 Good evening. Thank you for joining us for the Monthly Burlington Police Commission meeting The time is 6 o 2 and we are going to start The majority of commissioners are here and we have a quorum Commissioner Saguino is not present. The chief is not present as well, but I'm hoping both of them are either on their way or About to walk in We are also Expecting to be joined by the Burlington Police Commissioner commission attorney Anthony Irapino and city attorney Haley McClon McClalahan, I think I McClonahan Got it. Okay. I tried it like five times So hopefully Sarah will sort of give me the clue when they do Join in Having said that First item is on our agenda today is the adoption of the agenda There is a request for amending the agenda for executive session To discuss confidential communication regarding officer discipline and citizen complaint So is there a motion to accept the amended agenda included including added item for executive session? Is there a second And seconded by commissioner Oskie Any discussion There is a executive session on the agenda already. Are you just adding the words? Yes Yes disciplinary matters, right and we are required to do at the very beginning I found out at the beginning of the of the meeting. Okay. Thank you Please say I to agree to adopt the agenda with the change in executive session agenda item all in favor No nays. Okay The next agenda item 2.2 is the approval of minutes from June 2023 and July 2023 minutes. Is there a motion to adopt the minutes? Is there a second any discussion and changes commissioner Yeah, I will have to abstain from 627 23 2023 So noted Any other Okay, all right, go ahead you you you make the motion to divide the question So I move that we divide the motions to separate the two sets of minutes one from June 2023 and one from July 2023 Is there a second? Second seconded by Commissioner Keefe any discussion hearing none, please say I to agree to adopt the minutes for June 2023 all eyes except one abstain and the second motion I move to adopt the Minutes from July of 2023 Is there a second? Second by Commissioner Keefe any discussion and changes All in favor say aye. Aye anyone opposed no the minutes for June and July 2023 are approved The next agenda item is 3.1. We have a public forum I don't know how many people here are if you may raise your hand to people Three people, please come up to the three people Come up to the to the chair introduce yourselves State your name you have to Hi, how's this? Oh Michael I live on Peru Street. I'm here to talk about the pods on Elwood I emailed the police chief city councillors police lieutenant and Champlain housing about the issue of Transients and drug users outside the pods on Elwood Street and the police lieutenant did ask the man to Turn down Elwood more often and I really am thankful for that appreciate it I saw a car go by last night and shine the lights on that property at 72 Elwood seems to be a place where everyone congregates and There's a little alley where they Go and use drugs So I'm thankful for that, but I still feel unsafe. They had some incidents today in the church we had group of about four people gathering to shoot up and the Minister came out and talked to him and they yelled at each other for a while I have tenants that we rent to and I don't feel like it's a safe environment for them It's definitely affecting my mental state because it feels like Before the pods were there. This is something that happened Once a month there was some sort of issue on Elwood Street and on Peru Street But it's happening every day and multiple times a day since the Pots appointment One thing that I'm really concerned about because when they came and talked about the pods This is a second chance for people to get their Situation together and have a housing situation and you know Quote-unquote go back into society and I don't think that the people directly outside the area using drugs is helpful to that situation at all so it seems to be Antithetical to the goal of the program is to have these people out there. I Saw the there's what was really crappy white rock And there's a guy an electric scooter. It's really crappy Gray Toyota Those seem to be involved in the dealing of the drugs because I saw some people Dealing drugs out of the white van and it's a guy on the scooter and the crappy Gray Toyota. I don't know that's helpful, but I take some pictures. I've been taking pictures of people I don't know for to be a witness They also shoot up in the church parking lot of in between Allen and Peru Street that is Probably 50 yards away from a preschool and that's not something I want to see on the curriculum of a preschool So I'm just hoping that they're again I'm really thankful for everything that the police have done so far, but I'm just asking for more because it's a overwhelming situation as late and Hopeful for November to come sooner. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Hi there, I'm Sarah Judd also live at 66 Peru Street So I just want to sort of reiterate some of the things that my my husband Had said about what it's like to be living in the neighborhood that we lived I Invested in that neighborhood 17 years ago I knew it had like that that the old north end was supposed to be like the scary part of the city and Or whatever it has never been scary. It's actually been really quite wonderful until the last couple of months quite honestly In my entire time living in that neighborhood. I've never seen anything like what we are currently currently experiencing essentially The pods have in my mind become an attractive nuisance I actually have no problem with the vision and the purpose of the pods I understand what they're trying to do for the people in there and I honestly have no problem in it But I I also think it is an attractive nuisance in that it is drawing every conceivable drug dealer In the area to be right outside there. I feel like the people inside those pods are like sitting ducks Right outside the door is every conceivable temptation that they've been trying to erase from their lives It's really sad. It's really hard I have nothing but empathy for the people who are inside there and trying to make something of their lives However, it's we have been told that the strategy around the pods Is that if someone is found to be using inside the pods that they are then removed or kicked out or whatever the case may be but what happens when that happens or What whatever happens after that process is that there they are basically dumped out right into our neighborhood and It has become as my husband said Every single day every single day. I've seen everything from people retching outside our windows To what my husband was describing today is some you know an old priest and his his assistant trying to kick out for very Angry individuals off of their property. There are people Using the Elwood cemetery as a bathroom We see it every single day So I guess you know, I understand that resources are such that there can't be constant But what I would really like to know is like what is the long-term plan here because in my mind This does not appear to be working We have gone to CEDO meetings where it has been explained to us how well it's going But none of the people sitting in those meetings live in my neighborhood or are in our neighborhood after dark Or in our neighborhood when our cars are being broken into or I mean, I honestly I think I mean drug addiction is a is a terrible terrible thing and I understand that but this is becoming Especially if you work at home my husband and I both work at home it's just constant it's constant and This neighborhood is important to us. We want to be supportive of people who are around us or whatever But honestly, it's it's like a non-stop rate of drug dealers and and addicts in our neighborhood and it's just it's becoming Really stressful and really hard and and frankly really sad We've done a lot over the 17 years that I have worked that I have lived in Peru Street Like we've seen, you know, we have a really Wonderful neighborhood that we're really proud of and it's just I see it reversing back to when I first moved in When everybody said oh, we you shouldn't live there because it's like a bad neighborhood. So I Appreciate your time. I Get it the resource thing I get it But I just what is the plan here like what is the I just don't see this changing in any way or improving It's actually gotten worse. So that's all I would like to say. So thank you so much for your time Thank you Thank you for having me. I'm just gonna Free style speak. I haven't prepared anything per se today Um The main topic I wanted to speak about today. Can you introduce yourself? Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Romeo I am at Ward 8 soon to be Ward 6 resident and I just been appointed to the Church Church Street marketplace Commission, which I'm super excited about it Which it also brings me to that subject to what I'm here as well There are two things why I'm here today one being Visibility With respect to police department folks that are here on Church Street as well as in and around the downtown district area Some of the folks that I spoke to over the past couple days What I did as the first order of business as a commissioner For the church remarked places to kind of walking to businesses Have conversation with business owners managers and so on and so forth just kind of get a background feel of how they're doing What's going on? What's the status of with respect to public officials and how their relationship with them and what better can we do? from all commissions, not just the Church Street marketplace Commission and Some of the key things that I heard which I will have this conversation with my commission is that we are lacking visibility of the police department and Again, I'm not faulting the police department based on reports that the chief is you know being able to put together I can understand that we're lacking, you know staffing when it comes to this so Something I just wanted to bring attention is that specific visibility issue that the business folks are really lacking I do see that there are some PD supervisors that do park their vehicle certain spots or like junctions along the church remarkers certain parts of the city and whatnot But sensitive areas, I'm hoping that there will be more visibility such as the transit center which Tends to become really a volatile area during the afternoon hours late afternoon hours So you have a lot of people who are transiting the area along the church remarked place So that is the key subject that I want to really speak to having just more visibility of you know Patrol officers just walking around talking to business owners see how they're doing doesn't have to be Responding to a concern but rather just making sure that they feel you know that somebody's out there to protect them and looking their interest At the end of the day So that is one thing that I also wanted to speak to beyond that. I'm just grateful to be here as always So thank you. Thank you very much Anyone else here who wishes to address? The Commission at this time No, okay All right, that closes the public forum and we move on to the next agenda item, which is 4.1 and report from the chief Oh, we do okay, of course, I forgot since you repeatedly reminded me Yes, if they can speak this would be a good time Yes, Councilor Graham Thank you The Central District, which is a historic North End wards two and three I would like to agree with what my neighbors just discussed We don't have a plan and things are Getting worse There is a level Aggression occurring that we haven't previously seen in the number of cases that are occurring now I Would like And I did bring this up also and it was discussed at the City Council's public safety meeting last week So I do recommend that people listen to that meeting when it's When it's been posted, but there does need to be more of Discussion about what's happening in our community I'm actually have fielded a lot of complaints about what's happening on Elmwood Avenue and I Just want my neighbors to know that I'm I'm trying to schedule some meetings on this situation But I do believe that there is more in terms of What? Can we as citizens do to help our police department during this time of limited resources? It's been previously discussed a number of times that we have several locations throughout the city that are openly dealing and If it takes two months to make a case Why are some of these locations? Able to operate as long as they have so what is it that? citizens can do to help empower the department to Build stronger cases to shut down some of these locations What are our options for federal help? I've tried to discuss this before. I'm not sure I'd get the answers that Are