as a bonafide business partner, which means we have to agree to abide by HIPAA. This narrows the question. We can do this one of two ways. Either we redact all information on medical, DWI, welfare checks and all those other issues the Chief talked about electronically and close those fields out, or we commit ourselves to redact manually with the black marker. The issue now becomes are we willing to tie up people’s time. We take existing staff from other duties to accomplish this. Comm. Stenhouse said, frankly, I’m leaning heavily to manual redactions.

Comm. Dumont said, “it does say we are covered in Frisbie’s letter. I don’t care how you do it, just do it the old way. I have nothing further to elaborate.” Comm. Dumont did say [to Chief Dubois] “You did your job and did it well. You recognized there could be a problem and you brought it to our attention. I’ve received a number of phone calls from the public who want it to stay the way it was.”

Comm. Stenhouse said “I applaud you for kicking this up the chain of command. I know it was not done with ill intent, but we were resting the entire burden on the shoulders of the capable communications supervisor. That’s what you have a command staff for. Some stuff can be dicey and I don’t want to downplay that. There are certain things, parts of a job we may not want to do but that’s why we all have bosses. The Department has bosses here and it happens to be us. We feel pretty strongly about this. We applaud you for bringing it up. In hindsight it was unfair of us to put this all on the communications shoulders.”

Comm. Stenhouse stated that if we didn’t have such a good working relationship with the TIMES over the years, this might have been different. If he [John Nolan] was to retire and someone else comes in, who knows. Nothing says this will stay this way for the next 50 to 100 years. I have all the faith that you and your staff will do an excellent job, along with the fact that the folks that publish this are willing partners of the City for many years. Given the industry I work in, what I do for a living, my first response would be, “don’t do this.” But this is a very important part of what we do in Rochester and how you and the department respond.

A brief discussion ensued regarding awarding the incentive at the end of the probation period. Comm. Dumont said that is how it is done at the County. Comm. Stenhouse agreed that is probably how it should be done. Chief Dubois said we couldn’t do it at this juncture, due to past practice.

1. Justice Assistance Grant (JAG). Deputy Chief Allen noted that the funding from the County was $12,101. We met over the past month with command staff with input from all levels on how to best spend these funds. They have to meet the requirements of the grant.

We are purchasing equipment for detectives to assist the drug unit in evidence gathering, a bicycle for patrol, rechargeable flashlights that are smaller and can be kept on the duty belt, and partial funding for the motorcycle radar unit.

Comm. Dumont commented it is an expensive bicycle. Deputy Chief Allen replied that it is a rugged bike designed for law enforcement. This includes all peripherals, not just the bike.

The tactical dispatch equipment is for the newly formed team that Martha has put together to assist us on the SAFE Team. There are also some partial funds for the TAR TEAM with specialty equipment needed to do their job at crime scenes.

2. Homeland Security Grant. Deputy Chief Allen stated that the Commission and the City Council previously accepted this grant. We are spending funds on the formation of the Strafford County regional SWAT team. The list we have in the application comes to slightly more than $20,000. Most of the equipment is related to entry team equipment. This will expend those monies and close out that grant.

Comm. Dumont inquired how big the team is now. DC Allen stated we have very little participation from other towns, and we are moving slowly on that. We currently have 16 members. We are growing and as time goes on we anticipate more and more participation.

The last piece of that grant we need to spend on tactical team members. We have selected a training course to send the entire team to Alabama, with the Commission’s approval. We will split them into two groups so they are not all gone at once.

C. Budget: Capital Improvements Discussion. Comm. Flanagan commented that the Commission made it perfectly clear last year they did not want Tasers, yet they are on the list. “I have a problem with that. Unless you can do or say something that would change our mind, it was a unanimous vote and I have a problem getting them.”

Chief Dubois stated that he would like to get the Commission and public caught up on the issue. The CIP has started and they have to be in by December 8. This is a working document. Tasers are another force option in the use of force continuum. This is an entire upgrade of the weapons. Our existing weapons are no longer manufactured and we cannot get parts to repair them. The shotguns are 15 years old.

We don’t currently have the Taser force option. There has been some litigation that is still in the works. But all the research we have and every law suit filed as a result of this new technology in the profession has not found any liability on the part of law enforcement. We think we will have better protection, from a risk management standpoint regarding tussles and interaction with prisoners or having to use impact weapons. Use of the OC Spray requires decontamination of the prisoner. The Taser is a better system to gain control of resisting persons, with less chance of medical intervention of a prisoner or the officer. That’s the basic reason we have included them in the CIP. All that we have seen since our last discussion on this has given us reason to believe that fears of litigation with the system will not be substantiated and we don’t think they will be.

Comm. Flanagan noted that he has no problem with upgrading the handguns or the shotguns and he is sure we will select something suitable. “I do have a problem with the Tasers.”

Comm. Stenhouse stated that when Tasers first came out there were a lot of accolades, written by consultants who sometimes work for the company. That is not the same thing as a consumer rating of a car. I would suspect in the force continuum there are a couple of things you could use for a physically resisting subject. In reviewing this there are no mitigating reports if we have Tasers that would change. I don’t see where we necessarily need this right now.

