ROCHESTER POLICE COMMISSION
ROCHESTER, NH 03867
Barry K. Flanagan, Chairman
Paul J. Dumont, Commissioner
R. Gary Stenhouse, Commissioner
MINUTES OF THE POLICE COMMISSION MONTHLY MEETING
The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting on June 6, 2007.
Present at this meeting was, Comm. Flanagan, Comm. Dumont, Comm. Stenhouse, Chief Dubois (7:33 P.M.), Dep. Chief Allen, Capt. Callaghan, Capt. Dumas, Comm. Supervisor Martha Swats, Attorney Grossman, and Secretary Warburton.
Also present was Officer Travis Stroud and members of his family, members of the public and the media.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M.
All present gave the pledge of allegiance to the United States Flag.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT: None Offered.
3. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:
Comm. Flanagan MOVED to accept the minutes of the April 4, 2007 meeting as amended, and the May 2, 2007 meeting as submitted. SECOND by Comm. Dumont and PASSED unanimously.
4. OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
A. Accreditation Update. Dep. Chief Allen advised that we are moving along with the process of revamping the format of the policies, but not the content. Some of them have been forwarded for review to the command staff for preliminary review, feedback and recommendations. We will be forwarding these in smaller increments to the Commission for review as the process moves forward.
B. Update on City Adopted Job Descriptions: Any Discussion. Dep. Chief Allen noted that the documents were reviewed further, and Comm. Flanagan has made some recommendations for change, that have not been shared with the full board of Commissioners. It is recommended to bring this back next month.
C. Bids; Review and Award
1. Vehicle Maintenance and Repair
2. Radio Maintenance and Repair
Dep. Chief Allen advised that there were two bids before the Commission last month that needed further review. He said, “I met with the vendors supplying bids for each category to clarify some issues. Based on the meetings with the management of those companies, we recommend awarding the vehicle repair bid to Speedee Oil Change and Tune Up at $40.00 per hour, which is significantly lower than the other vendor.
We also recommend the Radio Repair Bid go to 2-Way Communications of Newington. They were not the low bid, but they are our current provider. R&R was the other vendor, at five ($5.00) less. However we have a prior history with them and have logistical issues with that vendor in terms of quality of service and travel time from their business location.
Comm. Dumont moved to award the bids are recommended. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse for discussion.
Comm. Stenhouse inquired what repairs would be done by Speedee?
Dep. Chief Allen replied engine repairs, parts; anything mechanical with the vehicle would be covered under the contract.
Comm. Stenhouse inquired if the turn-around time was specified? Do they charge by the book hour? For example if the book lists the job takes a certain number of hours, do they charge that even if it takes less time? That would make a difference of the value of the bid price.
Dep. Chief Allen advised that he had not asked that question in his review, but he would.
Comm. Dumont MOVED to amend the motion to only award the radio repair bid (to 2-Way Communication). SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.
Comm. Dumont noted that if the answer to the question regarding the book price/hourly price were in the positive, he would like to move to accept that bid as well. Comm. Flanagan concurred.
Comm. Stenhouse noted his reservations to doing that, not as an indictment of the company as he doesn’t know them. Additional discussion ensued, with the majority of the Commission feeling if the question could be satisfactorily answered and was acceptable, the Commission could agree to accept the bid by phone vote.
Comm. Dumont MOVED that the bid for vehicle maintenance be awarded to Speedee Oil Change and Tune-up, providing the question regarding the hourly change (as discussed) is satisfactorily answered. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.
5. NEW BUSINESS:
A. Oath of Office; Officer Travis Stroud. The oath of office was given to Travis Stroud by Comm. Flanagan. Officer Stroud’s family was on hand to witness and participate in his badge pinning.
Dep. Chief Allen noted that Travis was previously certified by the Allenstown Police Department and therefore will not be required to attend the Police Academy. There will be some cost savings to us with regard to training time before he is released to solo patrol.
B. Military Service Bar: Officer Travis Stroud. Officer Stroud served as a member of the armed forces, in the Marines, and he is therefore authorized to wear the military service bar on his uniform.
C. Jag Grant: Review and Approve Application Process The Department was notified that we are eligible to apply for a Justice Assistance Grant, a no match funds grant, with the City of Dover. We will get the lion share of the funding. We will fill out the application for both agencies, but each agency will make independent decisions on how to spend the money. The County also has to sign off on the grant.
We have had some preliminary discussions in-house and have some good ideas on spending the money. We have to have a further meeting inviting independent members of the community, including the school for a good cross section of individuals on recommendations on spending the money.
We have a July 2, 2007 deadline to apply for the money; therefore this went to the City Council at their June 5, 2007 meeting for approval to apply.
