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City of Boulder, CO / Boulder Police Town Halls / 14 Jan 2021
City of Boulder, CO / Boulder Police Town Halls / 14 Jan 2021
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From YouTube: 1-14-21 Boulder Police Town Hall

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1-14-21 Boulder Police Town Hall

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): morning, everyone has already joined us. and, as we start these webinars. it takes a little while to get everyone into the virtual room.. So we'll pause just a moment to make sure that we have all the folks who might be waiting in the waiting room here with us.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):: this is our monthly boulder police department, town hall, and we're so happy,. You've joined us. This morning.

B

Nadia klocke: from day one. well,. I see that globe.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): will do instructions about the interpretation and just a few minutes, nadia. thank you.

B

Nadia klocke: god, thank you.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): waiting., just one more minute,, so that we have.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): the folks who are hoping to join us. This morning,, mostly with us.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): numbers picking up on our participant list seems to has slowed a bit.

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M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter:, sorry, rhonda lou says that she can't join us.. Is that the case with other.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): people, m.lagrave intérprete interpreter:, have we heard of anybody I'm going to share the link again, just in case. okay.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): alright,, so first this morning. welcome, everyone.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): this is, again,, our boulder police department, town hall.. We are now having these meetings monthly, so that chief, harold and her officers have a chance to.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): give you updates on their work as well as take questions and and address issues and items that may be top of mind for our community.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so we thank you for being a part of it today.. We do still have some folks flowing in,, but I want to be sure that we get our language access tools in place.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so this meeting this morning is supported by interpretation into spanish and we have a wonderful interpreter, marina, low, gravity, who's with us this morning, and I am going to pause a moment to give her a moment to interpret what I've said so far.

C

M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter:. I need to be made interpreter brenda.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): can you interpret not? We have not.

C

M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter: okay, we have. okay, got it. thank you.. So when.

C

M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter: we as adults as a ceremonial misinterpret, allah. allah, span, you're, a part of status., a sangha for for putting videos up, into,, don't they,. I became your glow vito.

C

M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter:, a m.lagrave intérprete interpreter: real new era, which is yes.

C

M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter: absolutely.. We talk about our questions.

C

brenda ritenour (she/her): yeah,. I am going to show my screen now that will show instructions about how to activate interpretation.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so I'm showing this first and then I will activate the tool.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so once the symbol here in the bottom corner: appears., that's where you will click to choose your language.. We ask that everyone choose english or spanish. However, you would like to experience the meeting.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):. Will you interpret that for me.

C

M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter:, definitely put forward into one says. One thing and sunni grow for now in in the sack to the manager can also fuchun ingo swann yo, the phone. Don't.

C

M.Lagrave intérprete interpreter:, a performer selection, is to my professor.. He goes into click. Come on the counter, your main in illegal, the global they interpret assume he selects unit led to my a spaniard.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): alright, and I am putting that tool in place for everyone.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): now, brenda ritenour (she/her):. You should now see that globe at the bottom of your screen, where you can choose your language.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): alright.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so thank you. Everyone for joining us. This morning.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):. We are very pleased as always to have chief harold with us. This morning.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): she started with us in april, has not had much chance to be in person with members of our community., and so we're always glad when she can take time out of her calendar to be with us virtually, and so thank you for being here this morning to carol.

A

Chief herold: thank you., brenda ritenour, (she/her): and joining chief harold this morning is officer ross maynard who is a member of a very important and special team on our police force,, which is our homeless outreach, team.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): officer maynard works very closely with his partner to build connections with our unhealthy population and help take them. the next step to the resources that they need.. So thank you for being here with us this morning, officer maynard.

D

Ross maynard: and you did morning.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, and I just want to also share that. I know that it is a very top of mine issue at the moment. The various ways that we are providing resources for.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): our unhealthy neighbors, as well as addressing the ways that they are living outdoors together in groups.

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Brenda ritenour, (she/her): and so we'll be talking about that this morning. many of you have sent in questions that we will be addressing and.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):. We also will be featuring that topic at our city council meeting this week. on tuesday at six o'clock,. There will be an update.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): on sort of our processes and methods and the various issues and ways of handling them to check in with the council and hear their thoughts.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): on how we should proceed in 2021, so we invite you to attend that meeting as well.. It can be watched on the city's youtube channel, as well as on channel eight.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her):, and so we encourage you can also go online, on the city of boulder homepage, boulder colorado.gov and click on city council to see the agenda of that meeting and learn or about what will be happening. That evening.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so, with all of that said, we are going to jump straight into the questions that we have received from many of you already., and once we get through those, we will have a chance for additional questions. We invite you, if you have additional questions to put them in the q amp a box.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, the q amp a box can be found at the bottom of your screen.. If you scroll at the bottom of your screen with your mouse, you'll, see a little icon with bubbles. In the words q, amp. a and questions can be typed there in english or in spanish..

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so we'll begin with questions, as I mentioned, related to our unhealthy neighbors,, particularly those who are living outdoors and gathering in encampments in various locations of the city.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): there's been a lot of different articles written in our various news channels. Lately that refer to the way that.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): we disband the in these encampments as either sweeps or cleanups, and so I'm hoping either chief or officer maynard. One of you can address the difference between those terms,, the term sweep and the term cleanup.

B

Chief herold: sure, I'll take that one. and then ross can jump in. To me, a sweep is something that was done as part of policing in the 70s and 80s and early 90s.

B

Chief herold: that were very problematic to communities where police would just end date over a specific crime problem and pretty much. The orders in in those days were to rest as many people as possible and to move people.

B

Chief herold:, most of the time,, these were done with good intentions,, but the condemnation connotation of a sweep is.

B

Chief herold:, you know something from the historical archives of policing and.

B

Chief herold: my whole career. I've tried to get away from.

