City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Police Commission, 29 Aug 2023

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8.29.2023 Police Commission

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Good evening, everybody and welcome to the august meeting of the portsmouth police commission on.

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Tuesday august 29th, here at 5 30. welcome, call the meeting to order officially with.

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The pledge of allegiance and we'll ask jeff the deputy chief to lead us. Please.

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I pledge allegiance of america and to the republic foreign.

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And now, if I can request a motion to suspend the agenda and move up item number one, the.

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Swearing-In ceremony under the chief's report still moved. Second, all in favor.

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Aye aye, okay chief, take it away.

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You've got stuff up here with me.

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To introduce our newest auxiliary police officer, james bauer,.

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James was hired as a part-time auxiliary officer and began his career with the portland police.

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Department on july 24 2023. he's a graduate of the 282nd part-time new hampshire police academy.

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And comes to us with prior experiences, a part-time officer with the hampton police department, james.

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Is currently working towards a degree in criminal justice from new hampshire tech institute.

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I'm gonna repeat after me: please raise your right hand. I state your name aye james bauer,.

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The above name, the pointy, the above named appointee, to solemnly swear that I will.

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Faithfully and impartially- and I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all duties.

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Discharge and perform all duties incumbent on me incumbent on me as a police officer constable and.

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Night watchman as a police officer constable a night watchman, I've said city of portsmouth.

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Upset city of portsmouth, according to the best of my ability, according to the best of my ability.

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Agreeable to the rules and regulations, agreement, agreeables and regulations of the constitution.

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Of the constitution and laws of the state of new hampshire so help me, god all right and then I'm.

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Just going to read, by virtue of the authority vested in me, through the police, commission and.

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Rsa 105-c trashing in your integrity, infidelity due hereby, constitute and appoint you a police.

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Officer constable and night watchman outside the city of portsmouth, with all the power and.

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Authority and subject to all the duties and liabilities provided by law. Congratulations.

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You can come up and put this on him.

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Yes, can you help them just for a second.

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All right, yes,.

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Three two one.

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Awesome [applause].

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You guys don't want to stay with us.

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Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations.

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So we will resume the regular agenda at this point and I'll ask for a motion to accept the minutes of.

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The meeting held on july 18th so moved second, all in favor aye and now we will open it for.

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Public comment: seeing no one here who would like to make public comment, I'm going to close public.

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Comment period and we'll move on to the police commission's agenda items and let folks know.

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We have a presentation by the chief relative to the strategic plan for the department, so.

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We'll keep our police commission items limited this tonight, but you'll hear more.

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About the strategic plan shortly, but first facilities update any news chief on their.

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The restoration work so as far as facilities updates go, the restoration is continuing in.

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The last couple weeks we've had some severe rainstorms, so we've had sprung a few leaks.

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But uh the city and dpw have been quick to work on those and and find the sources of the leak and.

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Have the roof repaired and we've also had several new dehumidifiers placed throughout the department.

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To try to address that problem as we continue to move forward and hopefully uh get a new facility.

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And if I can just uh chime in here chief just to give folks who may be watching at home,.

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A perspective so, as people have been following, there have been considerable efforts made on the.

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Part of public works, the city and the department to address the issues with moisture and rain, and.

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Other problems within the department- and I mean even with an entirely newly renovated main floor.

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Here today uh you you can't close the cabinet in one of the bathrooms, because it's draining.

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The humidifier hose that's necessary in the hallway that was newly carpeted painted and.

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um Sheetrocked because of the continuous moisture problems, so as we move on to the next agenda item.

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Relates to the planning for the new public safety facility, I think it's important to impress upon.

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Folks that the current space we can continue to invest money in, but there are going to continue.

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To be serious issues relative to the limitations of this particular space, we're occupying here so.

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With that we'll turn it on unless anybody else has other well, I would just the second what the.

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uh The chair said: I've been on the commission now for getting a year and a half anyway, and.

