Police Commission Minutes

Rochester Police Commission

Rochester, NH 03867

Derek J. Peters, Chairman

Bruce E. Lindsay, Commissioner

Lucien G. Levesque, Commissioner

MINUTES OF THE POLICE COMMISSION MEETING

           The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting at the Rochester Police Department on Wednesday March 2, 2016. Present at this meeting was Comm. Peters, Comm. Lindsay, Chief Allen, Dep. Chief Dumas, Capt. Boudreau, Chaplain Lachapelle and Secretary Warburton as well as members of the Department, the public and the media.

            The meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M.

            A. Pledge. All participated in the Pledge of Allegiance. 

            B. Prayer. Chaplain Lachapelle led the opening prayer.            

            C. Roll Call. The clerk called the roll marking Commissioner’s Peters and Lindsay present.  Commissioner Levesque was excused.

2.        PUBLIC COMMENT: 

There was no public comment.

3.        ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:  

A.  February 3, 2016 regular meeting.

Comm. Lindsay MOVED to accept the minutes of the February 3, 2016 regular meeting as presented. SECOND by Comm. Peters and PASSED unanimously.    

4.        OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:           

            A.  Policy Updates: Second Reading for Adoption

            1. Policy 54.1.2: Social Media. This is a new policy modeled after the IACP model policy and tailored to our needs.

            Comm. Lindsay said it is detailed and comprehensive and covers a lot.

Comm. Lindsay MOVED to place Policy Standard 54.1.2: Social Media into a second reading by title only for adoption. SECOND by Comm. Peters. The motion PASSED unanimously.  

5.        NEW BUSINESS:           

            A.  Awards and Recognitions.         

            1. Employees of the Year awards are given out to members of the department who consistently give high levels of performance throughout the year. They are divided into three categories depending on job function; communications, support, and patrol officers.

            a. Support: Steven Kerlee. Stephen Kerlee was hired in 2014 as the first civilian to be hired as an evidence technician. He retired at the rank of Lieutenant from the Dover Police Department. This role was always assigned to a sworn police officer. Chief Allen said “We have on any given day 55,000 pieces of evidence in our evidence locker, which gives you an idea of the magnitude of the responsibility and experience needed to manage the role.” “Steve has worked tirelessly to research, purge, and return over 3,500 pieces since joining our department.”

            b. Communications: Kayla McVay. This is Kayla’s second Employee of the Year award since joining the department three years ago. She is a dedicated employee who maintains a professional and positive work environment. She will help on any project and is always looking for ways to improve the center and its service to the community.  If she identifies a need, she looks for a solution and then presents it. She exemplifies the Department Mission Statement.

            c. Patrol Officer: Justin Seckendorf. Officer Seckendorf has been with the Department for 8 years, and is a Marine Veteran. He was previously nominated for the award in 2013. He works evening motor vehicle patrol and has shown a dedication to the department and the department’s mission, particularly on traffic enforcement and drug addiction. His drive to investigate drug crimes is really impressive, and he is a great role model for younger officers.”

            2. Lifesaving Awards. This is an honor given out to officers who go above and beyond to try to save an individual’s life. Officers who receive the award the first time are given a ribbon commemorating their efforts, and subsequent awards are recognized with a silver star.

            a. Off. Marc Cilley & Off. Dwayne Hatch. Off. Cilley is receiving the award for the second time, and Off. Hatch for the first time. The two officers responded to a report of a drug overdose, and were able to sustain the victim through CPR and AED application until Frisbie EMS arrived and transported the subject, who lived.

            b. Off. Kyle Danie & Off. Geoff Moore. Off. Danie has been with the department since 2013 and was a former RPD intern, and Off. Moore has been with the department since 2012. He is a previous recipient of the Officer of the Year award. The two officers responded to a report of a drug overdose where the female subject was unresponsive. By administering Narcan and performing CPR, the two officers were able to revive the subject.

            B.  2015 Year End Reports. Chief Allen said we were bumped last month from being televised. He is taking this opportunity to report out on our 2015 year end. Our outreach really contributed to our very successful year and meeting our goals and objectives in line with the strategic plan.

            Highlighting a couple of areas; property crime has been a focal point. Historically this has been a big issue over the past five years. We spend a lot of resources and time investigating these crimes. We are happy to report we exceeded our expectations in 2015. The Foster’s newspaper recently did a report showing we reduced property crime in the city by 34%. This is a result we have not seen in my time doing the comp stat process. The year prior we had huge spikes in shoplifting and robberies, burglaries and thefts. Having a reduction this significant is an accomplishment of the hard work the men and women in the department have done. To achieve that result is not by accident, it comes from hard work and I can’t say enough about the efforts that we have been able to achieve in accomplishing this.

