Police Commission Minutes

Rochester Police Commission

Rochester, NH 03867

Lucien G. Levesque, Chairman

Bruce E. Lindsay, Commissioner

Derek J. Peters, Commissioner

MINUTES OF THE POLICE COMMISSION MEETING

               The Rochester Police Commission held their regular monthly meeting in Council Chambers on Wednesday, October 1, 2014. Present at this meeting was Comm. Levesque, Comm. Lindsay, Comm. Peters, Chief Allen, Deputy Chief Dumas, Attorney Grossman, Crime Analyst Katie Hoffman, Secretary Warburton and members of the public.

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

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

               B. Prayer. Comm. Levesque led the opening prayer. 

               C. Roll Call. The clerk called the roll marking all the Commissioner’s present.  

2.           PUBLIC COMMENT:  There was no public comment.

3.           ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:            

               A.  September 3, 2014 – regular meeting

Comm. Peters MOVED to accept the minutes of the September 3, 2014 meeting. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.

4.           OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:             

               There was no old business for discussion

5.           NEW BUSINESS:

          A. Monthly Reports

          1. Operations. Chief Allen reported there has been great activity with the Run program. Wards 4 and 6 held a joint meeting with 22 residents attending. It’s encouraging to see increased attendance. There was good discussion on the heroin epidemic in the State and the issues we are seeing here in the City. We also discussed burglaries in the City, thefts from motor vehicles and shared crime prevention tips.

          We have seen an overall reduction in property crime for the year but are still seeing increases in shoplifting and thefts from motor vehicles. We are dedicating resources and time to attacking these issues.

          The Fair had a successful year. The crowds and activity overall were light. We were pleased to see a safe event.

          We have moved Officer Livingstone from patrol over to investigations to fill a vacancy resulting from promotions. We are looking forward to getting him up to speed in property crimes.

          Evidence Technician Kerlee is finishing up his training. We will have an audit of the locker, which is customary when we have a change in personnel in that role.

          Comm. Levesque asked if the Commission could get a copy of what is in the locker and when it arrived.

          A discussion ensued as to what such a report entails, and that a collective report on the audit can be provided when it is completed.

          We have had several call outs this month for heroin overdoses; in fact three in a three day period, two resulting in death. What we are seeing is occurring on a state wide basis, not just here, but also across the country. We are attacking the issue to include education in the schools, the DARE Program and also through enforcement as partners with the County Drug Task Force. They are doing great work in the City to combat the issues and trying to track the origin of the drugs. This is a big concern and we are doing everything we can to impact the issue in a positive way.

          Comm. Peters asked would you charge someone with a homicide due to a death from the drugs.

          Chief Allen replied there is more to it. Through the investigation, you would have to meet the threshold to support a criminal charge, but potentially you could.

          Comm. Lindsay asked about the shortage of life saving medicine used to revive someone in these instances.

          Chief Allen said that is in the hands of the EMS. He did state though there has been a push with the NH Chief’s and the Legislature to put Narcan in the hands of law enforcement. You’ll hear more about this in the coming months.

          Comm. Peters inquired if you need certification on this.

          Chief Allen said that you’d have to have training and legislation to regulate it, along with addressing the liability of police administering it. I support it 100% if it can save lives. Chief Allen confirmed that the Department does not have any of this in inventory.

          Comm. Peters said the Fire Department and EMS have it.

          The new dispatcher who started two months ago is finishing her training and going on her own this month. Our part time records clerk resigned this past month to accept a full time position with the Department of Public Works. We will hold interviews this week to fill the vacancy.

          There was a great article in the paper on Officer Hayes’ Community Builders Award from the Mason’s. She does a phenomenal job in this area and the award was well deserved. It was a nice ceremony and I publicly congratulate Tracy again. I also thank Comm. Peters, representing Rotary, for attending along with City Councilors and the City Manager. It was a nice showing of support.

          Chief Allen said in addition to her outreach and volunteerism, she manages the Department face book page. This is up to almost 9,000 followers, with approximately 80,000 hits per month. This is a way of reaching the community not just about crime but other noteworthy issues. When you can reach out to 9,000 people in a moment it’s a great resource. She has really built that page up for us. A lot of work, but time well spent.