B

Chief herold:, using sweeps or engaging in that type of police behavior because it was devastating for communities,, especially communities of color..

B

Chief herold:, and so clean ups in my mind, are absolutely necessary because of the public safety concerns in some of these encampments throughout boulder.

B

Chief herold: and that if we didn't act on it and clean it up, the community would face serious public safety. Hazard issues,, I don't know, for us,, has anything further to add., but yeah, I'd like to get away from sweeps completely that terminology.

B

Chief herold: is not is not correct, in my mind,.

D

Ross maynard:, and I think that generally we like to use the term clean up versus sweep specifically because they really are cleanups.

D

Ross maynard: the,, the police department, does not take the lead role in the removal of encampments because because cleaning up encampments isn't actually.

D

Ross maynard: enforcement of the camping ban, it's enforcement of other city statutes that relate to obstruction of right ways and.

D

Ross maynard: in public spaces and that sort of thing., so a lot of it. I mean, it's entirely. Health and safety driven the police department provides security.

D

Ross maynard: to the contractors that are employed by other departments, and so while you see our vehicles- and you see us there in our uniforms., we are keeping the peace.

D

Ross maynard:, while we're removing health hazards and that sort of thing., sometimes that involves individuals and individual camps.. But the biggest thing is to.

D

Ross maynard: to remove things from flood ways or oftentimes. We use them to prepare areas for city projects like clearing out drainage, is or sewer projects or that sort of thing where people could be injured by equipment that's being brought in and stuff that's on site for the project.. So the.

D

Ross maynard:, I think clean up,, at least in our context, is that is the accurate term.

A

Thank you., brenda ritenour (she/her):. Can you talk about the process of enforcing that camping ban both the ways that you enforce that ban and then what the cleanup process as a whole, looks. Like.

B

Chief herold: sure, from my perspective, from from a legal perspective and then ross can take you through the steps.

B

Chief herold: warped. it's on the ground,, but to me three things have to be completed. One, there has to be some type of notice.

B

Chief herold: posted notice at the location that we are going to clean up.

B

Chief herold: and then some type of services need to be offered to ensure that people understand where services can be.

B

Chief herold: attained and then three.

B

Chief herold: enforcement of the campaign band or, like ross said cleanup services are provided and.

B

Chief herold:, I don't know if a lot of the community knows this., but what's important to state is because of the biohazard and the safety concerns at some of these encampments.

B

Chief herold: private contractors are used because they have certain certifications that allowed them to do this type of work, ross,. I don't know if you have anything else to add,.

D

Ross maynard: yeah,, I mean just process wise.

D

Ross maynard:, there's a,, there's outreach.

D

ross, maynard:, there's that. so,, so first thing I just want also point out for the homeless outreach team is that we don't do any enforcement.

D

Ross maynard: the police department patrol officers do the enforcement, the homeless outreach team intentionally doesn't do any enforcement because we're trying to build relationships with our.

D

Ross maynard: community members who are experiencing homelessness, and we don't think that it's easy to do that when they have to worry about us..

D

Ross maynard: getting them in trouble for what they're doing, but, but so we do a lot of outreach that the police department and other service providers to plug people into services.. We try to make sure that everybody's done coordinated entry,, which is something that will speak to later.

D

Ross maynard:, the most of the departments that are involved, do periodic cleanings, just remove trash and that sort of thing. and to advise people that it's not acceptable for them to be there. In a in a verbal fashion.

D

Ross maynard: then, normally when it gets when it continues to grow., and we can no longer mitigate the issue through less intrusive means than a notice is posted.

D

Ross maynard: and then, and then the removal, the removal happens in a coordinated effort between the police department, other city departments and and then our primary contractor,, which is sort of pro.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): we've had several questions come in about the length of time that it takes from when I an encampment forums to when the cleanup happens,.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so the steps that you just described, I would imagine, are what have a lot to do with that time. Period. is there anything further you'd like to share about what happens between when a camp is reported. and when the cleanup process might happen.

B

Chief herold: yeah, thanks for that., I think, first,, I just, you know,. I was your mess.. I want to acknowledge how frustrating this whole situation is to the community and the timeframe.

B

Chief herold:, you know it is- is hard to mitigate for several factors. one, the,. The amount of sitting resources needed to clean these accounts is overwhelming.

B

Chief herold:, the posting, will talk more about on the 19th. the,. The 72 hour posting notifications that we do. and there's there's good reason for the 72 hours and a lot of that has to do with case law and recent.

B

Chief herold: decisions coming out of denver.

B

chief herold: and we're going to discuss maybe narrow in that timeframe down a little bit more, but it runs a risk legally. When you do that.

B

Chief herold:, but a lot of this is coordination with private contractors.. A lot of it is coordination with other city departments and then, when the encampments grow.

B

Chief herold:, you know,, the police resources are needed to provide security and safety due to protest., and so it really is a very complicated coordinated effort and requiring a tremendous amount of city services to clear these encampments.

B

Chief herold:, and so I most certainly share the frustration,. The community has.

B

Chief herold:, but that's just the reality of the situation.

D

Ross maynard:, and I would I would weigh in that.

D

Ross maynard: first of all,, I mean, one of the reasons for having the city council meeting is to just try and strategize and get better ideas and better direction and that sort of thing.

D

Ross maynard: because we know that our current process isn't perfect., so we're aware of that.. We don't think that we're.

D

Ross maynard:, you know, doing everything, 100% perfect. and so there's things that can be adjusted.. But there are legal frameworks and there are timelines and there are resources.

D

Ross maynard: that sometimes affect these. one of the other things that I think that I'd like to put forward is that.

D

Ross maynard: because we're trying to figure out more solutions and because a lot of this is moving around the same people again and again and again, who are disengaged from resources and that sort of thing sometimes what happens is the police department clears an area.