          There are other significant stats that go along with our property crime reduction. We saw an increase in drug crime. We have had heavy proactive motor vehicle enforcement in the areas of the city where we have had reports of drug activity and prior arrests. We have used the data available from the prior year and formulated strategies as a result. There was a 67% increase in drug related incidents we responded to in 2015.  In 2014 there were 116 drug related arrests. In 2015 there were 223. This equates to a 92% increase in the number of drug arrests.

          Rochester is a safe community and we, as a Department, are constantly evaluating and looking at problem areas in the City and focusing resources on those issues to make an impact, to make the City as safe as we can, and to improve the quality of life, making the city attractive so people will want to move here.

            Comm. Peters commented that the Department working with the Council these past two years to put extra officers on the street, along with the proactive activity has a direct impact on what we do. I am constantly reminded about police presence and the remarkable difference when it seems an officer is around the corner. That is a credit to the officers but also to the Council enabling us to do what we do.

          Chief Allen said you are right. To do what we do you need resources and I am appreciative of the support from the commission and the council to allow us to remain a proactive police department.

          Comm. Lindsay said seeing people working together and comparing what we see out there, listening, there are a lot of happy officers. I hear and see the same thing.

          Our staffing levels are better than they have been in a very long time. A big part is the resources we are given by the city, but retaining the officers we have is also a factor. When you have officers come to work, engaged, wanting to do a good job and excited to do the things we’ve been doing, that makes all the difference in the world. It is a major contributor to our success. There is no one specific thing; it’s a number of different things.

            What is the percent 2015 to 2014 in calls for service?

          It increased about one thousand. We divide our calls into priority 1, 2 and 3 when someone calls the PD for a service from us. We had just over 20,000 of those in 2015. That does not represent all calls. Those are the reactive response to issues in the city. The proactive responses that we talked about make up more than double that number. That’s the traffic work in the city, the outreach, ward and other meetings, foot beats, directed patrols; there are so many different things that make up the proactive things, that is all self initiated and that is what makes a difference.

          If we were simply reactive we wouldn’t see these results. Those are due to the proactive efforts we have been able to accomplish in 2015.

          Comm. Peters said it’s important to note that 20,000 calls for service, that is a lot of calls and we couldn’t do it without the resources and cooperation from the men and women. When I started on the Commission the we were inundated with backlogged calls.  Those extra bodies out there reducing that workload and making it more pleasurable to come to work, making sure they have the equipment and the tools to do the job in an effective manner is important.

          Comm. Lindsay said it is unbelievable the amount of growth that is taking place. These groups that are reaching out and dealing with issues in the community, and doing so with a lot of sincerity and cooperation offered by the Police. We are seeing these groups popping up all over. We are a community where if you listen to what is going on at the state, no drug czar, our department is taking the initiative. We can’t wait for everyone. We take the bull by the horn and go after it. We have seen productivity increase, officers are more efficient in doing things and the overall environment and we at the micro-level of the community are still working with other communities and regional partnerships.

          Chief Allen said our resources are limited. Without partnerships both in and out of the community, we certainly couldn’t get and achieve the results we are talking about. That is what community policing is all about. It’s a buzz word, but what we do and engaging all levels of the community, forming partnerships, building our network and achieving our goals as you have seen through the recent  results. We have built a level of trust in the community and police and significantly improved through engagement. You can’t just drive around in a car and expect people to support your agency. You have to get out in the community, engage, interact and humanize the profession. When you do that, good things happen. We have been able to do that with the hard working men and woman who understand that concept and execute it and do it well. We are not perfect all the time, but I am proud of the work we do.

          Comm. Peters said over the years we have built a strong level of trust in the community. It is stronger because of being proactive. The little things they do make a huge difference in the public eye.

           C.  Monthly Reports

            1). Operations. Capt. Boudreau said the RUN program is getting back up to speed after the holidays. Four of the six wards met and had good discussions and participation from residents.

          The TAR team had a call out last month for an accident on North Main Street, from a person who fled a traffic stop.

          The K9 Unit had 8 call outs for tracks; three in town and drugs; two in town. Off. MacKenzie also participated in some community events including Teen night and a CHaD hockey event in Dover. He has been playing the battle of the badges game since its’ inception.

          The Citizen’s Academy starts next week. We have 15 citizens who have applied.

          We are still concentrating on property crimes and targeting drug activity. We had a good month for self initiated activity. There were more than 1,000 traffic stops.

          Comm. Peters said it’s important to note that officers are also patrolling bus routes in the morning and evening. A good percentage of the stops get a warning versus a summons. Officers are being proactive and watching for the safety of all residents.