          Comm. Lindsay commented that a recent most wanted posting resulted in an arrest two hours later by the Somersworth Police Department.

          The Explorer Post is very active and the program has seen resurgence. SRO Murphy has been working with Lt. Gould. We have 12 enrolled and it continues to grow.

          Officer Mike Miehle started in prosecution this month picking up some of the added work. He previously worked in that bureau prior to his leaving us in the late fall of 2012.

          We are hopeful that the City Council will permit filling a civilian prosecuting attorney for the Department. They are set to deliberate that at their next meeting. If this is approved not only will the officer assigned to evidence go back to patrol, but two others in prosecution will as well. The support in patrol is sorely needed due to activity levels.

          We have temporarily assigned our parking officer to prosecution to support the backlog in filing, discovery and subpoenas for our cases. The staff there is overworked and overwhelmed. There are not enough hours in the day. Our arrests are up significantly which creates the paperwork that goes with them. It’s a workload demand on the support staff. We made a decision to pull from parking, or lose cases in court. We hope to be caught up soon. Once that happens she will return her to normal assigned duties.

          Comm. Peters commented this is a short term solution to a long term problem.

          Chief Allen said that correct. The long term is to add people or increase hours.

          Comm. Peters asked about the personnel breakdown in there.

          Chief Allen said it is 1 full time and 1 part time staff. We will evaluate this when preparing the budget for next year. I think we have good justification for adding staff.

          Comm. Peters said he fears taking away from patrol or other enforcement duties to augment this. At some point you’ll have to play catch up to get back to where we need to be. It’s a shame to pull people from regular duties to accomplish this, but you have to get it done.  

          Chief Allen said I don’t want to pay overtime to get caught up. That costs us more money. It’s weighing priorities. The Parking Officer has been trained in there and does well. I don’t want it to be long term because the parking role is important as well.

          The Disproportionate Minority Contact symposium is set for tomorrow night (October 2) at the community center. The public is welcome to attend. This will be a discussion on diversity in the community.

          The first teen night of the year will be held on Saturday, October 4, 2014. The Commission is welcome to attend.

          Chief Allen said he has been working with Ms. Plaia from the Government Channel to put together a recruitment video for the Department. This is some- thing we can use at job fairs and other such ventures. It will promote programs we have to offer and all the good work we do and what we have to offer potential employees. When it’s complete we will air it at a future Commission meeting.

          2. Administrative.  Dep. Chief Dumas reported that we are one quarter into our fiscal year. Last month we talked about various line items and expenses along with encumbered funds. One line we are still watching is overtime. Vacations, investigations and call outs have impacted this, but we do feel it will even out with careful monitoring. We need to keep in mind that comp time is a part of that and that drives up that number.

          Dispatch is a different story. We are down four positions and have been down between three and four positions the entire year. We are about 51% spent and I don’t think we will be able to recover. There is no relief in sight. We are using per diem hours as well as an officer on temporary alternate duty. Dispatch needs to be covered and at times we have to put police officers in there.

          Comm. Levesque said that this seems to be a consistent problem keeping people. Is there a common denominator? Are we doing exit interviews to find out why?

          Chief Allen said first, it’s not a Rochester problem. This is a statewide issue. The job is demanding, stressful and difficult and the pay, quite frankly is not commensurate with the job. Because of that dispatchers tend to leave for more money elsewhere. That is not the case with everyone but if I had to pick one reason that’s what it would be. The recent resignation was not due to money. This person had held the position for a long time and was ready to move to another chapter in their life. We did sign a new contract with incentives that we hope will impact this moving forward, including increased compensation, a structure for longevity and career development and lead dispatchers.

          Comm. Levesque asked if we have an active training person in dispatch.

          Chief Allen replied that we do. Our lead dispatchers are senior staff and they do the training.

          Dep. Chief Dumas said that as part of our CIP the ComLog system was received and installed. We have retained the old system for a period of time in the event we need to recover any data. Following that, it will be traded to 2-Way as part of the original bid.

          The Crisis Intervention Team will be completing their annual 8-hour block of training for recertification. This is important work in helping people with mental illness to deescalate situations.

          Comm. Peters asked how many are on the team and who took over the program from Sgt. Burke?

