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 City Hall, Council Chambers on Wednesday, January 7, 2015. Present at this meeting was Comm. Levesque, Comm. Lindsay, Comm. Peters, Chief Allen, Deputy Chief Dumas, Capt. Toussaint, Attorney Grossman, Chaplain Lachapelle and Secretary Warburton as well as invited guests, members of the Department 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 all Commissioner’s present.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT:
There was no public comment. Comm. Levesque made comments. He said that in light of what has been going on around the country, some things have been said about police officer that is not good by some people in political positions. We want to let our officers know we are real proud of the officers of Rochester. They train hard, work hard, show up every day to protect the lives of all the citizens. We, the Commission stands beside you in all that you do. We are proud of the fact that you maintain a high discipline and work ethic here in the City of Rochester. We know some of the things some of you go through, we try to get involved in that but we haven’t seen it all. We see the results of the hard work, just in the awards given tonight and over the past year on many occasions how meritorious the Police Department is and the citizen’s of Rochester should be proud of what you do. You step forward when most of us wouldn’t and encounter conditions on some calls that would make a grown man sick. The loved ones you leave behind and hope they will see you at the end of the day, it's quite a feeling to have that and quite a commitment you do and deliver to the City of Rochester.
We also want the people to know the President of the Unite States says police officers should be more involved in their communities. Starting next month the Commission, Chief and command staff will start keying in on some of the things the Rochester Police Department is involved in; whether its RUN, DARE, Teen Night, there must be 15 or 20 different ones, we will take two or three at each meeting and expound on them so the citizens will know how hard you work and the time you dedicate, a lot of your own time, so the people will realize what a wonderful, talented and committed police department we have in Rochester. Thank you all very much for your service.
3. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:
A. December 3, 2014 regular meeting
Comm. Peters MOVED to accept the minutes of the December 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. Awards and Recognitions
1. Explorer Marcus Wyckoff – Cadet Academy Achievements Chief Allen said back in the summer we recognized two Rochester residents; Ian Watt and Marcus Wyckoff for their achievements while attending the Cadet Academy. Marcus was unable to attend that meeting so we brought him back to this meeting. The New Hampshire Police Association and the New Hampshire Chiefs of Police along with the Exploring Division of the Daniel Webster Council, have held a training academy since 1973; open to youth aged 14 – 21. It’s a week-long residential academy, set up in basic, advanced and leadership tiers. The Academy offers physical training, academics but also discipline allowing for character development. Marcus graduated from the Rochester PD’s first juvenile citizen’s police academy in the spring and then attended the Basic Academy back in June. His effort, hard work, and determination stood out among all the first-year cadets. He is a current Police Explorer with the Department. Marcus was presented with a certificate of achievement.
2. Sgt. Anthony Deluca – 20 Years of Service. Chief Allen said that it’s not often we have the privilege to recognize 20 years of service with the City and in particular 20 years in law enforcement with a single agency. It’s not common. I have worked my whole career with Sgt. Deluca. We have a long history together. I enjoy working with him.
Tony was hired in October of 1994 and has had a distinguished career. He is highly decorated receiving the Distinguished Unit Award five times, he is the recipient of the Chief Ted Blair Memorial Award, and he was selected as the City Employee of the Year in 2013. He was one of the founding members, along with me of the Department tactical team in the late 90’s. What started with seven Rochester officers has grown to approximately 30 members of a regional county team. Tony has been a first-line supervisor since 2002. He’s served in patrol, investigations and is now the support sergeant overseeing specialty units and communications. Tony is a valued member of my management team.
Chief Allen said, “Tony congrats. I’m proud of you for having stuck it out and we’re looking for 20 more years.
Chaplain Ron Lachapelle presented the plaque at Tony’s request because he was on the Commission when Tony was hired. Chaplain Lachapelle said he is honored to make the presentation. He was on the Commission when Tony was hired.
When given the opportunity to say a few words Sgt. Deluca said in 1994 when he came to NH to apply, he sat in his oral board and told the Commission “if you hire me, I will stay for 20 years. And here I am.” To the new officers, he said; “record your stories in a notebook. They fade with time. I thought 15 years ago I’d never make it to 20 years. It goes quick.”
