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 at the Police Department on Wednesday, November 5, 2014. Present at this meeting was Comm. Levesque, Comm. Lindsay, Comm. Peters, Chief Allen, Deputy Chief Dumas, Attorney Grossman, Chaplain Lachapelle and Secretary Warburton. 

            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 all Commissioner’s present. 

2.         PUBLIC COMMENT:  There was no public comment.

3.         ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:   

            A.  October 1, 2014 – regular meeting

Comm. Peters MOVED to accept the minutes of the October 1, 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 noted that the RUN program has had light attendance except for over in Ward 2, where the recent meeting had 30 in attendance.

            The K9 had 7 tracks this period, 2 for drugs. He participated in a safety day at Home Depot as well as the End 68 Hours of Hunger food drive at Wal*Mart. Also of note was the team was requested through the Sheriff’s Department to go to Pennsylvania to assist them with tracking a suspect who had executed a police officer there. He was gone for two days and all the expenses were paid for by the County. He took time off from work here to cover that absence.

            Comm. Levesque asked if he had gotten hurt while he was there, who would cover that injury. Chief Allen said he would be covered under workers compensation through the Sheriff.

            Chief Allen noted we had a minor complication printing the comp stat report this month, and offered his apologies for getting it late to the Commission. He said there has been a 4% overall decrease in property crime. We are still seeing increases in shoplifting and motor vehicle thefts. We have revised the DDACTS strategy and are using the resources of both patrol and investigations expanding our target area but focusing on smaller hot spots and street crimes and are seeing an impact on other crimes. The early results are positive as overall there is a year to date decrease.

            Chief Allen said these thefts are crimes of opportunities and he brought back some good information from the IACP conference on what others across the country are doing to combat this. There are some innovative ideas out there surrounding technology which has gotten much easier to use and less expensive to purchase.

            The Commission asked if there are cameras in the Union Street parking lot. Wasn’t there a time when this was discussed due to ongoing issues? Chief Allen replied there are no cameras there.  This was discussed several years ago, but there was pushback by the Council who did not want permanent video cameras in the down town. Chief Allen did say there is value to using technology. We tend to be behind the general public in this area. We have to find ways to capitalize on this and push us to work towards that.

            Theft from motor vehicles has the lowest closure rate. It has about 2% solvability. Dep. Chief Dumas noted that the stats on this are a bit skewed, because when a person is caught the charging offense is usually for receiving stolen property.

            Accidents are down year to date and we attribute that in some way to our increased motor vehicle enforcement. Crime and accidents do overlap and that is where we target resources.

            Comm. Peters noted field interviews are up 167%. Chief Allen replied that’s good. It means officers out on the road are stopping, talking and identifying people. It is proactive outreach and all part of the overall crime reduction strategy.

          Chief Allen noted over in support the evidence audit is almost complete. We should have a full report for the Commission soon. We have transferred Det. Murphy back to patrol, giving us a net gain of one. We have also transitioned Sgt. Deluca to overseeing support, dispatch and specialty units and Sgt. Emerson to overseeing the investigations bureau.

          Heroin is still a big problem. We are seeing a lot of overdoses. Luckily, most of them live. But this is an emerging issue.

          Chief Allen said at the Chiefs level in the state they are looking to put NarCan (Naloxone) in the hands of law enforcement. Dep. Chief Dumas was on a study committee some months back. Timing is of the essence and this will save lives. I want to give the Dep. Chief credit for his work on this with the Chiefs, the Attorney General and Health and Human Services.

          Comm. Peters asked about protocols. Will you have to be an EMT?

          Chief Allen said no. There are a couple of ways to administer this. The easiest is the nasal spray. But there is also an epi-pen. Both are effective, but not as quick as an injection.

          Comm. Levesque said but less liability?

          Chief Allen concurred. There may still be some, but we won’t be using needles. This is a good program and you will see more to come from this. In the mean time, the county drug task force is doing good work in this area. The education and treatment of addiction was another area he focused on while at the IACP conference. We have an information sheet that we can give out that explains treatment and services that are available that we will work into our strategy.

          The investigations bureau was called out for three events; 2 robberies and one home invasion. There were seven overdoses.

          The three new hires will start on Monday and be sworn in at the December Commission meeting. We are still working to fill four positions in the Communications Center. The newest hire will be going solo headset shortly. The records clerk position has been filled. She is currently working out her two week notice at her other job and will start at the end of this month.

          Officer Hayes did a great job with Main Street in helping to coordinate the annual downtown trick or treat and zombie walk. Mike Provost from Main Street was appreciative of her help.