          Dep. Chief Dumas said there are 8 members, and we are planning to add 2 more. Sgt. Brinkman took on that role with the retirement of Sgt. Burke. It was done through succession planning.

          Officers’ Hatch and Benjamin are progressing well in the field training program and Officer Marvin is in week three of the Academy.

          The notice of medical clearance we were waiting for from one of the new hires has been received. We will have all three openings filled with plans to get them into the January Academy. They will come on board in November, complete the in house training and upon return from the Academy after a brief refresher, they will move right into field training.

          The Commission inquired about the increase in the Academy duration? Chief Allen noted that takes effect in May of 2015; and the Academy will then be 16 weeks.

          We are establishing an eligibility list for vacancies and a physical agility testing has been set for the upcoming weekend. We’ve had thirty-eight people sign up. Following that we will conduct oral boards and will have candidates to bring before the Commission.

          Activity at the Fair was low. We will evaluate the nights activity and scheduling gate and event coverage and talk about how to do that moving forward, working with the fair. It’s important to the city and us to do all we can to work with them to maintain the safety of citizens and attendees.

          B. Other.

           1. School Bus Safety. School has been in session for about a month. We haven’t had any this year, but in the past there have been calls we’ve responded to about motorists passing school buses.

           There is a scheduled bus pick up on Salmon Falls Road, around the 8:00 AM hour between Highland Street and Rte 125, where the student needs assistance getting on the bus. It takes about 5 minutes and the bus has to park in the road. We have discussed this at the public safety committee meeting. We realize it’s a high commuter time, but there are no other options. We recommend people that travel this road during this commute hour to seek alternate routes.

           Vehicles are required to stop 25 feet from a school bus and cannot proceed until the lightsare extinguished. A first offense is not less than $100.00 or more than $750 fine.  A subsequent offense is not less than $250. All the bus driver has to do identify the vehicle plate and that is prima facie that the owner of the vehicle is responsible for the violation.  We did a light-hearted public service announcement last year on this topic. We want to remind citizens to be safe out there.

           2.  Crime Analysis Program. Chief Allen stated that back in the spring the Department contracted with BAIR Analytics for a crime analyst. Katie Hoffman was hired and embedded at our Department. Part of the contract included software modules, for the analyst, the officers and a public interface, accessed through our website that allows the public to perform basic crime analysis on their own. Katie has been to Ward meetings to talk about what she does and to demonstrate how the software works.

          Chief Allen said this is a good opportunity to highlight the software and encourage members of the public to check it out and see what it can do. The more information we can put into the hands of the community the more successful we are. We have said before we don’t have enough personnel to address every single issue and we need the public to partner with us to help us make this the great City it is.

          Analyst Hoffman logged into the site and did a brief overview of how to access the information through the police department website.

          Comm. Levesque thanked Katie for the presentation and feels that this will help control some of the issues we have, by working with the community, the POP officer, the crime analyst, it will make a big difference in partnership in the community and make us really excel. It’s a good way to control what goes on in the community and to make people feel safe.

6.           CORRESPONDENCE:

               The correspondence for the month included: Col. Quinn of NHSP thanks the Chief and Department for our assistance during the homicide investigation in Madbury in June.  Off. Garneau, Off. Worthley and Sgt. Babine are thanked by the Burke family for their response to a suspicious person on their property.  Off. Mackenzie received the NH Congressional Law Enforcement Award for his action in apprehending a homicide suspect in June 2014 in Northern Maine.  Lt. Pinkham is thanked by a citizen for assistance after their wallet was stolen, by providing acceptable documentation allowing the citizen to board their departing flight. A resident thanks Off. Moore for his insight and compassion while handling a call for service.  Fr. Paul and Norbert Hamann of the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church thank the Chief and Department for assistance provided during the memorial service for journalist James Foley.

7.           INFORMATION: No additional discussion.

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

Commissioner Peters MOVED to enter a nonpublic session at 7:46 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.  Peters,  Comm. Lindsay and Comm. Levesque voting in the affirmative.  The non-public session closed at 8:22 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Peters, SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.

9.           ADJOURNMENT:

Comm. Lindsay MOVED to adjourn. SECOND by Comm. Peters at 8:23 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

Rebecca J. Warburton,

Secretary