 Oh, there's Jack. We got to get started to have quorum, right? Okay. Good evening. Thank you. He's sitting down. Thank you for joining us for the monthly Burlington Police Commission meeting that time is 604 and we are going to start the majority of commissioners are here and we have a quorum Commissioner Garrison and Commissioner Cumberford are not present though Commissioner Cumberford might join us online The chief is also not present, but we hope to see him soon First item is 1.3, which is the adoption of the agenda. Is there a motion to accept the agenda? Okay, is there a second? Okay Any discussion? Hearing none, please say I to agree to adopt the agenda The next agenda item is 2.1, which is the approval of minutes of both August 2023 and September 12th special meeting. Is there a motion to adopt the minutes? Is there a second? Mr. Cox any discussion was not present on the 12th Yes, that needs to be changed you it will be changed the changes that Commissioner Keith was not present at the September 12th special meeting. Thank you Okay All in favor of adopting the minutes with the with that change say aye The minutes for August one twenty twenty three and September 12th special meeting with one change are approved The next agenda item is 3.1, which is public forum Or is there anybody here who wants to speak to the Commission whether online or in person? No, you are part of the business today I Don't see so there's no no reason there's no public forum The next agenda item is 4.1 report from the chief and chief just made it Hello, and thank you for having me apologies for being a bit late, but I guess I was just on time for this and I have a presentation as we do monthly Wonderful, thank you. So this is posted online as well, of course both on the Agenda for this meeting and also on the city of Burlington police department web page under the transparency and data page Under the chiefs reports and there are reports dating back to 2020 when we inaugurated this Next slide, please So covering September we had we were thrilled to get to participate At least from a security standpoint again in the Pride March. It was the 40th anniversary this year It's a terrific day for Burlington a really wonderful wonderful event And you can see one of our officers there Who is proudly displaying the flags? So Really really great day We had a pretty Significant incident in late August involving and so this this of course dates back It's not just September it dates back to the parts of August that came after our August police chiefs report, but gentlemen injured two officers slightly in the course of Them checking on him for a welfare check Possible overdose in a vehicle He fled them at a high rate of speed He was later seen in a neighborhood the vehicle was seen He fled officers again via a number of conveyances He escaped a cordon that we established in Rock Point Park during darkness and went on to Run to stay on the run for a number of other days about another week Until finally apprehended by troopers with the Vermont State Police and game wardens with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife Next please The law enforcement torch run is a fundraising benefit for the Special Olympics. We participated We participate in it every year this year we did it along with some of our colleagues from the UVMPD and It was a great day on a beautiful beautiful day in early September Next please This is a piece on vehicles. I had talked about having something on infrastructure. I was not able to get that But we did get this information on our vehicle fleet. We're currently down by seven vehicles We had five that were on order. Those were not ultimately ordered and delivered We haven't had a new vehicle since I think we've only had two since 2021 One of them actually I think I can't recall when mine came in But it I had been driving one from 2011 And then got a new cruiser that was meant for It had been ordered long before I even came to the police department Mine doesn't do this but officer cruisers do officer cruisers put huge numbers of hours on the engine It's not about the mileage. It's about the engine hours and hours are you know Routinely used about ten times more than the average for a vehicle in America This is information that I put together simply in light of the safer together solution that presented it the most recent police commission meeting Talking about survey data and and conducting some additional surveys. I had mentioned In that meeting that we had conducted surveys before so for the sake of the public I thought we put the top line results of those surveys up You know, these are from a while ago one is from December 2019 one is from August 2021, but both had results that were I think both that we were pleased with and That we want to build on Next please our headcount We are as the as of the 1st of September we were at 67 We're actually at 69 now as as you'll see from the the next page But these are always on the 1st of the month. So these are snapshots of the 1st next please Here's why we're at 69 we swore in two lateral police officers at the very beginning of September and Are but after September 1st and are grateful to have them aboard they have previous experience from Virginia and Texas and Will now enter our they just finished up down at the Academy doing a I believe it was a two-week program To get them familiarized with Vermont law and certain Vermont requirements now they enter into a 16 excuse me a 580 hour field training program and Then there still are elements of training that they'll have to go back to the Academy to complete Next please So again this 69 doesn't jibe with that graphic on two slides ago Which said 67 but the reason is that this is as of the 15th as it says so our fortunes had already changed a little bit And for the better, which is which is a good thing This is a breakdown of where officers and Nonsworn professional staff who are in the field are assigned so 24 on patrol We have a certain number who are unavailable that includes those two officers on the previous slide who are being sworn in We consider them unavailable. They are on they're at the Academy or on field training So they don't count as deployable authorized officers yet We have 24 on patrol our detective unit has nine it's actually now up to ten with a new movement inside and we You know even now this is accurate the numbers for for October will be a little different even than this Because this was as of the 15th and we've made some changes even since then but we have four CSOs out of 11 We're working hard to continue to build that Five CSLs hopeful to actually get to the top of that and have our full six compliments But Working on that as well next please This is a graphic that demonstrates the changing proportions of the of the department and The the ways in which the professional staff versus the sworn staff and the ratios therein have been changed over the past five years so The the authorized number is is not all that different and in fact one thing that 2019 doesn't show is that parking was a part of the police department at that time if parking were Were added I took parking out just so that the comparisons would be a little bit more equal For consistency's sake, but if you added parking to that authorized total in 2019 It would actually be 150 I believe Or maybe 149 I can't remember if it was if parking was 10 total or nine total but so The what has changed a lot as you can see are the the ratios this is the total authorized So this is not what we currently have of course. We don't have 87 sworn. We've got 69 sworn But this does give a picture of what we are building towards next please and This is all those positions laid out by title and type name and the number authorized versus the number on staff Next please This is what some of that new professional Staff is is how it's organized and shaped we promoted an internal promotion Shannon Trammell was promoted to executive manager It is a essentially a chief of staff position It's one that was built into the budget By the mayor in during the budget process this in the first half of this year And it's a very important position I think Shannon's basically been doing this work for quite some time and I'm I'm glad and gratified that we now get to Acknowledge it properly and compensate it fairly as well but her role is one that is Incredibly important to this new professional structure the other position that we are working on is on hiring and identifying as an assistant director for Cape And we are in the process of that We had interviews that involved members of the HR members of the city council and members of the police department and Are hopeful to be able to proceed with that position quite soon Next please This is the priority response plan again. It's in every single document just to sort of Present a baseline and and a context for the pages that follow next please Year-to-date Incident data our incidents are back where they were before the pandemic in fact They're they're higher than they were the year before the pandemic by by a bit by quite a bit actually and We are facing it with 50% fewer officers on patrol. So we are are stacking about 12% of incidents We are referring about 12% of incidents to online reporting. We are backlogged on those online reports by several months And the reason for that is that you know right there that takes about a quarter of the incidents out We also are answering about a quarter incidents with these new resources that we've either Created or augmented the community support liaisons the community service officers street outreach together those three entities take on about 25% of the total incident volume or are participating not always as primary, but they're participating in some way And so if you remove the 25% or so that they address you remove the 12% that we stack the 12% that go to online That leaves 50% of the incidents and those 50% are being addressed by the 50% fewer officers that we've got there's not a lot of room for Getting to the online reporting and although we regret having that backlog. We are working on making our way through it Next please These are selected incidents and the where they stand vis-a-vis the previous five years. I Probably next for next month. I will produce a five-year average So this year number versus the previous five-year average number So that you can get a real sense of the change that has occurred up or down in any of these given categories But I don't have that this month Nevertheless, you can see, you know, the the categories that have been concerning us for quite some time are still here and of concern overdose being the most noticeable next please and So with regard to the drug overview, you know, they're they are grim statistics This slide shows that same document that the same information that was on the previous slide with regard to overdose As of this point in the year in each previous year there you see it 350 right now That's more than the total of last year. Although what you see there 155 is is where 2022 was on September 15th There's also a description here of a Charge called death resulting and the challenges that we have when a fatal overdose Occurs these overdoses are not fatal overdoses the 350 that are shown on this slide the 155 from 2022 the 51 from 2020 from 2017 those are generally not fatal overdoses those are overdoses to which officers respond often times at the same time as firefighters and That incident is dealt with whether there is a reversal through the use of say Narcan whether there is a medical transport whether the person revives and refuses any such services that Frequently