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 in City Hall Council Chambers on Wednesday, August 3, 2016. Present at this meeting was Comm. Peters, Comm. Lindsay, Comm. Levesque, Chief Allen, Dep. Chief Toussaint, Capt. Thomas, Chaplain Lachapelle and Secretary Warburton as well as members of the Department, the public, and the media.

            The meeting was called to order at 7:03 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 all Commission members present.

2.        PUBLIC COMMENT: 

            There was no comment from the public.

            Comm. Peters wished to thank the Police, Fire and EMS for all they do, especially in light of incidents around the country in the past couple of months.  We appreciate the commitment and dedication the men and women have for the Citizens of Rochester.

            Chief Allen noted a concern that had been brought to his attention today regarding how the regular monthly police commission meetings have been posted. The practice we have been using for some time and we thought we were meeting the spirit and obligations under RSA 91-a, which indicates that meeting notices are posted in two separate location. The meetings were posted in two separate locations on the City website; under the calendar and under the link to the Police Commission. When reviewing 91-a, that doesn’t meet the two separate locations.

            Chief Allen said I appreciate the fact the citizen reached out to the City Manager to ensure we meet our obligations under 91-a and I have taken steps today to ensure we post in accordance with 91-a, consistent with all other city meetings from this day forward. I thank the resident so we could correct this properly.

            Comm. Peters said the Commission meets the first Wednesday of every month. Citizens can feel free to reach out to the Chief or the Police Commission with any concerns or questions and we will get back to you.

3.        ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:  

A.  June 1, 2016, regular meeting.

Comm. Lindsay MOVED to accept the minutes of the June 1, 2016 regular meeting as presented. SECOND by Comm. Levesque and PASSED unanimously.

4.        OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

            No old business for discussion.

5.         NEW BUSINESS:

A.  Awards and Recognition           

            1. Lifesaving – Off. Gantert, Off. Seckendorf and Lt. Bossi. Chief Allen invited these officers up to be recognized for their heroic actions that saved the life of a Rochester resident.

            On March 11, Lt. Anthony Bossi, Patrolman John Gantert, and Patrolman Justin Seckendorf responded to a call of an unresponsive woman at the intersection of Central Avenue and Portland Street. All three officers took part in CPR and rescue breathing before emergency medical services were on scene. The actions of the officers eventually led to the woman regaining consciousness before being transported to the hospital. “If it weren’t for your actions, the results wouldn’t have been what they were,” said Chief Allen.

            Chief Allen said we were alerted to their exemplary actions by the Frisbie Hospital Emergency Medical Services department. He also praised the working relationship the police have with both the EMS and Fire Department. “The teamwork is incredible,” he said. “It doesn’t happen everywhere where EMT, Fire, and Police work so well together. I’m very proud of that.”           

            This is the third Lifesaving Award for Lt. Bossi and the second for both Officer Gantert and Officer Seckendorf.

            B.  Community Outreach

            1. Family Justice Center – Det. Frechette. Chief Allen said this started as a grassroots effort in the County and Det. Frechette has been involved from the beginning. He is currently assigned to the Family Justice Center as our domestic violence officer. He does a fantastic job. He is here tonight to talk about the center, how it operates and what it’s all about.

            Det. Frechette said he appreciates being able to talk about this. The Family Justice Center (FJC) has been supported on many different levels and he will provide and update on where we are and where we are going.

            The FJC is located at the Community Center. It opened one day a week back in 2012, and opened full time in 2013 with the support of the City, grant funding and the County Commissioners.

            We have welcoming client meeting spaces designed specifically not to feel institutional because the FJC is not a social service – it’s a public safety initiative. By supporting victims of abuse with law enforcement, advocates, civil, legal and mental health, as well as DCYF; holding offenders accountable, we wrap the victim in support and services. In this way they will thrive, will be able to show their children that assault, whether it happens at home or on the street, it is not okay and there is a better way.

            We started this model well before the opening of the FJC. We are a multi-agency jurisdiction and we would be nothing without our partners. These are not new positions we are taking the services available in the community and bringing them under one roof to support the victim.

            We have an intake coordinator that offers a menu of services that are available. If there is something a client needs that we don’t offer, we’ll make that call and advise we are the FJC and ask this service to come to our space and meet with a client. If they can’t come to us, we will help facilitate that, getting the client to them, including transportation if that’s an issue.