D

Ross maynard: in conjunction with with parks or or utilities or transportation,, that sort of thing.

D

Ross maynard: and then someone else sees that that area is clear and they move into it.. So what feels like a super persistent camp site is a super persistent camping issue,, but it's not the same. People who are they're.

D

Ross maynard: all the same time consistently. they may have been removed and someone new has come in and set up in there., and so, while I say no, that's,, that's.

D

Ross, maynard: not perfect, but sometimes there's just very short gaps between the occupation of areas that people are camping, and so it feels like the camp has persisted for an extraordinary amount of time,. But it's actually many different people for various lengths of time.

D

Ross maynard: so generally speaking, larger camps take longer to coordinate.. So if they grow quickly., it's going to take the police department and the city departments longer to get to them smaller camp, sometimes.

D

Ross maynard: can be moved faster,, but we're also trying to make sure that we, everybody knows that they can't be there,. Everybody knows what the services are.

D

Ross maynard: ample resource ample outreach has been provided because we don't want to be the subject of a you, know,, a civil rights case. As a result of of things that we do.. We want to give people options and opportunities.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you. while we're talking about resources.. Can you share the resources that are available for announced, neighbors officer maynard.

D

Ross maynard: so the,, I guess I'll preface,. All of this, with the fact that there are a plethora of resources available within the city in the county for people experiencing homelessness.

D

Ross, maynard:, and- and so I'm only going to be able to give you a little look into some of the more major services that are provided.. If you want to google, the city of boulder homeless dashboard., you can see more related to our overall.

D

Ross maynard: operations when it comes to the on housed. But but when you hear all these and it seems like it's overwhelming confusing and you think,, how could anyone possibly.

D

Ross maynard: be able to connect with all these.. That's why we have coordinated entry.. It is one phone call that can connect you with all of these services.

D

Ross maynard: so homeless. Folks, don't need to have the knowledge that I have in order to be able to take advantage of our services,, but some of some of our services include.

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Ross maynard: the,, you know,, everybody knows about the builder shelter for the homeless.

D

Ross maynard:, which provides housing, focus, shelter, severe weather, shelter, permanent supportive housing, scattered site housing,. They have.

D

Ross maynard: some day services in the morning for food and showers and etc. We have bridge house which is largely a private organization that has a ready to work program.. So if you.

D

Ross maynard: are on housed,, but you want to work.. They can help, get you into working and sustainable housing.. They provide food resources and other things.. We have the lodge,, which is nightly sheltering for women.

D

Ross, maynard:, transgender and non binary individuals, as well as navigation services, attention homes is, is an age old kind of boulder unique service. That is just primarily for youth.

D

Ross maynard:, which includes nine shelter, shelter, permanent housing and other development, resources.

D

Ross maynard: emergency family assistance association is for providing services to families, harvest the hope, is lunches and also food assistance.. So people who are.

D

Ross maynard:, more marginally house, you know,, living on the margins can get groceries and that sort of thing.

D

Ross maynard:, we have multiple coordinated faith based services which provide meals, clothing, health care clinic and tom, provides medical care.

D

Ross maynard:, I'm hp has psychological services and then we have tons of outreach.. So if you wonder well what if these people can get to the services,, most of those organizations have outreach.

D

Ross maynard:, the police department, obviously has hot clinic ida street medicine,. The boulder county aids project provides all kinds of outreach.

D

Ross maynard:, the police department has an in house program, that's actually transferring to housing and human services right now,, which is.

D

Ross maynard: edge,, which is mental health clinicians, who grew up with police officers.. We have a new program, that's starting,, which is called.

D

Ross maynard: be their attention. Homes does outright outreach.. A mental health partners does outreach and there's a ton of organizations that aren't affiliated with city that provide additional outreach, and that is just.

D

Ross maynard:, that is just a snapshot.. There are tons of services tailored to the needs of individuals and families and whatever you unique circumstances are.

B

Chief herold: thanks, ross.

B

chief herold: thank you. ross.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, along with that,, we did have a question come into the q amp, a box that we thought was relevant to this.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): this particular topic, which is about interpretation services,. I think, realizing that we have interpretation often now for city meetings,, there's a question about what types of language access support are provided for: an house to neighbors.

D

Ross maynard: so I, I couldn't actually honestly couldn't specifically speak to that. I I know offhand that a number of the organizations have.

D

Ross maynard: have you know, particularly spanish speakers, who I mean there are.

D

Ross maynard: there are case managers and outreach workers who are our spanish speakers and that's within the police department. If you reach out to the police department for services, we use language line so.

D

Ross maynard: and we have officers who can interpret. so if somebody who's a if, at the very least since I don't know the extent of translation services, if you reach out to the homeless, outreach team.

D

Ross maynard:, we can connect you with services.. We can, we have access to interpretation. and then we can make sure that you get a warm handoff to an organization that also can provide interpretation, services.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you. and I'm for either of you.. Can you explain how we are following the current cdc center for disease control guidelines, when it comes to encampments and carpet.

B

Chief herold: yeah, and I'm sure ross has a lot of information on this, but to me,. We are following the cdc guidelines specifically because we have services to offer in sheltering to offer.

B

Chief herold:, when we do the cleanups, and so I bread, the cdc recommendations, numerous times, and I feel we are in complete compliance because of all the services that we have available and all the sheltering beds that are available.

B

Chief herold: to persons- and I think the guidelines were pretty clear on that.- that they didn't want cajun cabins cleaned up.. There were no other services that can be provided by the city., so I've heard this argument. Numerous times. it just does not apply to boulder at all.

D

Ross maynard: yeah, and then I'll ross, maynard: I'll second that.. I know that the guidance., I'm encampments, which is essentially a paragraph and a five page document if taken by itself, makes it seem as though.