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Every single meeting we're getting updates on the state of mold and water and moisture in a.

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Building that was in a facility that was never in it was it was intended as a hospital. It was.

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Never intended as a police department and we've been we've been doing this.

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Ever since I've been on the commission and before so I I fully support what the chair said.

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Comments on the existing challenges with the current space or restoration efforts, I just wanted.

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To give people a perspective in the department we had four heavy-duty industrial dehumidifiers and.

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We purchased, I think, 10 more heavy duty, industrial and they're still out amount, and we still have.

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Moisture so just to give you a perspective, um quite quite a bit of moisture still and I again.

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I can't stress enough: that's, after the efforts have been made to deal with existing moisture.

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Problems, that's after we've dealt with sheetrock and ceilings and the exterior and ventilation and.

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Windows, that's after all, that so we've got. We still have if you walk in the department today.

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You you will see a giant dehumidifier in the new hallway, with the new rug that has to be drained.

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Through the sink in the bathroom, so it's it's not sustainable and and I've again greatly appreciate.

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All the efforts made by public works by the team here to remedy some of these more acute issues. I.

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Appreciate the patience of the people working in the department to manage all of the challenges.

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But it's just not sustainable to keep trying to do this so with that and with the planning in mind.

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Maybe, commissioner quote: if you want to start with an update on the new facility planning sure, so the.

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Working group is scheduled to meet in september to continue with some of the again there's some.

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Discussion there's a smaller group meeting but to talk about to continue the discussion about states.

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Space needs, as well as site testing a number of locations, including a renovation of the.

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Existing building but looking at a number of the sites- and I believe everything is published to.

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The wet is up on the website so for the people at home that want to see get a better look at.

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What those sites are, you can go to the website and see those that are being assessed, and you.

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Know hopefully- and I anticipate we'll- have more news for the at the meeting next month.

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And I think it's worth reinforcing just for folks at home, because I've been asked this several times.

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No site has been selected and neither have the has the committee recommended or or in a position yet.

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To even contemplate whether a new site would be recommended over renovating the existing.

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Site, so just so, people at home know that different sites are being explored, evaluated renovating this.

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Space is being explored and evaluated, including just space needs. So it's hard to. Yes, there we're.

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Very early, it's very early in the process before the working group could even consider making any.

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Recommendations but um hopefully, like I said, we'll have more for at september's meeting.

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Okay, moving on to the community priority recommendations that we've been tracking and.

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Working to implement first today was the first day of school for many for many schools in the.

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Portsmouth school district for many kids in the portsmouth school district and a reminder to go.

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Slow kids are in, kids, are in session, school is in session walkers, bikers buses, so chief.

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Or deputy chief, do you want to weigh in on that, at all other steps to be taken relative to back.

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To school safety I'll speak a little bit and then I'll let the deputy speak, but we've taken.

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Steps to be visible at all the schools, especially today, and we will continue for the next several.

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Weeks as school continues on, we've also met with the school staff. We're going to continue to meet.

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With school staff to make sure all of our safety protocols are in place and with new stuff, that's.

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Coming into the schools that they're made aware continue on with our alice training throughout.

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All the schools that's been very beneficial to to the staff and also to our offices, to.

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Prepare in case an incident were to arise, maybe the deputy to speak on.

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I guess what more we're doing as far as operation and follow-up yeah. So um within the last couple of.

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Weeks, the patrol sergeants and the patrol officers have been uh reviewing reiterating the procedures.

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um For a critical incident response to any of our uh any of our schools and that's uh both.

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um Response theory, protocols and then also going over our active shooter response.

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Kits that are contained in each vehicle and just again rehashing the procedures.

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um Should we have to respond for for any type of incident like that we had officers.

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This morning and this afternoon, at all of our schools for drop-off and pickup.

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And again, like commissioner coyle stated, we really want to bring attention to the the.

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Increased traffic in and around the school zones in the mornings and in the afternoons.

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Our leading cause of crashes, whether they're in a school zone or not, continues to be distracted.