3. Lifesaving Awards: Off. Kimbrough x 2; Off. Forrest; Off. Pendlebury. Chief Allen noted that Off. Kimbrough was unable to attend, but Off. Forrest and Off. Pendlebury were invited to the stage. He said these officers are receiving lifesaving awards for going above and beyond saving lives in the community. It’s what we do, and we train for it, but sometimes it can be taken for granted. Chief Allen shared that in 27 years he has not been in a similar situation. It is not common. When you have to kick into action and take measures these officers took it’s a notable accomplishment and worthy of recognition.
All of these incidents were for heroin overdoses. Off. Kimbrough and Forrest responded to non responsive, not breathing person in a car on the side of the road and performing CPR were able to revive this person. Off. Pendlebury also responded to a non responsive person and performed CPR until medical personnel arrived. The person was revived with Narcan. If Off. Pendlebury had not acted in the interim the outcome would have been different.
The first time officers get this award, they are a bar, subsequent awards a star is placed on the bar. Officer Forrest received a bar; Officer Pendlebury received a silver star. Officer Kimbrough will be presented later with two additional silver stars.
4. Employees of the Year.
Communications–Michelle Bowley. Chief Allen said Michelle has been with the Department for 8 years. We reorganized the center this year and created lead dispatchers, which are supervisory positions. Michelle was one of those selected and she has transitioned well. The center is tough. It’s busy and there is a lot of multi tasking going on. The center has had a lot of turnover this year, and at one point was down six positions. The rest of the staff had to step up. Michelle’s character and willingness to help was instrumental. She is a trainer in the center and she participated in oral boards recruiting new staff. She took on the additional role of filling the gap when our records position became vacant ensuring paperwork was processed which benefitted the Department and our citizens. She also assisted in training the new records clerk. This award is a way to show Michelle that her work was noticed and appreciated. Michelle was presented with a plaque recognizing her achievement.
Police Officer–Geoff Moore: Chief Allen said the employee of the year award recognizes consistency and dedication to your job throughout the whole year. Geoff has just completed his second year and he has made his mark with the Department and built a level of trust in the community. That’s a tough thing to do when you are new. Geoff is motivated, dedicated and works in line with the department’s goals and objectives. He is consistent and dependable and uses good common sense. He demonstrates a strong ability to identify, analyze and solve problems. His quality of work reflects high professional standards. This past year he had the highest number of incidents, arrests and traffic enforcement numbers in the entire patrol division. It made him stand out among his peers. Officer Moore was presented with a plaque recognizing his achievement.
B. Job Description: Community Engagement Officer. Chief Allen said this is a renaming of an existing temporary job assignment. We’ve updated it by changing the name to reflect functions of the job and duty examples of what we want that position to do. It puts this in line with our outreach efforts with our Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Officer. We will open the position up in the Department. Currently Officer Hayes is assigned in this role. This further defines some of what she is doing that isn’t falling within the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Officer position. We plan to keep that as an existing assignment, but it will remain unfilled for now.
Comm. Peters said we need to look at the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Officer position and identify what we want that job to be.
Chief Allen said these are one year assignments. On your approval we will post this in the Department to see who else might be interested. When we are ready to fill the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Officer, as staffing allows, we’d consider those for that position as well.
Comm. Levesque said there is overlap of the two positions, so the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Officer does need a review.
Chief Allen said we will take out the overlap and more clearly define what we want that role to be.
Comm. Peters MOVED for a first reading of the temporary job assignment of Community Engagement Officer and to suspend the rules and MOVE this to a second reading for adoption. The motion was SECONDED by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED.
Comm. Peters MOVED to adopt the temporary job assignment of Community Engagement Officer. SECOND by Comm. Lindsay and PASSED unanimously.
C. FY 16 Proposed Budget. Chief Allen noted this budget has not yet been presented to the City Manager. It’s your first look at our proposal.
Dep. Chief Dumas noted that the finance office directed the parameters of the budget that we present no higher than 1.65% on the operations side. At level one, our increases are $52,000.00. We are only allowed $10,000.00 based on the above parameter. Of that, $6,000.00 is uncontrolled costs related to property liability, fleet and general liability insurances and some hardware and software maintenance costs. So the remaining funds will be quickly eaten up by other needs. For example there is $1,625.00 in increased costs for the contracted services of our crime analyst.
Most of our increases will be presented as issues and options. The part-time records clerk requested is a 30 hour position that will increase window coverage but will also allow us to keep up with filing and purging maintenance. This was a full time position previously. This increase will keep us current in a high liability area in the Department.