            Det. Frechette stated he was amazed at the support of our City Council for the FJC. We take this issue seriously in our city. We recently added on site mental health. If you are a chronic victim, your mental health is not where it should be.

            We did some community outreach last night at National Night Out, talking with people and handing out brochures and spreading the word. This initiative doesn’t exist by itself, but with the support of the community. This is a national model and a best practice. We are the only FJC in NH and one of only three in New England. There are 100 others across the nation, and 100 more in planning stages.

            Our clients tell us their needs. Before we opened we would hear I had to go to ten different places to get the help, only to be cycled back to the first place I called. The judicial system can be very intimidating. The FJC takes the run around out of that. It’s not a perfect system, but it is better than what we had before. We have one client who has told us she believes she and her four year old child are alive because of the support she got from the FJC.

            Det. Frechette thanked the Police Commission for their on-going support and noted that he would be happy to give a tour of the center, so they could meet the people doing the work on the ground and get a feel for what is going on.

            Comm. Lindsay asked if the FJC is open 24/7.

            Det. Frechette said it is not. It is open Monday-Friday from 9:00 AM-4:00 PM. Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins are available. After hours crisis intervention is referred to Haven; which is the new name of a Safe Place and SASS (Sexual Assault Support Services) which combined resources. This gets them started to connect with partners.

            Comm. Levesque asked exactly where in the Community Center the FJC is located.

            Det. Frechette said the Community Center is next to the high school (across from McDonalds). There is a row of handicapped parking spaces and the entrance to the FJC is right there. The entrance is a secured entrance. Once past the initial doors, you have to be buzzed into the secure area. This is for the safety of staff and clients. Some batterers can be extremely dangerous.

            Comm. Peters asked can the community support the FJC.           

            Det. Frechette said they are constantly in need of volunteers to get the word out and to let folks know we are here. Abuse victims are often isolated by their abuser. Be that friend that lets them know we are here and it is free and confidential. If they don’t want to speak to a police officer, they don’t have to. We can put them together with an advocate to let them know what their options are. We can always use donations of material goods. Gift cards are always useful. If you are not sure how you can help, call us. We have some terrific partnerships. We now have a computer lab that clients can use and we are setting them up with free drop box accounts that are secure and can be accessed anywhere.  

            Comm. Levesque asked if the FJC serves both men and women.

            Det. Frechette said while the majority of the clients are women they do serve and have served men as well.  

http://familyjusticecenternh.com

https://www.facebook.com/StraffordCountyFamilyJusticeCenter

            Comm. Peters said on behalf of the Commission, thank you for coming in and sharing information about the FJC, and thanks for the work you do.

C.  Policy Update           

            1. Policy Standard 26.1.2 Commendations and Awards: First Reading. Chief Allen said this is a first reading. We changed the month in which some of the awards are given out to be more consistent with a full year of work. We also added language to the Blair Memorial and Red Hayes awards that if we don’t have an officer nominated that fits the criteria the award may be postponed.

            We further changed the language on the many of the awards from shall to may to allow for more discretion on what warrants getting an award, particularly for the lifesaving. We don’t want to minimize the award by giving it out in every single case. It should be significant and relevant. This clarifies that language.

Comm. Levesque MOVED to place Policy Standard 26.1.2: Commendations and Awards into a first reading. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.

Comm. Levesque MOVED to suspend the rules and place Policy Standard 26.1.2: Commendations and Awards into a second reading by title only for adoption. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.

D.  Monthly Reports

            1). Operations. Capt. Thomas reported three of the six wards met this period. The meetings were well attended. Matters discussed included comp stat, fraud and theft prevention and general questions. There was good feedback from citizens on foot beats.

            The Police Department helped to host a senior cookout and swimming at the East Rochester pool with the Recreation Department and Housing. It was attended by more than 50 seniors. We thank Hannaford and Wal*Mart for donating to the event, as well as acknowledging Officers’ Funk, Blair, Miehle and Lt. Pinkham.  

            Comp Stat continues to focus on drug interdiction. Field activity has been high. There were 41 arrests from traffic stops, 28 drug arrests and four search warrants done on residences that resulted in charges as well as cash forfeitures. Property crime is up year to date, but has been down the past two months. We are happy with that trend and will continue to monitor that and deploy resources accordingly.

            Comm. Lindsay inquired about our numbers for texting while driving.