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Driving and when you add in kids, going to school, whether it be walking or on bikes in additional.

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Traffic, if you're not paying attention the propensity for an accident to happen, increases.

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In fact, just at the end of last school session, there was a school employee from the middle school.

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Who was struck directing traffic in the morning in a case of an operator who was distracted and not.

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Paying attention- and there were severe injuries in that crash- that happened right at drop-off.

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Time at the middle school, so we ask that everybody chip in and do their part. We will be increasing.

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um Awareness of that and that will be have a mobile speed board that.

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We're going to be moving to our different schools over the next few weeks to remind.

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Folks going in in from school zones to to mine their speed and please pay attention.

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Rms contract and implementation timeline for the new software, so with that the contract.

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Sign where an implementation mode well, the first step is a building creating the.

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Infrastructure to get started with a program, we've started establishing committees on.

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Employees and staff that will be working with central square to develop the programs and.

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How things are going to work and uh we're still looking at probably an 18 month to 20, for it.

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A month process before we'll actually be live and operating on the new system.

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No, I was going to say I just wanted to mention the 18 to 24 months. It's it's a hefty.

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And for those who haven't followed, this is um a new software that will basically be responsible.

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For the department, tracking of all all encounters operating system for entire operations, right, which.

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Has not been updated for more than 30 years, yeah yeah. So uh if I'm sure, by the time we get to the.

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End of this implementation period we're going to be grateful. We don't have to do it again for.

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Hopefully another 20 plus years and just to add to that um one of the advantages of this.

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New system is, it allows us to implement one of the records. Some of the recommendations of the.

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Community group that were adopted by the police commission- so that's a really positive thing.

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Which is part of why the program development is going to be so long? Because we want to make.

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Sure we na it's specifically tailored to what were our objectives as part of what.

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We want for data collection, in addition to being the essentially the operating system.

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For logging calls and uh response right, it's the communication back backbone really of the program.

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um So and- and I think it's also worth reinforcing, because we have had questions now- that the council.

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Has been has approved the funding for body cams, the implementation of body, cam data and video.

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Will be integrated as part of this effort as well, so those things are happening and sort of.

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In parallel, because you need the system in place in order to track the video and the footage so.

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All all is underway, so that's great news to have the contract signed. Thank you for the tireless.

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Efforts that went into that- I I had I heard about the length of this contract, so I can appreciate.

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How time consuming that was very yes, so thank you. Good great progress. um An update on union.

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Negotiations, I'm happy to start just for folks at home city council will be taking up the union.

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Contract negotiation or contracts for approval on the september 5th council meeting, which is their.

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Next council meeting the day after labor day so for folks at home, who are curious to learn.

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More about what is included in those contracts, we encourage you to come to the meeting, follow along.

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Online as well, this has been a lengthy and involved negotiating process and that.

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Commission stands behind those contracts, voted unanimously to support them and recommend that.

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The city council adopt and implement them, so we will be at that meeting on the 5th and.

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Encouraging the council to adopt the contracts as negotiated anything else, commissioner sure well.

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You want to wait in on that. No now moving back to you, chief for your agenda items.

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For police officer, james bauer.

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I received a letter of thanks from a member of the community in our.

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Resolution in solving the lower accounting case, she just wrote a thank you letter for not giving.

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Up in the effort that we time and effort that we've put into this case, her daughter was a.

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Friend of lars, her daughter, unfortunately passed away in a car accident in 1977, but.

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She still remained friends with with laura's mother up until the last couple of years and.

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Was happy to see that this case was solved and closure has been brought to the family.

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Did it motion from the commission to accept the grant.

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um A few of us I'll, just read: okay, where the the holders of the icat grant and forensic show.

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Grant from the hampshire department of justice and amount of 1.3 million dollars for the new.

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Hampshire crimes against children to task force task force, and I need a motion from the commission.

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To accept uh this grant, I moved to accept the grant in the amount of 1.3 million dollars for.