We will ask for an additional police officer through issues and options. We did a workload analysis through the crime analyst and we are okay on the patrol side but we are short in the investigations bureau for the work that gets sent up from patrol. We have to start the discussion.
Chief Allen said the staffing analysis was comprehensive and unlike past years which relied on data, it didn’t have a scientific analysis like this one does. We apply the formula to our crime data and calls for service factoring in shifts and different seasons. The standard established in the industry is that 60% of your resources are allocated to patrol/first responders. The other 40% go to support functions; detectives, commanders, specialists.
We have done well particularly this last year with the Commission and Council’s support with hiring a new prosecutor to then redeploy front line patrol, along with hiring the civilian evidence tech to redeploy another full time officer. I want to thank you for that. We have patrol where it needs to be in staffing for volume of work. The number of cases that patrol sends up to the investigations bureau is where we are lacking based on the workload analysis. There is work waiting to be assigned. It’s my job to tell the Commission and the Council what we need for personnel and this is what we need. I understand the fiscal constraints under the tax cap, but I can’t let that stop me from telling you what we need.
Comm. Peters said the analysis says the front line staffing is where it should be and we need to keep that.
Chief Allen concurred. I don’t want to augment this from patrol currently as we are where we need to be. We would hire a new officer first and then take an existing officer to investigations.
Comm. Peters asked if the patrol side do as much of the investigation as they can before it’s sent to investigations.
Chief Allen said the short answer is yes. There are exceptions, typically the investigations bureau handles felony level crimes. Those require extensive follow up and time to investigate which may involve leaving the city and the front line officer can’t really do that. There are a lot of calls we respond to that the front line patrol follows through to completion. It depends on the nature of the call.
Comm. Peters asked when we have special teams that work with area jurisdictions is it patrol, investigations or a combination of both.
Chief Allen said it depends on the team and where the officer’s current assignment is.
Comm. Lindsay said that looking at the data it seems there are a lot of fraud cases.
Chief Allen said that financial crimes are time consuming, tedious and complicated. We have an outstanding Detective that primarily handles those cases that can take months to conclude.
Comm. Peters inquired into fuel. Are the City’s costs decreasing with this nationwide trend?
The City is locked into a contract and its unknown what that cycle is. We can assume they will be looking to renegotiate. Dep. Chief Dumas added that we will budget accordingly and project a savings in that line.
Another issue and options we will submit is the process of overtime and seeing to increase that line. We manage that very well and every year we also pay out comp time which has traditionally been taken from salaries. That is not a true accounting of overtime and we would like to put that where it should be.
Clothing has an increase due to the significant increase in the cost of the ballistic vests. We budgeted for 14 vests. Even with the vest grant this is an increase.
We are looking to replace two AED’s (automated external defibrillator) at a cost of $2,500.00 each. Most of those we have were bought with grant funds or donated.
Citywide Programs which covers Teen Night had a grant to help fund that. It was started through sponsorships and donations. It costs roughly $6,900.00 per 8-session season. We see in excess of 200 youth per session attending. The program has been very successful.
For the most part everything else is level funded. Utilities are reduced based on current spending, as is a reduction in lease copier costs.
Chief Allen said this is proposed. We want to give the Commission the opportunity to weigh in and give feedback and suggestions. We are at level two at this point submitting a budget in line with the 1.65% parameter. We are scheduled to meet with the City Manager on January 28.
Comm. Peters asked what we project our budget increase to be with salaries.
Chief Allen said that salaries were not included in the parameter. Our increase right now until meeting with the City Manager is about $10,000.00 over the current budget. When factoring in everything including wages for everything we need we are at about 5.2%.
Dep. Chief Dumas said that our FY16 CIP includes just two items. We are asking for vehicles in line with the vehicle replacement plan, to include the motor cycle leases; we are projecting to cycle out two front line and one back line car. One thing we haven’t done is to add to the fleet by keeping a car. We are lean and as we get staffing where we need it to be, there aren’t enough cars. We have the community engagement officer, lieutenant’s etc. that often have to scramble for a car. If we keep and extend the fleet by one, it will cost about $500.00 on the city’s insurance. This is the year to do it based on mileage projections.
As we have previously reported the Astra Spectra radios are being phased out as they are no longer supported. We have been replacing these on an as needed basis. We have $5300.00 left in that line and we are seeking $20,000.00 which will replace all the radios. We replace them as we replace cars.
Comm. Peters asked about grant funds. Chief Allen said that funding is not longer there.