D

Ross maynard: there may be concerns with us clearing encampments, but if you follow the overall guidance of the cdc.

D

Ross maynard: guidance on unsheltered, homeless, missing coronavirus, disease for homeless service providers and local officials,. I think that the city does an excellent job of.

D

Ross maynard: maintaining compliance with the cdc guidelines and if anybody would like to talk to me about that further after this, I would love to, to explain that further. But but I I would agree.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you., and I want to point out that dr. wa, our public information officer for the police department, has put the link for the chat. the link for the homelessness services dashboard in the chat.. So if anyone is interested in learning more,, that's one place to go.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, while we're talking about covert and its impact on on your practices.. Can you explain for us how the jails limitations for who can currently be accepted? Factors in when officers find individuals and encampments who have warrants out for their arrest or who are actively committing crimes.

B

Chief herold: yeah,, I know. ross has a lot on this, but I'll just say this that on the 19th, we will be presenting a lot of data that has to do with the jail closures,. But, more importantly,.

B

Chief herold:, almost all services have been impacted by coded 19., and so, if you talk about mental health services and of services after jail,, the court services.

B

Chief herold: have been completely impacted by coven, so the court system, the jail system.

B

Chief herold: officers are not even.

B

Chief herold: thanks.- that would never happen during normal times, they're issuing citations for felonies. they're issuing citations when people are are found that have stolen cars,. The jail has very limited restrictions right now, and I don't see that improving for at least a couple more months.

B

Chief herold:, so this has been very frustrating to the community.. It's been very frustrating to the officers that are involved.

B

Chief herold: and ross can give you his perspective as somebody that is an officer and talks to the officers on a daily basis.. This is an ongoing issue that has caused.

B

Chief herold: in my mind, as a leader of an organization was looking at the crime statistics and the disorder, statistics or crime is going up. and so there's definitely a relationship here between the jail closure,, the courts, closure,, the mental health services.

B

Chief herold:, all of the services that are usually open, has is causing boulder and not only boulder,, but this is occurring across the country.

B

Chief herold:, I'm just happy that we do not have a violence. Problem.

B

Chief herold: in boulder,, but most certainly our property crime is rising, and we'll have a whole presentation on how this has impacted our current pitchers in boulder, but ross.. I'm sure you have a lot of a lot of unique things to discuss. There.

D

Ross maynard: yeah, and I think ross maynard:, you know,. That was like the chief of saying that's.. This is something that's frustrating across the board.

D

Ross maynard: for for everyone., I mean,, I think, right, even maybe down to some of the criminals on the street, to be honest, because of the uniqueness of their interactions with with the police. the,. The thing that I like to point out is that, you know,. While there are some.

D

Ross maynard: wider issues that are affecting the police right now. Our police departments enforcement really hasn't decreased.. It's that our.

D

Ross maynard: toolbox only has a couple tools in it. and one of our major tools, which is which is jail,, which is essentially the incapacitation of criminals,, so that they cannot commit crime.

D

Ross maynard: is gone right, now,, except for some of the more major crimes against people., and so it's not that we haven't. We've stopped enforcing the campaign. Ban.

D

Ross maynard: or that we've stopped letting people or that we've started letting people steal cars or break into people's houses or businesses or or whatever it is.. It's that we have limited tools, and it's really one of those things. You know that that has has to be weighed.

D

Ross maynard: which,, you know,, I think the sheriff in a lot of respects does this with a heavy heart, but.

D

Ross maynard: he can't bring people into dinah's jail as a result of a covert outbreak or something like that.. So he really has to make some choices,, but.

D

Ross maynard:, our officers are very frustrated because they hate the fact that they can go out and write a felony summons to the same person three times in it in a 24 hour period or something like that,. But.

D

Ross maynard:, I think this is one of the things that we all just kind of have to pull together and ride out.

D

Ross maynard: during the pandemic., and I think that the,, the chief, can talk to some of the things that we can all do to try and keep ourselves safe and keep our things. Safer..

D

Ross maynard: in the midst of this sort of thing., you know, like locking our houses and locking our cars and things like that. But but this is one of the things that I think that is just really unique to this, this time in history and so.

D

Ross maynard: people are rightly frustrated ross, maynard: and- and we just want you to know that we're with you.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you, and you've touched on this a little bit,, but I want to share this question because I think, there's probably more to be said. Here,, which is. Could you provide your best practices.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): during covert or outside of covered, really what you would like to be able to be doing.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): your best practices and enforcement strategy for addressing the rise in crime associated with.

A

Brenda ritenour, (she/her): encampments and perhaps people who are experiencing homelessness,, including drug trafficking, theft. we've seen a rise in theft,, including bikes.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): are public health issues that you've already addressed, and the issues of trash and waste.

B

Chief herold: yeah,, that's a great question and.

B

Chief herold: much more data will be provided on the 19th., so I hope everybody tunes in there,, but there is no. There is no doubt that there is a relationship between the encampments and the crime in boulder.

B

Chief herold: and so then, when you look at part, one crime,, which is the more serious crime., the homicides., the robberies,, the aggravated assaults.

B

Chief herold:, you definitely see that there is a correlation between the unhealthy population and people that are the known offenders in those categories and.

B

Chief herold: on average, we're seeing about a 37% involvement there between the known offenders and people committing those those crimes, and so that's that's. A big chunk.

B

Chief herold: of data.

B

chief herold:, and so we have to really hone in and I think officer maynard would agree with me, like in any crime. there's a small number small percentage of these offenders committing these crimes,, and I think that.

B

Chief herold:, we are going to hone in on those small numbers that we think that are involved in the drug trafficking and involved in the bike.. The problem that we have in boulder. And we have to work with our court system in our prosecutor in boulder to ensure these people.