            While we don’t have specific figures for this meeting, we do have the MV Unit target distracted driving. We do look for violators of the law during regular patrols, and recently did a specific detail for that.

            Chief Allen added we have received grant funding from Highway Safety to target that in the city. It is an area of focus for us. Distracted driving or inattention in general is the number one cause of accidents. Year-to-date our accidents are down 14% which is encouraging. We can attribute increased enforcement as being one of those reasons. Patrol is doing good work in that area.

            Comm. Lindsay said that a resident noted there are violators and those people seem oblivious to the law and the purpose for it, so I think the public will feel good that we put this as a priority.

            It was noted we don’t issue summonses to every person we pull over; in fact the majority are warnings. There are a number of different factors taken into consideration. The officer has discretion. Of the 1179 stops this period, 1000 were warnings. Being proactive is the key.

            Chief Allen said a lot of what we do is education. People just don’t know the laws regardless of the publicity. People just don’t think about it. Not everyone gets a ticket for infractions.

            Comm. Lindsay said you see more cars pulled to the side of the road; maybe they are using their phones.

            On the support side 45 cases were sent up from patrol this month. They have 79 cases assigned. There were no violations during compliance checks of pawn shops and sex offenders. There were two call outs for death investigations and one for a child abuse case.

            We are working on getting new computers for the radios in communications. Those we have are the original computers when we moved to this building twelve years ago, and they are running windows XP which is no longer supported.

            Teen Travel camp has been a huge success again this year. This is pro social activity with positive role models from the Police and the Recreation Department. We have to recognize Molly Martuscello and Nicole Rodler for their hard work to ensure another successful National Night Out.

            Lt. Gould and Off. Danie served on the staff at the Cadet Academy. We had two of our Explorers attending; one in the advanced program and one in the basic program.

            Prosecution had 209 new cases with 305 charges. There were 88 guilty, 51 not guilty, 44 failed to appear and 17 administrative finding of guilty. One was dismissed and 34 were nol-prossed as part of plea agreements. There were 56 cases continued.

            Comm. Peters asked how the investigations bureau is doing with all the additional cases.

            Chief Allen said we talked about increases there once the officers are released from the academy. That side of our operation is just as busy as patrol. Investigations do mostly serious, felony-level crimes. We do have a backlog of cases in that bureau and we have to manage it closely. Once we get the new officers out of field training we will look closely as we move into the fall and winter months. There is no firm plan. We will assess it once patrol levels are where we need them to be.

            2.) Administration. Dep. Chief Toussaint said we received the camera shipment and loaded the infrastructure on the Department server assigned to the video system. Public buildings put the receivers on the building exterior. It is significant that this will automatically download once the receiver detects the camera system. There will be no more manual downloads and changing disks which used to take a lot of man hours. The installation should be completed for all cars in the next two weeks.

            A quick overview of the in car cameras is they are state of the art hi-def recorders. We record traffic stops, on average more than 1,000 per month. We have a lot of contact with the community. This helps with evidence, keeps us transparent with the community and eliminates any doubt of behavior of what actually happened on the stop.

            Comm. Levesque asked will anyone actually review the footage.

            Dep. Chief Toussaint said we can do a spot check right from the supervisor’s desk. The recording is on a server in the basement and you can pull up the unit, date, and time and do quality control checks.

            Comm. Peters asked how long you will store the data; there is only so much room.

            Dep. Chief Toussaint said 30-45 days, unless there is a specific event for evidence that will be saved to a disk and put into evidence to go with the case.

            Comm. Peters said this will also tie eventually into the body cameras.

            Chief Allen said to clarify, the blue lights being activated is what triggers the system for the camera to record.

            The bids for the new cruisers are scheduled to be opened tomorrow, Aug. 4. If the bid is accepted we can move forward with the purchase.

            We were approved by the Council to apply for one COPS grant officer. We are waiting to hear from the grant office if we will get approved. We have earmarked the money to be used for a school resource officer in the elementary schools primarily to teach the LEAD program that we are introducing. This is a new program and will replace DARE. This program can target any grade from kindergarten to 12. We will take one grade in elementary and follow up in middle school and again in high school. We just put nine instructors through the class.

            If we get the COPS grant officer we hope to role this out in the elementary school this year. If we don’t get the grant, we will still run the program in the middle and high school.

            Comm. Levesque asked if this happens, will it be offered at the private school in town. They deserve to be included.