clear enough to me like not to have this additional assistance or try to get this additional assistance Given what is happening in our city? I mean we have people we have more and more people not just at the hospital Who are getting assaulted but people working in stores who are getting assaulted? so And I get pictures constantly because people that have recessed entrances Have people using sleeping the alleyways. I've gotten more dangerous So there's I know everyone knows there's a lot going on but there is a lot going on I've really been meeting with a lot of people. I really Been in the community. I've talked to business owners residents. It is it is elevating Quicker and the police report shows the dramatic increases in Overdoses and those are just a trend that show How this is starting to really affect our community? I did read a VIA's proposal I guess I'd like to I'll be listening to their presentation, but I'd like to see more more specifics I mean some of the questions. I think there needs to be an open-ended questions So people can really talk about what they're personally Experiencing some of these other questions are You know, yes, we know these things are going on but let's really talk about how people are being affected and What they've personally experienced in order to fine-tune What VIA wants to Accomplish and then part of that would be again coming back and saying, okay We want to have this partnership with the community and the police department, but that means the police department is going to have to Present themselves in a different way in terms of what can the community do during this time of crisis and the last thing I want to say is I Feel very strongly that we have to put pressure on Legislatures, so that's our state legislatures and also our congressional delegation we need a safe injection site for harm reduction and to control use in our city and to control the Disposable of needles we need drug tracking in our area, which is different from drug testing it's a way to really have an understanding of exactly what is in our area in terms of the different drugs and We need a few other things that require legislative action. So we need to be communicating With our legislature and the governor in a way that we haven't so I'll just finally say that people really need to be Contacting the governor contacting legislatures Sending them pictures talking about your experiences and I have proposed at the last public safety Meeting for the city council committee That we need to do forums we need to do forums where people are telling their stories And they're telling their stories because it's it's I think it'll be more effective than just sending emails just getting Videos so they can see real people that are being affected and have an understanding that if they can't help Burlington The Queen City of Vermont what's going to happen to the rest of the state because it will continue to spread Thank you very much for the time Thank you comes comes for grand. Is anybody else online? That was last speaker. Okay, perfect So the next agenda item is 4.1 report from the chief the chief has is here and we can get started welcome Thank you very much madam chair and I hope that it is available the awesome So this is the chief's report covering August what we see there on the cover is our recent Hiring and swearing in and promotion ceremony That was held back the beginning of August and those are five new police recruits that we have brought into the department along with myself and deputy chiefs Wade Lebrek and Brian LeBarge who are the deputy chief of operation and deputy chief of administration respectively Next page please There we go Exciting sign of hope and progress that is directly from mayor Weinberger's remarks at the ceremony He also mentioned that public safety is the most important function of local government and a key component to that is Is bringing aboard these new hires? There is a link there So if you go and see this in the PDF format I believe you can click on the swearing in and promotion ceremony which allows you to go to Town meeting TV which came and covered the event and you can see the entirety of it I put some time into introducing each of these new hires the five new police recruits and also our new professional hires which included a Records clerk a new community support liaison a recruitment coordinator our PIO and two dispatchers These were not all hired in August. These had been hired since our last ceremony which had taken place in February so Some of those professional employees had been with us for quite some time Already the recruits however were were new We had brought them aboard at the very end of July and given them two weeks of pre basic training Before we send them down to the police academy in Pittsburgh, Vermont for 16 weeks of training when they returned to us They get another 580 hours minimum of field training They will not be solo patrol officers until into the spring But we are eager to have them back from the police academy in December and eager to get them on the road and training They have unique and and wonderful backstories I think that we have an impressive crop of people Several of them had been members of this agency in various forms before I think that speaks highly of the fact that we have an internal culture that is supportive and Is productive and is one that attracts good people and makes those people also want to stay So that was a great way to begin August Next please. Thank you so last August in 2022 there was an officer involved shooting it involved a 911 hang up and a man with a knife who was outside of a home this man had committed a domestic assault earlier And had been the subject of previous police interventions His name David Johnson. Mr. Johnson threatened officers with that knife officers attempted to negotiate with him for about four and a half minutes before he Charged one of those officers with that knife Sergeant Simon bombard reacted and Discharged his service pistol and shot mr. Johnson in the leg He saved Brock Marvin's life Mr. Johnson had made explicit threats towards Brock made explicit threats saying that he was going to die today that he was going to use Brock to make that happen even after being shot he continued to try to get the knife and try to attack Brock The officer Simon bombard sergeant bombard I Performed heroically, but we are in the midst of reviewing this the state's attorney and attorney general committed a lot Did a long review based on investigatory work by the state police They also commissioned a third-party review of the incident all of those led to the conclusion that it was a justified shooting that was only Related in the very beginning of this month in 2023 so nearly a year later that is an inordinate amount of time for any officer involved shooting In fact, it was 355 days prior to that the longest officer involved shooting in the past decade Was 133 days? So what took that amount of time? I'm not entirely certain We are working on our own review now and when we are when we've completed that we will be sharing it with the police Commission as required by our agreement from 2020 and I will also be sharing it with the mayor according to the executive order of 2020 as well and We have things that we can learn from this I think but also Things that we can clarify for those bodies as representatives of the public So this is our our headcount. You see that that Nice bump that we have there as of August 1st that although the although the swearing-in ceremony happened on August 3rd As I mentioned those new police officers had actually been brought aboard at the very end of July And so they are counted in this this Chart which shows headcount on the first of each month That is 67 I am hopeful that we will be at 69 by the end of the year I'm hopeful that we'll bring aboard two more laterals then in early 2024 I faced the prospect of losing several officers who are hitting their 20 year mark and we will see that that Line drop down again, but hopefully not as precipitously or continuously as it has over the past three years What this represents is not only a you know more than 30% lost to our headcount But it's a it translates into a nearly 50% loss on Patrol and the reason that is is because we are required to keep a certain number of officers at the airport were required to have a Certain number of detectives by our contract With the officers Union and really by need as last year demonstrated if we did not have that detective unit We would have been in a very poor position to achieve the results that we achieved last year with regard to solving all five of our murders resolving the majority of our Shooting incidents this year we've had one murder and that too was solved by an exemplary detective unit So we need to have those officers and other roles But as a result patrol actually shrinks even more per capita and by ratio than other parts of the department It's down about 50% from historic norms next page, please This is another way of looking at those ratios for sworn officers We are currently at 67 And again, that's historically we've been in the high 90s 97 on average over the past many years We're currently authorized for 87 so we've got 20 officers to grow and we are working hard on that however of those 6710 are either injured on field training Which means they cannot function unless in the presence of another officer by law Or they are at the Vermont police academy and that really brings us down to 57 We would consider effective of those 57 14 are supervisors nine are detectives Six are assigned to the airport and two are assigned to special assignments specifically an officer who is our domestic violence prevention officer handling incidents of domestic violence and other cases that come to our CAPE unit or crisis advocacy intervention and programs And also one officer who is assigned as our recruiting officer Which is the single largest strategic goal we have right now recruitment and we need that person there The breakdown is shown both in the numbers and in the pie graph that translates into 26 officers on patrol We add we augment that with five community service officers Those are officers who are unarmed unsworn, but they can write municipal tickets You will see them on Church Street and on the marketplace We have asked them to do patrols and drive-bys at the Elmwood pods And then for community support liaisons, which are in-house service excuse me in-house social workers They too will go out on patrol occasionally into the the marketplace into City Hall Park in order to meet with clients They have but they're not an enforcement arm Next please This is our priority response plan I I hate this plan. We had to invent this in May of 2021 as our headcount fell and our call volume continued We had to augment it and change it in May of 2022 We added a number of Roles that were excuse me We made a number of calls applicable to CSOs as we increased the ranks of those CSOs But we also deferred a number of calls for service to online reporting And you know neither of those is optimal this what this shows is the 133 Categories that we divide all calls for service into when a call for service comes from the public Mostly through 911, but sometimes through other means as well It comes through 911 when you call 911 you actually get diverted to what's called a PSAP or a public safety answering point That goes straight to a building usually in Williston at the Vermont State Police Barracks They transfer it to our dispatch center. Our dispatch center says, okay, what's happening? I'm gonna call that a and then you take your pick out of these many categories I'm gonna say that that is a you know a case of intoxication. I'm gonna say that that's a case of a runaway I'm gonna say that's a robbery. I'm gonna say that's Suspicious event is is by far the largest numerical category because it's sort of a catch-all and When officers get on scene they will oftentimes reevaluate that and say this isn't a suspicious event This is a threats and harassment. This is a simple assault. This is something else And categorize it accordingly It then may get recategorized by a detective the detective may say it actually wasn't a robbery as the officer thought It turns out to be a larceny from a person There was no force that was directly used but the item was snatched from the person's hand and In the course of the investigation, that's what I determined So those categories can change during the life of the incident But when they first come in as a call this is what we use to determine whether or not we can send people and The determination to send people is based on the availability of officers when we have four officers on a shift Which is often the case We will send them to everything as has