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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDocumentation_Regular_Tab 5C_4/26/1990 s�`31f A VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA Post Office Box 3273 • 357 Tequtsu. Drive 1. Tequesta, Florida 33469-0273 • (407)5-'5-6200 ! FAX: (407) 575-6203 PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETIX MINUTES MONDAY, AIL 9 , 1990 CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL The Public Safety Committee of the Village of Tequesta held a Committee Meeting on Monday, April 9 , 1990 , in the Village Hall , 357 Tequesta Drive, Tequesta, Florida. The meeting was cai:ed to order at 9 : 15 A.M. by Jospeh N. Capretta, Chairman. Publi: Safety Committee members present were: Joseph N. Capretta and w: lliam Burckart. Staff members present were : Thomas G. Bradford, :11age Manager. Other Village Officals present were , Ron T. Mackai. . Vice- Mayor; Carl Roderick , Chief of Police, and Steve l;yison, Lieutenant , Tequesta Police :apartment . I: . APPROVAL OF AGENDA The Agenda was approved as s_b®itted. II: . REVIEW OF THE NOTED TEQUESTA POLICE DEPARTMENT CIRTICISMS CCN-TAINED WITHIN THE PUBLIC SAFETY OPT:O+'_4S REPORT. Village Manager Bradford :repared a 2-page summary listing cf the Tequesta Police Department criticisms of the Public Safety consultant. The Committee reviewed that list with Chief Roderick. A) POLICE RECORDS : The department does not collect, nor maintain, adequate records of police officer activity: Chief Lderick questioned what co.stitutes "adequate" police officer records. Information is collected; the question is , records for what purpose. Chief Roderick contested that though information the consultant was looking for was not readily available, records are kept but in different categories than the consultant required. There are officer daily log sheets , a radio log, radio recording equipment, 911 recording equipment, and the basic reports which list everything a police department would need. t , Public Safety Coma:_tee Meeting Minutes April 9 , 1990 Page 2 Lt. Allison stated all information the consultant requested was provided to him. The consultant required 17 points of data for every call . Tequesta Police Department collects 8 of those 17 points , plus additional points that were not requested by the consultant. These data however are not automated, and therefore must be retrieved manually. A computer program does not exist for police departments which woulc provide those specific 17 points of data. Second officer response time records were requested by the constlt.ant. Those records were presented, but not in the for■ preferred by the consultant. Therefore, the report reflects there are no records of second officer response time. Lt. Allison stated he had sample version of Jupiter Police Department records system, which costs more than $11 ,COC . It, too, does not reflect the specific 17 data points requested by the consultant . The consultant also requested a numbering system for call classes . The Tequesta Police Department has a coded system for that and it would have been necessary to renumber in order to present them in the fcrmat desired by the consultant . An ' interruptable ' (whether a call can be left or not ) is not maintained by Tequesta. The consultant stated it should be maintained. A number is not assigned to a call or a data entry sheet as to whetter a call is emergency, semi-emergency, non-emergency, or a service call . The consultant suggested there should be a numbering system for that. The Tequesta Police Department has the data that is necessary to maintain the Tequesta Police Department, not necessarily in the form required by a cons_ltant. Chairman Capretta posed varied questions : Why are records necessary? What kind of records need to be collected? Which records are to be kept? How is the data collected? How is it retained after a time? Should it be computerized or should records be kept manually? Chief Roderick explained the department' s basic incident report consisted of many different points of data: i .e. , name, address , time, date, day of week, age, sex, race, phone number, city, suspect, violater, victim, complainant, etc. This data is taken from the report and entered into the compiter. This compiled data goes back to 1966 . The coapYter system and the data have been updated twice since 1966. All the information the consultant requested was avaiLable, but some of the information requested by the bblic Safety Committee 'sting Minutes -c i1 9 , 1990 =-mge 3 consultant had tc be retrieved manually. The