Loading...
PSC - Minutes - 04-27-23MINUTES OF THE ROSEMEAD PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING APRIL 27, 2023 The Regular Meeting of the Rosemead Public Safety Commission was called to order by Chair Michael Cao at 7:10 p. in. in the Rosemead City Council Chamber located at 8838 East Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, California. PRESENT: Commissioners Cao, Foutz, Garcia, and Wu ABSENT: Commissioner Fonseca. Chair Cao motioned to excuse Commissioner Fonseca from the April 27, 2023, meeting and was seconded by Commissioner Garcia. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: was led by Commissioner Garcia INVOCATION: was led by Commissioner Wu 1. PUBLIC COMMENTS FROM THE AUDIENCE Chair Cao opened the Public Comment period. Public Comment was provided by Detective Jan Wong with the Los Angeles County Sheriff s Department Major Crimes Bureau. Detective Wong is assigned to the Hate Crime Task Force and is also the Hate Crime Coordinator for LASD. The Hate Crime Task Force was established to help address the growing issue of hate crimes and hate incidents that are occurring across the nation but more specifically within LA County. LASD prioritizes the handling of all hate crimes and hate incidents which are classified as non -criminal acts, and can be acts of hate speech, or distributing of printed materials with hate speech on them. Many police agencies do not mandate reports for hate crimes; however, LASD does. As the Hate Crime Coordinator, Detective Wong in conjunction with the Hate Crime Task Force, will review, track, and analyze all reports of hate crimes and hate incidents to see if there are any spikes in certain types of hate crimes, or certain groups of people that are being targeted. Thereafter, recommendations are made to allocate resources to properly address the issue, whether that be patrol checks or community outreach. Hate crimes and hate incidents are underreported, and studies show that people either feel ashamed or feel that law enforcement won't address it. That is why LASD tries to meet with City Council members, the community, and different organizations to explain the importance of reporting. The Department is partnering with the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission on an initiative called LA Versus Hate, where hate crimes/hate incidents can be reported anonymously. Victims are also provided resources, counseling, and legal services. Hate crimes and hate incidents are up by 12 percent; however, Temple Station as a whole is actually down about 18% from 2021 to 2022. In the last few months since the beginning of 2023, Temple Station has only seen one reported hate crime thus far in the unincorporated area of Pasadena. None have been reported for Rosemead in 2023. Commissioner Garcia asked how someone would go about reporting a hate crime or incident. Detective Wong informed that in an emergency, everyone is encouraged to call 9-1-1, especially if they are actively being assaulted. To report a hate crime or incident, one must contact the Temple Sheriffs Station, let them know the circumstances of what happened, and the deputies will respond and help determine whether a hate crime or hate incident was committed. Vice -Chair Foutz asked how law enforcement determines the difference between hate speech and First Amendment rights. Detective Wong stated that the training received in patrol school and the academy helps with identifying the difference between free speech and criminal threats. For a hate crime to be committed, there actually needs to be some sort of bias. So, the reason that crime was committed was because of a bias against a characteristic that person possesses. If the victim feels that way, and the deputy can establish that either through a recording video or any other evidence, that's when the determination is made of a hate crime versus hate speech, which is, of course, free speech, but also could be documented as a hate incident. There is a 12 percent increase in hate crimes and that is county -wide for the Sheriffs Department. That does not include any municipal jurisdictions, like for example, Alhambra Police Department and Monterey Park Police Department, as they maintain their own numbers. The numbers have increased and could be partly attributed to more people reporting. Commissioner Garcia inquired about outreach efforts and attending the Coffee with the Chief events at Starbucks. Detective Wong mentioned that outreach is important, and she or her partner can attend events to provide information and help build relationships and community trust. Chair Cao asked for a copy of the statistics being provided. Detective Wong announced that they are published online for the public to view at lasd.org. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR: Commissioner Garcia made a motion to approve the minutes from the March 23, 2023, Public Safety Commission Meeting, and was seconded by Vice -Chair Foutz. Motion carried by the following vote: YES: 3-0; ABSTAIN:1 3. MATTERS FROM STAFF A. LACoFD Fire & EMS Incidents Report (March 2023) This item was Received and Filed by the Commission without comment. B. LASD Crime Statistics (March 2023) This item was Received and Filed by the Commission without comment. C. Rosemead SAO Team Weekly Reports Commissioner Wu asked about decoy vehicles and how locations are determined. Lieutenant Tiwari mentioned that it is determined by crime statistics and placed in high -crime areas. 