            We have talked about it, but have not reached out to them. Chief Allen said this is resource intensive to do all the schools. We didn’t find the interest was there with the private school for the DARE program. I anticipate a renewed interest and we will reach out to the staff of that school to offer this.

            Comm. Lindsay said philosophically it’s a good replacement for DARE as we’ve outgrown that particular approach.

            Chief Allen said, we can adapt the LEAD concept to our specific community needs. You couldn’t tailor the curriculum with DARE. We can use police officers or civilians to teach this. We will use a team-teach approach. There is a lot of flexibility with the program and the curriculum is more relevant to what we want to target here in Rochester, such as the opiate epidemic. When I viewed this at a conference I was drawn to the flexibility it offered and we are one of the first in the State to introduce this to the schools this year.

            Dep. Chief Toussaint said we are working with Somersworth Police as our fiscal agent on the JAG grant. All the paperwork was submitted. We are earmarking the funds to replace MDT’s in five of the front line cars. We are working with our IT Department. We have to upgrade the tablet system which didn’t pan out as well as we had hoped. Either way we would have had to replace the tough book lap tops we had.

            We received permission from the city manager to apply for a highway safety equipment grant this past month. This is part of the J-One program that has been in the works for the past decade to link Police, DMV, the courts and probation together. This is an e-ticketing /e-crash system that scans driver licenses and backfills the data into the system. It also has a printer in the event of issuing a summons. The system also has GPS which backfills the location.  There will be no more hand writing a summons. This will increase officer safety, speed and accuracy because of not having manual entry. We will apply for five units to start and they will see how much funding they have after that. There is a soft-match of 25% for the grant, which can be met through installation costs, or training.

            To be clear, this is not an automated license plate reader system. This is a scanner that scans the bar code on a driver license. The manual work previously involved from the officer writing a ticket on the road, to the prosecution staff entering those into the database, to them getting submitted to the court and DMV, all of that is eliminated through automatic backfill simply by scanning the bar code. This is a huge efficiency step forward and eliminates human error. The State Police have been using the system for a while. The demonstration we saw was impressive.

            Comm. Levesque asked if it can print a warning or ticket.

            Officer’s still have discretion to give a warning or ticket.

            We are training all officers in compassion fatigue, which goes with the Recovery Center. It addresses officers going to the same residences over and over and gives them tools to understand drug addiction as a disease, along with tools they can use to talk to people to move them toward treatment. It also helps them to work with families torn apart by this issue. We think it’s a valuable training. We are inviting Fire and EMS as they deal with some of the same issues. Frisbie Hospital hosted and paid for the trainer.

            Chief Allen reported that we’ve had some hurdles with the recovery center. SOS has pulled out. We have met with John Marzinzik, the CEO of Frisbie and are moving on with an alternate plan. Frisbie is going to hire the coordinator and get the recovery coaches training. This has delayed our anticipated opening. We will do it in conjunction with our Community Access to Recovery.  I am disappointed with how slow this is moving. As you know we continue to experience an increase this year in the number of overdoses. We are up about 25% year to date over last year in overdoses and up 50% in deaths year to date from last year. Those numbers are concerning to us and we need to do something more. We believe this recovery center will help make an impact in the community in addition to other initiatives we are rolling out.

            Comm. Lindsay asked if the coaches are coming from Frisbie.           

            Chief Allen said the pool of recovery coaches from SOS is not working the way we hoped, but Frisbie is looking at other alternatives, training some added staff to act as volunteer recovery coaches.

            Comm. Lindsay asked so what is SOS actually doing.

            Chief Allen said they are still involved in providing training for recovery coaches in the county and they are still a partner to the initiative. The recovery center itself is not something that is working out with them as a partner for a number of reasons. We are staying positive and moving forward. John Marzinzik of Frisbie is a great partner, not just in this but in other things we have launched and we are confident that we are going to be able to move forward and be up and running by October.           

            The center is not open 24/7. However, access to the coaches will be. This is not a residential center. It is for those already in active recovery to have regular meetings and direct people toward resources. This isn’t a crisis center. If someone in crisis came for help they would direct them to the appropriate resources they need. It will be similar to how the Family Justice Center model runs. A person can be guided through a menu of resources and options.