B

Chief herold: receive some form of consequences.. Now, unfortunately, like ross will tell you.

B

Chief herold:, many of these offenders are addicted to drugs and that is so problematic on numerous fronts,. But when you really understand the problems.

B

Chief herold: that the police officers are facing,, there is a strong relationship here, not only with crime, but there's drug addiction.

B

Chief herold:, their substance, abuse issues and there's mental health issues for the complicating this. This situation,, but I want the community to know, there's little doubt that there are members.

B

Chief herold: of the encampments that are involved in criminal activity, and some of it is serious in nature, and some of it is violent and.

B

Chief herold:, so I'm confident that when we look at the data that will be able to present that clearly it's city, council and it is concerning- and I think it it it should be- concerning to the community. and so a strategy.

B

Chief herold: has to involve identification of this hard core group of people that are bringing the.

B

Chief herold: drugs into boulder and then engaging and other criminal activities to support the drug, habits. and so, those,. Those people need to be.

B

Chief herold: arrested and then the court system and the prosecution needs to be in tandem with the police, department.

B

Chief herold: to have consequences at the end of the day,, even if the consequences are in lieu of jail time, some type of drug treatment,, which would be a best practice in which would, I would recommend.

B

Chief herold: and I think officer man or what as well, but I'll, let officer maynard talk a little bit about it because he sees it every day.. I mean, he's boots on the ground, every day and sees this every day.

D

Ross maynard: yeah,, I mean, I think, the first thing,, because we have.

D

Ross maynard:, we have ross maynard: town halls and we and we talk about homelessness.. But I think the first thing that we, you know, and I think the chief did a good job of of delineating. That.

D

Ross maynard:, which is the fact that most of the time we're here complaining about the problems of criminal homelessness or the criminal homeless.

D

Ross maynard:, there are a lot of people in this town who experienced homelessness at any given time time who engage with our services.

D

Ross maynard: they are interested in in getting themselves out of homelessness through legitimate means, and- and that is by far the,, the majority of people who engage with our services,. We have.

D

Ross maynard: hundreds and hundreds of success stories that some of them requiring very little intervention, just to help somebody get back on their feet.

D

Ross maynard:- and we are not generally talking about those people, when we are talking about all the issues with encampments.

D

Ross maynard: and the public health issues and the crime and that sort of thing. this is a very small portion.

D

Ross maynard: of our homeless population, who are in the encampments., it's a very small portion of our homeless population that are committing these crimes.

D

Ross maynard: and causing the frustration, both on the public side and the police side of dealing with this.. I mean, my partner, jenny and I can practically rattle off the names.

D

Ross maynard: of every single person, who is a constant issue in our encampments and being moved around the city and involved in in criminal activity. and those are the people that the police department wants to focus on.

D

Ross maynard: and,, and I think that we can. We can also weigh in on the fact that, like,. I think we all know that, generally speaking, crime doesn't pay and that's why so many of these. they're not exactly homeless, criminals, they're criminals who are homeless as a result of many of them, their decisions.

D

Ross, maynard:, and, and so what what we would all like to see is an outcome that breaks them out of the cycle of what they're in, you know, drug treatment, mental health, services.

D

Ross maynard: but,, but to be honest,. I believe that for this very small group of people., it is going to require a criminal justice intervention to get them into mental health services or drug treatment, because they have no reason.

D

Ross maynard: to make take the personal initiative to engage in those services on their own, and I promise you. We have tried hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times with many of them to get them to go the route of voluntarily engaging in services and they do not want to.

D

Ross, maynard: and- and I I.

D

Ross maynard:, I understand that how addiction complicates that,, but I think that a criminal justice response will probably be the best way to do that., and I think that the chief, we'll have a lot more to to bring back on that after this,, this council meeting.

D

Ross maynard: but, but,, but just in my experience as somebody who who genuinely. this is not,, we are not jackbooted thugs,. We generally care about these people every single one of them even,. Even the criminals.

D

Ross maynard: and we try our best to allow them to subsist and also be able to meet their needs, and but there's there's other things that have to be done to be able to take care of this problem.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you,, officer. maynard brenda, ritenour (she/her):. We know how much experience you and your partner have in working one on one with with these folks that are higher needs. Folks, who are, as you said, are criminals who happened to be homeless.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): so can either of you speak to what the current and future training plans are for police officers to effectively de escalate situations if they aren't as experienced as officer maynard and his partner de escalating. The situations involving.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, especially those who might be mentally unstable.

B

Chief herold: sure, um, obviously.

B

Chief herold: ross and his partner, jenny are experts and not I watch them, and I it's a they do such an excellent job for this department., I'm lucky to have both of those officers.

B

Chief herold: but I'll just put a little plug in for what I've been pushing since I've been here, and that is the critical decision making model.

B

Chief herold:, it in my mind, is one of the biggest.

B

Chief herold: strategies for de escalation, and I wish more police departments cross country- would adopt it,. But it's exactly what you're talking about.. It is valuing the sanctity of all human life and understanding that you're meeting people with their worst times and and really.

B

Chief herold: putting human life at the middle of every decision that you make. and I think, really,. If you logically think about that and review the model.

B

Chief herold:, it is very hard to make a tactical mistake when you're putting the sanctity of human life in the middle of every decision that you make. It is.

B

Chief herold: and I will challenge anybody that disagrees with that., and so we are on a journey with this police department to ensure that that has been trained. Obviously,.

B

Chief herold:, as I've presented before we have a new training section that that is in the center of everything that they train.. So it's not only trained as an individual component of a police officers. Duties.

B

Chief herold:, but it's going to be in our wine intertwined into just about everything. A police officer does.

B

Chief herold:, so that's one thing, and, and that's that should be the focus of the training unit- is to get as many people with a ton of.