always been the agency's precedent We we never had a system like this We basically sent them to everything and when a call came in an officer was dispatched now We have if we have four officers on the shift For the first incidents that will happen incident one an officer goes incident two an officer goes now We're left with two available officers and at that point We go into this priority response plan because we have to have at least two officers available for our most important life Safety calls we never send fewer than two officers to a domestic violence call We would not send fewer than two officers to a report of shots fired or a report of a Active assault among most multiple parties on the marketplace for example And so we need to keep those two officers available for those kinds of calls as they come in and that means passing up Other calls that come in so if another kind of call comes in that doesn't meet the threshold for life safety We can't send a CSO to it. We can't defer it to online reporting We will say we are not coming and we don't like that. We don't like that as an agency We don't like that as men and women who have pledged to serve the public as law enforcement officers But it is where we are based on that chart that we showed back a few slides ago and the precipitous decline in headcount Next please This is incident volume and what this shows is that our incident volume now is back to where it was before the pandemic In fact, it's higher than it was in 2019 There was you know a lot of talk in the summer of 2020 about the ways in which our our call volume had declined It was used as a justification for the decision to reduce the department's headcount headcount the the call volume is back to where it was and As the annual report that will be released soon by the office of planning another part of the city That is conducted an analysis of our data and produced the third annual report of the BPD as that will show The call volume decrease that you would see if this chart went further back to say 2015 or 2014 was largely Driven by the reduction that we made voluntarily in Vehicle stops police officers don't do vehicle stops anymore mostly because we don't have enough officers at the time to do that So if you remove that we'd actually be quite close to where we ever had been even in the middle of the teens When we were at our high for numbers At 40 what we're 41 percent over 2021 We're 22 percent over 2022 and we're back in line with where we were in 2018 of these incidents About 12 percent are stacked according to that priority response model in other words They come in and we either say we can't go or we're going to go later or we're gonna have to wait We're gonna hold this one an additional 12 percent are referred to online reporting And an additional almost 25 percent are Responded to by as primaries either by CSO's or CSL's or members of the street outreach team And that means that there's been a 50 percent reduction in what we respond to which is commensurate to the 50 percent fewer patrol officers that we've got This is a table of incident volume in specific selected categories. I use these same categories every single month So that you can sort of track where we're going As as others mentioned, we you know our overdose number 288 Is already higher than last year's total and it actually surpassed last year's total in July So we are in a really horrific place for overdose a lot of these other categories are moving in the wrong direction as well I think that you know, we we if you look at crash with injury or fatal That increase is I think the result of the diminishment in traffic which you see in the far right column So in that far right column you see a diminishment in traffic enforcement We're ticking up a little bit this year although that's largely because we've had larger Academy classes graduating and really the some of the only people who continue to do traffic are officers learning to do it And then they stopped doing it too once they're off their field training program but That number is a little bit higher than it was last year But it's still lower than all the previous years and yet our crash with injury or fatal Which is the the category of crash that we care the most about Because it involves people's safety is ticking up quite a bit compared to previous years appreciably and that is of concern to me It's not the only category that is concerning but there are other places where we have seen some good things certainly our gunfire is lower now than it than it was at The stage last year or the year before and that's a positive those were unconscionable years for gunfire But it's still too high. It's much higher than the the average of the years from 2012 through 2019 was two per year and so even at eight lower than last year. It's still not where we want to be Believe that's the one more. I'm sorry And so this is how we try to address that and and those things we've got a terrific pay package Authorized by the city council agreed to by the union This is the best pay for police officers in the region Starting at 74 topping out at 100 and currently offering a $15,000 hiring bonus We have a lot of things that other departments don't allow we allow beards We allow tattoos We have a number of specialty assignments. You can be a non-citizen as long as you are a permanent resident But many many police departments will not take non-citizens. We will And we are are eagerly and actively looking for the right kinds of people to be police officers in this town and serve this city And that's my presentation. Thank you. Okay. Thank you chief questions from the Commissioners and we start with Commissioner Oskie and then Commissioner Cox Thank You chief. I just have a clarification The priority response plan is titled revised and I just want to know if it was revised Since last month, it's hard to know. No, that's the revised plan as in it's not the one we released in May of 2021 It is the one we released in May of 2022. Okay, so it has not changed No, it's just that's what it's now called because it's not the one from May of 2021 So that's what it says on the button at the top of the page as well at the top of the Burlington website Yeah, that hasn't changed at all. It's the same slide I show in every I think I've shown it in every chief's report since we implemented it That's true. And I would again encourage that There it's could be a living document and if there's a need to rethink some of these Categorizations that that's remains an option Commissioner Cox Thank you, I had a question and then a comment my question is on the officer involved shooting investigation You said that the investigation is complete, but that their investigation is being reviewed is accurate So our internal investigation is in progress the investigation that was done into With officer involved shootings, there is a national standard It's also required by our state standard and which is a law and all it's the use of force policy That's a statewide use of force policy For an officer involved shooting an entity usually an outside entity comes in does a review Determines whether or not the Investigatorial partners are going to take interest in that case. Do they believe that there's been some sort of Unlawful conduct in the course of that officer involved shooting and only once they have made a determination would an internal investigation proceed and normally You wait for the the prosecution to say no We don't believe there's an unlawful event and then we proceed or yes We believe there's an unlawful event now. We're gonna have a trial now. We're gonna have to wait for a Judicial outcome and then an internal investigation would proceed And obviously, you know if a person is convicted and sent to prison for his or her conduct And that sort of trumps the need for an internal investigation Although best practice is still to complete such an investigation for the sake of the agency and seal it off Even if it amounts to here's the outcome of the court case. We concur with what that was This was you know improper conduct and we're closed So in this case both officers the officer who fired his weapon and the officer who was attacked are no longer employees of the department They left the department Sergeant bombard had been planning to leave even before the incident When the city council Didn't vote on the new contract and instead pushed it back another session He and his family decided that that was indicative of a lack of change in the city and said We're we're gonna look for actively look for other work and he Then the officer involved shooting occurred and he waited What would have normally been the amount of time that that would have taken to clear But as I said, it was that was that took more than three days You know almost more than twice as long as any other officer involved shooting and for no reason that we can we can really see but he left during that investigation and retired and Officer Marvin was was deeply affected by that attack And left the department did never went back on patrol after this incident He would have been allowed back on patrol Sergeant bombard would have been kept in an administrative role until the case was cleared But officer Marvin is now an instructor at the Vermont police academy I Can't say enough of how terrible it was to lose both of them They were both highly trained officers in negotiations highly trained in In crisis intervention. They'd both done team to they had both done Negotiation school Simon bombard the sergeant ran our negotiations team He was also a firearms instructor. These were both officers I'd given Simon bombard the chiefs award a few years ago Brock Marvin had numerous life-saving awards for work that he'd done They were both really really exemplary officers losing them was terrible Thank you, um and then the comment I wanted to make was that as you know, I attended the swearing-in ceremony Yes, I just wanted to say maybe you might want to address this but one of the things that I saw a lot of people talk about in sort of the post George Floyd era of thinking about Policing in general is it would be really great if we get people that had real life experience before they became a police officer if we could get people that had Degrees college degrees and maybe even masters degrees and something has just been slightly more mature and more thoughtful Than like say people going often people going in the military. They're just 18 years old straight out of high school And they're just don't have the maturity And I think that that's a similar thing was taking place in many police forces But somehow if we could get people that had some life experience and get people that had educational attainment that we would have a more professional You know increasingly better police department Yeah, and so I was really impressed when they're All that not only the five new recruits, but also the people the professional people that you hired I was just blown away. Yeah, and I didn't know and so I just think it's so great because it really does both well for the BPD As an organization Yeah, you know going forward and I didn't know if you wanted to speak to that about well Thanks for for noting that when I was a detective in the New York City Police Department I ran a massive longitudinal study of more than 22,000 recruits over the course of 10 years in the NYPD To see whether or not there was any kind of difference between those who possessed college degrees and those who did not And about 30 percent 33 percent about a third of that cohort of 22,000 recruits Had a college degree two-thirds did not and we did find demonstrable performance indicators among the cohort They they went sick less often. They were more prone to having certain high achievement markers They were less prone to having low achievement markers You know, it's an unfortunate truth that officers sometimes commit misconduct the rate of misconduct among degreeed officers was far lower That was the biggest difference and You know a third was was the number in the NYPD We're two-thirds two-thirds of our officers have college degrees or higher We do have officers with with master's degrees We are You know working towards that I think towards continuing that we have great officers who don't have any of those things We agree great officers who come straight from the military or don't have even military But you know, we do want some officers with with life experience one of these officers had been a Street outreach member on the Howard Schenner Street outreach team He then was a CSL a community sport liaison for us So this is somebody with a real history and social work and now he's transitioning into being a police officer I think that speaks really highly of what our police officers do the