Police Commission Minutes 02/07/2007

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

A. Accreditation Update. Capt. Callaghan reported that we are on schedule for the mock review. Although we have not been given an exact date, we are told it will be the last week of February.

Capt. Callaghan commended Lt. Turgeon for the work he has done on the policies. He also noted the work that Secretary Warburton has done on formatting the documents which makes it easier to follow during the adoption process.

B. Acceptance of Grant: Highway Safety Speed Enforcement Grant Funds. Deputy Chief Allen said that we reported on this last month, that we had applied for these grant monies, and were notified that we were accepted. The grant totals $2700.00 (Two thousand seven hundred dollars and no cents), and will be used to fund 15, 4-hour, 1-man patrols. We will target those areas identified with speeding activity with these patrols. We ask that the Police Commission accept the funds. This has been submitted to the City Council for supplemental appropriation.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to accept the Highway Safety Grant Funding for Speed Enforcement patrols, in the amount of $2700.00 (Two thousand seven hundred dollars and no cents), as outlined in the grant. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse. Open for discussion.

A. Accept Grant Award: Portable Radios. Deputy Chief Allen stated that we were notified by the State that we are eligible for 14 (fourteen) additional portable radios through the LawNet Program. We received all of our radio upgrades through this same program. The radios will help us with disaster preparedness. We still have to file the grant form with the State, but they have committed to us that we will be receiving them. We are asking the Police Commission to formally accept this equipment.

Deputy Chief Allen replied that no total cost was listed in the grant. However, they come with the charging unit, therefore he would estimate the approximate cost to be in the area of $3,000.00 (three thousand dollars and no cents) for each radio.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to accept the grant from the State for 14 (fourteen) portable radios with associated chargers, as outlined in the grant notification. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.

B. Accept Drug Forfeiture monies into Account 910. Deputy Chief Allen advised this was the consequence of a drug case we worked on some time ago, which resulted in a seizure of slightly more than $2,000.00 (two thousand dollars). Through the equitable sharing program, a portion of those funds are awarded to the arresting/investigating agency.

The Department’s share of that seizure amounted to $1,572.40 (one thousand five hundred seventy two dollars and forty cents.) The funds are automatically deposited into our designated account by the Department of Justice. We are requesting the Commission to formally accept those monies.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to accept the forfeited monies in the amount as stated for placement into the dedicated revenue account for these purposes. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.

Capt. Callaghan reported that most of these are housekeeping changes. However, SOP 10 does have some major updates with regard to interview room security. For example, officers will secure their firearm before entering the room, there will always be two officers, and persons being interviewed will be pat frisked for safety.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to dispense with the second reading and adopt updates to Standard Operating Procedures 10, 21, 85, 109, and 118 at the first reading. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.

1. Patrol Division: Capt. Dumas said that he couldn’t say enough positive things about our volunteer program. Everyone is doing a tremendous job and is enjoying the work, and the Department is getting the rewards. Attached in the packet is a brief outline regarding the growth of our volunteer program as we move forward.

We will be having our first neighborhood coalition on February 15, 2007, in the Lafayette Street area. We picked this area as a good place to start from feedback from our citizens and the support we’ve received from our citizens and the members of city government.

Comp Stat year-end numbers show that property crimes and violent crimes are down slightly for the year, while arrests in those areas are up for the year. Our motor vehicle work has been off the charts. After we process all these numbers, we should have a more comprehensive report to present next month.

Comm. Dumont noted that Capt. Dumas should be commended for all the good work that he has done on the coalition. He said, “I am getting a lot of positive feedback from the community about this, including from Mayor Larochelle who has noted you are right on top it.”

We have been doing a lot of work over the previous three months on juvenile gang intervention. We have made significant progress in the three meetings we have held and we have discussed multiple strategies for enforcement and intervention. We will partner with police, probation and parole, the courts and the schools. We have focused on chronic offenders and have made 16 arrests to date. Most of them are in placement under house arrest.