B

Chief herold: scenarios built into how to actually de escalate. some of these situations, and then I'll. Let ross. tell you what,, just folks do on a daily basis,, but that's a big part of my strategy. Moving forward.

D

Ross maynard: yeah, and I think ross maynard:. As far as the training standpoint that ross maynard:, the chief.

D

Ross maynard: speaks to our agency as a whole and the direction we're going and that sort of thing.

D

Ross maynard: in my experience, first ross maynard: in my experience,, just on the homeless outreach team., I mean we daily.

D

Ross maynard: are interacting with people who need to be de escalated and in redirected.

D

Ross maynard: when it comes to their behaviors and and my partner jenny, and I try our best to also get out on calls,, particularly when there's known people that that we know who it is.

D

Ross maynard:, because we have relationships with those people in the relationships. help us to get someplace that even a trained negotiators, some is trained to de escalate, probably can't get to just because we have. We have that relationship.

D

Ross maynard:- and I think that's one of the beauties of of the boulder police department in general, just we're even understaffed., and the chief can speak to this even understaffed. This boulder police department still manages to put forth way more cops to the street, based on the number of people.

D

Ross maynard: in this city versus like say a department back east. like,. I mean where I'm from michigan and that sort of thing.

D

Ross maynard: departments are understaffed under trained and underfunded. oftentimes,, and we have a lot of people just unique people who just really honestly care they develop relationships and that sort of thing.. So I think we start with excellent human stock at this police department.

D

Ross, maynard: and and and we've got a lot of officers with unique training, already crisis intervention training, our negotiators.

D

Ross maynard:, are, you know, our,. Our swat team has the negotiations unit and they've cycled, a lot of people through that unit over the years., and so we have.

D

Ross maynard:, we literally have trained crisis negotiators who are standing outside of people's doors, talking them down and that sort of thing.

D

Ross maynard: and we've had a we've had a lot of success with with that as well.. So.

D

Ross maynard:, I think the biggest thing with the chiefs approach is kind of standardizing that and bringing across all of us.. So all of us have those those tools and are are more capable of providing that. But.

D

Ross maynard:, I think this department., I think, if you just look at our, our actual track record that there's a lot of people who really care and look for non force, related options in de escalating people.

D

Ross maynard: that that you might not see in the media when you're watching things.

B

Chief herold:, the other thing I'd add brenda is obviously we have the edge program, which is.

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Chief herold:, an unbelievable resource for a police department and.

B

Chief herold:, the people that are staff there are clinicians, they're experts at what they do, they're experts at de escalation.

B

Chief herold:, and so they we have a co response program that obviously adds another professional layer with the police officers and it's considered a best practice and the talent there.

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Chief herold: I've personally watched them de escalate as well with the officer.. So I think we have a holistic approach with the boulder pd and I'm very proud of the work.. The men and women do here on a daily basis, because ross is right,. Somebody from a bigger agency, back east.

B

Chief herold:, we don't have the talent., we didn't have the talent, where I come from the,. This is a very talented police department, very well educated.

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Chief herold: and I'm very proud to be associated with this army.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you.. Thank you for bringing up the edge team.. I'm not sure everyone knows about that work. and it really is a.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): great piece of the service that you all are able to provide the city and stepping back a bit to the logistics of how much money is spent each year on the dismantling of encampments and the cleanups.

B

Chief herold:, I would,. I would ask all the community members listening to tune in on the 19th,, because we're going to be giving a complete overview of the resources that are needed to.

B

Chief herold:, you know, clear these encampments. I just want everybody to understand that this is a multi city response to issues that do create community harm., so the resources that are being utilized are very high.

B

Chief herold: just,, just to give you a some kind of context, just for the police department, alone.

B

Chief herold:, we respond on average to hundreds, hundreds of calls for service a month., and that is an operational issue, obviously,, and it takes resources away from work that I'd like to be doing on the burglary issues that we have in boulder..

B

Chief herold:, so it is one of our highest calls for service on a daily basis, on a monthly basis. and that's just the patrol officers. And then, when you talk about clearing.

B

Chief herold:, you know the encampments like. Yesterday we had a, we had a big operation at the library and.

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Chief herold: literally,, we had to put a dozen officers at that location., and so, if you just think about that on a monthly basis,, do some quick, math.

B

Chief herold: you're talking about a significant amount of resources, and that's just for the police, department, parks, parks and recreation are involved,. Health and human services are involved.. We have to have a private contractor. Utilities are involved.

B

Chief herold:, sometimes the transportation department is involved, and that's you start adding this up, and it is a significant commitment to this to this issue in boulder, and so we all have to get around this as a community as a city and figure out ways to.

B

Chief herold:, you know better combat this problem because.

B

Chief herold: on so many levels,, the harm that has caused due to these encampments is is overwhelming. The city.

D

Ross, maynard: and- and I think the 19th. I'll paint a better picture. it's hard because, depending on the number that we give.

D

Ross maynard: we're spending more money now than we've ever spent before dealing with that issue.. So averages and stuff, like that, probably wouldn't be good numbers good numbers to give. But it's it's.

D

Ross maynard: super multi inter departmental and and very resource intensive. and so,, but yeah. the 19th.

D

Ross maynard:, better numbers,, but we've had a number of departments that have had to change their budgets and that thing this year. As a result of of the amount of money that that they're having to spend to be able to do this.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you., brenda, ritenour, (she/her): um, and then along the same lines,. What considerations are there regarding policing the boulder creek path. specifically,? The question is, have.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): has the boulder police department and the homeless outreach team considered an increased presence along boulder, multiuse path with walking or bike patrols.

B

Chief herold: yeah, that that is a great question on so I'm a cyclist.. They ride the bike, trails, a lot.. I see the issues on the bike trails,, I get frustrated on the bike trails, just like other community members.