sense that That you know people can make that transition and he's not the first We have another street outreach worker former street outreach worker who's a cop and one of our marketplace officers one of those one of these new officers is a you know a new American with a very tremendous back story as as an immigrant to this country and a lot of hardship overcome and then an Exemplary performer at the University of Vermont a person who's already contributed to the community as a member of the school board and other things One of these persons had been a high school teacher taught high school English down in Florida and Chose to come to this department because of things that you know, he'd seen from afar and and a life changed to make another person had been a beach and parker and Just graduated college so doesn't have the life experience But had been part of this organization as a beach and parks patrol person Those are the folks that you'll see out on the marketplace or on the bike path who wear bright yellow You know polos They're usually college students They are not empowered to use force or to make arrests or even write tickets but they become a part of the department and they get to see what the officers are like and they get to be in the Headquarters and and take their meals in our break room and the fact that they want to come back here and be a part of that Fine, I'm proud of that fact because I think it speaks well of what we've accomplished inside So thank you for the opportunity to talk about that, you know Some of our professional employees do have master's degrees. We have professional employees who have been employees with the UN with the United Nations professional employees with long-life histories who are coming to us To work as records clerks, you know with masters of library sciences And so I hope that we are able to keep that up as we continue to work hard to rebuild Commissioner Garrison Thanks chief for your report You know listening to these people here tonight and Listening to a commissioner grant and also working in the downtown area and Real-life lived experiences working with this population we have today. I Know this is not a popular subject But you know what what's it gonna look like, you know if we're talking about planning What's it gonna look like in 2026 with 87 man or man and woman headcount at the police department, right? Are we gonna have enough detectives to try to eliminate some of these these drug issues that we're having? and we we also have to Understand that you know, this is a this is tough work and police officers get burnt out And we want to make sure they make the right decisions and you know when you're running all over the place And you know and making decisions, you know on the fly like that's tough That puts them in a really bad position So I think and you can I'd like to hear your comments about this But I think we need to revisit that and make sure that we're going to be equipped For the future because this these problems aren't going to go away anytime soon They're probably going to get worse before they get better. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that You know, I I'm working hard to get to 87. That's the number that the council has currently Authorized I think that you know, many of these challenges that we're facing There's certainly I don't know that it's causation. I don't know that it that'll ever be determined or proven But there's certainly correlation these these problems have come on the heels of a number of major national trends from the worsening of the opioid epidemic to the COVID epidemic to you know, political turmoil to a National rise in gun violence that that seems to be ebbing it certainly is ebbing here So all these things happen together, but in Burlington they correlate with a With this diminishment in officers and we didn't see these issues is 87 gonna be enough 87 is gonna be more than we've got now It's going to be, you know, I can put four officers into the narcotics units that have merely two I can create a street crime team again to do the work that the detectives don't have time or sort of It's not quite the level of a detective, but it's also not something that patrol can do And so you have a street crime team that is able to dig into pattern crimes dig into street level narcotics dealing Be a presence in places where we're seeing disorder And an out-of-uniform presence that can be a little bit more Surreptitious and dynamic in dealing with those kinds of problems. Those are all possible with 87. Is it still enough? Frankly, I don't think so, but I'm working towards getting to 87 for now Yes, yes, actually that was my last comment. Actually, I have a comment for Chief Marad Along with you I attended the August 20-23 public safety committee meeting of the city council and one thing I learned at The meeting is the acute infrastructural needs of the fire and police department Given what transpired in Maui for instance in other places is clear at least to me That the infrastructural needs of the emergency services must remain the city's highest priority Chief you have often talked about the human resources need of the city as you did today But I wonder moving forward perhaps once or twice a year You can include in your report a short description of the infrastructural needs of BPD For example new office spaces. I know you spoke eloquently on that to the public safety And you know even lighting. I mean these seems to be something we don't even kind of think about and you brought that up I'm not asking for an itemized list today But it would be in the public interest to know that BPD requires a certain level of Infrastructural need to optimize its work and attract new people Subsequently so if you can just speak, you know for a couple of minutes to what you spoke to in the public safety committee Sure, first of all, I think that's a terrific idea. I'll absolutely include that in the very next chiefs report You know, we have a building that was an act of wonderful Largesse from the late Tony Palmer low Tony Palmer low and the Palmer low foundation gave that building to the city of Burlington for a dollar I believe it had been a paint store It had been an auto body shop and it'd been a an auto store a dealership It is a it's it's wonderful that it was given in that way We had outgrown and this is long before I you know came back as a police officer here But it was in my living memory as a resident of Burlington The police department had outgrown its facility, which was basically where city market now is on South Wanooski And to get this facility from the Palmer low foundation was wonderful, but it's not a police department I mean, if there are many aspects of it that are not you know, like a what a built police department would be That said it is our home and it is well located and it is Got the the potential to continue to grow with us as we change one of the biggest things that we're changing is the ratio of sworn police officers to Professional employees in the police department and as that ratio changes so too must our internal Configurations in that building and so we are working on that. We've got some plans to reconfigure Cape. That is the section run You know that includes the community sport liaisons led by Lacey Smith And our domestic violence officer and domestic violence victims advocate and our victims advocate that corner of the building needs to expand because We're growing that you that space our CSOs need additional space. We used to only have two Employees that were CSOs now. We're authorized for 11 and so that needs to change and so we are doing some reconfiguration How we continue to do that is is you know important you mentioned recruiting too We want the building to be clean and look good. I want if not a mom of a pod I would and I've met with the mom of the folks I want spaces that make it conducive to Attracting all genders and and all people We want it to be a place where people visiting us can see themselves being employees I talked a little bit about it the internal culture I'm proud of the effectiveness that internal culture, but we want to look good on the outside too Right, you got to look good to feel good as Billy Crystal used to say on Saturday night live And so I think that that is something that we do need to work on Okay, thank you any other questions from any of the other commissioners. Thank you chief Thank you. Our next agenda item is 5.1 presentation by the safer together Burlington group who have been waiting patiently and Please come and there's a proposal that you have circulated to us And hopefully we have all had some time to look at it and please identify yourself and thank you for coming Thank you very much madam chair and all of the commissioners. My name is Debbie Ingram I'm the executive director of Vermont interfaith action And this proposal is jointly from VIA and the healthy culture research and education fund We're well aware that you have a lot on your agenda and that we have a limited amount of time So we certainly want to be respectful of that So I'm going to do an overview of what the proposal is But also with me tonight are two leaders from Vermont interfaith action who are also residents of Burlington and And the head of the healthy culture research and education fund Judd Allen and will have different roles and then also Certainly Welcome your questions at the end So yes, I hope that you have had a chance to look at it. It's just a four-page document dated June 23rd of this year the Just the highlights There's an introduction that goes over the background Making this proposal we've met already with the police commission co-chairs with the public safety committee of the city council and So now we're here with you tonight hoping that we can get from you a An approval to continue with this process and having served myself on numerous commissions and Committees and in the state senate, but why I even included a motion for you So you don't have to well. I always appreciated that when I was doing this kind of thing So I will highlight for you the two two key considerations This is a proposal to engage the community or to to engage a particular segment to begin with of the Burlington community To look for a place where we can do a pilot which we then hope, you know, of course, we'll move to other parts of the city so what what we would also like your help with is Defining exactly the location of where this pilot would and would take place now Dr. Allen whose PhD and and a social scientist and who has already looked at some of the census data Has kind of narrowed it down and also based on conversations that we've had with with the commission co-chairs to the King Street area and or the Part of the old North End So we'd like to have some dialogue with you About that and then also we of course want to make sure that people who speak Other languages than English as their first language Would really be able to Fill out the survey and and understand the survey so we we would The health healthy culture research and education fund would actually pay to to hire Interpreters who would so we don't want to just translate the written survey We we want to actually send out people who speak the various languages of the pilot area To really be able to explain what's going on well and to get responses in folks native languages So moving on and then pages two and three outline the various phases. There are four phases that we're proposing Essentially, this is a year-long process really Outreach is you know is a very important Part of the the first first phase But then we move to To presenting the results of the survey and getting people involved in in what they've What has been expressed and in really being able to engage with the police department? so To address counselor grants concern I I'm probably my my colleagues have other things to say as well But I want to just make it clear that the survey itself is designed to be Pretty brief and straightforward and it will not cover all the many things that they might come up It's meant to be an entry into getting people talking and then we will have Additional community meetings and we'll actually ask people to form a task force that will work over a longer period of time So that some of these other issues will come out and we can address them in a productive way and then Integration will be an important part of that the two organizations will work with with the task force We have slightly different ways of approaching Making change We're willing to to work together to and to adapt to make this a very iterative process so that What comes up it can be addressed by our different methodologies? Well and help people to really feel that they're having an impact and that they've been heard and that their