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The new hampshire internet crimes against children task force and to forward uh forward this to the.

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City council for their approval. Second, all in favor, aye aye. I can just add here to chiefs that.

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um I did hear from lieutenant kinsman requesting a letter of support from the commission on behalf.

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Of this uh grant request and we will make sure that gets included in the submission.

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Monthly traffic stats uh so, for a month of july conducted the 756 motor vehicle stops.

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35 of those stops resulted in summonses. We had 51 report reported motor vehicle crashes.

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uh And eight of those crashes involved, injury.

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Can you say more about uh how that compares to this time last year and or july and.

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June and july yeah, so, um interestingly enough, I was doing some training with our our new.

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Patrol admin, crime, analyst, um uh employee, casey uh casey graham last week, and we were looking at.

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Numbers from 2023 to 2022 and one of the things we pulled up was uh crashes and we looked in.

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Particular we did year to date january 1 to august 25th 22 versus the same period of time.

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23- and I think it was somewhere in the area of we were uh 580 this year to 520 last year, somewhere.

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Around there it was not an insignificant increase, it was a significant increase just from 22 to 23.

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And I'd say: that's, uh those are those are that's a realistic comparison as opposed to when we were.

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Comparing 2021 and 2019 because of covid, so we have seen, unfortunately, a significant uptick in.

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Crashes, particularly the last couple months, we've seen crashes involving serious bodily injury. Some.

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Of those crashes involve alcohol, some of them do not, um and with that research we were doing.

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We also looked at the leading contributive factor of those crashes and, as I previously stated, driver.

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Inattention or distraction is, is still the the primary uh factor in the majority of our crashes.

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And we have had a number of alcohol related crashes as well. And since I, since I did mention.

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Alcohol- I did want to point out this this friday. Obviously coming up on the labor day weekend is.

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One of the busiest travel days of the year and um in partnership with the office of highway.

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Safety here in new hampshire and the national highway safety national highway traffic safety.

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Work taking part in what what they're labeling on no dwi friday, which is this friday, we'll we will.

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Have increased grant funded patrols this friday for dwi enforcement strictly enforcing dwi? Looking.

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For impaired drivers and that's a it's actually a an effort through the entire northeast along the.

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Route 95 corridor, of which, of course, we uh we are and, along with new hampshire state police,.

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In towns surrounding us will have additional patrols. This friday spoke focus particularly.

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On impaired driving, so um you know because that's also a contributing factor. We we take.

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Great lengths to to try to mitigate that when, when you speak of distracted uh or inattentive drivers,.

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Do you have any sense of whether that's primarily cell phone related, we do have a sense of that and.

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Anecdotally, what I see out there, what the officers see is is cell phone usage yeah and if, if they're,.

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Not paying attention, um you know nine times out of ten, it's because they're on their phone.

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Thank you any other questions about traffic report.

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So folks, at home, who may be watching labor day weekend, be careful, don't drink and drive.

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uh Don't be on your phone, be be attentive to what's happening around you and have it have it.

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End up being a fun and memorable labor day for all the right reasons: okay, financial report: we.

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Just closed our fy 23 fiscal year last week, the numbers still aren't perfectly final. Yet because.

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The finance department's still working on that, but it looks like we are going to be returning.

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674 463 dollars, and that is primarily due to two multiple vacancies, and then we had two military.

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Deployments for the bulk of the year and when they're away, there's no charge to our our budget.

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In fy 24 we're a 7.7 percent through the fiscal year and we're tracking at seven percent right.

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Now, just for one month um in terms of grants, last time we mentioned a jag grant for 11.

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000, I think um I worked with captain kidney we're going to use that money plus some seizure money.

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uh The equitable sharing that we get from federal cases that we do and some budget.

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Money to do a pharaoh, 3d imaging system which the chief will mention in the strategic plan.

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We just received our icac application and I'm working with lieutenant kinsmen on that and.