ccrosultant's desire was to have all the information research dome and on a computer disk so -.at disk could be sent off to be analyzed. The receipt of tie information in handwritten fcrmat caused the consultant to be very upset with the Police Dexa rtnent. Councilmember Mackail stated the biggest problem appears to be the manual re=rieval of information that aTcears to be important, and asked if it was possible to acquire some state- of-the-art computer software that would remedy this situation. Chairman Capretta how the system is audited .mod could a crime analysis be done . Lt. Allison answerer there is a check and balance system. If the data entry =_erk finds inaccurate informa:= on appears on a report, she r.--acks down the right information before entering it . Any :a:.a can be retrieved from the computer by date , time, and/or Cay of the week and thereby a trend could be tracked. The ;roblem was fitting the const:_:.ant' s numbers to the Police�2,epartment data, because of in::impatible coding systems . Mr. Bradford asked :f the Department has automates r'ecords by which to analyze personnel and manpower issues '' Chief Roderick answered am officer log is filled ait by every officer on every sift, covering from the begirniig of his shift to the end cf it, which can be cross-checker with the radio log, which c'an be cross-checked with tie dispatch times . However, :u-e time is not recorded when ar c'ficer is in the office taking care of the paperwork for his reports . Chairman Capretta asked if the Police Department :c'::ld do an analysis of what a given officer's productivity is , and if it' s low, what is acme to improve it? Is the eval:a-ion used as a management tcc 1? Lt . Allison answered it cozi3 be done by pulling up an officers' name and thereby have $cress to everything that officer was in contact with duriig a month, year, or whatever. Those can be compared with other officers of the same level to compare productivity. Public Safety r-ommittee Meeting Minutes April 9 , 199C Page 4 .1!--. Bradford stated he did not feel that the analysis of the =Dnsultant's report which indicated the Police Department has !?% of their time to do things they are assigned to do was 70ecessarily a criticism of an officer or of management per =e , since it tends to be fairly typical for relativly affluent communities with pol:.-e departments of this size. _m fact, if that were not the za.se, the Village would not be .aking a serious look at Pub1:= Safety. The fact that that mare time is there is why Publ:c Safety has a possibility in requesta. Z ief Roderick stated that BY% analysis had failed to take same things into account: i .e. . if an officer is sitting on _e abrook Road with radar for 10 minutes , it is recorded on = e officer' s log sheet , but n:t recorded in the computer as ::me used. Because that time :s not recorded, does not mean -.a e officer is not busy during t-at time . '".- . Bradford stated there is an:-her way to look at that . If of the time was recorded or the computer so that it could -:ee analyzed, perhaps an ultimate conclusion would be that fewer officers were needed, or less overtime was required. :Mairman Capretta asked Chief Roderick' s response on the _ :nsultant ' s implication that the Department could allocate =_ae of the positions in a more efficient manner, or a better Level of service for the me. the Department has . Chief i.n'derick answered there are t dispatchers ( 4 shifts ) ; 2 :etectives ; 1 secretary. Mr. Bradford answered that with f:ter shifts there have to be fo:- dispatchers. Slots need to bE filled to cover vacations aad sick leave . The Department seeded a secretary or a data entry clerk to constantly be :=putting all the data being generated in the field. The senior dispatcher was made tee secretary/data entry clerk , :so is also required to fil in for dispatchers during 1-:::senses, and another dispatcher has been hired. Presently .Mere are four dispatchers , with the secretary serving as the -stational dispatcher. The detective issue has not yet 3e-en dealt with. .t . Allison replied that the rule of thumb for detectives is :.hat 10% of total manpower should be detectives. More than :C% of the total sworn would mean, that the road patrol is not =Sing effective. The Tequesta Police Department has 16 s:a orn, and 2 detectives. Public Safety Committee Meeting Minutes April 9 , 1990 Page 5 Mr. Bradford asked for an explanation of ' rected patrol" and why the :epartment feels it will not wcr& for Tequesta. Chief Roderic& answered that that is whea an officer is directed to _: a certain function at a