Concerns are being addressed and then the final phase is the sustainability phase will will do some evaluation will have a Community celebration And then we'll coordinate hopefully with the Commission and the police to start again and to To follow the same process in other parts of the city and so we've also included their the survey questions that you'll see are pretty straightforward and then also the cultural touch points that That we will be focusing on to make change So I just wanted to say also one other thing is that in order to make sure that the largest number of people Actually are reached by the survey Vermont Interfaith Action When one of the things we have is lots of people on the ground and so we intend to Members of our congregations to actually go door-to-door in whatever area we choose So that's where we are really very actively reaching out to people We don't want to do we will post it on a website and we will use social media And you know those those kinds of Elements, but we know that that kind of passive outreach is not we're gonna be the most effective We want to we want to go we're gonna canvas the neighborhood We're gonna reach out to people and really try to engage them and we have we have the people in our congregations to do that So so if you'll just bear with us I will I will end that as the overview and then I think I turned over to judge Hi, I'm Judd Allen. I live in Burlington And just wanted to give you a little bit of background although you may already be familiar with it We've been working on this. I worked with the National Policing Institute and Police chief that our chief knows actually in developing this model But the basic goal is prevention. We've heard a lot tonight about how we have to step up when Bad things happen and we believe that the community can do a lot in the way of prevention So that we're not just chasing this endless Disaster around basically so we want really just your support The idea is that if you can pick the community we want you to feel That that's your decision We feel equally about All of Burlington we think even where I live in the More affluent part of Burlington could be helped by this but different issues and what the survey does is helps The community decide which priorities they want to focus on so we will use the feedback from the survey to identify one or two areas That rose to the top in terms of what people want to work on and then use these touch points these culture systems with a task force to Take a look at and then hopefully change the conditions that are causing the problem in the community so it's a prevention model if you will and So that's all I have to say it. We're looking forward to your questions Peggy, did you want to say something? Oh, okay All right Commissioners thank you for your presentation. That was actually very enlightening and I don't know Which one of you would be the spokesperson? Both of you would be the spokesperson for this project We have a number of questions. It appears and we'll start with Commissioner Oskie and then Commissioner Cox I think Commissioner Oskie and Commissioner Garrison Thank you Quick question. Where does the money that's funding this come from? So this is my personal money. I put it into a nonprofit So it's only can go to a nonprofit But it's money that I've donated basically Thank you. So I was um In looking at your overall effort, I was thinking about so what happens next so in other words, you know There's there's a lot of times that people get Interviewed and then they say here's what my needs are and then everyone goes Oh, that's nice and they write it down and walk away and nothing else happens Which can be doubly frustrating in a way, but then I was thinking about for example, I spent some time in American Samoa I'm 25 years ago and They had like a I Call them neighborhood watches, but they were really neighborhood patrols and they were all night long by members of the community and they would actually just do walking patrols around every single neighborhood and so that if people Felt the need to like have some alcohol and then beat their spouse or whatever it was gonna, you know, that might happen Even on a quiet island like American Samoa There were people at hand to intervene and they did have a police force also but they Handled a lot of stuff within the neighborhood and so thinking about what neighborhood watches could look like it at sort of a Maximum capacity like that or even at a lesser capacity where you're just looking out for your neighbors You're just looking out the windows and making sure everything seems okay with your next-door neighbor Recalling the police is something doesn't seem quite right, but What do you see as the next things that could happen Once you get I mean just like for you thinking it what are you sort of envisioning? So much depends on what the community chooses as a goal so an example in Providence we did a small survey and the Highest thing that rose to the top was children's safety walk going to and from school So you have a different set of solutions that would match that need You are giving a good example. There really have been dozens of different Community interventions to create safer communities. There's something called broken windows where Communities were fixed up because less graffiti and broken windows made for a safer community or there's efforts with lighting and signage that might have to do with Street traffic and how people proceed in the street So I'm just saying that until we know what gold or is it's a little hard to tell you which Solutions are going to make the most sense But we're going to try to draw from a very broad array and we really do want to be results focused So we're going to try to collect some background information on what the current situation is I think chief norad did a brilliant job of showing Citywide some of the statistics and we want to be Results driven also we want to say we've made an impact So that it doesn't feel Like, you know, everyone's going to be able to say well, there probably will still be an incident But we want to say it used to be eight and now we've got seven so or six or five We wanted to have a feeling that we can accomplish something and do it together I think commissioner cover for it has a question and then commissioner garrison not a question to comment first of all Thank you for your generosity Second I love the idea of building human infrastructure Which is what you're doing and you're bringing people from the churches who probably come from a different socioeconomic level in Contact with people who are struggling and that's setting human infrastructure. So I love the idea Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you commissioner garrison Yeah, thanks for being here today. I don't have a question for you either, but I do want to tell you that I think this is a brilliant idea Thanks for bringing it to the table. I did review it and There's some good stuff in there and I just want to thank you both and your group for being here today Okay, any other questions Well, that was actually that was my question and I think commissioner Keith brought it up is you presented a motion I don't know if we can authorize a motion. There's no parliamentarian around here, but maybe Haley if she's still online Haley McLanahan Yes, if if she might be able to respond to this question is Do we They presented a a motion for us to approve But I'm not sure we are Authorized to pass a motion to approve their project we can support it But from a legal perspective go ahead Okay, well, I just want to know if we can if Haley can respond to that question or not I think a motion to support or for the commission to to give a Greenlight to the project is appropriate, but in terms of of authorizing Their work and any, you know associated funding or being able to direct an Important project, but a non-city run project I agree is is a bit outside the scope of the commission's authority, but certainly a motion to approve and to show Unified commission support for the project would be appropriate Thank you so much. So I think but there was a question from Commissioner Cox Sorry, I think that there's also the issue of which neighborhood and I don't know if you wanted us to weigh in on that we do So maybe Please chief wants to weigh in on that too We really just want the neighborhood that you folks think is the best start for this project, you know in terms of Both having an impact, you know, we heard some Statements from the community today that were pretty powerful about a neighborhood in decline or at least in trouble So I'm just throwing it out there that we we it's not that we want to pick the hardest Subject I'm just saying that we want to go where you think would be a great place to get started This may be something as we said that we can build on and have years of Progress with but we want to make this one count. I Don't know chief if you have any thoughts or suggestions No, I mean I read the proposal as well. Thank you so much for it and all the work that's in there I think that you know, I I myself would would try to to do Not to focus on any one neighborhood I'd try to issue the survey throughout the city But I recognize that the model you've described in which you're going to door would would be somewhat prohibitive about that but I think that I Think we we need to make certain that we're talking to the whole of the city and what what it is that they're looking for Yes, you know, for example, we have people who live on Peru in the vicinity of the Elmwood Shelters and they feel one thing I think that we probably have people who live in the vicinity of City Hall Park who feel something Maybe similar to what the the folks on the the cusp of Elmwood are sensing But I think that we may hear different things from people who live near Letty and experience certain kinds of conditions there I think that you know, we've we've done a couple of different surveys in the past few years the police department conducted one with the National Police Foundation and the Department of Justice in late 2019 and very early 2020 And and saw strong results. That was before the pandemic and before the murder of George Floyd as a as a component of an assessment of the police department it was also decided Sort of on the fly by a joint committee of the Public Safety Committee and the Police Commission to do a Survey through a company called Talitha that was conducted in in very late 2020 and very early 2021 and You know different kinds of results came from that one I think the the opportunity to do another down here. We are is is worth exploring I'd love to talk about the the Likert scale that's at the end and those those questions I think some of them contain too many concepts for for a Likert scale question I also think you know 17 plus questions once you add in the demographic questions is kind of long for a survey But I I think it's it's you know, I'm I'm so Moved and pleased that that you're investing this kind of time and effort and money to into into making Things better Great. Well, thank you chief Thoughts, you know, by the way, our goal is actually to make life better for the police department We want this to be a win-win It's not Oppositional in any sense. We really want To make it more pleasant to be a police officer by having a community that's involved basically and so And maybe there'll be some community members who say I want to work for the police department as a result of this basically So we're we're all in on this idea But the question is we can't we don't think we can do the whole city at once mostly because we want to have task force That focuses on one subject and that subject won't be of interest To where I live on Dunder Road or you know, it's gonna vary by downtown I'll have a different perspective maybe then Parts of the historic north end. I'm just throwing it out there that we want to kind of focus our efforts this go around Thank you so much given the time just just in terms of time I know I know Commissioner Coverford has a point a question and then Commissioner Cox and we would also need a motion to support This as well. Okay. Yes a green light Is there gonna be a larger roll out of something or is it a pilot? We'll do it here and then we're done I'd be happy to keep it going if we have if we have success and people are enthused We want to learn from this experience and build momentum. Thank you Yeah, we would evaluate the pilots and and use that to make changes So do we need a motion or we can just collectively give them support I don't think we need a motion as far as from what I'm hearing that there's a unanimous support for this project And we would like to see you back here and hear some wonderful outcomes. Is everybody in agreement with that generally