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um Probably next meeting I'll have a grant overview kind of discuss what we've you know.

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For the past several years, what we've gotten, what we've applied for and whatnot and how.

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It's helped the department in reference to programs that we've implemented or continued.

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Great thank you for that update all right. Let me move on to the presentation of the strategic plan.

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So this is just to give an overview, an update on where we are, with our current strategic plan for.

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2023 through 2027, basically, the strategic plan is a road map of that we follow on uh what we're.

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Doing what we like to do in the future and things that we can either work on improving.

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Or things that are no longer applicable and we need to, we no longer do or discontinue.

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It works on the police mission; it also works based off statistics and you'll have.

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Accomplishments and a multi-air plan for staffing projects and equipment and needs.

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We'll start with the accomplishments.

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Things that we've done in the past year in 2022 is we have reestablished the deputy.

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Police position, through a realignment through our ranking offices, structure and command structure.

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I attended the fbi academy graduated last july class of 282.

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We've increased our public access to standard operating procedures by placing those on our.

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Website working with the resident group in the last couple of years, part of things that came.

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Out of that was being more transparent with our policies and procedures. So as.

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You look on our website now. You can see the majority of our standard operating procedures.

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We just recently got reaccredited with kalia uh for our second accreditation and, as we spoke.

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Earlier we researched and awarded a contract to central square for our new cat operating system.

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Some other additional things that we've done as far as upgrading our hardware we've uh gone.

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From service to a virtual service, with our computer system in dispatch, we we've some.

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Major upgrades with a recording system and documented imaging system with our change.

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Into electronic files throughout the department in different divisions within the pd, a big issue.

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That we've been working on as recruiting of new officers, and one way of doing that is we created.

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A recruiting video, which is on our website that we use to help in recruit new officers.

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And in addition to uh our canine dog, that officer warner, has we added a new canine.

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Name crash with officer maloney, who just recently got certified.

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So the other progressions that we've made throughout the last year is our.

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Mobile crisis response team, rapid response, access working with the seacoast 988 and.

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The mobile seacoast mental health team has been successful and we've.

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Collaboratively worked together to try to reduce the number of calls of service that.

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We deal with and work in cohesion with them and dealing with people with mental health.

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Some of the adjustments we've made as far as.

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Adjusting to staffing levels is we've adjusted schedules and detectives.

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To have better coverage and use less overtime, with some detectives working through the weekends.

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And having coverage throughout every day, where, in the previous, we didn't always have people here on.

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Every day, and if something happened, we had to call people on to pay overtime, so that has worked well.

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Back on increases with additions we've made in dispatch in our radio system upgrades radio system.

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Tower generators have been serviced and upgraded in. We installed the new notification system.

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uh That notifies us, if a generator fails, and we have a backup system that kicks in and.

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A lot now dispatch is notified when this happens so that we can get them repaired.

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As soon as possible, without having a failure in our radio system,.

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And we've continued with the move, remediation chief, if you can just pause on that, because.

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If there are a few accomplishments that you highlighted and I think it's worth reinforcing.

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um Obviously, each one of these items that made it into onto this list is significant in its own.

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Right but it's hard to necessarily tease out all the work that went into what it took to get this.

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On the list of accomplishments- and so I just want to celebrate a couple key things- you highlighted.

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First, the kalia reaccreditation award that process the process of getting accredited should give the.

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Community real confidence in the implementation of the policies, practices and procedures that.

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This department has adopted and utilizes, and you can't just say it: we have to demonstrate.

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That here, the department is actually doing it, and so the fact that we've been reaccredited is truly.

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A terrific thing to have accomplished, and I want to make sure to call that out also we've heard a.

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Lot about the importance of community engagement and I think the arrival of the new canine is an.

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Exciting part of that program and that commitment I actually had the chance to be at the elementary.

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Schools, as as part of one of the part of the department's work before the end of the school.

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Year last year and the dog was even younger and littler then and was really a hit at the school.