          The Investigations Bureau had 72 cases sent up for review. There were 16 cases presented to the Grand Jury and all returned true bills. There were 27 sex offender compliance checks with no violations this month. There were also no violations or compliance issues on the pawn shop checks completed.

          There were four call outs; three untimely deaths that we are waiting for final toxicology reports and the fourth was a highly publicized assault at Gary’s Sports Bar that resulted in a death. This was a large investigation and four arrests have been made from this case on a variety of offenses at both the misdemeanor and felony level.

          The Communications Center is up to full staff. Specialist Behr is in her final week, attending SPOTS school and will be released to solo dispatching.

          Off. Miehle has had an extremely busy month attending a host of different meetings. He has been proactive in getting other officers involved in events at the elementary schools reading to students and interacting with the kids. He planned and organized a senior safety event. There were about 30 folks in attendance learning about resources and safety information. This was well received and we are looking forward to doing it again next year.

            2.) Administration. Dep. Chief Dumas said the PD budget is looking good except for one line in red. The vehicle maintenance line has had a couple of transfers into that line. This is the main repair line and we did an extended look over the past couple of years to see what we have spent. Last year we spent about $8,800.00 and this year to date we have already spent $19,000.00. The deductible for a couple of accidents also came out of this line. We are tracking the repairs and as some of the cars get older there are repairs, like brakes and batteries. As you know we also changed repair vendors this year, and have since changed back. The majority of these costs are routine repairs.

            The dispatch budget is projected to be in the red by $39,000.00 for the overtime. We are up to full staff and that projection is based on past spending and might not end as high. There is a surplus in salaries. We are preparing to lose one specialist who is being back-grounded by another agency.           

            We got an email that the new cruiser should arrive next week. It still needs to be outfitted. We are also down one front line cruiser from an accident.

            Chief Allen added that we didn’t want to spend money repairing that vehicle as we planned to cycle it out of the fleet. The hope is that vehicle will be replaced in July with a newer vehicle.

            In training, Sgt. Cost is working on ensuring officers are trained on core competencies and is doing 5-10 question policy quizzes.

          Officer Arrajj is on solo patrol. Of the four officers interviewed by the Commission, the number 2 candidate has withdrawn and accepted a job at another agency. This was why we started multiple backgrounds in the event this happened we won’t miss a step and can hopefully get all these people in the next academy.

            Comm. Peters asked once the background is finished what the expected ETA is.

            Dep. Chief Dumas said that they have a conditional, contingent on passing all phases. If they do, they have a job and we give them a start date. We can get some of the in-house training done prior to the academy so when they come back there is a quick one to two week refresher before they head to field training. It will be September before they are on the street.

          How many field trainers do we have?

          We have ten but not all are used at the same time due to assignments. We just sent four more through the training. We are in good shape in that regard.

          On February 18, we hosted the first of three “It takes a village” programs. There was a great turnout of about 140 people. This was an engaged and enthusiastic crowd looking to do their part to change the culture here in Rochester. It’s getting people taking about it. What is our best avenue to address the drug epidemic? Molly Martuscello did a great job. The next session is March 24, also at the Opera House.

6.        CORRESPONDENCE:

            Correspondence for the month included:   Off. Porfido and Off. Powers are thanked for professional handling of a disturbance at the SHARE fund. Off. Smith is thanked for assisting with training for the Explorers.

7.        INFORMATION:

A.  Information Other; enclosed with Agenda. No discussion.

8.        NON-PUBLIC SESSION: (Pursuant to:  RSA 91-A:3) 

Commissioner Lindsay MOVED to enter a nonpublic session at 8:16 P.M. pursuant to RSA 91-A: 3, paragraph II, section A (personnel) and section E (legal.) SECOND by Comm. Peters. The motion PASSED by roll call vote 2 – 0 with Comm. Peters and Comm. Lindsay voting in the affirmative.  A three minute recess was called. The non-public session closed at 8:35 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Peters, SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.

9.        MISCELLANEOUS:

Comm. Lindsay MOVED to award merit increases on the respective anniversary dates to Off. Jennifer Arrajj (2.85%) Off. Dwayne Hatch (2.75%) Off. Jacob Benjamin (3.15%) Off. Andrew Jackson (3.9%) Off. Brenden Bentz (3%) Off. Scott Loignon (3.4%) Off. Brandon Kimbrough (3.95%) and Off. John Gantert (2.65%). The motion was SECONDED by Comm. Peters and PASSED unanimously.  

10.        ADJOURNMENT:

Comm. Peters MOVED to adjourn. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay at 8:40 P.M.

                                         Respectfully Submitted

Rebecca J. Warburton

Secretary