I think so. Thank you so much. This is great work. Thank you Perhaps I can be in touch by email to get your thoughts on location. Would that be Right. I felt like I unless there's something Somebody else here wants to say I feel like the chief has given some very good pointers for us for you all To think about I would like to say King Street because I live on there But but that, you know, I would throw it out there for anyone But I think the chief has already identified quite a few neighborhoods for you to guys to start thinking about so how tight an area Are you thinking? Okay, I think we want Neighborhood with an identity, you know where people say This is our neighborhood so You know, those are the boundaries really we're thinking of since you know, originally I was thinking we would work with how you were organized chief You know, you had but in our last meeting I became clear that your officers go everywhere. They're not really Confined to a neighborhood. We no longer have areas. We don't have enough officers to have area integrity I abandoned that idea. I now I kind of think it would be nice if they matched up a little bit with census data So we could talk about Demographics and are we reaching a cross-section of people for our survey and and and effort but So that's my answer. I'd like it to be a neighborhood that where people say this is our neighborhood So I would like to throw my hat also behind King Street There's even at the King Street Center There's some really big concerns about what's going on in that area with so many children there and also the old north area Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you all Okay, the next agenda item is commission business And I have an update 7.1. Oh Sorry, did I miss that? Okay. I always I miss I'm learning. I'm learning I seem to miss an agenda item every meeting the next agenda item is 6.1 officer and staff commendations and Commissioner Cox and I Got confused as to who's gonna present what so she's going to try to get as many commendations Which there are quite a few as possible go ahead Commissioner Cox, okay, although I think maybe in future meetings I'll have like various people Okay, so The first one and these are all anonymized So the first one was I wanted to reach out and express how grateful I am for an experience that I had with one of your people Officer Annalise Bartlett. I was in Burlington for the weekend and on my way home on Monday morning 724 I was rear-ended by a driver that ended up driving away from the accident that left my car totaled It was a super scary experience I was also stuck in my car as my door had been jam shut by the impact Officer Bartlett showed up to help me. She was friendly and kind and made me feel at ease during the whole experience I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that She called me later that day just to update me on everything and let me know that she had contacted a victim services advocate on my behalf She was a light and an otherwise terrible experience. Please forward my kindness regards to her. She was the best another one Yesterday the subject was thank you BPD Yesterday afternoon, there was a disturbance among some of our drop-in youth in front of our building Not sure who dialed 911 could have been one of our staff But by the time I got there your crew was there I believe four officers and they handled the situation professionally and very well I don't remember the names. I thank them for responding and just want you to know how grateful we are the next one is On a recent incident on Kalarney Drive We reside on Kalarney Drive a few doors from the house where the barricading incident occurred a few days ago We just wanted to share with you how impressed and grateful we are with the way in which the police manage the situation Clearly your team did all it could to resolve the situation to the best possible resolution Incorporating the best of their training compassion and patience We were grateful for the police officers who put themselves at risk Repeatedly approaching a clearly troubled person with a loaded weapon to ensure the safety of our neighborhood Please share our gratitude with those on your team It was clear that the situation required a lot of police resources We really appreciate the training involved the commitment of your officers and the courage to face these mounting situations every day After what we witness right here on our street. We support and always have the police force Understanding that from dish from traditional policing to social work and mental health issues Daily challenges are changing in the Queen City Thank you for your continued leadership long overdue and that of the officers We are grateful for your vigilance and hard work to keep our city safer Was a very nice email then this last one is Anonymized So on Friday August 18th 2023 at approximately 1 24 p.m Joseph Congdon a Burlington Police Department officer on patrol Recognize a suspect from an earlier South Burlington incident that incident took place on August 14th 2023 around 11 p.m. Near Wilson Road in Dorset Street It involved an alleged gunpoint robbery of an uber driver. The suspect was identified as Roger pay I'm saying that correctly Roger pay 33 of Burlington After officer Congdon recognized the suspect a foot pursued a foot pursuit ensued during which the suspect fled over fences and through the backyards on King Street There was a multi-agency response by officers from the Burlington Police Department's Uniform Services Bureau Detective Services Bureau and Chinden unit for special investigations and partner agencies the UVM police The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearms and explosives in the South Burlington Police Department including an SBPD Canine officer the King Street Center was briefly put on lockdown The suspect was located by Lieutenant Richard Wine ish find was that correct? Hiding in a backyard and was taking safely in a custody as a result of officer Congdon's deep Keen recognition of the suspect an immediate multi-agency response was launched Leading to locating the suspect by Lieutenant Wine ish and the suspect's apprehension All of the BPD officers involved in this response as well as the partner agencies deserve a great deal of credit for their swipe response Officer Joseph Congdon deserves special recognition For being on the alert being fully aware of the South Burlington incident and the appearance of the suspect and connecting the dots Exactly when needed officer Congdon and the entire team are commended. Thank you Commissioner Cox The next agenda item is 7.1 commission business update on the body worn camera use of forced footage access to the commission I have a brief update and I recognize Mr. Anthony Irapino who will speak to that. I don't know if you want to Sort of take the seat and as I read the common And I know Haley is also here So after the July meeting Commissioner Cox and I contacted Commission attorney Anthony Irapino His preliminary opinion was that the Commission had the broad authority to review all body worn camera footage Irrespective of cause And Anthony will speak to that Mr. Irapino and then Commissioner Cox and I subsequently met with the city attorneys to discuss the Commission's position on body worn camera footage From the July Commission meeting It was clear that the majority of the Commission would want to continue viewing viewing all user force body worn camera footage Irrespective of cause and we understood that to be mandated by the city council resolution 7.09 signed by the mayor in November 2021 The first motion in commission business today is requesting the city council to include review of all user force body worn camera for Commission to be part of any future ordinance And the city negotiate with the union to make the information available to this body We believe that review of all user force body worn camera footage by the Commission is best practice for several reasons We do not have a disciplinary mandate and all the feedback that the Commission gives and has provided thus far has been in the form of Inquiry and commendations Research has repeatedly shown that body worn camera not only enhances Accountability and transparency of the officers but also increases professionalism both vertically and horizontally throughout the force the Commission's feedback has and will remain in the realm of recommendations for improving communication and policing practices and following departmental directives Commissioner Cox and I have asked Mr. Irapino to draft a letter requesting that the union reconsider their decision and release the information to the Commission in the spirit of collaboration Transparency and accountability once ready this draft letter copy will be shared with all the commissioners for your comments and approval at the next Commission meeting and I think I'm going to I think that those are my thoughts Anthony mr. Irapino welcome nice to see you in person. Yes. Thank you It's very nice to be back with you all again in person after just being on the zoom screen for many months I'm going to stick pretty closely to my notes here Although I'm happy to answer questions because as you do know, this is an issue that has been raised to the city By the fraternal order of police, which is the union representing the department so it is a sensitive legal matter and I have prepared my remarks accordingly as I alluded to there was a June 5th 2023 letter from the fraternal order of police Expressing the concern that the city of Burlington has quote Conducted is conducting or intends to conduct a random audit of all use of force videos in direct violation of Burlington Police Department Directive 14.1 section 9a as incorporated into the collective bargaining agreement between the city and its police unit Though the commission is not specifically named in the June 5th letter It's our clearly our understanding that the letter is focused on the BBC's review of a body worn camera in use of force incidents all body worn camera footage in all use of force incidents reported to the commission by the department's management It Is my legal opinion as the commission's independent counsel that the BPC's no cause review of body worn camera footage is not intended to be and is not actually in Conflict with the department directed as incorporated into the union's contract and I'd like to provide a brief overview of the applicable legal framework that supports my opinion The BPC is an official commission of the city of Burlington with powers granted to the commission under the city's charter and Duly adopted resolutions of the city council in so far as they are consistent with the charter provisions So pursuant to section 3-184 quote The city council shall make rules and regulations for the government in the entire police force The board of police commissioners shall have such authority and Responsibility relating to the management of the police department its services and facilities as may be delegated from time to time by resolution of the city council The city's charter also provides at section 3-189 and 3-190 That the chief of the department enjoys exclusive discretionary authority to take a range of disciplinary actions against members of the department a section 3-190 specifically limits the BPC's authority regarding department personnel decisions affecting union members to hearing appeals from any disciplinary personnel decision Already made by the chief So if you recall your authority under the charter is defined by city council's resolution and in particular in this case city resolution 7.09 signed by the mayor in November of 2021 empowers the commission to initiate quote audits reviews and evaluations of policies Directives or data in regard to discipline racial disparities or other commission priorities And that other commission priorities is a broad term It's really discretionary with the commission what your priorities are at any given moment based on what you're hearing from the community and based on what you as community members and duly appointed commissioners bring to the table So this broadly Delegated authority does encompass the right to review all body-worn camera footage From use of force incidents regardless of whether you have a cause to do so such as in connection with a citizen complaint Now by contrast to the city council resolution delegating authority to the commission under the charter Department directives are internal department policies adopted by the chief They're reviewed and approved by the commission and that was the case with DD 14 Which includes the provision that the union has cited to the city attorneys Putting aside any contract issues for the moment just to ground you in your legal authority Any conflict between a department directive and