Chief Dubois concurred there are several accolades written by the manufacturer, but also by the law enforcement users of the system. As far as the litigation there are no new decisions since we last spoke. But all the challenges in court to date have not been successful.

Chief Dubois said he spoke with a risk management person just today. The City is reviewing injury claims, citywide such as sprains and falls. For Police most are in conjunction with physical altercations. Some suspects are hit with lower levels of force options and are still resisting. We think we can show you that has contributed to some officer injury. All that we have read indicates the Taser is 80% effective similar situations. It is also less invasive and problematic to a suspect. There is enough information out there that this is better for the officer and the offending public who interact negatively with police to have this system as an option.

Chief Dubois said, “ That’s the best argument I could make tonight. I suggest putting it on there and seeing how it goes. The Commission can always pull it off even six months from now. The CIP is designed so components can be pulled out. “

Comm. Flanagan asked if we can pull it in six months, could we add it in six months? Chief Dubois said that is more difficult to do. There are many other levels the projects have to be reviewed through.

Comm. Stenhouse said every year; every department is allowed to update its requests. We could keep the other items for 2008, and resubmit this in 2009, but I need to see some documentation in front of me to put it into the 2008 plan. I’m not suggesting we might not want to do it. But 80% effective means that 20% of the time it is not effective. Some other uses on the force continuum might have the same percentages. I’m not suggesting it’s a bad tool, but I need to see more before I can move forward with this for 2008.

Comm. Flanagan said I don’t want to say no to a beneficial tool, but I want to make an informed decision. Everything I have heard has been negative. I’m not opposed to putting it on if we can take it off. We may end up doing that.

Comm. Stenhouse replied he is concerned about leaving it. It comes out of the Commission’s hands to make a final decision if it stays on. In six to eight months the decision on purchasing is no longer in our hands. I would rather work with the Council, observing the separation of duties the votes have said that they want, on this issue.

Chief Dubois said that abuse is one area that will get you in trouble. You could also have people abuse the .45's. There are shootings in locker rooms as firearms are inherently dangerous.

The Commission would like to move forward within the next couple of months to bring those agencies in and do a presentation and have more discussion that perhaps we would consider these for the future.

Chief Dubois stated that the evidence truck for 2009 is important, but we felt the weapons upgrade took precedence. The vehicle we have now is an old military surplus. The proposed vehicle has state of the art equipment that we use in crime scene processing. This vehicle will be about the same size as the tactical vehicle.

1. SOP 05; Adult Arrest Procedures: Update; First Reading. Chief Dubois noted that we would like this to be a first reading only. We want to do another review and internal check as a result of an incident.

1. Patrol Division: Capt. Dumas stated that the annual holiday parade was held over the previous weekend. We had good weather and a good crowd. We will be addressing in our after action report a concern that traffic wasn’t directed where it ended up. In years past we directed people down River Street, but no one was there to help them get back to the main thoroughfare after that. We will work on getting folks a more direct route back to the main roads when we meet.

The Rutland Police Department will be sending personnel down to Rochester on December 15, to meet with our ah-hoc committee. This will give up an opportunity to see how they do their ward-based policing. We want to capitalize on this presentation to get our committee going on this.

Our volunteer program has recently added four new people. In addition to Mrs. Blair who has been with us for a number of years, we welcome Millie Osborne and Richard Longo, who will be assisting us in our legal bureau with data entry and motion research. Mr. Longo attended our most recent citizen’s academy. Volunteer Ted Barrett has some background in vehicle maintenance and will be working with Sgt. Burke on the fleet, which will allow for Sgt. Burke to concentrate more fully on the training aspects of his position. Mr. Barrett can also help with vehicle maintenance data entry.

Dr. Beorgois has a background in education and working with volunteers and school resource officers. He will be helping us to grow the program. We would like to grow to the point that as we prepare the budget for next year it will have some positive impact on the city by reducing the workload and allowing personnel to be more proactive. This will be a major focus of patrol.

Comm. Dumont commented that the volunteers should be recognized with some sort of party or get together. The Riverside Rest Home is able to accomplish a lot with the use of volunteers. Recognition is a big deal because they save the county an unbelievable amount of money.

Comm. Stenhouse inquired into the communications slide from the comp stat report about the priority calls and it showing some not responded to for more than 120 minutes. He last understood that we were going to look into that and try to fix that. Comm. Stenhouse stated people know we stack calls, but certainly priority one calls are the highest or active and in progress. It gives an erroneous impression of the agency’s response.

Supervisor Swats advised that she would have to manually pulls those statistics down which would be a horrendous task. For example, a person reports a domestic assault, which is a priority one classification. But it happened the previous day. They are now in the lobby and are perfectly safe. It takes us 120 minutes from the time she reported it to us, and the time to see her and sit with her. Although classified as a priority one, she is moved on the priority list because she is safe.

Chief Dubois said looked at another way, for discussion. Some priority two calls are bumped manually to priority one because of the circumstances. The specialist can reclassify a priority call, but the statistical analysis will still assign it to its original priority category. This is a flaw of the system.

