Presentation to the Town Board 6/8/20
Police Policies • We have received a lot of calls/emails/etc asking about specific policies and things that are or are not included in our policies. • Policy is important, but it is only one part of the picture. • At HPD, we believe there are 3 critical components: • POLICY • TRAINING • CULTURE
Poli licy Development • Statutory requirements and case law • Best practices of peers and other law enforcement agencies • Staff involvement • Citizen involvement • Continual evaluation and updating process
Training • 1262 hours of non-mandatory training • Use of Force/de-escalation/scenario based • Fair and Impartial and anti-bias training • Legal updates and liability training • Communication and verbal-judo type training • Crisis Intervention Training • Drivers training • Supervisor and liability training
Cult lture • Starts with hiring process • Background • Reference checks • Interviews • Psychological Screening • Core values, Code of Ethics, emphasis on being “Policing at its Best” • Employee innovation, ideas, problem solving • System of accountability and standards of behavior • Recognition and celebration of positive work • Emphasis on community engagement & service
Posit itive Work rk – 98 Instances of Participation in Community Events… and • HPD adopted a Meals on Wheels route in town • Helping deliver meals to seniors during COVID • Use K-9 to find keys an out-of-state motorist lost • Officer checked on person who was exhausted while weed-eating, then helped • Numerous examples of helping people who call us about non-Hillsborough issues who could not get help from anyone else • Started a pollinator garden behind the PD • Officer stopping to give a kid a popsicle • Changing locks at house to help citizen • Straw for Dogs program • Multiple events with seniors – crafts with a cop, fraud presentation • Multiple examples of officers helping stranded motorists by buying gas for them • Fixing a mailbox that was damaged during a crime • Multiple examples of going to schools and talking to kids • Whole squad patronizing kids lemonade/hot cocoa stand
Hiring Efforts since 2016 ➢ 10 W/M • 7 retained, 2 resigned (both left law enforcement), 1 did not complete training ➢ 5 AA/M • 1 retained, 2 resigned (1 left law enforcement, one went to another agency) , 1 did not complete training, 1 did not complete background ➢ 3 AA/F • 1 retained, 1 resigned (went to another agency), 1 could not complete training ➢ 4 W/F • 3 retained, 1 did not complete training ➢ 1 H/F • retained ➢ Several other diverse candidates pursued
In Internal Accountability All Complaints accepted Regular Auditing • Anonymous • Traffic Stop Statistics • • From Facebook Driver’ Licenses • 3 rd party • BWC activation/use • Driving Behaviors Internal Reviews • Use Of Force PEWS system • Pursuit/refusal to Stop • Accidents External Review for Critical • Internal performance issues incidents/Criminal Behavior
Dis iscip ipline Progressive Discipline System Attempt to fix minor problems • Coaching with training and monitoring • Counseling • Warning • Suspension • Demotion/Termination Patterns of behavior verses Starting point based on isolated incidents • Seriousness • Intentionality/Carelessness • Conduct/behavior vs performance
BWC Questions 1. Primary purpose is to document actions of officers and interactions between officers and citizens 2. Video of evidentiary value may be created, but is not the intent due to retention issues 3. Retention 4. Current Storage: • 7,072 videos. • 4038 GB of storage used. • 331 GB available…
BWC Policy Questions When are camera’s activated/used? 1. When dispatched to any call for service, officers shall activate their BWC as they begin to respond to the call; 2. When taking any self-initiated activity that could be reasonably anticipated to result in an enforcement contact with a community member, the officer shall activate the camera when they begin the self-initiated activity; 3. Officers shall activate or reactivate their cameras immediately upon any situation escalating beyond a normal consensual cooperative contact, becoming adversarial in nature or in any situation where a citizen displays hostility, negative views, or dissatisfaction with police services; 4. Officers shall activate or reactivate their BWC any time a person in their custody shows any resistance, makes adversarial statements, or displays any bizarre or unusual behaviors; 5. During any consensual search of a person, building, vehicle or other property (the BWC shall be activated prior to asking for the consent to search); and/or, 6. When serving any type of commitment papers and/or providing short distance transportation to citizens 7. Service and execution of a search warrant at a physical location; any warrantless search of buildings, vehicles or other property unless some type of articulable exigency makes it impractical to wait for a camera to arrive on the scene; and/or, any situation where the officer sets out with a reasonable expectation that an arrest or enforcement situation may occur, such as attempting to serve warrants.
BWC Policy Questions When is it Ok to Deactivate? 1. When officers have made the initial assessment of a call for service and reasonably believe there is no enforcement action to be taken, have encountered no resistance or adversarial behaviors, and have moved into an investigative phase and are gathering information for reporting purposes or are performing other non- enforcement related activities, such as directing traffic; 2. When any situation in which an enforcement action was or could have been taken has ended and the citizen is no longer in the officer’s presence; 3. Upon completion of any traffic stop or citizen contact once the citizen is no longer in the officer’s presence; and/or, 4. During periods of excessive waiting or processing of a cooperative subject in custody, such as waiting at the magistrate’s office. 5. Officers may deactivate a BWC when inside private property and specifically requested to do so by the property owner or person in control of the property if the situation is non-adversarial in nature and there are multiple officers present. 6. Officers may deactivate the BWC if the situation is non-adversarial in nature and they can specifically articulate that doing so was necessary to keep a situation from escalating or was necessary to gain citizen cooperation. Officers who deactivate a BWC in this situation must notify their supervisor about this deactivation immediately upon completion of the event.
BWC Reviews • Reviewed as part of any IA review • Reviewed by supervisors in response to specific incidents • Ex: PPE Audits during COVID • Monthly random auditing by supervisors • Annual BWC activation audits • First major audit conducted in 2018 – compliance ranged from 71%-90% • Made changes to practices – implemented “live” radio traffic • 2019 - 95% compliance – no significant events missing, issue with escorts • 2020 goal is to audit one squad each quarter – 8 days
8 Recommendations • Ban Choke/Strangle Holds ✓ Policy/Training/Culture • Require de-escalation ✓ Policy/Training/Culture • Require warning before shooting ✓ Training/Culture • Exhaust all alternatives before shooting ✓ Policy/Training/Culture • Duty to Intervene ✓ Training/Culture • Ban Shooting at moving vehicles ✓ Policy/Training • Use of force continuum ✓ Policy/Training/Culture • Comprehensive reporting ✓ Policy
NAACP Request/Recommendations • Ban knee/choke-holds • Use of Force Continuum • Open records for misconduct/discipline histories • Re-certification credentials denied if use unwarranted deadly force • Citizen Review Boards • Contracts with the community
Other Questions We Have Received • Why does recruiting page not specifically mention membership in white supremacist group as disqualifier? • Do we have policies to prohibit covering badge number refusing to give name?
Needs - Im Immediate • We need to do more training. The current budget cuts our training budget – Our ability to provide internal training is limited – we will need to seek external training and that is going to take funding. • Training position – currently staffed by a part-time employee who is leaving. Needs to be upgraded to full time supervisor- level position. • GPS devices – currently unfunded for FY21 are the GPS devices in our cars that we use to assess patrol patterns and for accountability in monitoring driving patterns and for internal reviews.
Needs - Future • Need new/better software that will allow us to pull and analyze data from our records system. Right now we are limited to canned reports and don’t have the ability to pull the data we need. • Better system/software/etc to manage and track internal accountability/discipline. We currently manage it all manually using basic tools like excel. • Better tools/process/resources for screening and hiring applicants. We need ways to assess for hidden bias.
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