and increasingly frequently happens the The those are overdoses where the person is alive fatal incidents are Characterized and categorized as untimelys an untimely death and an untimely death may be the result of an overdose But that's not for officers on the scene to definitively determine Certainly we can see the the pieces of it whether it's you know There's paraphernalia there or or narcotics there But the final determination about an untimely being an overdose or not is going to be made by a medical examiner And a toxicology report and even then sometimes it's not there isn't a determination that it was an overdose There's there's the acknowledgement that the toxicology report shows drugs oftentimes and increasingly many many drugs and poly drugs But it is Still remains an untimely and doesn't we don't recategorize it as an overdose because it was not it was untimely death. Yes, commissioner Thank you, and sorry to interrupt your ear, but I had a question about the response to overdoses and It's been I have I've had this question for a while. I just haven't yet asked but you just mentioned that when you get a call the police respond and The Burlington Fire Department responds as well. What is the role of the police in that response? and is it Is it if the if the paramedics are there what are the police also there and is that necessary to have all that response? Great question. I would say that you know three years ago or more four to five years ago We got there before firefighters quite routinely Police officers are constantly on patrol. They're out in the field And they respond faster than fire does fire to respond quickly as well But they're coming from five one of five locations in the city and police officers are out on patrol and are We're almost always on scenes before fire It is why getting police officers in our can was so important in the mid 2000 teens and making certain that this agency was one of the first to deploy that in our can because it really made a difference We also as a city and a community flooded the the community with Narcan so that it wasn't just police bringing it But police got there first the other issue is that this does remain a crime under title 18 We no longer treat it as such to be honest And I think that there's probably some elasticity about that I think we're reaching a point where perhaps that is not the path on which we wish to continue But for the most part we do not treat personal use or overdose as a crime any longer But for a long time it was and it remains so in the statutes And so the deployment of police was partly about a they're there first able to get there first able to reverse the the overdose with Narcan and be this is a crime and Police should be there to address it I think right now given the posture that we have That it is not treated in a criminal way Absent there being other circumstances Again fatal overdoses or untimely deaths are completely outside of this discussion But with regard to a typical overdose in a public space that is not a barricaded person Is not a person who has committed some other crime or there's some sort of clear criminal element around this other than the drug possession Or who is not in a vehicle where there are other risks and dangers that occur because of that person being in a vehicle I don't know that those are police responses And I think that given the fact that police don't always get to the scene first anymore because we are Don't have the same number of officers patrolling randomly around the city I think that moving some of those to a medical only response probably makes sense Are you having those conversations with the Burlington fire department? I'm indeed because it seems like it would make sense to have a special unit to respond to allow The the police resources to go further to address other issues that are going on And I agree that there are times when it makes sense to have police depending on the circumstances But for the vast majority of overdoses, we're not treating them, you know, we're all in agreement I I understand that it's still a crime, but we're not enforcing it as such It seems like to have six people responding Or five people responding or even four people responding to an overdose Might be not the best use of our resources I want, you know, I'm not saying that we we want the person to revive but it takes one person To and then somebody to you know transport, but and that's not done by the police No, the police don't do that. We it is a priority one response We send two officers whenever possible to overdoses And that is because sometimes these incidents, you know There have been more than a few incidents in which a person revived from overdose becomes violent and unhappy with that With having been revived Fire has minimum manning or excuse me minimum staffing numbers and those minimum staffing numbers Result in them sending as many as six people to almost every call, but that's a fire issue I have been discussing this with fire chief Lachance. I have discussed it also with mayor Weinberger and Driving out excuse me delineating some new parameters for those overdoses that remain a police response versus those that may not Be a police response is something we're working on I think that the not only is it about a resource retention issue and making certain that those resources are husbanded properly for other Kinds of incidents. It's also the fact that you know driving code Across the city from the south end say to the old north end for a an overdose that may already have been addressed medically by People around the person suffering the overdose by fire that gets on scene is not necessarily the best use of police resources Or even the safest in that case other things that kept it a police matter before however were the fact that our CSLs responded to most overdoses and Were tasked with trying to make connections with the person who had been revived or treated We also at you know, we used to have the only mechanisms inside the police department. This would be prior to the pandemic for Doing opioid outreach to people who had experienced overdose or for that matter were arrested for drug related incidents or crimes And we would do screenings in the cells. We would connect them with our opioid Coordinator and so that was something that also Spoke towards and argued for a police response The CSLs can now respond without police being present and could respond to incidents with fire Without requiring police to be there and so that is something we're talking about Thank you Thank you So drug tips you'll see the number of tips that are are at the bottom And that is the those are total year tips That's the full year for each of the years but 23 2023 which is only year-to-date and that to be honest, I don't know that that's 915 as almost every other stat in the document is I think that might have been the day it was actually run Which was September 20th. So, you know, it could be fudged by 202 to a 1 199 but I just wanted to be honest about that Everywhere else. It was either a full year everywhere else in the document is usually either a full year of data or the amount up to September 15th and then that is a graphic that's a screen grab of the home page of the Burlington Police Department in the city of Burlington webpage and Submit a tip is is in the red circle there next please We don't do street level enforcement and we don't do we do not arrest people who are experiencing overdose or who are Clearly victims of substance use disorder themselves We will not and I do not ever envision returning to a point where we for example would make arrests for Possession of drugs that are designed for treatment irrespective of whether or not that that drug has a Prescription such as buprenorphine But I do think that we have reached a point where not having any enforcement at all at the street level is harming us nevertheless This is a picture of the kind of enforcement that we still do and that we have done and have never stopped doing This is work done by the drug unit the drug unit is smaller than it has been as as are most parts of the police department But we've had a number of cases that are I think worthy of note Each of those underlined Pieces is a hyperlink and so if you look this up online And go to the PDF you can use those hyperlinks to go to either media reports or press releases often from the US Attorney's Office it is with the US Attorney's Office and our federal partners with whom we work most often on these topics and I think that they are very important what they don't do even though many of these have involved significant seizures of Drugs large quantities. We just had one that we issued a press release about on Thursday of this past week We are still you know making this work happen on a regular basis But irrespective of the scope and scale of the seizures I don't have any disillusion or Fantasy that this is addressing the supply part of our supply and demand problem What it does address and it does quite a good job of that is it addresses the quality of life Issues that spring up around locations where drugs are used and sold and purchased and Distributed and those problems are myriad Anytime you put a location that distributes and encourages the use of drugs in a neighborhood It makes the quality of life in that neighborhood plummet and that includes You know houses on one that just we just made an arrest at a location on North Champlain There are other locations in the city where this happens People are Subjects to the in-and-out traffic of such a location. They are subject to the attendant crime that goes to feed the substance use disorder That a car break-ins property theft You know the colloquially called porch pirates and the theft of packages and things they are subject to people Procuring and then immediately using in the vicinity of the location in in backyards or on the street and so what these or operations do effectively is Disrupt that kind of activity at a specific location and they address those quality of life issues We're under no illusion that these are that this is the way to address the supply problem the supply problem is demand problem next please There are a lot of tools that we have as a society for addressing substance use and specifically this substance use crisis Among them and by no means are is this comprehensive or total but among them are decarceration Deproscution harm reduction and street level enforcement over the past few years Three of those have been turned all the way up and one has been all but shut off and this mix is not working a reminder of our starting pay and that we are hiring as always and That's it Questions commissioner Cox So chief good evening, um, I just this is not so much a question is more well, I guess there's questions involved, but I'm I've been thinking about the Coast Guard station Burlington and concerns about the imminent shutdown and The last time that the that we had a federal shutdown Well, the Coast Guard's always required to continue working even in the even when they're not getting paid Yeah, they continue to save lives. They continue to Assist in police responses. They continue doing all of their work even when they're not getting paid Yeah, that was their boat in the photo of the manhunt So on that slide that showed the officer up on a cliff the the bright light on the water below was the Coast Guard boat Yeah, and so I'm during previous Police Department Chief ten years They really weren't interested in speaking to Coast Guard station Burlington for reasons unknown to to the Coast Guard It's but they wouldn't respond to emails or phone calls and so It was