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I think we're at new franklin when I was when I was there with the dog, which was really terrific.

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And then also just um the mobile crisis response, I can't emphasize enough how.

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Different, it looks to be responding to mental health crises as a result of this partnership and.

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That's it's a huge change in transformation in the way. Historically, we've responded to these types.

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Of crises so again I hats off to the department for pushing this work forward. That is a requires.

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Collaboration with seacoast mental health and other community partners, it has not been easy.

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To accomplish, and the fact that we have a team in place is a testament to the work of so many.

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People in the department, so anyway, I just wanted to call those things out, because every one of.

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These accomplishments is monumental, but it's easy to read the words and not fully appreciate all.

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The effort that's gone into accomplishing those. Thank you and I'd add to that that um you know.

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One of the things that you see several times on the list of accomplishments is technology updates.

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uh And uh you know 10, 15 years ago you weren't having these yearly technology.

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Updates of significance, but now uh you know we've, we can't tread water with technology.

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We need to, we need to keep on top of it and uh it's an expense, but it's necessary. Yes,.

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Hungry, thank you both for highlighting those things. I think I would agree completely.

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All right back to you, sorry, I didn't. I couldn't resist the chance to reinforce.

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For those who don't because we got on the next slide, we'll talk a little bit more about.

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The accreditation process uh and what, where, where we're moving forward we're.

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Going to continue with with accreditation again, where there's two different levels.

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And we're at the advanced level accreditation, which is a higher standard. It's a lot more.

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Proofs that we have to do this 400 standards with advanced accreditation in our recent conference. I.

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Just attended where we got reaccredited, you know there weren't too many attendees there that have.

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Reached a level of advanced accreditation, I think it's something that we're proud of and something.

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That we're going to continue on the state has also offered a state accreditation, which we will.

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Also do in addition, uh it's something that's being offered across across the state for an.

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Encourage for all departments to take process in, but as an advanced accredited police department.

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Through collier, the lift for us is very little uh most of the standards we already have in place and.

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The ones that we don't are just related to the new hampshire laws that are part of the new hampshire.

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State accreditation, so we we are in the process now we've applied in and we will hopefully receive.

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Accreditation to the state as well, to show that we are following the best practices and protocols and.

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Law enforcement, not only the state of new hampshire but across the country.

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One other thing that we have invested in we have a plan to follow is to replace the.

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Members from our department that are on the seacoast emergency response team, they.

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Have high level vests and we are in charge of ensuring that those vests are are up to date.

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And replaced so we have a replacement plan and these are not cheap, they're.

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About two thousand dollars a piece the life expectancy is about seven to ten years, so we.

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Have a rotation plan in place to replace those for members of our agency who are on the team.

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As we've talked about recruiting challenges, we persist for the few we'll be persistent for the.

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Foreseeable future, with officers and dispatchers, we've continually tried to stay ahead of the curve.

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And finding new ideas and ways to recruit officers, as I mentioned before, the recruiting video.

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With we have an air show coming up in the next couple of weeks, we're going to set up a table.

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There booth there to hand out pamphlets and uh try to attract more people to apply for.

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Whether it's a police officer or a dispatcher we're hoping with the new contracts that are.

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Up for approval that that will be another added bonus to help us lure and recruit new officers.

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As we spoke before about the mental health program and the response team, one addition.

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That we gained in this new budget that was part of our strategic plan is adding the.

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Social worker and this fall, we hope to hire a new social worker that will help us assist.

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In dealing with cause of mental health and also dealing with issues involving juveniles,.

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Again, we talked about the cat rms system earlier.

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The contract was was uh awarded to central square. We are now building on the infrastructure, work and.

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uh Gaining all the the hard hardware and equipment that is needed to upgrade to the new system.

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And as we stated earlier, it's an 18 to 24 month process overall.

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As karen mentioned earlier, one of the things we invested in was this faro 3d crime scene mapping.

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Its new uh crime scene, digital documentation, technology equipment and system speeds up.