Comm. Dumont MOVED that the Department applies for the JAG Grant in the amount of $52,762.00, of which 12,571.00 is awarded to the City of Dover. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.
D. Bids: Review and Award
1. Uniform and Equipment. Dep. Chief Allen noted that four separate vendors bid for the uniform and equipment bid. We prepared a spreadsheet on the bidder meeting the requirement of the bid most meeting our needs. In some instances they were the low bidder, and in some instances they were not.
We had filed an addendum to the bid for several items, one being the bulletproof vest. One requirement on that was on site sizing. That was done for our convenience. None of the bidding vendors met that specification. We want to reject all the bids on that one item. We plan to re evaluate the vests we buy and we are testing other models. We will then put together a bid for that one item and re bid it.
Comm. Flanagan MOVED to award bid items one through nineteen(1-19) and twenty-two through one hundred four (22-104) as recommended by staff. SECOND by Comm. Stenhouse and PASSED unanimously.
E. Bureau Commander Reports:
1. Patrol Division: Capt. Paul Callaghan. Capt. Callaghan advised that patrol had a busy month doing foot and car patrols in specific neighborhoods. There has been good success in the areas downtown using the bike, foot patrol and cruiser patrols as well, enforcing the laws using a zero tolerance approach and relationship building. As noted last month the baseball cards are a good way for kids to approach officers, which is an example of this relationship building starting to work. Another example was the stolen vehicle last week where officers in a specific neighborhood went to a resident who historically has not trusted the police and obtained information on the possible suspect.
The use of the speed trailer in the downtown ties into the philosophy with community policing. Explorer and DARE Programs if you really look at the definition it’s getting the community involved in fighting crime, you reap the benefits. We have had several DWI arrests, and reports of underage drinking. Chip Noon of Rochester Mainstreet reported our efforts favorably in the paper.
An example of enforcement efforts through the comp stat, analyze data timely and accurately, we had a burglary at the beginning of the month, where suspects well known to us were recently released from incarceration, a family was sleeping and the suspect was downstairs. Officers clicked that this person was just released and they were caught, due to timely and accurate information.
Our most recent ward-based policing meeting was not as well attended. We continue to work on this issue and hope to have this up and running in several areas by the end of July.
2. Support Division: Capt. Scott Dumas. Capt. Dumas noted officers did an excellent job on the major fire at Boston Felt. Patrol was the first responder and did a tremendous job getting ISB in there to work in conjunction with the Fire Department to methodically resolve this.
In our cyber Crime efforts, Det. Tapscott attended some forensic training in Vermont. More and more of these crimes are surfacing, and not just in identify theft or credit card fraud, but in basic drug investigations involving computers. There is a need for advanced analysis of computers, but, with not exaggeration, there is a 7-8 month backlog to get these analyzed at the State. Many of our drug cases that are held at the grand jury level are due to waiting for evidence analysis.
Dept. Tapscott is getting up to speed and getting a lot of training through the ICAC and Portsmouth PD. We want to set up our own forensic computer lab, and Lt. Brunelle from Portsmouth PD will be visiting the Department this week to look at possible places in our building to establish such a lab.
We had an excellent juvenile gang meeting in May. Our next is set for June 8. Eric Robertson the JPPO will discuss grant opportunities. Det. Bonneau will do an update on the gang activity. He will do some checking as to what has driven the numbers in other cities, what worked to keep it down before and see how that correlates in the smaller communities.
Deb Houle is working with this group, along with Captain Callaghan and myself regarding National Night Out. Although we have done a good job in this in the past, we really want to make this a big deal this year, getting it to a new level and continue to move forward, building on the relationship building as Paul mentioned. The pay off for those types of
relationships is open ended.
The area Detectives meeting is a great information sharing tool with different organizations. This is getting positive feedback and we will continue to do these monthly.
We had our first DARE Graduation today of a seventh grade class at the Middle School. Capt. Callaghan, as our very first DARE instructor in this Department in 1989, was the guest speaker. Officer Funk did a great job with the program, was a positive role model for the school, the administrators and the kids. There were 370 kids with parents in attendance, which demonstrates how successful Officer Funk has been at the Middle School this year.
Comm. Stenhouse asked Capt. Dumas to speak briefly about the Mental Health Council.
Capt. Dumas noted that the selection process would involve our prosecutor and community corrections, to determine whether a candidate is a good fit for the program. Everyone on the committee has veto power. That doesn’t mean a person would automatically not be selected, but it does mean you would have to appear before the Council to explain the reason behind the veto. Like our Court Diversion, it’s a treatment process you have to complete for further evaluation and stipulations are attached. It’s an alternate to incarceration. Judge Jones started talking about this program years ago and its finally getting some feet under it.