just like okay, and so I would just ask you to consider if there is a shutdown that Even getting in touch with them before a shutdown and just as an act of solidarity and moral support To have a conversation with with the station and I can talk to Directly or sending an email with the contact sure information But it does seem and then there's things that you could do together for example They have a grill with a great view. They have trading rooms They have like a lot of they have a galley with people that actually cook meals for people and and I know that you Guys have a pretty decent workout room and and so there may be things that if you if the two agencies kind of Coalesce together a little bit and work together a little bit that there might be some benefits to both Codra's sure. Thank you. That's a great suggestion. I have a question. Yes This is the exact document that's up on the website. We just went over it in this room Any other commissioners have any questions? I have a couple of questions, but I can wait if other people have questions Mr. Rasky Commissioner key. Okay. All right. I have a couple of questions for you Chief one is that I'm some kind of interested in this the police vehicles slide that you posted there and you describe the The cost of them and you also said that you have only received two new cruisers since 2021 I know that it takes maybe I'm wrong. I'm maybe I shouldn't say no But isn't there a process by which you order these vehicles and is the isn't there a time lag Between when you order and when they arrive to you I'm just trying to figure this out if in terms of you know board of finance or somebody to appeal to and To say because it seems like being down seven vehicles seem like a lot Yes, I mean I think that there was probably a thought that since we were so understaffed the Vehicles maybe didn't need to be Processed you're correct. There is a lag There is a lag between when you purchase a vehicle when you or well when you order it when you Purchase it then how you have to spec it out and you have to send it for all these extra things including a cage and Their imagery on the side and the lights and the computer work that's inside and the radio and all this stuff And that does take time. We had ordered them We had five on order, I believe and I don't have the dates right in front of me or the exact timing But that order for whatever reason Wasn't it didn't get completed and so it's been And I don't know for sure and I'm trying to figure out with the city We're working hard with our partners of the city. These are centrally purchased not purchased by the police department What happened with that order was it placed in abeyance? Was it canceled? Was it sort of put on on short-term hold because There there did appear to be a buffer with regard to headcount and the need for patrol cruisers But certainly we're at a stage right now where we do need new ones and we're working on on addressing that And I you know, that's my that I to me that seems like a pretty Important step for you all in terms of that you need that hardware to to work and being down seven vehicles seems like a particularly critical moment so Anyway, we can I guess as a commission can make a any contribution to your voice We are willing to thank you. Thank you. I don't I don't think that's that's necessary yet We're still trying to figure out where you know what happened and certainly I don't believe there was any decision on the city's part to say We're not going to give the police department vehicles That is as I've said before and cannot say often enough the mayor has been nothing but supportive of the police department over the past several years and so This is something we're just trying to figure out what did happen to those and you know What what do we need to do to to fix the the gap? Some things shouldn't fall through the crack. I think that's my my thoughts Also, you gave the the description of The drug tips, you know that we're where to call and you know, these are the On the internet where do you know post? But you also at the same time said that the police department is behind in Catching up with the online tips. Yes. Thanks. Thanks for asking that I'm just curious to know how we can you can balance that moving forward Sure, so those are two different things the online reports are for crimes Or or conditions or stolen property for example and those go through a very that's a very formal reporting process It actually is I have been I've had numbers of people tell me that it's too laborious And I don't doubt that it is but it actually requires less information than the officers themselves have to take when they go In person to take an incident report But that is a separate issue from the drug tip line The drug tip line goes straight as an email right to the drug unit and the drug unit does in fact look at every single one of Those they're pretty good about getting back to people who don't make their tip anonymously But what they definitely do is they incorporate all of it into sort of intelligence about specific locations about you know What is being seen and it should come as no surprise that you know a lot of these tips sort of fall into the same basic Baskets of okay. This is about some activity that we've been seeing in the vicinity of Pomeroy Park. This is about activity that we've been seeing in the vicinity of King Street and and you know and and Champlain or or King and Pine and so when those things happen they take that and they add that to sort of a An ongoing amount of information about cases that they're working on And it's separate from that that huge backlog that we do have on the online reporting Thank you. Any other questions? I just wanted to to mention. I don't think that you mentioned this in your report But there was just that very recent Best of a drug dealer that I thought that that's so important And I was just so happy to see that so anyway, I think that the seeing that sort of thing happening where they're actually having some success Even if it's just from time to time. Yeah Everyone counts so if it's the one that you're if the one to which you're referring is what happened on Thursday night It literally came in they did that as I hit send on this So I just finished this hit send and had it sent to to you and also had it sent and put up on the website and then did a media release saying, you know, it's available and Actually as I was doing that the detective who was the lead on that came into the office and said hey You want to see what we got in the other room chief? And I went in and saw what they had in the other room with regard to recovered narcotic product Okay, thank you. Thank you. I don't think there are any other questions then we can Move on to the next agenda item, which is commissioned business 5.1 is the use of force report from last month Which by note says have not been made available to the commission as of this afternoon Turns out it has been made available to us in the new system That I don't know if other commissioners commissioner Keith. You have you found it, right? Whereas Commissioner Oskie. Have you been able to find it? Okay, it's in the agenda packet If you go to the Civic Clerk It's right after the chief's report chief. I did send email twice to Shannon and Who else was that DC Lebrac? I think AC Lebrac asking for these are asking for the use of force and I never heard back I Sorry about that, but I do think they posted it. I'm trying to find it right now. They did so And so we were sitting there I'm writing okay It'll be a good idea to have it to us in a timely manner I'm writing all this done apparently it was sent to us in a timely manner We just didn't know it was sent to us in a timely manner, so well, I I've just received Shannon is saying that she didn't receive an email from you. So I don't know what happened there I will say this in the past there has been There are ghost emails for Deputy Chief Labarge for Shannon And I think there's one for me as well that goes to Burlington vt.org Or gov rather rather than BPD Dot org and it doesn't go anywhere if that's the case and so I That I don't know if that's it or not, but we'll certainly check and double-check to see if anything if we missed something from you Council chair commission chair No, no, no, yeah, yeah, we definitely figured out. Yes, we definitely did did post it and send it I'm looking right now to see if it's actually up on No, it is up. It is up. Trust me. It's I we just found it and we were We just didn't know and I don't know it sounds like it's not There is some This is this is a new system too. Yeah, because in the past this is not how not how we have done We were send the use of force and now we have changed so I think that's fine I it's it's I'm not complaining because the system that has had just has filled in for board docks is still Learning experience for me too. It's there things that hurt challenging about it But what it means is that I haven't had a chance to review it And I don't know if other commissioners have had a chance to review it and if other commissioners have any questions Okay, I think I think that probably is the best thing is we move it to next month to go over This month's August 15 to August 31st Use of force Report and then we will also next month discuss the September use of force report Is everybody in agreement? I don't think we need a vote. I think that's kind of yeah All right, the next agenda item is 5.2 presentation by Laurie Emerson Laurie do you want to step up? Executive director of Nami Vermont. She will speak to the Commission regarding mental health and policing Racial and new American considerations as well. Welcome miss Emerson. All right. That's louder So my name is Laurie Emerson. I'm the executive director at the National Alliance on mental illness of Vermont and Nami Vermont is the independent Vermont chapter of the National Alliance on mental illness we're a statewide nonprofit grassroots volunteer organization and This year marks our 40th year that we've been in existence and we serve family members peers individuals with mental illness and Also professionals who work with them as well as advocates and our mission is to focus on support Education and advocacy for all communities families and individuals affected by mental illness and Our volunteers are the heart of Nami Vermont. They do all of our work that we have we provide the training for them and they go out into the community to be able to give back to others who are experiencing mental illness and That's what our core competency is it's our lived experience as family members and individuals with a mental health condition and I'd like to congratulate you chief Moran with your appointment as the permanent chief so congratulations and Nami Vermont has had really great relationships with the the Burlington Police Department through a walk Helping to sponsor our conference this year in November and we've also done roll call training and Many other things that we've done together throughout quite a few years. So we really appreciate that partnership and looking at Nami Vermont as a Resource for the Burlington Police Department and for the Commission as well We are a trusted source of the media whenever things with mental illness come up in the news They come to Nami Vermont and ask about Information people want to know about that lived experience story as family members and individuals and We're there to be able to share our experiences So one in five people experience a mental illness and one in 25 serious mental illness like schizophrenia major depression and bipolar disorder and one of the things I wanted to