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HomeMy Public PortalAbout02-11-21 Regular Meeting 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov Mayor’s Task Force Minutes | 1 of 4 Minutes Mayor’s Task Force on Re-imagining Public Safety Remote regular meeting 7 p.m. February 11, 2021 Virtual meeting via YouTube Live Town of Hillsborough YouTube channel Present: Mayor Jenn Weaver, Judit Alvarado, Sujata Bijou, Shannon Blue, Patricia Harrison, Chloe Johnson, Rod Jones, Jason Knapp, Tracey Little, Hathaway Pendergrass, David “Hooper” Schultz, Marc Xavier and Allison Zirkel Absent: Keith Cook Staff: Police Management Analyst Eli Valsing, Police Chief Duane Hampton 1. Roll call Mayor Jenn Weaver called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. Police Management Analyst Eli Valsing called the roll and confirmed the presence of a quorum. Two members (Pendergrass, Zirkel) arrived after the roll call, in time for approving the minutes. One member (Alvarado) arrived after minutes were approved. 2. Audience comments not related to the printed agenda Start minutes text here. 3. Welcome Mayor Weaver opened the meeting and thanked everyone for participating. 4. Items for decision Minutes from meeting January 14, 2021 Motion: Hooper Schultz moved approval of the January 14, 2021 minutes as submitted. Marc Xavier seconded. Valsing called the roll for voting. Vote: 12-0. Ayes: 12. Nays: 0. 5. Presentation 2-11-21 Presentation to MTFRPS by Chief of Police Duane Hampton Introduction: Hampton prepared a five-part presentation in response to task force member questions about the Hillsborough Police Department. The questions were requested by the mayor and submitted via email. In between each section time was allowed for questions. In introducing the presentation Hampton said he would welcome additional questions at any time and recommended allowing time in future meetings to address questions as they come up. Given the amount of material to cover tonight, Hampton said that Mayor’s Task Force Minutes | 2 of 4 questions related to use of force, officer behavior, and arrests will not be covered as fully as needed in tonight’s presentation and will be addressed again at a subsequent meeting when more time will be allotted to discuss those topics. Some of the data in the presentation has been used in previous reporting, both internal and to board of commissioners. All data is reliable but not 100% accurate. Original questions and Hampton’s presentation are included in these minutes. First section: Calls for service, collaboration with other agencies, and visibility of Hillsborough Police Department HPD has primary responsibility for anything in the town boundaries of Hillsborough. The Sheriff has jurisdiction over the county, including all the municipalities, however their primary responsibility is for all the areas outside of the town limits. The state Highway Patrol has jurisdiction in the entire state and their primary responsibility is traffic on state and federal highways and traffic accidents. Mutual aid agreements are in place with the other agencies in the county so that back up is available if needed. Hillsborough is divided into three zones which are each assigned to one officer. Since Hillsborough is a small town the coverage is fluid and it is not unusual for officers to work in areas outside of their zone. Calls for service are the primary driver of where officers spend their time. Locations with a history of violations such as drugs, violent crime, and quality of life will be more frequented by officers. Wanted persons and citizen complaints are also drivers of where officers spend time. Maps included in the presentation show the concentration of all calls for 2020, as well as breaking out self-initiated calls and traffic stops, assault and domestic violence calls for 2018 to the present. A breakdown of the types of calls was shared. Also, Geotab maps of where patrol cars travel was shared to illustrate how much time officers are spending in comparable neighborhoods. Shannon Blue asked why we are not seeing as many officers in Gateway. Hampton said he is not sure precisely, without looking at that specific question over time. It seems to him the officers spend a lot of time in Gateway. Another reason that officers may avoid an area is looking to find a balance in the demographics they police. If all their time is spent in a diverse neighborhood that is what all of their calls will be. In addition, things come and go. Gateway has been quieter in the past year, perhaps because of COVID. In the past extra officers have been assigned. Further conversations about the visibility question would be good. We can see how much time officers are spending stopped in certain areas with the Geotab. Hampton individually addressed questions related to alcohol trends he’s noticed, that Hillsborough does not use a quota system, and the HPDs cooperation with prosecutors. Weaver asked for more information related to self-initiated calls, in terms of where officers spend their discretionary time. Have you had conversations with the officers about this? Hampton discussed some of the challenges related to what becomes a disproportionate response to certain neighborhoods because of the higher volume of problems in those neighborhoods. The tools for law enforcement are limited. Hampton discussed officer training on this subject Second section: HPD staffing, demographics, and hiring This is a topic we’ve been working on for several years and has been discussed with the board. Although HPD has challenges keeping enough officers, and enough African American officers, it is not for lack of working on diverse hiring. Two young African American officers left, about a year after being hired, and a young African American woman also left in the last year. The only two remaining African American officers are due to retire in 2022. This is not an unusual problem for smaller agencies. Young officers leave for more opportunity. HPD Mayor’s Task Force Minutes | 3 of 4 is very careful to hire individuals who are a good fit with our agency. Here is where the