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Investigation process with regard to mapping in crime scenes provides exceptional 3d mapping.

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Capabilities data, quality and accuracy by also offering faster skin scanning speeds and what.

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We currently have- and this will be in addition to what we use our drones- for- to help in that process.

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But this is some software that will cut down on a lot of time, manual time that we currently.

D

Have and don't have the capabilities of doing once we receive this software.

D

One thing in the future looking out in year, two for our next facility in 2024 is to add.

D

A juvenile diversion program and a youth advocate to work with we've seen an uptick in dealing with.

D

With juveniles and youth, uh as you see across the state, there really is not a lot of planes.

D

In place and an avenue to deal with juveniles and youth on a diversion programs statewide so.

D

We are working on creating one here within our department that works best for our community.

D

Susan intervention strategy that redirects use away from formal processes of the juvenile.

D

Justice system, while still holding them accountable for their actions,.

D

We had this position years back, it was cut due uh to budget cuts and.

D

Has not been replaced, but we're looking to refill this in our next fiscal budget.

D

Also in our next forward in our next fiscal year, we'll be looking to implement the body.

D

Cameras up in this new recent contract we've gotten through the hurdle of negotiating with.

D

The with the unions to implement it so shortly once that contract is approved.

D

Forward with the implementation and selecting a product that we feel is best for our community.

D

2023 we worked on a standard operating procedure to guide the use of this technology.

D

And the next year, through year, 24, the next fiscal year department will establish a rollout plan and.

D

Review different camera systems and select, uh I think I said earlier, the best product we feel.

D

For our department for the community and chief, can you just clarify for folks uh body cams, as opposed.

A

To cruiser cams, starting with body cams, so we're going to slowly implement these uh we're going to.

D

Start with body cams in the future there may be car cams, but if we feel that we're going to get a.

D

Clearer picture from a body cam more so than the car cams, because the car cams are only going to.

D

Get the view of what's visible from the car and if all of ours is equipped with body cameras, we.

D

Get that, in addition to everything else, that's outside the scope of a car cam, the technology.

D

Is moving quickly so as we proceed through this process, we'll look at both and ultimately make a.

D

Decision on what we feel is best for the community in the department, and, if I can just add for folks.

A

To at home, the use of body cams is always is also part of the contract negotiations, and we.

A

Did incorporate both car cams and body cams as a part of that negotiating process. So when and.

A

If the time comes for the department to choose to implement car cams, that's already part of the.

A

Okay, a good part now is now that the majority of departments across the country have gone to body.

D

Cams, there's a lot of grant money out there at the offset the costs when we initially started. Looking.

D

At this there was a a huge upfront cost that we were gonna have to come up with out of our budget.

D

We'd put into the capital improvement plan to get there, but I think now by the time that we actually.

D

Choose a vendor and have this there's a lot of grant money available that will hopefully cover.

D

The majority of the startup costs to offset that original uh further requests, including.

C

A recent uh increase uh at the state level of uh funding available uh for the implementation.

C

Of body camps from 50, two thousand dollars to a million dollars. So that's a good and that's.

C

Another good source, commissioner coil again, this is one of the recommendations from the resident.

E

Advocacy group and so again we're just continuing to make strides in implementation of many of the.

E

Recommendations for that got generated from that group. Back to you, chief sorry, I had to jump in.

D

On them, that's fine and, as we started earlier about uh new police facility, we are working.

D

Forward with that, we are that's in our strategic plan. It's in our our capital improvement plan. We.

D

Continue to move forward, we've been working on that process. We're going to involve the.

D

Community as much as we can there's an upcoming public meeting, scheduling that will be scheduled.

D

In september, to give an update of where we're at there again, I will stress that there is no.

D

Site that has been chosen, uh we're keeping all of our options open, there's a lot of work. That's.

D

Being gone, going up going on behind the scenes as far as looking at space needs, looking at all.

D

Kinds of accommodations on whether it's best to stay in our building here renovate it build a.