address from a standpoint of mental illness and violence with safety and You know just to educate the the Commission about How people with serious mental illness are not Violent towards each to other people in fact only four percent of Violent acts in the United States are associated with serious mental illness. So research tells us that there are other factors such as substance use and drugs alcohol prior convictions of violent misdemeanors and those can be really greater predictors of Violence that it's not just mental illness and the media does portray people with mental illness as being violent and we want to Stop the stigma around that And actually people with mental illness are 23 times more likely to be victims of a violent crime So I think those are really important statistics to know in the community when police are responding to incidents and We NAMI strongly advocates that people with mental illnesses not be Stigmatized and subjected to discrimination by being labeled Criminal or violent and many times we do talk to the media and try to debunk this myth that a lot of people Make that connection with mental illness and violence and a person with severe mental illness without Substance abuse issues has the same chances of being violent as any other person Without substance abuse issues in the general population So one of the one of the laws that have has recently passed is with the extreme risk protection order and The Vermont legislature is really a leader in using non-discriminatory Language written within these urban laws. So I you know, I really Commend our legislature for being able to craft laws without putting in Instances that revolve around mental illness and Additionally, you know, we we ask that law enforcement officers assigned responsibility for removing firearms You know also be trained in de-escalation and crisis intervention training There's a team to training That is offered as well as a Crisis intervention team program that's offered and This is one program that I would just I would highly recommend and maybe chief You're already making strides in that as well, but it really brings together community partners whether it be EMS people within mental health substance use dispatchers Housing and people all come together to problem-solve about the different challenges in the community and I've been part of this program in Montpelier and That this program meets once a month, but it's really it's not really having this the the the city Involved or or leading this it's having other organizations help and we're all working together To solve problems and it's just a great way to bring the community in To be able to feel like they belong that we're including them You know and as we look at the new American community and the organizations that are serving them involving them in these types of Committee work groups is a great way to engage them in the process and they feel like they're being included and They have a voice at the table The other the other item I wanted to talk about too was 988 which is the new Suicide prevention and crisis lifeline. This is not only for suicide prevention But if somebody's in crisis a family can call 988 and they can get help and And what we really look at from NAMI's perspective and building this 988 platform is Someone to call So you need someone to talk to and sometimes that can really help de-escalate a situation Instead of calling 911 call somebody who can help the family de-escalate the situation provide resources But then maybe you do need someone to respond and that's where building mobile crisis teams in the community is Helping how do we remove Enforcement from the situation except when you need safety of course being there, but involving Peers in this process too. So Vermont does not have a peer certification Program at this time, but the Department of Mental Health is funding that so that there will be peer providers that will be certified To be able to help out in instances at police departments at hospitals and be employed at a livable wage and Using their lived experience stories because sometimes that's what people need They Want somebody who's been there and that can understand what they're going through and it can really de-escalate a situation And I know chief you are working on many of those initiatives as well But I just wanted to reinforce that So what happens when you respond and then somebody needs to go somewhere what NAMI is really advocating for us How do we remove the emergency department from from people just boarding there? How can we help that there are urgent care models that can help with this process and Establishing an urgent care model and from my understanding the Howard Center is working with UVM Medical Center with a significant amount of money that was supposed to be invested in inpatient psychiatric care at CVMC It's now being diverted to help with community resources Which we really applaud them for shifting that funding to be able to help So that's going to be something in the very near future that will be available in this Burlington area or maybe out of town. I don't know if you know anything about that chief so that's something to really look forward to and As well as you know urgent care models, you know, how do we also support our kids and There's a great program that is being done in Bennington And I know a lot of other debt designated agencies are doing the same where They have clinicians Or so United Counseling Services the designated community age mental health agency is working with the hospital as well as the school to be able to intervene and help kids instead of you know having police respond bringing them to the emergency room and You know, I have heard from the Howard Center that they're they're at the beginning stages of doing something similar so I'm very hopeful that we are making a lot of progress and You know what some of the things that nomi Vermont is doing we have we're working with schools to be able to Educate students because we need to start with our youth. We need to educate them. We need to help them Know how to help a friend Know the warning signs and what we've learned from a lot of our interactions with the schools These high school kids are pretty smart. They know this stuff and you know But their eyes always perk up when they hear that lived experience story from somebody who shares about when they were Younger and how they experience depression But I also heard from school counselors. They said we need to start even sooner than middle school We need to start with elementary school So one of the nami's had created this coloring book. It's called meet little monster and It talks about feelings and being able to identify your feelings how to regulate them So, you know, we're distributing this to schools as well as doing other presentations And as a matter of fact, we had some great partnerships with hotel Vermont This past January, they invited us in to do mental health training and they invited their community partners in to be able to Hear about some of these resources that are available and we're looking to do this again next year as well Some of the other activities that we have going on You know our working in committees work groups, but we'd love to have you share resources about our support groups and When police are out on calls they can hand this little business card to the families People who are having a mental health crisis And it's both for family members and a separate one for individuals with mental illness as well So I would love to come and do you know another roll call training and share that with the officers to Just provide those extra resources. How can we help the community? be able to address These crises so it doesn't get to that level and that's how nami Vermont can really help is to intervene early So it doesn't get to that crisis stage I want to thank Burlington Police Department for being a sponsor of our conference this year. It'll be in November so we appreciate that and Another item I wanted to share with everybody. We're showing a free documentary throughout the state We're gonna have something at Main Street landing October 5th from 6 to 830. It's a free documentary about anxiety in our children Called Anxious Nation So would love to have you share this with your network with colleagues anybody who would like to attend So I'd like to open it up for any questions that people might have Hey Commissioner Cox So I was I was actually interested and I sort of Chief mirad I sort of mentioned to to miss Emerson about the Care's program, but I thought maybe you could speak to that so that she could learn something about what we're doing here Sure Thanks for that chance So I have nami pamphlets on my desk in my office on the conference table For for people to take or to look at when we talk I know the CSL's routinely hand out your material and have your material in their area in the Cape area And so yeah, obviously a terrific partnership. We're glad to be helping to sponsor your upcoming event The Burlington Cares team is what you described that kind of mobile crisis response team And it is a it's it's it's in progress. We don't have it up yet. We've posted for the clinician positions We are working hard with the hospital to arrange for nurse positions because the concept behind the team are Co-deployed payers one clinician one nurse practitioner who can go into the field and address Issues in the field in ways that do exactly what you just said Which is relieve the burden from the emergency department and prevent people from having to go to the hospital Obviously sometimes that is the appropriate course of action And that's where you would send somebody in the same way that this is a team designed to Address situations without having police presence But they're going to be times where it needs to have police presence at its calls owing to safety issues But when we can avoid having police respond when we can avoid having to go to the emergency department that is is the the goal and a Team like this makes that a much more achievable goal So the ability to you know help with with issues around Certain kinds of in the field medical care wound care certain kinds of medicine and questions about medicine or distribution of medicine and not Not distribution in the sense that that you know Anything everything has to be in accordance with what nurse practitioners can do and all of it has to be Underpinned from a medical perspective by the the University Medical Center and and doctors there the clinicians on the other hand Are not necessarily Qmhp's although they may be but right now we're also hiring for people who are rostered but not Fully qualified mental health care providers who are capable of issuing as you talked, you know, ease or earpose But are still able to connect people with services to do certain kinds of Counseling and care in the field and that's the idea behind the program It's one that we've been working on for quite some time now, and and we're not as far as I know the mayor wishes that we were I know that council president Paul has been tremendously supportive and and eager to see this Supportive of this idea and eager to see it implemented and we're not quite there yet It is one that we've we've gotten a lot farther down the field than we once were but we haven't quite crossed the goal line Yeah, so it's so encouraging to hear that, you know, it's in the works Commissioner Cox Thanks, I just had one other really quick question, which is that the BPD has had on their Very long list of trainings and things to do to have the CIT training but part of the problem is the The the downsizing the