2 This item was Received and Filed by the Commission. D. Crime Prevention and Emergency Preparedness Activities Assistant City Manager Bruckner reported on the crime prevention and emergency preparedness programs and activities for the month of April as well as planned activities for the month of May. The CERT training classes were canceled due to low enrollment. New dates will be determined with LACoFD and provide more advertisements in the next go around. The Community Area Watch Meeting held at the Rosemead Community Recreation Center was successful and well attended. Instead of a PowerPoint, a new interactive platform was introduced to engage the audience and it will be incorporated in future meetings. The next Community Area Watch Meeting will be held on May 18`h at Garvey Park. E. Report, Discussion, and Direction Regarding Public Safety Services and Programs (continued from February 23, 2023) Assistant City Manager Bruckner recalled that at the last meeting, the topics discussed were the Anti -Camping Ordinance, Crime Prevention Programs, and Public Safety Vehicles, Curb Markings and Permit Parking. The review and discussion of the anti -camping ordinance were not completed. When the Boise decision was made, cities were left without policy guidance while trying to figure out how to implement these anti -camping ordinances. It became a particularly acute issue in Southern California with the nature and the volume of individuals that are experiencing homelessness. Several cities were sued because of their approach to camping enforcement, with the City of Whittier being one of them. A federal judge by the name of Judge Carter, an appellate judge down in Orange County, forced these cities into what's called a consent decree by which they had to basically agree to increase their services for homelessness by providing emergency housing, shelter, and wraparound services. Other cities were subsequently sued. Judge Carter came up with a model that became the paradigm for cities to follow in regards to camping regulations and providing services so that it was "Boise compliant". Since the last meeting, there has been some development on the requirements to be Boise compliant because it is an evolving area of the law and policy. Assistant City Manager Bruckner asked Chair Cao whether it might be appropriate to potentially table this item to research further and bring back at a later date. The Commission decided to table the item until further developments. Assistant City Manager Bruckner mentioned to the Commission that a copy of a Letter of Agency was included in the meeting packet. Lieutenant Tiwari stated that the Letter of Agency gives law enforcement the authority to act on behalf of a business owner or person to press charges for trespassing. The letter is kept on file at the Temple Sheriffs Station. The letter is valid for six months. Public Safety, Staffing, and Budget Several months ago, the Commission received a presentation regarding the Sheriff s Department staffing model. The current model includes one Lieutenant as Chief of Police, a Sergeant who oversees the Special Assignment Team, seven special assignment deputies, twelve units of patrol, and a grant motor deputy. The grant motor deputy is basically the motorcycle cop that does the traffic. The department 3 is broken up into three shifts, an EM shift (early morning) which is going to overnight AM, and then PM. There are three units in the EM, four units in the AM and five units in the PM. That allocation and staffing model has remained unchanged for at least the last 12 years. Crime has increased along with the population but the resources from the Sheriff s Department have remained the same. Part of the reason the Commission was formed, was to look at this staffing model to be able to determine if it is sufficient to meet the demands of community needs for response times to be at an appropriate level. A lot of the feedback that has been received over the years is that especially on routine calls, it's taken longer than 50 minutes for deputies to respond. In consultation with the Sheriffs Department, the City has taken a holistic look to try to determine where there is a higher volume of calls and whether there are sufficient resources to address those peak times. Lieutenant Tiwari provided a refresher on a previous presentation. All the staffing equates to 29.58 deputies which has been unchanged for the past 12 years. Routine calls have the longest response times and have been increasing with an average of 56.7 minutes. Priority and emergent calls have seen an increase over the years as well; however, those call times are being met within the threshold. The goal is to figure out how to allocate resources. More deputies on patrol would equate to lower response times across the board. Alternatively, response time could be lowered if some positions were civilianized to handle the non -workable calls for service such as taking reports and gathering information. In addition, a Community Service Officer program would be able to influence the routine response times, eliminate the logjam from the high call volume and provide the resources to respond within a reasonable amount. Currently, patrol deputies on the PM shift are going from call to call all night long. Even when they begin their shift, there is a backlog of calls that the AM shift is unable to address, and the PM shift will have to address those calls in the queue. Many of those calls are routine calls for stolen bikes, car break- ins, or non -workable calls where a civilian can do the paperwork, part of the investigation, or cataloging of what transpired. Doing so would free up deputies to do more proactive types of policing and tend to emergent trends that are occurring in the city. Assistant City Manager Bruckner referred to a spreadsheet where response times, calls for services, and service minutes were listed monthly. The Sheriffs Department services are listed in terms of minutes; therefore, patrol shifts were listed in minutes. The methodology is to figure out, given response time and minutes available, how to decrease the response times, improve visibility and provide more proactive policing. By adding two deputies to the PM shift, the number of available minutes returns to a positive number. It may not even be enough, we don't know, but there is the potential to have another resource to address the community's needs. There is also