D

New facility, what that new facility look at we're, looking at all options, all options on the table.

D

And there has been no commitment to any decision on where or what it will look like at this point.

C

In the as I understand it, in the end, uh it's going to be the uh the city council who has to approve.

C

uh uh The expense and the location that's correct, yeah. I think it's worth reinforcing that, because.

A

This is a topic that the community will obviously want to weigh in heavily on. There will be an.

A

Ongoing process relative to the selection it'll, be the sites will be narrowed. The space constraints.

A

Will be evaluated, the needs of the facility will be determined and that process will include active.

A

Community involvement right, you know and I'll just reiterate what we've already been.

D

Saying and we've been working in collaboration with city departments and outside architects.

D

uh To identify potential sites to build on, discuss renovations of the conference as well.

D

We've established uh working group to include city councilor, tabor who's appointed by the.

D

Mayor city resident john o'leary, uh due to his experience with a library middle school projects,.

D

And we also have public work assessment schedule, we've had one public work session and there will.

D

Be several more to ensure the public has ample feedback during this process and it's going.

D

To be a facility, that's going to be created by all members of our community, not just us.

D

And that's the conclusion of our strategic plan: this will surely be posted to our.

D

Website for anyone who would like to look at it and delve into it further.

A

Thank you chief. Any questions on the strategic plan, commissioner, sure no.

A

No commissioner coyle nothing. Thank you, my questions. What have you been up to all this time? I.

B

Mean that's, I know it's a lot of work ahead. A lot of work. That's been accomplished, so it's exciting.

A

And thank you to you, karen for the effort to put it into such a comprehensive and complete format.

B

I think next year we want to add a little bit more in reference to the employee accomplishments, as.

B

Well, um not just the department one but to bring that out as well. That's great.

D

As we said, we kind of skimmed through this is like you know, we have the.

D

Comfort dog that we've added that came up that really wasn't a part of our strategic.

D

Plan, but there was a new idea that came up that we developed, so this is a working diamond. It's a it's.

D

A working document, it's a guide, it's not a bible, but you know it's something: to follow a plan that.

D

We looking in advance of where we want to get to and things we want to accomplish, but this is it's.

D

Kind of like a moving target because things change. You know we had covid, which we didn't anticipate.

D

And you know that's changed how we've looked at several different things within our plan. We've.

D

Adjusted our plan and it's a it's just, a kind of like a living document that will constantly be.

D

In fox and constantly changing, but shows that at least we have a plan and we're following a plan.

D

And we have goals and objectives that we're trying to achieve and we're showing those goals and.

D

Objectives that we have achieved and things that we could work on, improving and you know, continue.

D

To make our department better and strengthen our relationship with our community, and I love.

A

The idea of highlighting accomplishments across either individuals or departments, because I was.

A

Taking stock recently of of certain things that have been accomplished within the department and.

A

In everything from to your point, deputy relative to securing another speed tracking device that.

A

Will float from school to school and try to help calm and slow traffic to the solving of a cold.

A

Case and the incredible work that's been done by the detectives that has been more high profile in.

A

The last few months, but that kind of work has been happening on an ongoing basis for years and years.

A

So it'll be great to be able to also highlight accomplish accomplishment specific to departments.

A

um Okay, so one other note before we, uh if I ask if anyone else has any other business, is.

A

That the municipal filing period is officially open, it opened on monday, and it runs through.

A

September 12th, I believe, if you have any interest in running for police commission.

A

Fire commission city council school board: please consider it uh come on down to city hall and put.

A

Your name on the ballot uh before the the middle of september. uh It's important that.

A

We have active, engaged and committed citizens willing to step up and serve on on our city's.

A

Boards commissions and council, so I hope people at home will think about it and consider running.

A

Serve any other business, anyone would like to highlight yeah nope right. May I have a motion.

A

To adjourn so moved second, second, uh all in favor all right. I'm meeting adjourned we'll see.