B

Chief herold: and yes,, we have we,, we do have a bike patrol. we do patrol walking and on bikes on all the bike. Paths.

B

Chief herold:, I just want the community right now to know that I am down 24 officers for a number of reasons. This year. that's double what I'm usually facing to the normal retirement cycles.

B

Chief herold: and so we're working diligently to to bring our numbers back up to where they were when I first arrived., but there's no there's no doubt that the policing crisis that country is currently in has impacted, recruiting and retention, and so.

B

Chief herold:, we are trying to get our numbers back up., so we are have proper staffing,, but that impacts my ability to deploy strategically and remember what the boulder police department answers. Approximately 80,000 calls for service a year., and when you break that down,, you can start to see.

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Chief herold:, how the calls for service impact police department, new deployment strategy, we are working on a complaint in a robust workload analysis., and so we can figure out.

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Chief herold:, you know how to deploy strategically, and I would like to have a lot more bikes out on the bike path.. I think they're needed.

B

Chief herold:- and we will most certainly as we get our numbers back up to our averages.. We want to certainly you'll see more visibility, because, to be honest with you right, now.

B

Chief herold: with the jail closure police officers in the community have to work together. Visibility. High visibility is one of the tools that the police department, has. and so, you know,. We are instructing officers when they do have discretionary time to get out, walk.

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Chief herold: and get as much visibility as possible because we know high visibility.

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Chief herold: reduces crime and disorder issues, and but we're also asking the community.. Knowing these facts is to please.

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Chief herold: do everything that you can to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place. you know,. We have a certain percentage of these crimes that are very preventable.

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Chief herold:, not like locking your bikes with you locks, leaving your bikes on, attended without being locked, not locking your doors, leaving your garage doors, open,, leaving cars running.

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Chief herold: we're seeing huge increases like the rest of the country and motor vehicle theft and many times keys are left in cars,. The new key fobs are problematic on multiple fronts.

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Chief herold:, so we really have to work together right now and I'm asking for the community's help on this, because we do not have the usual tools that we normally have.

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Chief herold: to take offenders off the streets for a certain amount of time., so we will be pushing deon. Our new public information officer has done a tremendous job, pushing crime prevention out to the community,. But I really, I'm really asking the community to.

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Chief herold: get up to speed with crime prevention and really utilize the tips that are being sent out because it does impact crime and disorder..

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Chief herold:- and there are a lot of people walking around right now that are looking for opportunities to commit crimes.. There's no doubt about that.

B

Chief herold:, and so we all have to work together.. If you see your neighbor's garage door, open, go over and tell them close. The garage door be proactive in this.

B

Chief herold: and if you see something suspicious, call 911, that's why we're here. and, so great question about the deployment, and so I hope I've answered that to the community satisfaction and we can talk more about that on the 19th,. But thanks for the question. brenda.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): yes. and thank you, that leads into our next question.. That's a great transition.. I know that our issues surrounding our house, neighbors, is.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): is a high priority issue for our community and for city of boulder staff.. We do have some other questions that have come in on other topics.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so I think that's a great transition chief into this next question,, which is specifically about stolen catalytic converters.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): there have been numerous reports of stolen catalytic converters from prius's and other automobiles in recent weeks,. So maybe you could talk a little bit about what the police department is doing toward that issue. and what you suggest. The owners of such vehicles to to help protect them.

B

Chief herold: well,, that's a great question. and,! You know, years ago, catalytic converters.

B

Chief herold:, when I was a commander cincinnati district board, catalytic converters were really.

B

Chief herold:, a hot product people were stealing them because they're very easy to get. It takes a tool to roll underneath the car, cut it off, and obviously the metal that is involved in the building of the catalytic converter.

B

Chief herold: is very pricey depending on how the metal market is going. and so,. It usually follows that metal market,, but for years.

B

Chief herold:, we've kind of gotten away from the issue of people, stealing the catalytic converters and that's back and I'm noticing that as an uptick,, not only in boulder but colorado as well.

B

Chief herold: and so again, this is crime, prevention and understanding what people do and how they do this. So we get called upon it,, but I know we have an issue.. I've never seen an increase in this.

B

Chief herold:, but really the crime happens, so quickly. and usually people you'll see people getting under somebody's car with a small tool.

B

Chief herold: and they cut off catalytic converter,. It drops in their on their way within. It probably takes less than 20 seconds to commit this crime.

B

Chief herold: and so again, I asked community. If they see people getting under cars, doesn't look right, doesn't feel right.

B

Chief herold: to call the police. now we are actually putting crime bulletins out on that., so the police department knows where these are occurring.

B

Chief herold:, they usually happen in large parking lots that don't get a lot of foot traffic.. So it's something that community needs to be on the lookout for as our cops and I'm sure, ross probably sees this as well as he's out, receive anything further on that.

D

Ross maynard: yeah, one of the things that you know when I'm just talking to friends and that sort of thing. when they have the ask about things like this. and in one. I mean, I just to.

D

Ross maynard:, let people know oftentimes, there's always this sudden uptick in some particular category of crime.

D

Ross maynard: before the police department able to turn around and get on it because it takes us a minute to recognize the trend.

D

Ross maynard: deploy the resources and that sort of thing to be able to deal with it. but,, but I,. You know,.

D

Ross maynard:, I can't necessarily speak to other agencies,, but I can speak to the boulder police department when I say that I know that sometimes people have qualms.

D

Ross maynard: about when they see something suspicious suspicious calling it in, you know,, they don't want to be profiling. their, their neighbors,, that sort of thing. and I,, and I would ask that you use, you know, common sense and discretion before you necessarily pick up the phone,. You know, ask yourself.

D

Ross maynard:, what is making you suspicious and that sort of thing. but,, but we have competent well trained officers who can be relied upon to.

D

Ross maynard: treat people with respect and act professional when they deal with them. and so,. So if you.