3. Communications. Supervisor Swats advised that EMS dispatching officially kicked off on May 7, 2007. All reports are that its going well and they are thrilled to have us. We have lowered their response time by two minutes, because as previous call takers it took away some response time. They are all alerted at the same time now, versus being working paramedics in the ER when toned out previously.
The tactical dispatch team responded during the April flooding, taking minutes at EOC meetings, taking calls and entering them in the EOC, which diverted those calls, that would have previously come in to the Center.
There were many awards this month. Bruce Daigle received his fifth DUA, Dispatcher Andy Neal was thanked by a fellow co-worker for help during a call, and Dispatcher Neal was also named Employee of the Month.
4. Executive Report: Deputy Chief Mike Allen noted that in Patrol Bureau report that the crime analysts work with the weekly mission statement enhancing information should be noted. She attended some training recently, her first formal training since accepting the position and she brought a lot of good information back. Her work helps us solve crimes and improve the quality of life in the City.
We had some equipment issues with the door access keypad into the building that required repairs. It was a security issues that had to be addressed.
Comm. Dumont inquired if the system was under warranty?
Dep. Chief Allen replied unfortunately, no that has expired.
Dep. Chief Allen advised that he and Supervisor Martha Swats attended some recent training on Pictometry Software that the City will begin using soon. This is a powerful software program, which they hope to roll out by the end of the month. There will be a lot of uses in terms of emergency management and SWAT that we can use the program for, such as measurements in a building for raid planning and executing search warrants. We could also use it during a school incident for building lay out.
Communications Supervisor Swats added that the software can locate 911-cell caller through GPS coordinates, it can be used by EMS for helicopter locales, meaning the best place to land nearest to a scene. Fire can use it for all hydrants. We can see when one is tapped where the next closest one is and give them feet distance. It can also give us topography measurements in terms of flooding. If the water level rises to say twenty feet or thirty feet, which houses may be most affected.
We continue our SWAT discussions with the Dover Police Department and merging the two teams. We are moving forward and hope to have all details ironed out in a couple of months.
6. CORRESPONDENCE:
A. Appreciation and Recognition: Capt. Paul Callaghan is thanked by Sgt. Dugas for concern of subordinate during recent injury. Specialists Brian Daigle, Bruce Daigle and Paul Barton are commended for teamwork during structure fire at Boston Felt. The Candia Police Dept thanks specialist Tom O’Connor for volunteering to help a neighboring agency during recent flooding across the state. Specialist Andrew Neal is credited by his co-worker Specialist Carll for assisting her through the intricacies of dispatching a brush fire call. Ms. Greenlaw thanks Off. Rousseau for assistance. Off. Jeremiah Murphy is thanked for providing driving directions to a couple visiting the area. Specialist Carol Griffin is the
recipient of the 2007 APCO Scholarship for continuing education. Members of the Dept are thanked by the Bozak family for responding to a neighborhood issue. Specialist Andrew Neal is selected as Employee of the Month for the City. Sgt. Deluca thanks officer’s Babine, Mackenzie and Fina, and Ouellette for assistance with a school community event at McClelland School. Principal Brown also thanks Sgt. Deluca. Sgt. Deluca and Officer Lambert are thanked by the County Attorney for locating an important witness.
7. INFORMATION;
A. Financial Reports- May 2007. Comm. Stenhouse noted that things will be tight this year. We are 90.9% spent.
Chief Dubois advised that we have two payrolls left. We will be in the black, but it’s the health insurance line that will keep us safe. The operational lines have been spent.
Comm. Stenhouse said that the overtime line was very tight.
Chief Dubois replied that under is under, so we met the mission. The command staff, specifically the two Captains did a great job early on with this line and should be applauded. There were a lot of issues we had to deal with, including the door issue, floods and fires.
B. Information other; enclosed with Agenda. No discussion.
8. NON-PUBLIC SESSION:
Comm. Dumont MOVED to enter a non-public session at 7:41 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, Comm. Flanagan-yes. The non-public session closed at 7:54 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Dumont, SECOND by Comm. Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.
9. MISCELLANEOUS:
At the close of the non-public sessions the following action or discussion occurred:
A. Merit Increases, Union
Comm. Dumont MOVED to award merit increases based on passing evaluations to Officer Michael Lambert, Officer Justin Livingstone, Officer Theresa Lustwerk, Officer Joshua Ouellette and that a top of grade adjustment based on a passing evaluation to Officer Thomas Blair. The Motion was SECONDED by Comm. Flanagan and PASSED unanimously.
B. July Meeting. The Commission noted that barring any issue that would require them to meet, there would be no meeting of the Police Commission in July 2007.
10. ADJOURNMENT:
Comm. Flanagan MOVED to adjourn. SECOND by Comm. Dumont at 8:10 P.M.
Respectfully Submitted,
Rebecca J. Warburton
Secretary
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