real evidence to be able to say that if a civilian staff is added, it frees up capacity. If more deputies are added, then they are able to respond to calls more quickly. The approach taken is open for recommendation by the Commission. Commissioner Garcia mentioned the numbers are helpful and it would be beneficial to add patrol and a Community Service Officer to get the negative numbers up. E Vice -Chair Foutz expressed his concern about recruitment and the difficulty that is being seen around the nation. Also, there is the concern of cost and prefers idea of a non -sworn representative of the City of Rosemead or LA County. Commissioner Wu thanked staff for the visuals and graphs. She recommended starting with the Community Service Officer as it may go back to the City's budgeting and what it allows. She stated if there can be more, that would be great. Another possibility is having the Public Safety Center responsible for some aspects like they were in the past. Keeping it in-house could potentially offer more control. Chair Cao applauded Assistant City Manager Bruckner and Lieutenant Tiwari for their phenomenal job with the scientific data. He also mentioned that what he is hearing from the Commission, is that it seems that the majority are supportive of a non -sworn officer. Chair Cao asked for the cost of a non -sworn officer. Assistant City Manager Bruckner replied that he does not have that information but CSOs are typically paid $18 to $20 an hour. In the backup staff report, which is listed as attachment B. there is a rate sheet, which is like that ala carte menu for LASD services. There is an option with LASD to provide a community services assistant with a vehicle for $75,000 for 40 hours a week. Chair Cao stated that the Commission's priority is public safety and making sure calls are under 60 minutes is a priority. Adding a non -sworn officer as well as a sworn officer could help bring down those response times. Vice -Chair Foutz prefers having a sworn officer added. Commissioner Wu asked whether the added officers or resources could be implemented as a seasonal contract or month -by -month. She recommended adding one sworn officer and one non -sworn officer. Vice -Chair Foutz liked the idea of implementing it for six months. Ideally, more than one sworn officer is needed. Commissioner Garcia stated that based on the numbers that were given, adding more than one community officer, that's not a sworn officer, and one sworn officer would drastically change the response numbers. Chair Cao asked recommended two sworn officers and one non -sworn officer after receiving the Commission's feedback. Assistant City Manager Bruckner asked for clarification, on the non -sworn officer as the position would involve several part-time employees being allocated to a specific time of day to address multiple routine calls. A recommendation of one part-time CSO per deputy was recommended. It would not just be one person, rather multiple people accomplishing that task. Assistant City Manager Bruckner spoke on the frequent commercial burglaries. In response to that, overnight crime suppression patrols with the Code Enforcement team have been implemented to be additional eyes and ears for Temple Station deputies. The crime suppression patrols were successful, and the team was able to identify on more than one occasion, either activity in the act or suspected activity and contacted Temple Station. The question posed to the Commission is whether they see added value of having an overnight crime suppression patrol of CSO -type individuals who are driving around in marked City vehicles as a deterrent factor as well as being a force multiplier by having additional eyes and ears on the streets. This program helped deter crime and catch crimes in progress, but there are not enough resources on the Code team to have them out there working 10 -hour shifts at night versus what is needed during the day to address other public safety concerns. It ties into the whole concept of needing non -sworn individuals doing the non -workable and providing valuable intelligence to our Sheriffs Deputies to meet the City's crime goals, which is less crime. This item is placed on the Commission to make a recommendation to make it permanent and allocate resources. Commissioner Garcia suggested continuing and expanding. Vice -Chair Foutz would like a six-month trial, which would cover the summer months, which are the busy months. Commissioner Wu asked that the program continues. Chair Cao mentioned the Commission agrees to move forward and expand. Assistant City Manager Bruckner mentioned that a comprehensive summary report would be compiled with all the facts, figures, data, and talking points that were provided to us over the last few months. The report will be ready by the June meeting for the Commission to review and make changes to ensure the essence and spirit of the recommendations were captured. The final summary report as requested by the City Council will be presented. 4. MATTERS FROM COMMISSION A. Commissioner Comments Commissioner Garcia thanked the staff for their hard work and for putting together the data and numbers. Vice -Chair mentioned that the recommendation will be expensive and although the Commission may not get what they recommended, the bottom line is everybody is trying to be good stewards of the public treasury. He mentioned he appreciated the hard work that the City Council and City personnel are putting in to try to make sure the nickels and dimes are spent wisely. Commissioner Wu mentioned her appreciation for the communication that has be brought on by Assistant City Manager Bruckner. The changes are seen month by month and the reports have been helpful. Cil 5. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:56 p.m. The next Public Safety Commission meeting will be held on Thursday, May 25, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. APPROVED: .,-YA,U-V\- Cw Michael Cao, Chair Analyst