            Dep. Chief Toussaint, Nicole Rodler and Molly Martuscello along with John Marzinzik interviewed for the Rochester Recovery Center coordinator. This is a paid position that will be responsible for the programming and managing the volunteers, which are key factors to the program success.

            The mid-term evaluations for the recruits look good. They are set to graduate on August 19. The ceremony has been moved to the MUB at UNH and has limited seating.

            We have started a hiring process to fill an anticipated vacancy in September. One of our officers will be relocating out of state. We held an agility test with 14 people showing up. Two failed, and two more were eliminated post-PT following answers to questions on the pre-background. We did receive a resume from a certified female officer. Oral boards are next week and then we will schedule interviews before the Commission.

            Bridging the Gaps hosted National Night Out last night. It was a phenomenal event. We had great weather. Nicole and Molly worked the whole year to ensure this went off. There were some issues with technical difficulties for a couple of planned food vendors who were unable to make the event.

            Molly Martuscello the Bridging the Gaps coordinator has advised she is pursuing a career in law enforcement. An agency is currently completing a back ground on her. When she gets the word for being hired we will open up recruiting for her position. If there is any silver lining, funding for similar programs in Maine was recently cut and there may be a pool of applicants there.

E. Other

            Comm. Lindsay discussed the fireworks ordinance passed by the Council that has a multi-faceted impact on the Police Department, and also pits neighbor against neighbor. The Mayor wants quality of life to improve, we want the image of Rochester to improve, but the Council strongly supported a fireworks ordinance. If you follow the ordinance the way it’s written it seems that as it exists now it eliminates the ability to shoot off fireworks on a public way or within 50 feet of buildings and trees. You have many people disregarding that ordinance. I have no qualms about the Police Department doing their job, but this ordinance is unenforceable and it should be eliminated.

            This ordinance basically allows fireworks every weekend of the year. People move here and are shocked to find that out. It raises issues with persons who may be mentally ill or have PTSD, and terrifies cats and dogs. This is not a good situation if you are trying to improve an image.  This is basic economics that has a negative involuntary cost from someone else. I didn’t pay for it or ask for that cost to be put on me and that’s what we have going on in the city, and sadly neighbors are not talking with other neighbors anymore.

6.        CORRESPONDENCE:

            Correspondence for the month included:  UNH Chief Paul Dean thanks Sgt. Smith, Off. Kimbrough, Off. Marvin and Off. Porfido for the assist at the 2016 commencement ceremonies. Off. Dominique Murphy is praised by a fellow officer for her demeanor dealing with an irate citizen. DCYF case workers recognized Off. Marvin’s diligence, demeanor and helpfulness, as well as her report writing skills. Off. Ball is thanked by a Leadership Seacoast participant for her ride along experience. Off. Loignon is praised by Atty. Barbara DeHart for his handling of a call involving her client. Ms. Harriman thanks Off. Blair for his assistance with a housing matter. Det. Frechette is recognized for his conference presentation at the AG Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect and the Governor’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual violence. Chief Sanborn thanks the Department for assistance during multiple fires in downtown Gonic on June 19. Off. Dominique Murphy is praised for her handling of a potentially lost young juvenile running up Rochester Hill Road in heavy traffic. Off. Porfido is thanked for volunteering to fill an open Honor Guard spot for a Knights of Columbus ceremony. Off. Porfido and Off. John Bourque are recognized for joining a group of juveniles in a game of basketball, developing positive relationships. Off. Jackson is thanked by the Small Wonder’s Day Care for his help.

7.        INFORMATION:

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

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

Commissioner Levesque MOVED to enter a nonpublic session at 8:37 P.M. pursuant to RSA 91-A: 3, paragraph II, section A (personnel) and section E (legal.) SECOND by Comm. Lindsay. The motion PASSED by roll call vote 3 – 0 with Comm. Levesque, Comm. Lindsay and Comm. Peters all voting in the affirmative.  A three-minute recess was called. The non-public session closed at 9:11 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 Sgt. Anthony Deluca (3.7%), Off. Frank Porfido (3.5%), Off. Aaron Garneau (2.95%), Off.  Brittney Marvin (2.9%), Sgt. Jeremy Aucoin (3.95%), Off. Thomas Powers (3.8%). The motion was SECONDED by Comm. Levesque and PASSED 3-0.  

10.        ADJOURNMENT:

Comm. Peters MOVED to adjourn. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay at 9:15 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted

Rebecca J. Warburton

Secretary