a city council resolution regarding the commission's authority Would be resolved in favor of a city council resolution as having Supremacy over a department directive So the commission's authority cannot be bargained away in contract negotiations That being said I want to reiterate the point here, which is that as I understand The commission's practice and you know, I'm not with you every meeting and I don't always review Footage except when you asked me to but as I understand the commission's practice over these past months Your intention is not to be in conflict with the department directive Even if you have the authority to be in conflict, that's not what you've set out to do in reviewing the body-worn camera footage I won't fully reiterate what Commissioner Rao said, but I think the the issue is not to monitor Officer or personnel performance in the words of the department directive, which is applicable through the contract The current rather the commission exercises its authority to evaluate how key policies and directives and again Those are words that are used in the city council resolution Such as DDO 5 the use of force policy DDO 3 the fair and impartial policing policy and DD 13 0.02 interacting with persons of Diminished capacities among others. How are those policies working in the field and It seems to me that your no-cause review is broadly focused on policy implementation Generally and not the specific officer or officers or personnel implementing the policy and it is my Understanding that the commission has not at any time since it began no-cause review of footage initiated a complaint against a specific officer or Recommended that the chief initiate discipline against a specific officer Who's conduct the BPC observed during the course of a no-cause review? I Do want to say however that Unlike other things that the commission has done you started this practice without adopting a formal policy and I think that could be a reason why the Fraternal order of police Why this misunderstanding has arisen you don't have you never put a statement out there saying This is why we're going to start with this practice This is the reason why we're undertaking this practice and these are the limits that we Are operating within as we undergo this Review of body one camera footage and so in the absence of such a policy Whereas the commission does have policies for example In cases where the commission will recommend the public release of body one camera footage You have a very well-defined policy With regard to that specific situation and you don't have a policy with regard to this somewhat recent practice of reviewing all the body one camera footage so I think what we have here With the commission and the city and the Union is is a misunderstanding of intentions and a misunderstanding of actual practice as it's being undertaken by the commission and So I stand ready as your counsel to help See if we can resolve that misunderstanding in a constructive way and help the Fraternal order of police understand where you're coming from so that the city Does not end up in impact bargaining under the contract if that is Ultimately the direction that the commissioner the commission decides to go so I'm here to answer questions and to help you Further this process along and see if we can't come to that kind of constructive resolution and achieve a Better understanding of where everyone's coming from you want to mention Yes Does the city attorney Haley McClellan you want to speak to that at all to this issue? I Really don't have much to add. I think Anthony Attorney Arabino has really done a good job of laying out the various Sources for commission authority as it relates to the commission's current practice and I Stand ready to help facilitate a communication with the BPO way if the commission decides that Sending a a communication to them is a reasonable next step towards resolution of this issue I don't know if any other commissioners have any question again. I Agree with Anthony that this is a sensitive matter. So Please ask questions thinking that that this is a work in progress And that there are some things that none of us can probably answer and should discuss openly having said that commissioner Thank You councillor I Think it's a great idea to have a policy on The use of body worn camera or our use of body worn camera and I'd be happy to work on that with other members of the commission Thank you so much Anyone else has any any other commissioners have any questions Commissioner Cox So I'm not sure if this is a motion or what but I'd like to table the The number one on the list of motions Where we're moving that the police commission recommended the joint committee just to see if we can first develop what our position is in a letter Develop our policy and then send it to the joint committee if that makes sense We can certainly have to table Number one We will do that, but let's let's wrap up our discussion here and then when we get to the motion That's what you know, we can do so. Yes. Go ahead. Yeah, I just want to make sure that I'm clear on one point and I'm glad Haley is here in case I Get this wrong While my it is my opinion that you both have the authority and that your authority cannot be Negated by what's in the contract And it's also my opinion that what you're doing is not in conflict with the contract my opinion is not the last word on that and the if the Bpoa is not ultimately Satisfied there is still an outcome for the city where the city could be In a situation with the the labor board where you know, they're this dispute has taken to them And they and they will Decide so I just want to make make that clear that despite regardless of what your authority is What's in the you know, everyone? Lawyers can look at the contract and can look at your you know practice and policy differently And the folks that are on the labor board could decide so I think Just making clear and it sounds like this is the sense of the commission that trying to find a Clearer line of communication that's direct with the Bpoa to try and resolve that misunderstanding would be a very constructive step step forward Before things escalate to the labor board Right. I think so I do have a follow-up question on that but for the current time that practice is paused So in in that sense So so my question here is Anthony's that I I'm hopeful that Bpoa Would not go to the labor board because we're actually not doing what we we are following their request and We are following what they had asked us to do so I think I Think my question is it seems like sending the letter would be a good starting point to have the lines of communication open But are you suggesting at the same time that we don't work on a policy or we do work on a policy? No, no, in fact, I think it would be I think it would be improper if the Commission feels and this has been my sense that the use of all Body-worn camera footage and use of force incidents that are that are reported to you by the department has been a valuable and important part of your function and Is clearly within your authority? I don't think you should stop doing it just because there's been a complaint and there seems to be a misunderstanding about Your intention in doing that review and the practical effect of doing that review as it relates to the Union members contract rights I'm not at all saying you should Just say no we're not going to do this ever again because you because the Union has raised a complaint I'm I'm suggesting that what you're proposing is constructive and and I do suggest that to avoid future misunderstandings on this issue And in general anytime you're going to do something substantial like start to review all body-worn camera footage of use of force incidents and I take some responsibility for this as well as your your independent counsel that it's a good idea to define What the use of and the purpose of that is and to put it down an official duly adopted policy of the commission as you have done in Situations very similar to this like the situation as to when body-worn camera footage will be Proactively released to the public. I think that's a good analogy. I think you've Crafted a good policy as far as that goes and I think having an equivalent policy to Guide and define for external audiences What your intentions are and what you're what the limitations of your review are I think that's the constructive way to go So I'm not suggesting that you pause on that. I think I think You know that could even be something that's communicated in the the letter to the BPO a that You've begun work and you know the BPO a is a stakeholder in commission business Just like any other member of the public and of course, they're a very important stakeholder So I think you could even invite dialogue with a BPA away representative as you craft that policy that may Be something that I'm saying that's an option you have. I'm not saying that's something you should do But I'm saying that's an option that you have to consider in terms of the scope of the communication that you want To put across yes, I think generally unless people have some other questions and Commissioner Oskie has already proposed that and perhaps include BPO a in your communication is as we have a subcommittee perhaps of Developing that. Thank you so much And I don't know if Haley has any other thoughts. Oh Commissioner Comerford has a question and then if Haley is any other thoughts will move on go ahead So I missed the last meeting. I tried to get on but I was out of town and it didn't work So I wasn't here, but I did look at the thing later. I don't know how we stopped. I Think we I think we thought okay pause Sort of a stop I don't agree with that decision. I think we should continue doing what we've been doing and negotiate along with the process not stop cold What was cold? Part that you may not have Understood from viewing it on town TV or from wherever source you looked at it Was the purpose of the pause was that our attorney was out of town and we had an initial letter from him But he had a specific Statement regarding what he thought the next step should be with respect to him talking to the city attorneys Which he did upon his return to town and so at that time the motion was to just pause it Until he got back and had a chance to speak to the city attorneys. So for like a matter of 10 days To pause it. So that's where we're at right now. We had posited for that and now we're meeting again And so Thank you So it's just a good moment to un-plus If you wish to present it as a motion Parliamentarian amongst us, please help me here if Commissioner Cumberford wants to Introduce a motion that says that your wording Go ahead Commissioner Cox. I'm so I was just curious as to whether At this point whether the police department would even let us see the videos Well absent absent some settling out of the disagreement with the VP This is unchartered territory, right? So I think if there is a motion we can Anthony, do you have any thoughts on that? This is so my only my only job here is to tell you what your authority is And you do have the authority to continue You know that may cause some heartburn for the city attorney's office and it may accelerate the Bpoa's resort to the labor board but you know, you are a city commission and This you are empowered to act as you who are appointed Believe is most appropriate and and is most consistent with your charge. So that really is up to you I would defer to Haley to attorney McLean hand to You know give the city attorney's perspective on the repercussions of that decision, but Me as your independent counsel my only job is to say to you that if you wanted to unpause and if Commissioner Comerford wanted to make a motion and that motion carried by a majority vote of those present then that is fully within your Authority to do so But that authority is there's nothing mandatory that says you have to do it one way or the other It's discretionary and you commissioners have to use your best judgment with all the facts that you have So I was going to ask Okay, you're you're allowing Haley, do you have any thoughts of this matter any any directive? Thank you So at this point my I would just remind the Commission that it if it were to entertain a motion to resume the practice The Commission can take a vote to be for it to take its own action The Commission with few exceptions has little authority to direct an outside party or another city Department to take another particular course of action meaning the Commission can vote to resume the practice what ultimately Would be the response of the Burlington police department in response to The Commission resuming its practice While this is ongoing is probably something that would need to be discussed in a confidential