department during the pandemic and the post George Floyd era Has made it difficult for them to engage in Lengthy training and now they're rebuilding the department and I and one thing I mentioned to them that Hopefully eventually they get to a point where they have the luxury of being able to send people off for a 40-hour training but in the meantime that the mental health first aid may be a Rational alternative is being a much quicker training that give people some tools To help what they're responding to a case and involves people with mental health Disabilities, and I was just wondering if you had any thoughts about the mental health first aid training I think that that would be an excellent compliment to To get to receive that training. I think the more people can get the better I don't think that you know, there there is any limit to what we can learn and be able to help people You know nomi vermont also has many different trainings and just learning from the lived experience stories as well can be very educational to You know team to training as well as you know I know chief we invited you to come to one of the the meetings with the CIT steering committee As a matter of fact, they're doing their second training again for officers this year and It's it's not just for officers. They're also including EMS. So fire dispatchers Everybody's involved with that. So and and some of the surrounding towns in Berry as well. So it's it's a big commitment You know 40 hours for the whole week is really difficult But they they're trying to break it up into a couple different weeks to be able to make it manageable and You know, I'm sure The chief there would would love to share it, you know as you're moving towards that point of wanting to implement something like that, too Any any other questions for miss everston for many commissures? I Actually have a question for you. I think When I heard you speak I was really encouraged about sort of separating the mental health Aspect from policing because I feel like they don't have to be mutually They don't always have to be connected, right? I mean I felt like you were speaking to that you're speaking to that that that tension But also a separation that sometimes it's better to deal with mental illness or address mental illness outside of policing right That would be ideal right in some ways Meanwhile, I'm just curious to know What kind of outcomes have you seen with new American communities when it comes to mental health? Challenges because I feel like that is one community that Doesn't always doesn't always there's a lot of stigma associated with mental illness and sometimes there's just no no knowledge of it So but at the same time They do need the help So I don't if you can address that what are the ways that you have dealt with that at all I've been talking to Numerous organizations and you know people new Americans that are coming here. They've already been traumatized and you know being involved in a trauma that can you know affect somebody's mental health and You know be having all those exposures like they did and then they come to a new country and Their culture may be very different with they don't really address mental health that it's not something you talk about and Being able to have somebody understand their culture their language and the ways that they do things is Really needed, you know, how do we develop our workforce so that people can connect with the different cultures? The different languages to be able to help people, you know One of the things that NAMI is is saying is working with those faith leaders from those cultures So then they can help bridge that gap make that connection So that that's one approach because they do Many people go to their faith leaders to be able to help with counseling and You know that that's just one approach that I've read about through NAMI that people are doing But then again, you know, it's all about belonging. It's all about, you know, how do we create welcoming communities for everybody? And and the more we do that then people are are more apt to feel supported and You know creating those welcoming community communities no matter where you are whether it be in school or you know at at church within the hospitals as a matter of fact, I've been talking to the rotaries and One of their initiatives is on mental health and they said that's exactly what we're trying to do is create a welcoming community at the Rotary and to try engage people more and Sit and be able to ask them. How are you? No, how are you really, you know, you just don't say, oh, I'm okay So, you know, you probably got to make a little time for somebody if they do want to go into depth about how they really are but it's being able to listen and Create that open space for people Thank you so much and thank you for all the work you do. Thank you so much No other questions like I assume for many of the Commissioners Richard Keith. No, okay. All right. Thank you so much The next agenda item is 5.3 Which is the presentation of a draft copy of Burlington Police Department 2022 and were reported by Zoe Perklis my saying that name right, okay And you are a city data analyst the draft copy was distributed to all commissioners and uploaded on civic Worksite Thank you. I'm just gonna share my screen if you could Want to make sure your microphone is on as well Could I be enabled for Good evening commissioners. Thank you for having me here So I am going to be presenting on the BPD's annual report covering the year 2022 I'm going to Give you some of the key findings from the report for each of the sections of the report listed here I'm going to speak briefly about where people can find resources on data and this report and others And then hopefully we will have around 10 to 15 minutes for questions at the end Yeah First I just wanted to mention a little bit of context for this This is the third annual report for the police commission and it came out of a motion That was passed by the commission in 2021 And so previously these sections of the report that are on the screen right now had their own Individual reports in some capacity And here they are combined and there's a little bit more data analysis to answer some of the questions that were in that motion so Jumping into the sections of the report In 2022 the BPD interacted with a little over 17,000 unique individuals most of these people interacted with the BPD ones or twice and This is just the unique individuals not necessarily the number of incidents which I'll cover a little bit later and so For the people who had some type of race data recorded there were about 14,000 87.2 percent of those people were white 8.6 percent were black and 3.2 percent were Asian For the other groups it was less than 1 percent each and so I have here the Results from the 2020 census for people who responded that they were one of these groups alone just for a point of reference and so you can see that for White and black people interacting with the police The proportion is slightly higher than their proportion of the population based on that metric and for Asian people interacting with the police It's slightly lower so and Incident is the unit of police activity and so you can think of this basically as a call But it can come from other sources like officers on patrol and Other sources besides a literal phone call so in 2022 there were 24,856 incidents Which was up 15 percent from 2021 You can see on the right the top is the total incidents a lot of this change over the last decade or so is because of changes in things like traffic enforcement and foot patrol and in 2022 the most common type of incidents included suspicious events mental health issues alarms On the right in the lower part of this graph. We have the priority one instance over time. There were 2697 priority one incidents, which was up 5 percent from 2021 and this is the highest for All of the years that I have data available A lot of this is driven by changes in overdoses, which are a priority one incident And they make up in 2022 they make up over 9 percent of the priority one incidents so offenses are Essentially crimes recorded by the police department either because they were observed by an officer or reported to the department There were 4524 total offenses in 2022 which was up 13 percent since 2021 and you can see that on the top half of the graph on the right The bottom half shows just of those which were classified as violent offenses There were 489 violent offenses, which was up 5 percent from 2021 but lower than every year before that Here you can see the officer initiated traffic stops. And so this is excluding Traffic stops that were made Because of a call because of a report or related to a different incident or crime In 2022 there were 416 officer initiated traffic stops, which is down 35 percent from the year before and also Yes Sorry, I Is it okay if we interrupt in the middle to ask a question just on the last slide about violent Offenses, I thought I read in the In the text That the that the definition of what was a violent offense Changed this year. So does that is that is that increase of 5% apples to oranges or is that Considering the change in the definition Great question. So the all of the data points on this graph I went back and I changed how I analyzed it and they were defined. Thank you And just to reiterate the the change is just that disorderly conduct is now Classified with the violent offenses So as I mentioned, this is the traffic stops are down 35% since last year and this is part of a Trend over the last few years because of the deemphasis of traffic enforcement by the BPD And so here we have the stops of different races of operators of vehicles by the BPD and This is being compared to the crash data for Burlington And so this is used as our proxy instead of something like the census data because not everyone who drives in Burlington is a resident of Burlington and so you can see the stop is in the solid lines and then the Dashlines are the crash proportions for these groups And so this year 2022 we have a very similar Proportion of stops and proportion of crashes for each of these groups Which is not always the case for the past few years Here we see the arrests By severity so total arrests in red and in blue is the violent arrests There were 1037 total arrests in 2022, which is up 5% from 2021 But not higher than any year before that Here I compare the arrests for white and black arrestees to the census data and the American Community Survey data And so the census data is for 2020 and the other years is the American Community Survey Which is not a complete count like the census, which is why there's error bars on those points and so I Have lines for both this race alone in Burlington and this race and maybe another in red and green respectively and then the blue squares are this race percentage of arrests and Purple crosses are this race percentage of arrests for only violent offenses and what we see here is that White people in Burlington make up or I should say people in Burlington are made up mostly of white people, but the proportion of arrests for both total arrests and the violent offenses are Lower for white arrestees and the opposite is true for black Berlin Tony black Berlin Tony sorry black Berlin Tonians Is lower than the proportion of arrests for both all arrests and violent arrests who are black arrestees Lastly, we have the uses of force. There were 208 uses of force in 2022 yeah, thank you on the data is it differentiated between like say like an out-of-town drug dealer Who comes here and commits violence? versus Resident of Burlington So in this comparison, no, I just compared all the arrestees using the residence data in the data. I do have If it's available residents for people who are arrested so that is something that could be with that Thank you. Yeah, so returning to the use of force as I said 208 uses of force in 2022 which is up 11% from 2021 The majority of those were either on white or black subjects of force There are 150 uses of force on white subjects and 49 on black subjects For this comparison instead of using census data, I used both the interactions with the police and arrests my maybe the BPD to the uses of force on white and black subjects of force on the right The interactions the present of interactions with the police who are white is Similar to the percent of arrests these who are white And the percent of subjects of force were white. This is the first time. It's been a very similar percentage on the right we have Black uses of force or black subjects of force is for the first time in several years since 2016 similar to the percent of arrestees who are black And both of these are higher than the percent of people who interacted with the BPD who were black and So just as a brief note here a few sources where people can find this report as well as both the 2020 and 2021 reports and previous reports that is on the police the Burlington Police Department's website under the report section along with those use of force reports that The chief spoke about earlier I also want to mention the BPD stat data hub for the city, which is where there is open data as well as Dashboards where people can explore this anonymized data and not just for the police department, but other sources as well so The commissioners have any questions. I am happy to take them. Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have any questions? Commissioner Mosky Thank you very much. This is a question more for the chief than for you, but maybe you both have some reflection the racial disparities in arrests and in use of force What do you make of that? You know, this is a Challenge that we've seen for a very long time. I think that in some ways the numbers and percentages have narrowed this year in ways that are That are are positive the use of force has come in line with arrests But arrests remain higher than contacts and they remain higher than the population as well contact is actually pretty much in line with population You know, if you if you look at the The the incidents that we report with regard to use of force I We don't I don't see Troubling patterns in those in those uses of force We make a lot of those visually public now as well as written all of them are are made public in a written format A number of them are now made public in a video format online Anytime there is a use of force against a person of color. It's reported to the mayor Within usually about 12 hours And and the patterns that would be that would be troubling beyond the mere existence of the disparity Don't Present themselves disparity is not automatically indicative of bias. There are a host of issues that I think are Intendant upon that Why is it that you know when we and so One thing that this shows with regard to certain kinds of offenses or crimes, you know The the numbers are are not necessarily worse than they've been in past years in 2022 But we know very well that with regard to some of the most important categories those being Gunfire and shootings as a subcategory of gunfire and then murder often as a subcategory of gunfire as well But also murders that happen that were not gunfire related we saw the absolute worst year in our city's history for those categories and Unfortunately, the truth was that the Representations of who was both victim of those crimes and a perpetrator of those crimes was vastly Disproportionate to the city as a whole and that's not a matter of police bias That is a matter of something else and and what that something else is is something that bedevils us and troubles us all as a society Thank you Any other questions? To follow on that question though Could could steps be taken to and to continue to improve I'm hopeful that they can but I also don't know that the That what we see for example with the closure of use of force versus arrest is something that's necessarily intentional I think these are very small numbers and they're predicated on each individual interaction between officers and Subjects and when it comes to force, it's the subject who determines what that force is going to be And the with regard to arrest to that too is is predicated on the actions of the person You know who's undertaking the offense? I think that I'm I want officers to think about these things at all times we we engaged in a lengthy lengthy training around systemic oppression and around issues of bias and not just racial disparity or inequality but also sexual inequality inequality based on immigration status and inequality based on on sexual orientation and You know the state requires four hours of us. We did 16 and and these are things that we take very seriously I want officers to think about these things to understand these things but when an officer is addressing a person who's Trying to escape or trying to strike them His or her reaction is going to be if that moment and and dictated by that behavior I think that in in you know addressing each of these in an individual kind of way and looking at all of those Those 208 and having them all out It becomes a matter of saying what you know What's what's happening in each of those individual instances if we don't see some sort of overarching pattern? And so I certainly want always to strive to have no use of force at all against anybody Irrespective of that person's identity And that's what officers want to it is it is infinitely better to talk someone into understanding that going along with our rightful and lawful authority is best for everybody in that moment than it is to have to put hands on somebody but Putting hands on people generally comes because the people aren't cooperating in that way Sorry, but I just can't let that comment go without a response sure that There you said something to the effect of when it comes to force It's the subject that determines the extent of the force and in a vacuum I would agree with you but in reality We've seen it. We've seen it in the BPD. We've seen it in other police interactions that the police can Escalate a situation that can result in use of force. So I think it's Not helpful and a bit naive to say Flatly that it's the subject that is the determiner determination of the use of force That's it I Agree with Commissioner Oskie because I I just want to point to one thing But because my point my point being that there's clearly still a learning curve That's happening and I would continue BPD to be committed to that For example on page 32 the number of arrests by severity for years 2012 to 2022. I was I was Excited to see that the numbers have sort of essentially stabilized So there is this sense clearly whatever you are describing is having an effect However, the nonviolent misdemeanor, maybe I'm reading this wrong chief and maybe you can explain this to me The nonviolent misdemeanor arrest for whites have come down Significantly for African Americans in our community has gone up slightly. It has it's not a huge number. I agree And yet that is one area I feel like there is a lot of subjectivity a lot of subjective interpretation Because it is nonviolent misdemeanor and I sort of went and did a little bit of research and sort of saw the Parameters of that. So in that sense I do feel there is something there's still some learning that can happen that the I'm not I agree with you generally that we are all subjective beings. There are going to be some some baggage We come with But clearly I feel like there's still some work to be done though It's better than ever before so I think in that sense I want to commend BPD for for coming that far But anyway, I don't know if you have any thoughts on that or we can just leave it at that But there's still some learning just looking at that that data. Sure I mean, I'd be happy to go through and actually take a look at what was entailed in all those cases It's going to be a small enough number that we can look at it I will say that you know nonviolent misdemeanor includes drugs and that would include some drug arrests Particularly if the amount isn't that was that's recovered isn't at a felony level and so Those may entail, you know, those are arrests that we do make with regard to The you know, there's one piece that I found very Interesting in the document and I don't have it right in front of me or the exact figures but I believe that officers were twice as likely to be injured in matters with resisting Subjects of color that as they were against resisting white subjects Something into that effect wasn't it? That's the one that I corrected a couple of times in there as far as the phrasing went There was a significant difference What can you point I didn't I didn't I don't remember reading about it's on page 43 table 23 Do you see 43? Yeah, it's on page 43 page 43 based on the page number at the bottom, but what is the relevance to bias? What is the point being made? Yeah, I can't hear you. What is the relevance to bias and what is the point being being made? I think that's indicative of a level of resistance and force being used against officers that's Disproportionate there as well and when we talk about the officers determining You know that when when you say that it's not the subject who determines the force used or the level of force used I think that that statistic is an antidote to that concern It could also be that the I mean it's hard to say flatly that if it if if it off if there's if there is racism and there is bias and an officer is Amping up a situation They're likely to get injured for sure and I can see that it's not you know I'm not sure what the point that you're trying to make is But I don't see it as I still don't see this as the subject Determines the use of force. I think that there's a variety of factors that come into play especially when we're talking about bias. I Think there were a lot of ifs in that statement There were a lot of things that had to follow in order to get to the final piece and I think that when we look at the The the written documentation when we look at the video documentation. We're not seeing those ifs Just a note commissioner asking. Yeah. No, I I see I Happen to see both sides Essentially because I did read a report and I can share it with both of you quite recently That the long history of racism and interaction With police and that has nothing to perhaps has to do with BBT BPD that African-American communities and Especially men in African-American communities do respond to police differently. It was actually one of my colleagues who did the research Do respond to police in a different way? So Not necessarily Defending the practice and when the outcome but all I'm saying is that I feel like just looking at that data It could be more complicated than simply the officer Amping up the situation though. I'm not I'm not saying that that's not possible. I think we have seen historically both so It might be a little bit more complicated, but that is a discussion to be had I think For future sorry commissioner Keith. I guess where I'm a little confused is the Considering systemic racism that's permeates our society The statement that there is zero bias and it sounded like there was no bias and there's really no room for improvement Is a little concerning and then the follow-up if I had heard correctly was it's more likely that a black suspect