small agency is an advantage because someone who is not a good fit will really stand out. Hampton shared details about hiring and recruiting including attracting candidates, the hiring process, the background check, and potential disqualifying factors. Since 2016, 29 officers have been hired and approximately 50% of them are still working with the HPD. A specific question related to Spanish speaking was address: we have three officers fluent in Spanish and others who have rudimentary skills. Third section: Training Hampton reviewed the Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) NC officers are required to complete before taking a job with an agency. It’s a total of 640 hours over 16 weeks in 26 topic areas. Most HPD officers complete BLET at a community college. Once hired officers are required by the state of NC to do 30-40 hours of in-service training per year. Some subjects are mandated, some are elective, and they vary from year to year. In addition, the department encourages training beyond what is required and uses career progression as incentive for further training. The department embraces an “every day is a training day” philosophy, so that at the squad level officers are addressing training topics within their shifts. Training topics are available in the presentation and include implicit bias training, which has been an ongoing topic for at least 5 years. Chloe Johnson asked about the implicit bias training, as to what group did the instructing. Recently, a course was offered through “National Command and Staff College”, led by Dr. Mitch Javidi. This class emphasized character as an important factor in anti-bias. Another class from a few years back was “Fair and Impartial Policing”, by Dr. Lori Fridell. Fourth Section: Internal Accountability Sources of complaints come from various sources, including anonymous, social media, and third parties. Internal reviews and audits are also frequent, related to body worn cameras, driving, and traffic stops. The department uses a Personnel Early Warning System (PEWS) to help see things as part of a bigger picture. If there is an issue that is potentially criminal, an external agency will be called in to handle the case. Internal reviews go through a process, including multiple levels of review. Incoming complaints need to be verified. In some instances, a complaint may not be the result of an officer doing something wrong but still leads to coaching about how they could have handled a situation differently. Hampton reviewed the frequency of complaints as a percentage of enforcement and non-enforcement actions, the types of complaints, the demographics of the complainants, and the results of the complaint. Officers are disciplined using a progressive discipline system with the first stage depending on the seriousness and the nature of the complaint. Every effort is made to coach and counsel an officer and help the officer to learn from the complaint. Hampton shared the number of disciplinary actions and examples of the reasons for the different stages of discipline. Fifth Section: Body Worn Cameras HPD has used body worn cameras since 2014. Their primary purpose is to document the actions of officers and their interactions with citizens. Occasionally they are used for evidence. The retention schedule and information about storage are included in the presentation. HPD uses body worn camera footage to respond to approved information requests, use of force and other internal reviews, and to find opportunities for coaching. NC general statute limits the release of BWC footage. Marc Xavier asked about the community summit, wondering when it would be. It is typically in the spring, and it may be a virtual meeting this year. The reason for his question is to understand better the kind of feedback Mayor’s Task Force Minutes | 4 of 4 that has come in from the community. Hampton shared the next slide in response to Xavier’s question, which details the information sharing the department uses, including monthly reports to the board, an annual report for the public, attending community meetings, and making policies available to the public. Hampton mentioned that feedback from the community has not been extensive. Weaver suggested that the Task Force could address this question of what methods of communicating work best from the department and what might be valuable feedback. Given the amount of material to cover tonight, Hampton said that questions related to use of force, officer behavior, and arrests will be addressed again at a subsequent meeting when more time will be allotted to discuss those topics. Weaver stated that we did not have enough time for a discussion about the information presented tonight and additional time would be allowed for this discussion at a future meeting. 6. Items for discussion A. Preview of Hillsborough traffic stop data Weaver said Dr. Frank Baumgartner, UNC professor of political science and author of Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race. will join the next meeting. Weaver will share a few notes regarding traffic stops in the state via email. She also previewed the US Census website to see the racial demographics of the town of Hillsborough and the NC State Bureau of Investigations traffic stop data portal. B. Weaver asked for final comments from the task force. Rod Jones said he has reached out to the HPD in the past about incidents that concerned him and was very well satisfied with information that Hampton shared with him and the general response. Hathaway Pendergrass would like to be sure we can carve out 15-30 minutes to follow up on the information that had been shared tonight. Hampton concurred and suggested people feel free to reach out with questions as they come up. There is not a need to wait until the next meeting. Next meeting date 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11, 2021. 7. Adjournment Weaver adjourned the meeting at 9:11 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Eli Valsing Police Management Analyst Staff support to the Mayor’s Task Force on Re-imagining Public Safety Approved: March 11, 2021