The CIP in FY17 goes to cameras. There has been a lot of discussion in this area. The systems are having issues with disks and many agencies are moving to cloud based storage. There has also been discussion in the media regarding body cameras. The technology is there and there may be grant funding coming available. We are pushing this out for a year to see where this goes. The technology has evolved very quickly. We are looking to have the body cameras replace the cruiser cameras. Depending on the model and where it’s worn the body camera sees what the officer sees. The cruiser camera is a stationary camera. It would be cost prohibitive to maintain both. This gets the discussion moving.
Comm. Peters asked if this is a phase in over five years.
Dep. Chief Dumas said not really. The first year cost would buy 55 cameras with licensing and storage. We would have to pay those fees associated with data storage annually. Part of the cost is the storage in the cloud. We could make a decision to buy servers which has more of an upfront cost. It might be a better way to go. We just don’t know yet. We will find the most cost effective plan when that time comes. These numbers give you a basic understanding. The technology is fluctuating and its best to let it settle before moving forward.
We would have to develop through policy how long to save items before purging. How long do you save a routine traffic stop? Thirty days? Chief Allen said the technology could change drastically between now and that budget. This is 18 months out. We wanted to prep the Commission for the discussion as we move toward it.
Comm. Lindsay said that body cameras are “hot” right now. Why get into it until it stabilizes. There may be more vendors and improved technology. Some add on things now may be included later.
Chief Allen concurred. He said Apple just introduced a body camera that consumers can buy to wear last week. It changes so fast what we are talking about today may be completely different in 12 months. This is the direction we are planning to go. We want to be proactive talking about it so it’s not a surprise in 12 months.
Comm. Lindsay noted that currently you can film through the cruiser windshield as well as the interior of the cruiser. How do you handle the existing system storage?
Chief Allen said we do record transports. We use the disks and recycle them if they don’t need to be saved for evidentiary purposes.
Comm. Peters asked if the tablets we are looking at will have that technology.
Chief Allen said they will not. Those will be strictly mobile data use, such as running motor vehicle checks, etc. They will have an accessory device for recording. The most cost effective is an IPod or similar device that can sync with the tablet, storing that data to the cloud and upon return to the station the officer can log in and dump the data to his report. It’s a good solution to our original discussion and more efficient as well.
Do we have an estimated time line?
We are moving forward, but cautiously. We don’t want to make a bad purchase that we’d regret spending all that money. This is a grant purchase so we do have some time. The rapid changes to technology caused us to reevaluate what we originally proposed.
Dispatch Budget. We have had a large turnover in there this year. It has taken longer to hire people and we have lost people that were higher in the longevity scale and in salaries. We also have folks that are not taking the health insurance. We feel we will meet the 1.65%. We looked to enhance some of the training and boosting overtime. In previous years a lot of overtime was covered by a salaried employee.
C. Monthly Reports
1. Operations. Capt. Toussaint noted that ward 4 was the only ward meeting in December. The other five are scheduled to meet in January.
Comm. Levesque asked why all the wards seem to be meeting at the community center. When we started the meetings were held in the specific ward.
Capt. Toussaint said the wards pick their meeting location.
Comm. Levesque said that if the meeting is in the ward, maybe people can walk to that location. Maybe we should start combining wards to meet together.
This is a community program that needs to be driven and sustained through community participation, not just police. Anyone with an interest in what is going on in the ward should attend. This is not just police issues that are discussed they are community issues, of which the police are a part. We contribute to the discussion relevant to police issues. City Councilors, other Departments and community leaders also attend. We should reach out to the Council and have them let their constituents know about these meetings.
Comm. Peters said that recently they had presentations on capital improvements, road developments, sewer projects and the like addressed. We want folks informed. This is a community forum to meet on community issues. It depends on what is relevant that month.
Comm. Peters noted this is also an avenue to talk about the outreach programs and some of what we have going on. Some don’t know what patrol is doing on the street. There is a lot of outreach and this is a good place to bring it out as well.
Chief Allen said one of the goals the Commission set for me was to attend more ward meetings. I can talk about this, the activities we are engaged in.
Comm. Lindsay said that one thing he sees and hears during the Ward 6 meetings, as it’s the smallest ward geographically, is issues in a pocket within the ward. You may have 15 folks upset about vandals on Portland Street. In my neighborhood when I ask people why they don’t attend, they don’t have an interest in issues on Portland Street so it turns people off. The notion among many is that it’s a police meeting and that is not all it is. Its outreach and education but some don’t look at it that way. Some do.