Comm. Stenhouse said this gives an erroneous impression of the efficiency of the Department, which is not fair. If we can’t explain it to ourselves, how can we explain it to the public?

2. Support Division: Capt. Callaghan advised that it has been a busy month for the support bureau. We had most of the major news outfits from Boston in the parking lot yesterday regarding the story on the registered sex offender. We are thankful that we have the staff trained to handle these sophisticated cases and the technical aspect of computers to gather the evidence needed toward a successful prosecution.

The Foster’s asked if this was an odd case. It really isn’t because computers are affordable and available and some will use them in a harmful way. Our community has decided to have a detective trained to investigate these crimes.

The recent gang intervention seminar in Bedford sponsored by the US Attorney is paying off. We held a meeting recently in Rochester that was very productive. Another meeting is scheduled for later this week on the community policing, how we police and handle juveniles. Approximately five students from the high school will be attending to talk about these issues.

3. Executive Report: Dep. Chief Allen stated that the computer upgrade to our email system is complete, citywide. We also completed a large upgrade to the IMC database. We have a new server for the upgrade and the MDT in the cars are now up and running again. We no longer have packet cluster for the MDT’s, but are using IMC completely for all the work we do. The upgrade went better than expected, although there were some technical issues with the MDT’s that we continue to work on. This will be a nice system that is more efficient and can keep the officers out on the road with a presence in the community more so than we have been able to do with the MDT system being down.

DC Allen replied very few. We have made repeated updates to the voters and our cell signal for the MDT’s is a private network that transmits data back and forth through Verizon. It’s very effective and we have much better coverage than we used to have.

DC Allen stated that he spoke about applying for highway safety grant monies. One of the grants is for DWI enforcement. These are roaming patrols, not roadblocks. We requested $2,700.00 dollars to fund 14 4-hour patrols. We have done an analysis of high DWI areas and will target those areas based on that data. We will use the same method on the speed patrol, if we get the funding, targeting roadways with high accidents. In this way we will get the most bang for our buck with these funds.

Comm. Dumont commented on the upcoming audit of our Homeland Security grant funds. DC Allen responded it is for the 2003 year, which we purchased the mobile command post. We are ready for the audit.

F. Annual Meeting Schedule for 2007; Review and Approve. The Commission noted that the only date that jumps out at them is the July meeting, which based on the first Wednesday of the month, falls on the fourth of July. We will leave as is for now and reschedule at a later date.

1. Towing Fees. Comm. Flanagan wished to discuss an issue brought to his attention regarding a resident that was charged more than $500.00 to have a car towed. They are in their seventies and are very upset as to how this was handled.

Chief Dubois agreed that is high for a tow and said that this has been referred to the licensing board. If we get a concern along these lines from members of the public the licensing board, which is the Police Chief, Fire Chief and City Manager, can look at that based on the agreement the service holds with the City. He said, “People often think the police are the controlling factor, but we are not. This is governed by city ordinance, but the police oversee the process. The licensing board is looking at this issue. Beyond that it’s too early to make any more public statements. We have to determine if the fee is in concert with the agreements that are signed.“

A discussion ensued on pricing and Chief Dubois advised that it is dependent on the various company policies. There are no fees in the contract. Attorney Grossman added that it has to be reasonable.

Comm. Flanagan stated that it is evident he can’t change what happened, but any company who would do this does not deserve to tow for Rochester. “I don’t care who it is.” “I don’t recommend you suspend them for a year, but never allow them to tow again for the city. It is wrong, ruthless and a rip off.”

Chief Dubois said how the bill was reached and the reasons for it has been referred to the licensing board to help us make a decision on if it was reasonable. Deputy Chief Allen is almost finished with his report, and then the licensing board can move forward.

Comm. Stenhouse said if the licensing board meetings are open to the public, Comm. Flanagan might wish to make those statements at that time. Chief Dubois advised those meetings are public.

A. Appreciation and Recognition: Capt. Callaghan recognizes Det. James Bonneau for presentation on gang activity to community leaders. Off. Ms. Morton thanks Joshua Ouellette for assisting with finding her lost pet. Capt. Scott Dumas and the patrol division are thanked by the Rochester Runners for assistance during their charity road race over Thanksgiving.

A. Financial Reports- November 2006. Chief Dubois noted that we are half way through the fiscal year. In years past typically we have had a surplus in our salary line. I don’t see that this year. We have been doing a better job at budget developing and based on what I am seeing we will be pretty close. Over overtime line looks good, compared to years past. Capt. Dumas has been doing a good job with his staff watching that, as it has been problematic in the past. We are in good shape right now, but it is a contract year and it has just started so we will need to watch our labor lines.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to enter a non-public session at 8:28 P.M. for the purpose of personnel, legal and negotiations matters. SECOND by Comm. Flanagan. The motion PASSED by roll call vote, Comm. Dumont-yes, Comm. Stenhouse-yes, Chairman Flanagan-yes. The non-public session closed at 9:09 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 Jeremiah Murphy. The Motion was SECONDED by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.