ce' min time. With only two peddle on the road, it shorts pi:rol too much to have one on ±erected patrol . The consultant . in his report, was referring to public safety activities park, walk and talk ) , and t.sa t is a completely different Callgame. If an officer is cud of his car and walking a fund somewhere, response time h.as been lost. Chairman Capretta stated he had been getting reports that the management of the Police Department are invisible to the public. Chief Roderick responded it is hard ;.o get out into the public unen management is swamped witi :.aperwork. Mr. Capretta suggested one detective be allowed !.o do licenses , or some other paperwork , so that management =cluld spend more time managing versus doing actual function&, and that a log be kept, a 'w r•k sampling study" , to learn wia d percentage of management ' s .:me is spent each week on ac-yal management. The best way tc refudiate an unsubstantiated report is to get some data - a. statistical sampling. Mr. B-acford explained the Police Department is afflicted with the same problem that Village staff is afflicted with - wearing multiple hats and no place tc put new bodies , saying notes tng about the authorization tc get those bodies. Chairman CapTedta stated it' s a question of lr: orities. It's probably true she consultant did not spend ezcgh time in the Police Department to really know what is goiig on in order to make such acct.sations . Secondly, the Dep d.ment could not put requester data into the consultant' s system because of incompatible fcrmat. However, it is stron ;T felt that not enough time is spent managing the Department , there is not even a management system, no measuring of Yr.oductivity, no supervision cf the staff, and management dots not get out to meet the public. Chairman Capretta's suggestion was that more responsibility be delegated to key pecple in order to allow management to spend more time managing. Public Safety Committee Meeting M=nutes April 9 , 1990 Page 6 Mr. Burckart stated it obvious that the consultar- 's analysis of the Police Department was way off base and teat he did not spend enough time with the Department to c-aw accurate conclusions. But- by the same token, the managesemt of the Department was in =aestion and that there was lit: e interaction with the peo:=e and low productivity. Ch=ef Roderick asked "what __ interaction and productivity. Tequesta has one of the Lowest crime rates in the State of Florida. " Chairman Capretta suggested that : o Graphs from 1987 , and ' 89 be prepared shov=-g Tequesta's DWI rate. grime rate, etc. as compared z_:h the State rates and o-.mer key departments . o Convince Council an: the Village Manager that -Me Police Department is r= effectively; o Convince the public :f the same thing , and be n:-e visible; o Manage the Departure-- to become more effective , L-3 that o Management allocate tie:r 40 hours/week on a chart . Mr. Bradford stated that :' the Police Department is mana433 improperly, the Village vc*-.ald certainly want to know, :I:t pointed out that the onlT thing the consultant was hires to do was to determine whe:i.er the Police Department has time available to be a fu .otional Public Safety Department . Mr. Bradford asked if the =:onsultant's estimate of 89% of am officer's time is available for preventative patrol way a false statement. Lt. A=_ison responded, "It's in test neighborhood. " Mr. Bradford stated that ::f that 89% of time of a 40-h:-.r week is available to trait these men to become public safety officers and take on mult:__e functions , then there may be a chance for a public safety :--ogram. Chairman Capretta summarimed by saying there are two points in the consultant's report teach are critical : o The Village lends itself to Public Safety because of the two minute response time ; and o 89% of an officer's time is available to do someth=rg else. Public Safety Committee Meeting Minutes April 9 , 1990 Page 7 If that data is wrong, it needs to be disc: red. The report also implies managers in this Department do not spend enough time managing and analyzing data and using that data to make manpower decisions on p=-c le, productivity, etc. If this data is wrong , the accurate data is required. If the right data cannot be obtained from -he computer, then perhaps a computer upgrade is necessary. IV. ANY OTHER MATTERS There were no other matters before the Committee. V. ADJOURNMENT. There being no other matters before the Committe-= , the meeting was adjourned at 11 : 30 A.M. Respectfully subm_tted, Fran Bitters Recording Secretary /fgb Date Approved: ATTEST: Bill Kascevalis