          The Commission asked about Officer Hayes doing enforcement work.

          Chief Allen said she does do enforcement work. She is the problem oriented policing officer and that narrow focus allows for more time to give attention to those issues. She flex’s her hours to meet the objectives of the Department. We do this frequently with the specialty units. It helps them and helps us to manage overtime.

          Over in Diversion we have to give a big kudos to Nicole Rodler and to Dep. Chief Dumas for the work on the DMC Symposium. While public attendance was light, the partner agency attendance was good. The NAACP attended and has plans to attend Teen Nights in the future to work with minority youth.

          The first Teen Night of the year opened with 348 youth attending. This was the largest opening night attendance and the program continues to grow. Finding a way to fund it is important as the grant money will expire in February. We need to have a budget to defray the costs for food, entertainment, the DJ and the LADAC (Licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselor). There is no cost for personnel. This is one of those areas where we flex hours.

          2. Administrative. Dep. Chief Dumas said the budget is in relatively good shape. We do have a concern with overtime when comp time liability is factored in. We are keeping the finance committee abreast of this issue. The operational lines are where they need to be.

          Comm. Peters noted animal boarding is 70% spent. Dep. Chief Dumas said most of that is encumbered money. We base the amount to put in there on prior years. We also re coup boarding fees from the owners if they can be identified and those get recorded as revenue.

          Equipment Maintenance has all the IMC (records management software) fees built into and paid at the beginning of the year. Postage is up due to the large mailing from the dog warrant.

          Over in dispatch we project a savings in salaries and benefits being down four positions, but the overtime line will be over due to replacements. The per diem line only had $2,000.00 in there. We also had $11,000.00 in payouts on resignations.

          Chief Allen added that we requested increases in the overtime, but didn’t get approved. We will ask again.

          We will see a loss in revenue as Durham PD didn’t renew the agreement to use the range. It was only available on certain days and that was too restrictive for them.

          Dep. Chief Dumas noted that we will be participating in some training on how we look at and investigate missing person’s cases. Following that we anticipate a policy upgrade. There is a lot in the news about human trafficking and we are seeing this more and more, even here in the seacoast. This training will dig deeper and better define runaways. It gets us all, officers and dispatch working from the same check list going step by step so we do not miss stuff that would be valuable to finding missing persons. Once the training is complete and the policy updated we will be identified as a Missing Person Ready Department.

          Officers Hatch and Benjamin are in the two-week observation period of field training. We are looking to release them to solo patrol by shift change. Officer Marvin is in week seven of the academy.

          The Commission inquired into instructor certifications.

          Dep. Chief Dumas said that the training officer maintains a list. We also expect the officers to know when recerts are due. We invest time and money into these and we expect officers to maintain them.

          The Fair has paid their bill in full.

          We continue to evaluate solutions to the MDT in the cruisers. We are looking into a tablet with an iPod/VDI system. We are moving slowly so that we get the best system for our use.

          Comm. Peters asked about prosecution.

          Chief Allen noted that he met with the City Manager on the process. It is moving forward.

          B. Other.

          1. Accept Resignation. Officer Ouellette recently resigned to take a job in the private sector.

Comm. Peters MOVED to accept Officer Ouellette’s resignation. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay. Open for discussion.

          Chief Allen advised that Officer Ouellette asked about authorization to carry retired identification. He resigned he didn’t retire. His justification is he is vested in the NH Retirement System, and if he had the age, he could retire. I denied him at my level and advised that I would bring this to you under policy. After some discussion the following motion was made:

Comm. Peters MOVED to deny the issuance of a retired identification to Officer Ouellette. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.

The motion to accept Officer Ouellette’s resignation PASSED unanimously.

6.         CORRESPONDENCE:

            The correspondence for the month was held until the December meeting.

7.         INFORMATION: No additional discussion.

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

Commissioner Peters MOVED to enter a nonpublic session at 8:35 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 8:55 P.M. on a MOTION by Comm. Peters, SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.

9.         MISCELLANEOUS:

Comm. Peters MOVED to award merit increases on the respective anniversary dates to Off. R. Smith (3.5%); Off. K. MacKenzie (3.75%); Off. P. Kusnierz (3.45%) and Det. J. Rousseau (4.25%). Comm. Lindsay SECONDED the motion and it PASSED unanimously.

10.       ADJOURNMENT:

Comm. Lindsay MOVED to adjourn. SECOND by Comm. Peters at 9:01 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

Rebecca J. Warburton,

Secretary