session as Anthony was I think alluding to there are risks associated with Resuming or taking a vote of the Commission will seek to resume this practice While we have this open-issue pending and if The Commission Needs further advice on those risks to be able to entertain a motion this evening I would recommend that we move into an executive session in order for The Commission to receive attorney client communication about those risks Okay, all right sounds like this would be a good time too. Can we observe again? Someone help me out people who've been city attorneys Right, I think the question is we whether we want to continue With our Commission business and then go into executive session to hear about to further discuss the body-worn camera and Issue that Haley and Anthony were talking about or we would do it at the end with our regular Executive session, so That is we can we can decide on that with majority vote. I think as to Commissioner Aski I Think it makes sense for us to finish our business our public business and then go into executive session And if we have to come back out of executive session to take a Vote on a motion we could do that. Okay, that sounds like That sounds like a feasible. Okay, so then let us continue. Thank you, Haley We'll continue with our business complete our business At hand and then going to executive session. Thank you Okay So that takes us to 7.2 Which is the discussion vote on recommendations as motions to join? Charter change ordinance committee of the city council today. We are deliberating on four motions as recommendations Additional motions regarding recommendations to the joint committee will follow in the next few minutes so the first one is the use of force body-worn camera review and there is I wrote down commissioner Cox wrote a comment and You have hopefully you have had a chance to read that There is a motion however Commissioner Cox you were suggesting so I would move that we table Proposed motion number one Until we resolved the policy. Okay. Is there a second? Seconded by commissioner Keith any discussion hearing none everybody All parties we agreed to the tabling of motion One which is the use of force body-worn camera review Indefinitely Say I anyone opposed One commissioner ask it to mr. Comerford to opposed so the motion passes Okay The second motion is changed to Charter 24 APP VSH Chapter 3 section 190 I will read the comment and then you can make the motion commissioner Cox Part a of the reference provision of city charter provides that the police commission shall hear any appeal of serious discipline More than 14 days of suspension without pay demotion or termination of a police officer by the chief of police Appeal to the police commission is also part of the union CBA Although the right to appeal should be preserved the police commission and all volunteers citizen body whose members are primarily full-time Employed outside of their service to the commission is ill-suited for the process of hearing an appeal from the imposition From the position of serious discipline a quasi judicial process There is a motion that commissioner Cox is going to make So if I can can I add a sentence to the comment? Okay, sure So it's my understanding that there has been within the memory of one or more commissioners an instance where They did hear an appeal of a discipline case And so I'm certain that it could be done as long as the case was simple enough But I've been in many many trials and I know what it looks like in the time It takes to present evidence and arguments and I just think that we're not really in a position to hear a full appeal particularly if we're Going in depth into Evidence and that sort of thing so Anyway, that's why I Supporting this motion, but so I moved that the police commission recommend a charter change to the ordinance and charter change Joint committee Providing that some other body be designated as a body to hear appeals by police officers from the imposition of serious discipline as set forth in 24 at VSA chapter 3 section 190. Is there a second? I can second any discussion Yeah, actually, I would I would like to hear more of the implications of a city charter change Frankly the concerns that this I haven't seen evidence of that We haven't really fully been briefed on the issues. I'm not comfortable with the language of the motion I would like to hear from independent counsel. What are the implications of a charter change and I would like to have that Confidential discussion before taking a very important decision like this Okay, I ask a question For everybody who decided not to second the motion, could you tell me what your scheduling is with your full-time work? And how available you would be to hear a complete Appeal of a diss of a serious disciplinary matter that could take days weeks months of your time I'm just asking that question because that's my sense of things is that people just aren't that available And so yes if it was very simple then it seems like it would be reasonable But I would really like people to consider that question How how available are you because we have trouble getting people just to read their emails So I'll just be sure to come up for it first Commissioner I have not seen any evidence to support that it is such a massive undertaking that you've described I would like to have more information about the process again I can't take an informed decision without this without knowing having this information I Yeah, so Previously, I think this process has been in intact since before I got here on the police commission I know we've had one appeal process that we as a commission Attended and I think I went buying I think looking at this I think We as commissioners are here not only for the people But we're also here to hear the police and I and I think it's important that If the officer appeals his punishment or discipline that we listen to him and give him that chance or heard that chance So I'm gonna support council commissioner Keith and I'm going to oppose this motion Commissioner come up for then commissioner Cox. So I was at the last one and it was I take your point It's difficult is challenging people are very busy. However, we did do one of these events it went well and I also would like to have a much deeper conversation about this because I don't think we should yield I feel like we yielding too Many things we're supposed to be an oversight Commission and I'm worried about that and I might have mentioned that in the recent past Okay, so I Was just trying to say as a practical matter because like I we've each meeting We have people that don't show up. We have people that don't read their emails there was emails that The commissioner Rouson asking for a special meeting that nobody responded to Not one person responded to her request to have a special meeting and asked people to get back to her to know their Availability, so I'm just saying I'm not criticizing not reading emails every day. I know people have busy lives But just looking at that as my sort of example that in fact people have very busy lives I'm sort of wondering how this would work if it was a complex or complicated appeal in any way So that was my only thought if you guys don't want to do it, that's fine. I'm I'm good I would I would like to spend weeks on hearing an appeal I'm retired Okay, but there you go. Can I respond to just commissioner garrison's point which I do respect quite Quite a lot, but respectfully disagree Which is that if anything if I was a police if I was an officer I would like a commission to be fully committed in terms of time to To hear me right and that's where I think commissioner Cox is referring to is the time commitment And yes, maybe in certain cases the hearing has been it was a very easy Response from the commission, but what if it is a really complicated case where we have to have hearings? So in that sense, I think I agree with commissioner Cox in terms of time commitment And That was my only concern, but having said that any other Discussion, are we really or are we ready to vote commissioner Cox? We'll have to ask miss parliamentarian what the deal I wanted to do here But I'd like to move to table this until further discussion can be had I think that's for Haley the question Haley we can table this right until Table the motion So tabling is typically to a time certain if it's indefinite it would be a motion to postpone or withdraw so Or withdrawn, okay, I think we can perhaps withdraw the motion sure for the time being and Just the person that made the motion is a person that can withdraw the motion Okay, I'm gonna draw my emotion that everybody hates so much Fine Okay, all right, we go to the third Sorry excuse me in my screen By the way, the only motion that was actually my motion was one that didn't even make it onto this piece of paper I'm reading we will return return to those emotions. They're not my motions There are other people's things that other people wanted so just so that you know that the Some of these motions were some of the motions that you brought up or some of the thoughts you brought up will return to to us as well Okay So the complaint that's number three complain monitor the process of collecting all information about any complaint filed Against the Burlington Police Department Collating the information disseminating the information to all the commissioners Organizing discussions evaluating the sufficiency of the Burlington Police Department's investigation of the complaint Determining the appropriate steps taken after the final disposition by the police department making suggestions or requests of the police department and finally closing the case or referring it to the mayor under the current policy is onerous and unsustainable for this all volunteer commission a complaint monitor either Professionally able to be an independent contractor or as an employee under the supervision of an appropriate city of Burlington Department Should be employed to perform Perform all of the duties currently performed by members and primarily one member of the police commission The number of complaints may not warrant a full-time monitor that issue would need to be studied by the joint committee And therefore I'm just getting a fight. I don't want to read it anymore. You want me to read it. I already I'll read it Okay I move that the police commission recommend that a complaint monitor be considered by the joint committee Full or part-time professional independent contractor or employee of the city with duties is currently performed by the police commission Okay, is there a second second? I second. There's this. Oh, there's a second from Commissioner and Comerford any discussion? Are we ready to vote then all in favor of this recommendation? See I any opposed It passes as a recommendation to the joint committee Number four ordinance change budget for police commission The police commission currently has a small budget to pay for outside counsel a staff assistant and a small stipend for attendance and meetings of the commission There's no budget to pay for training of the commissioners such as the fee charged for attending a naco training presentation There is no budget to pay for an independent contractor a professional monitor or an employee monitor As proposed by the commission whether full or part-time motion Commission make the motion we add to the comments that we just realized this evening as we were getting close to To driving downtown that we don't even have a way of getting reimbursement for parking expenses And so my very first month I paid for two naco training sessions at parking and I was kind of bummed out because I was going That's like actually ends up being you know Like a lot of money, and so anyway, so motion I move that the police commission recommend that the ordinance and charter change joint committee Develop a process to develop an annual budget for the work of the police Okay, is there a second for that second garrison is there any discussion? Any discussion? Okay, I'll be ready to vote all in favor of this motion. Say aye I Donates it passes so two recommendations are tabled and two are approved Okay, is I just want to make sure we are that we can enter The next agenda item is 8.1 executive session to discuss citizen complain and we had amended also before you arrive Chief to include the officer discipline matter as well and looks like there is also the update that you were supposed to give and Now we have a third item that we need to include in the agenda as well So and that would be the discussion of the body worn camera As privileged information Is there a second to changing the agenda to include the discussion of body worn? second any discussion Hearing none, please say aye to agree to go into executive session. I Anyone opposed?