We are working on a secondary prevention. As you have heard there has been some discussion about Hanson Pines being an issue. This summer we are gearing up for a citizen’s academy for juveniles. We plan to run this with the recreation department’s summer camp programs, targeting the 12 – 15 age group, probably two days per week for the eight weeks of camp. A lot of it will be crime scene investigation, with practical exercises that will incorporate science, math, ethics, and healthy decisions regarding aggression, anger management and nutrition. We will use our school resource officers to drive this and supplement with other officers with specific skills geared toward the program. We will end with a cookout at the Hanson Pines. Much of the practical exercises will take place at the Hanson Pines.

Our computer crimes officer, Ken Tapscott was recognized by the Attorney General at her quarterly meeting as a finalist for cyber crime investigator of the year. That’s quite an accomplishment for Officer Tapscott, particularly since we have been doing this for less than one year.

We made another arrest yesterday for offenses related to wire tapping with a computer element and earlier in the month we made an arrest of a person embezzling $12,000.00 (twelve thousand dollars and no cents) with a computer. We are reaping the benefits of our efforts in these areas.

We are working closely at the state level and with the Attorney General’s office on these crimes, and also working on outreach prevention. Ken has developed a lesson plan for parents and children. He will do a presentation on February 28 at the High School and on March 8 at the Middle school.

3. Executive Report: Deputy Chief Mike Allen noted that he recently met with the City Manager on our capital improvement requests. The meeting was positive and he seemed inclined to support moving these requests forward to the council for deliberations.

At the Department Head meeting earlier this morning there was a discussion on reviewing operating budget requests. This will probably take place later this month. We should have a better idea by our next meeting what the City Manager will support in terms of our budget requests.

The wrecker service contracts were awarded during the past month, following a licensing board meeting. Nine companies submitted bids and seven were eligible to be placed in the lottery, from which six companies were selected. We have a new list in place for the next two years.

We have an emergency disaster preparation exercise scheduled for February 22, 2007. It will be a school disaster drill that will require responses from police, fire, school and EMS. This multi-agency response will test our capabilities and identify our strengths as well as our weaknesses.

Deputy Chief Allen responded that the particular incident we are responding to has not been disclosed. Only those working on the planning of the exercise know that. Our response will be dictated by what they call in for details.

Supervisor Swats replied that the hospital is awaiting their vendor to install the required equipment. The vendor was reluctant to move forward and order parts without receiving his payment, as it was a significant amount of money. We are looking to a date in March to be up and running on the EMS side.

A. Appreciation and Recognition: Chairman Flanagan noted that it is always nice to get people to write in and recognize the officers for the work they do. Officers and members recognized included: Sgt. Deluca is thanked by the Young family for recovering lost jewelry. Det. Ken Tapscott is nominated for Cyber Crime investigator of the year. Off. Jerry Murphy is thanked by a citizen for professionalism on a traffic stop. Comm. Supervisor Martha Swats is recognized as the February Employee of the Month. Capt. Callaghan is thanked by the Pelham Police Dept. for assisting with promotional oral boards. Dr. Mark Chruz thanks Sgt. Thomas for assistance with fingerprinting. Off. Flathers is recognized for excellent investigative work on a felony level crime. Det. Balint is commended for preparing a training lesson plan about the Traffic Accident Reconstruction Unit to use in our in-house training program.

Deputy Chief Allen indicated that he could speculate on a reason why, but did not have a firm answer to the question. This is our outside detail account. The revenue comes in and is off set by the amount paid to the officer for the details. Other than the revenue side potentially not being posted, we will have to research this.

Chairman Flanagan MOVED to enter a non-public session at 7:24 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 9:11 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Dumont, SECOND by Chairman Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.

The City Manager has moved six month an annual evaluation due dates for non union personnel to September and February, so as to have the most accurate figures for the annual budget preparation. Raise recommendations made in February will be effective in the new fiscal year, after the budget has been adopted for that fiscal year.

Comm. Dumont MOVED to award merit increases (effective in the new fiscal year) to the sworn non union officers, based on passing evaluations to the following: Lt. Gary Turgeon, Lt. Jeffrey Taylor, Lt. Paul Toussaint, Capt. Scott Dumas, Capt. Paul Callaghan, and Deputy Chief Michael Allen. The Motion was SECONDED by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.