D

Ross maynard:, if you are in an area where there's a sudden uptick,, particularly in quetta catalytic converter officers or something like that.,.

D

Ross maynard: and you see people that you don't recognize moving through your neighborhood.. It's completely acceptable to call the police department and ask us to come into the area to check.

D

Ross maynard: oftentimes, it is., I mean, more often than not, our greatest tool and being able to solve crimes and catch bad guys is our citizenry an alert citizenry.

D

Ross maynard: who's not only taking steps on their own to try to minimize their exposure to crime,, but also just to to.

D

Ross maynard: be paying attention to know your neighbors and that sort of thing, so that when you see something suspicious. you can you can call it into us and then we can get an opportunity to come into the area and talk to people and that sort of thing.

D

Ross maynard: because it's very frustrating to be held accountable as an agency to why you haven't enforced a crime that people haven't reported to you or people have.

D

Ross maynard: decided not to call because there are busy or or or whatnot, when actually incredibly good leads could have been developed as a result of.

D

Ross maynard: people paying attention,, we have. We have five patrol districts in the city. and there are times when, when we cannot field enough officers to handle all of the.

D

Ross maynard: criminal reports and that sort of thing. and also have them out proactively patrolling, but we might be able to get an officer into that area from another district.

D

Ross maynard: or a traffic car, or something like that to check that area out. If we know that something's going on at that very point in time., so,.

D

Ross maynard:, there are other things we do proactively, but it's always nice.. We get these emails from angry people later, who are like this, this, this and this and then we go back to look and we're like,.

D

Ross maynard:, they never told us any of that stuff at the time. and we really want to be able to help you and make a difference,. But we also need you to help us out.

B

Chief herold: ross brenda ross brings up a really good point., and so I'm a big data person.. I believe in data,, and I believe in you know, through data we can,, especially if we have real time data.

B

Chief herold:, we can really respond accordingly to issues, the community has, but if the community doesn't call, I don't get their culture service data point,. If the community doesn't report it., I don't get that report that eventually turns into a series or a pattern of crime, and so I encourage.

B

Chief herold:, you know when you see something that just doesn't look right., it doesn't feel right. and you can explain. Behaviors like I see a guy rolling under on a platform underneath the car and he has something in his hand.

B

Chief herold:, that's a good., that's a good behavior to call the police about and then, if nothing else,, it provides me a data point where I can deploy officers into that area. When we have problems so.

B

Chief herold: and we will continue to push this information out to the community. but, excellent question., thanks for asking that. brenda.

B

Brenda ritenour (she/her): thank you.. We do just have two minutes left of our time this morning and I want to get one last question: out, um,, you know,, it's been a volatile and difficult week nationally.

A

Brenda ritenour, (she/her): and there's been a lot of security issues, of course in washington., but there also have been reports that those types of issues could be spreading across the country.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, as we had toward the inauguration next week., so maybe chief,. You could talk just for a moment about what types of preparations, we're making here in boulder, to make sure that our community is safe from now through the integration. yeah.

B

Chief herold: great, great question. brenda, and I am so saddened by the events that happen in dc and.

B

Chief herold:, it's tragic.. I never thought that. I would see anything like this in my lifetime,, but I can tell you that we have an intelligence officer that works daily with our federal resources.. We do have intelligence that.

B

Chief herold:, we may have problems that are capital,. We have no current intelligence right now that we have issues in boulder.

B

Chief herold: however,, we are lucky in boulder to have a very talented.

B

Chief herold: swat team with all necessary tools to combat any type of protest, violent protests that we would have and we have.

B

Chief herold: right now we have been working on this, since the dc incident and we have contingency plans if we did have trouble in boulder, and I am confident in the swat team and the officers here in boulder.. We also have an emo years.

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Chief herold: throughout the county and the region that, if we would have problems in boulder,, we would get a robust response and.

B

Chief herold:, the chiefs association., I talked with the county on a regular basis.. I am confident that we will not have any issues in boulder and if we did,, we would have the resources.

B

Chief herold: and the technology and the tools and the resources to combat any insurgency that we would have here any issues that we have here.

B

Chief herold:, but I do think people again I'm asking that people that if they see things that are suspicious, that don't look right.

B

Chief herold:, please call the police,, because we have trained people to combat these issues and.

B

Chief herold:, I just like to say before we end and brenda.. I don't know if you were going to ask another question,, but.

B

Chief herold:, I just want the community- know that the police department is just as frustrated with these issues.

B

Chief herold: that are occurring boulder as it relates to these encampments and that we are doing everything that we can.

B

Chief herold: to impact this in a positive way.. I want everybody to tune in on the 19th,, because we'll have a whole city presentation on how this is impacting.

B

Chief herold: boulder- and I want everybody to know- the police department is actively engaged in and really working hard to solve. Some of these issues.

B

Chief herold:, and so I appreciate the community's attention.- I will continue to have these until I can get out in front of people,, but I just want to thank ross,. I want to thank everybody that was involved in this.

B

Chief herold: and I appreciate it. brenda.. Thank you so much.. I don't know if you have any closing words, but I just want to thank the community for their, their patients. and I understand the frustrations wholeheartedly.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her):, so I just wanted to thank everyone who joined us this morning,. We will be hosting these at different times of day.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): once a month. so be on the lookout for the next. um,. I think we're trying to stick to the second thursdays,, but trying to change up the time so that it is convenient for different folks.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): again, thank you for being here and for participating in the q amp a box and obviously we can never get to all of the questions.

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Brenda ritenour (she/her): and we encourage you to send in your questions, between now and the middle of february,, because that's.

A

Brenda ritenour (she/her): really what helps us know what's on your mind and what types of topics we can address., and so we look forward to you participating with us next time. and thank you so much. have a wonderful day.