Would injure an officer and I'm just really Failing to see the connection Because I don't think what you're saying is that you know, we're not biased, but the problem is that You know more more black suspects are injuring officers. So that's where I'm confused I don't believe I ever said that there's no bias in the department I don't believe I said that at all. I said that Disparity does not automatically equal bias Similarly, I think there are always opportunities for improvement. I don't believe I ever said that that was the case either Thank you for clarifying. Okay, commissioner So, you know just like My math degrees are in you know pure math I'm gonna find math, but I did do some data analysis and one of my jobs and I do have to say that You know the small the law of small numbers Can really skew, you know, like how things look and so I'd almost like sort of like the idea of chief's Notion that maybe looking at all of the cases since there's really so few might be a lot more illuminating than to try to draw Statistical conclusions off a small number of cases. So that's just something to put out there that I would find that interesting First and I would also like to really thank you for the report. It was It was just an excellent report very rich analysis. The data sets are Really impressive the amount of time and energy and thought that's gone into it Really commendable. So thank you very much Just one point of clarification I know you had said that violent offenses now include disorderly conduct. So is it correct to say that disorderly that the The increase is five percent and that includes with the addition of disorderly conduct Yes, so what I did is I just went back and I had a key that said the offenses and whether they were violent or not and then I Analyze the data fresh compared to last year So the numbers will look a little different compared to last year because of that change But this year it's consistent across the entire set of data But that doesn't mean that disorderly conduct was responsible for that change because disorderly conduct was included in all the previous years as well Yeah, that's correct it was okay, and About how much was added by including that category? I I would have to double check to be sure, but I believe it was Maybe about 25 to 50 tops per year. It was maybe 10 percent increase Okay, and I think there's a question for you and and the chief as well It's a 10 percent of people account for 41 percent of the Person interactions Could you unpack that? I'm just trying to get a sense of the scale. It's it was really it really stood out to me Yeah, so on the graph that you're referring to I can just find real quick So this is page 12 figure one On the x-axis we have the percentage of persons and so that's the individual people As they interact with the police but then on the y-axis, it's the Person incidents and so that's a combination of the people and then the incident that they are involved in So if you have one person who's involved in three incidents, then that would be one person three person incidents and so what this is showing us is that when 10 percent of people have 41 percent of the total Interactions with the police essentially with those incidents it's a small number of people that are making up nearly half close to 50 percent I guess of The incidents or the person incidents. I mean it's Yeah, I'm just really trying to get my head around that and from an operational standpoint Following up on the question about response to overdose. Is there any lessons that can be drawn? I mean, do we have a sense of what these 10 percent individuals are they? You know, is there a certain type of crime or incident they're involved in are their characteristics that they share for example, you know Addiction or mental health issues and you know, how much might this data impact how resources are allocated on on calls in the future? I There definitely isn't follow-up. I think that could be done and there is follow-up being done in with the mayor and other Departments in the city a lot of these people might present a lot of opportunities for addressing mental health and like you mentioned substance use and I think that opportunities like the CSL's the community support liaisons might be appropriate for maybe Decreasing a little bit of their recidivism there What's the number of those 10% The number of the number of people people I Don't I don't have it specifically, but I think it would be about two to three thousand people Meaning those two to three thousand constitute 40% of the 17,000 in person incidents Something like that. Yes Commissioner Cox and then commissioner Oskie So I'm just gonna say a couple real obvious ones that I'm familiar with our mental health Household abuse that's sort of a domestic violence case Some of these times especially like if there's drugs involved in our alcohol abuse that sort of thing You may end up calling the police like a number of times right in a row as like I have some personal experience with doing this and It's it's really unfortunate, but sometimes that's the only resource available Because for example for mental health first call will only come and help if the person Who's in a mental health crisis ask for them to come? If the first if other people around them are being affected first call this point show up and so There's problems with like just Having resources available and the police seem to be the key so But hopefully now cares It's a plan a lot of that. Anyway, thank you This might be This question might be answered in the report and I just can't wrap my head around it, but BPD responded to twenty four thousand eight hundred fifty six incidents My question is around the word responded There were twenty four thousand eight hundred fifty six incidents is There's some way to break that number down to know how many of those were Received online and followed up later and how many were actual like Police in the car going out or on the foot, you know Responding in in the real time. I Have a few different ways in the data that I can look at this and none of them are completely foolproof But it is possible to see the officer responses as well as person responses Which isn't something that had been included in the motion, but would be a good follow-up And so that would also include online officer that is It could tell you if the online officer was the only response it can also tell you when officers responded So if it's within a minute or two of getting the call or if it's a follow-up You know sometimes for the CSL's it might be days later that they follow up, right? I think that would be interesting to look at Over time and as we look at officer resources and where they're going And what is needed? My neighbor got her car stolen and she made a report. She heard from the police six days later I made a report for now. This isn't a criticism. I understand that this is what's happening but I made a report for stolen property never got a follow-up and I'm you know, it's it's included in the data, but When we're looking at What our resources are and what we need and how? How incidents are being responded to it might be interesting to look at When what what the response was when it came in? You know as opposed to just looking because this I don't think that it's accurate to say that they responded to 24,000 856 incidents there were that many incidents, but they had they were responded to in a variety of ways That's a great point. Thank you. Thank you. Any other commissioners have any questions? Okay, well, thank you very much for coming. I Agree with Commissioner Keith. I think this is a wonderful report and not food for thought for not only for the Commission But for BPD as well. I hope okay. Thank you so much. Thank you The next agenda item is 6.1 officer and staff commendations we haven't received any have we commissioner Cox, okay, go ahead. Sorry Thank you So the Commission has been granted the authority to review policies practices and procedures of the BPD through resolution of the City Council One of our core responsibilities is to be the bridge between the BPD and the community as part of that authority and responsibility Please some of us have worked on Commendations of the BPD and its officers where appropriate to shine a lot a community light on good Please practice and procedure and express our approval our focus is generally not on the exemplary conduct of one or more specific officers rather our Focuses on describing the scenario and then focusing on what the BPD did as an organization in Responding to the scenario and why that was important and commendable Although we've sometimes named specific officers who were instrumental in the commendable practice We also on several occasions recognize an entire team or unit of officers without naming particular officers We appreciate the willingness of the BPD to provide information as requested to flesh out surrounding Circumstances in the BPD's response and we're requesting that they continue to do so and so recently I'd sent a Proposed commendation to your outreach person and It got shunted up and then pushed back and I just was a little bit concerned and that they didn't I didn't want to say one Sentence about like that. They were really nice or did a really good job I really in fact one when I write them up and I'm hoping that when other commissioners write one up that we Focus on the practice and procedure aspect, which really sometimes does require more of an explanation So it makes it longer than just a simple sentence saying officer Joe is really nice and helping me You know helpful when I had my car accident It's something lengthy because we're describing the scenario and then what the BPD did to respond to the scenario and so we just wanted to make sure that Now we are able to continue this if you don't think it's useful or you think that somehow we Do you railed ourselves by doing this or doing something that's like adverse to the BPD's interest Then I'd be happy to have a discussion around that but otherwise I think that it's useful for us to let the community know what we're seeing in terms of BPD's response as an organization sure on that level. Thank you Thank you Executive manager Trammell says that she did send over for commendations. I don't know if those just sort of got misplaced and that happens With with regard to you know longer commendations We certainly welcome any recognition of good performance in the same way that we recognize that we welcome Critiques that lead to improvement or or that point out if God forbid there's actual malfeasance We certainly welcome commendations, you know, I think that One of the things I like about the commendations is they're generally incidents that don't make other kinds of News, you know, there's certain things that we do where we put out press releases about good officer work Or about it arrest or about something and and I think that that's one way of getting information to the public And I think that that's sort of revisiting those kinds of things isn't necessarily always the the best use of time But for for things that come in, you know independently or that are smaller incidents Or the everyday good work that officers do that doesn't get a press release or doesn't get acknowledged In in you know a media coverage, for example I do think that that's sort of what what this particular part of the police commission agenda was always meant to to do But anyway, yeah so perhaps I don't mean I'm sorry for interrupting you perhaps it should be under a different section then because I Consider so for example, if you do a press release and you describe the situation and