We should post the meetings a couple of days in advance on facebook. There is a lot of activity on that site.
Officer Blair has been working nights and attended the recent Teen night. He responded to 18 calls and also worked with Rotary on the food basket programs.
Officer MacKenzie responded to four drug searches and one track in Rochester. We are focusing him more lately on street work as part of our strategy vs. him responding to patrol calls. He is an asset in motor vehicle work and areas we have identified for drug activity. We are seeing a noticeable increase in stops.
The Honor Guard participated in the Christmas Parade. We retired the old uniforms and will be using the new ones, purchased with grant funds at the next event.
These comp stat numbers are for November. Our year end meeting is next week. We are on track and are pleased with the statistics. The property crime numbers are down year to date in most categories. Our closure rate is up in almost every category which says that our patrol strategy is paying off. Traffic stops are up and accidents are down. Our field interviews are up. DWI is down slightly, and DWI arrests from accidents are down 55%.
The Support Bureau has had a busy month. 56 cases were sent up from patrol. Call outs for the month we had a fatal heroin overdose, a home invasion resulting in two arrests and a suicide.
The recent per diem hire in the Communications Center resigned this period. Both of the new hires in December are progressing through their training. They are assigned to shift leaders as field training officers. We still have two to hire and both are in the late stages of the background.
Officer Hayes continues to do a great job with our face book page. It’s a valuable tool where we post videos and surveillance photos. Of the ten posted this month, eight were identified. All five of the most wanted postings were also located. We do monitor the comments but try to find a balance that doesn’t infringe on free speech. The Foster’s did a recent interview on our social media presence.
Comm. Lindsay noted that the Chief and City Manager recently met with the new Executive Editor of Fosters. Chief Allen said it was a meet and greet that we initiated. We had a good discussion about relevant issues in the community and he gave us feedback.
Teen night continues to be successful. There were 230 in attendance for December.
In prosecution, Lt. Gould completed motions to impose sentences on suspects who failed to abide by their original sentencing agreements. We are holding them accountable. A small number of people commit the vast majority of crime and this sends a message about being responsible and remaining on good behavior. If you don’t do what you say you were going to or continue to behave badly there are consequences. We will bring suspended time forward.
2. Administration. Dep. Chief Dumas said that in the current budget we have overtime issues in both budgets; due to turnover in dispatch and investigations in police. However, both are projected in the bottom line to be in the black.
New hires Officers’ Hatch and Benjamin have been released to solo patrol and both are doing well. Officer Marvin has been completing in house training and is scheduled to be in field training next week. The three newest officers head off to the academy on Monday and we’ll see them back in April. We are still down one certified officer position. We have advertised in the Police bulletin as well as on Facebook. We had one non certified officer contact us. We are starting a hiring process. The next academy is not until May, which puts graduation out to August and in house training and field training, we won’t have them on patrol until December. Ideally we will attract a certified officer.
There is a conditional offer in place for the prosecution position. The background is underway. There may be a bit of a learning curve once the person is on board, but we are looking to get those two officers back to patrol in early February.
6. CORRESPONDENCE:
Comm. Lindsay read off the letters we received. Letters received during the month include: Off. Danie is thanked by a citizen through a letter to the editor for his response to a call for service. Det. Bourque is thanked by the Nottingham Police Chief for his work with an ICAC investigation. The Dept. and Chief Allen and the Dep. Chief are thanked by the Chamber for participation and assistance with the downtown tree lighting and the planning and participation in the annual Christmas parade. SRO Don Funk received two letters of recognition for his job performance. Off. Smith was thanked by the McCutcheon family for his care and response to a motor vehicle complaint where their dog was struck and killed. Specialist Maddie Moule is recognized by Lead Specialist Bailey for her handling of a potentially volatile and high stress call involving a firearm.
7. INFORMATION: No additional discussion.
8. NON-PUBLIC SESSION: (Pursuant to: RSA 91-A:3)
Commissioner Peters MOVED to enter a nonpublic session at 9:08 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 9:35 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. Dominique Murphy (2.85%); Off. Jamey Balint (3.85%). Comm. Lindsay SECONDED the motion and it PASSED unanimously.
10. ADJOURNMENT:
Comm. Lindsay MOVED to adjourn. SECOND by Comm. Peters at 9:37 P.M.