what happened in the press release and Newspaper reporting tends to be very fact-based, right? the W's right and so But what we're interested in frequently is so for example in the cold case That was solved earlier this year one of the things that was done is to have like team meetings with the detectives with department detectives and the experts and I thought this was really useful because that Educates the detectives it makes them better detectives then later in the year then they quickly ran out and solve this other you know homicide case and and resulting in an arrest and and certainly Genetic genealogy wasn't involved in that case, but you would do think that sometimes In the second case, but it's you do think that in some way that by being Exposed to more sophisticated Things that it gets them thinking and sometimes more motivated and more highly educated on these things That's important. And so yes, of course You don't want to just like say the five W's that were exactly what was in the newspaper But I also think that the newspaper didn't really say why that thing was important And I think it was important that they did that. I love seeing that because I'm thinking that makes the team of detectives at BPD better Having been able to be involved in that discussion I think I think the question that I had and this is this is a question for the Commission as a whole because we have been reading Commendations from regular citizens, which is somewhat different from the way I see Commendations come from the Commission. So our job is or at least in our job in writing those Commendations to me would require a flushing out more As how do I say and I agree with you to a certain extent that it's not just inner We're not just interested in it or personally though It's wonderful that they're nice and they smile that you know sure can to me. It seems like Were the direct particular commendations to two officers who? Really did a good job of integrating their training and understood the directives and did exemplary work I think that would be my view of commission commendation But perhaps that requires a further discussion as well among commissioners whether we want to take on that or not I think that's I don't know if other commissioners want to chime in on that or have any thoughts No, not at this moment No, I agree with you. Okay. Okay. All right All right, we can so so maybe well so so maybe if I could just add so maybe if you'd like we could have a separate discussion about if it's you know, I'm trying to make observations about Organizational level policies and practice and and so and that is longer than what a traditional Accommodation from the public has been like and so maybe it should be a different section in the agenda Maybe it should be some other format. Maybe you don't want it as to do the comment You know, just please go away and no, you know, it has nothing to do with what I want. This is a commission decision It had nothing to do with what I would want I certainly do we're dependent on the BPD to flesh out some of that information because otherwise all I have is What's in the newspaper? Sure or whatever, you know, it's like I would and so that's why you know getting some of that insight When I can you know from like you're you're getting person or whatever it makes sense. Yeah More cooperation. I guess that's what you're asking for Yeah, I'm sorry if you felt that you didn't get enough I'll definitely this is something that you can work with the P. I owed it to to get Certainly anytime there's there's produced information written information in a report for example that is That's that's in a state that can be that can be shared We want to share it and and not make you wait for you know, some sort of Period or anything of of what we would require under for example freedom of freedom of information requests But I do think there's also a balance between Producing new kind of information as opposed to you know finding information that's there So for example, if a narrative is available in a report that answers some questions, that's That's there. It's ready to go and and if it's shareable that's something I think we would want to do but if it would require additional You know conversation with an officer in order to get further details I don't know that that's necessarily the best use of an officer's time given where we are one of the frustrating things I find about certain You know we deal with every single citizen complaint for example, but you know oftentimes I have there are complaints that are addressable almost on their face and and needing to go and you get additional information You know I had this this that sometimes drains the officers from doing what they're what they otherwise would be doing and answering You know things that are important in that moment as opposed every complaint is of course important as well, but Creating new data, that's why it's an exemption from the freedom of information law If if information doesn't exist, you're not required to create it for a public records request You're only required to provide what already exists And and and I certainly don't want to have a posture with the agency and the commission that says Only what you know anybody else would get through a FOIA request is what you would know that's not That's not the the nature of a strong relationship. That's that's you know mutually accommodating But I do I do think there's a difference between Providing information that's already been created and is there in a report versus you know Now the PIO has to go to those officers and say can you give me more details about what you were actually doing in that scenario? Etc. I know I already spoke to you about I talked to you already about this for the press release You put it in the paper, but I need more because it I need to fill in this part or that part That may not always be the best use of their time. I Don't think I'm asking for the officer's time. Okay, then I if I misunderstood then forgive me I think it was a very good point to clarify because I was also getting a little confused and I think you know as you said with complaints I I think our observation has been they've been very thoroughly Investigated and been forthcoming with the information to the Commission So I do feel if we are looking at policies and procedures that are Effective I think on the face the information we have is is really sufficient And as you said, you know that kind of looking for another angle I think that that is kind of stretches beyond I think as you said that the best use of officers time and Frankly, I think what maybe our role is in terms of you know looking at more of that Institutional policies and procedures. So thank you for clarifying Thank you Yeah, I must have missed something in my in my exposition, but the When I've asked for information it may have just been like were there any persons like on on this that like were On this team that I didn't have down on my on my list And I think that that's all the only kinds of information that I've asked for yeah And that's that should be easily enough that should be easy enough to provide so if it wasn't I'm sorry for that And hopefully we'll get all the emails that have been sent to us for some reason I'm not getting any of those emails So I will reach out to Shannon even if I have to call her to sort of make sure that the emails are coming to us Okay. Thank you. The next agenda item is 7.1, which is Commissioner update and I have a few updates to read Following a special Commission meeting on September 12th and with full agreement of all commissioners Commissioner Cox and I sent a letter to Burlington Police Union Requesting they reconsider their decision and release all use of force body worn camera footage to the Commission in the spirit of collaboration Transparency and full accountability and in compliance with what the city council and the mayor had authorized We still await the Union's response The letter describing the Commission's position on release of body worn camera footage is Publicly available for those people watching on civic clerk site a Subcommittee comprised of Commissioner Oskie and Commission attorney Anthony Arabino is Revising the body worn camera footage release policy of the Commission I don't know Commissioner Oskie if you have any update on that or or No update yet. Hopefully we'll have something for you before the next Commission meeting. Thank you Similarly a subcommittee comprised of Commissioner Cox, Commissioner Keith and Commission attorney Anthony Arabino will work to revise the policy document titled role of the Burlington Police Commission in reviewing complaints against BPD employees again do does that subcommittee have any report or it's too early For you all to Commissioner Cox Commissioner Keith Haven't met Working Okay, all right. Okay May I? Yes, go ahead. So I didn't realize that you were that you had a subcommittee working on that I'd merely like to point out that the creation of that was a joint effort by then interim chief Morrison and And then Commissioner Hart If if you're reviewing it for the sake of sort of coming back for additional work I mean at some point that has to incorporate the police department that is it that has to be a joint effort and a joint decision as well To make any amendations to that Commissioner Oskie and Commissioner Cox. I think that was That was that is being planned. I don't think any of the visions would happen without including BPD also according to City Attorney Haley McLenahan We don't actually have any authority to make policy according to Commission counsel. There's an applied authority to create policy to effectuate those Few things that we've actually been granted power to do so it seems that under this implied authority That we may have authority to do one or both of the things But in both cases our goal is to do this in a collaborative fashion and certainly, you know, there's a do you remember the list of questions that we had in a I believe in the July meeting where we had Like stuff that Commissioner Segwino had had in her letter to the Joint Committee and then questions around like Here's our authority try to find the authority for each different thing what we actually had authority for and then what changes that I Could see needed to be made and a lot of them were related to the Complaint policy, but if you'll recall and virtually every one As I had written them out Your impending was like really the first thing that we wanted to think about is so what did you want and what did you think made Sense and what how do you look at this issue? And so definitely that's Overplanting going forward. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. I think so The joint ordinance and charter change committee on police oversight has asked the commissioners to individually review two proposal One by Councillor Bergman and the other by councillors Hive Tower and carpenter Please send me and Commissioner Cox your commons. This is for the rest of the commissioners And we will collate them and send them onwards for the joint committee's perusal You have received that document from me. Have you not? Yes, okay All right, the next agenda item is 8.1, which is a motion to adjourn Oh, sorry before are there any other? I'm sorry. I should have given you each a chance for Commissioner update I'm sorry Commissioner Cox. Did you have your hand up or you were going to say something else? Okay, any any other updates from any commission Yes, okay, so any seconds Seconded by Commissioner cost any discussion Hearing none, please say I to agree to a doubt or to adjourn not a dump you gender. Thank you