thank you
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foreign
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city council today is Monday February 27
2023 it's approximately 1 pm before we
begin if you please join me in the
Pledge of Allegiance please
just as well
okay as we always start off our
recession we have our pets of the week
and Jennifer Martinez from our
Communications office going to introduce
them
good afternoon mayor and Council I am
Jennifer Martinez with the city's
Communications office and I have two
pets to introduce you to today and I
will begin with Chris Redfield a very
interesting name for a cat a very tall
dark and handsome cat this boy is very
sweet has a luxurious coat and is very
calm a lady found him near her apartment
complex when he was injured and took him
to the Animal Services Center to help
him heal back up and he is now ready to
move into his new home and that home
might just be yours he's ready to live
like a king for the rest of his life
and then we have diesel
Diesel's a 61 pounder who is outgoing he
ended up at the Animal Services Center
as a stray a couple of times he's hoping
the third time out will be the charm he
loves to explore and gets a little bit
excited while out for a walk he's a
great boy but he's not the biggest fan
of cats he does like however meeting new
dog friends there's an adoption event
that will take place this weekend at
Petco that is from 10 a.m to 4 P.M this
Saturday on March 4th thank you mayor
okay thank you very much Jennifer we
have next is going to be our jobs of the
week is Irene Potter yeah he's here from
The Economic Development Department it's
going to present those jobs
with economic development we begin with
the city of Las Cruces who is looking
for a traffic engineer this position
pays between 72 000 and 104 000 and is
open until filled White Sands Missile
Range is looking for a human resource
specialist this position starts at 57
000 a year and closes on March 2nd error
methods is looking for a flight nurse
this position pays between fifty five
thousand and seventy eight thousand
depending on experience and closes on
May 17th Wagner Equipment is looking for
a parts counter sales this position pays
between 18 an hour and 28 dollars an
hour depending on experience and closes
on March 23rd Pep Boys is looking for an
auto general service technician this
position pays between twenty six
thousand and forty six thousand
depending on experience encloses on May
15th and families and youth is looking
for an assistant housing manager this
position pays between thirty two
thousand and sixty three thousand
depending on experience and closes on
March 16th
the city of Las Cruces is partnering
with New Mexico workforce connection to
horse our quarterly job fair this is
going to be on May excuse me March 10th
from 1 to 4 pm at the Las Cruces
convention center and there will be
resume building workshops prior to the
the career fair and for those looking
for transportation please take advantage
of the CD3 bus fare
and as always if you have questions
about employment opportunities you can
contact the New Mexico Workforce
Connection office at
575-524-6250 or visit them at 226 South
Alameda or online at employ nm.com thank
you okay thank you Irene
okay so on the agenda we have two items
and let me kind of just lay out the
ground rules here I recognize there's a
lot of members of the public here and
just as a reminder this is not the city
council meeting where we have public
participation about however I will let
you speak but it's I'm going to have to
I'm going to allow three minutes total a
total of twice up to the council if you
want to ask two questions and I also
need them to pertain to specifically the
items that are at hand so I mean there
can't be a discussion that maybe let's
do this so let's do that because it's
not on the agenda and like I said it's
not public participation if it's
pertaining to these one of these two
items you're welcome to ask that
question for a total of three minutes so
if you use one and a half minutes on the
first question you only have one and a
half minutes left for the other okay
okay so with that we're going to start
off with the 3.1 the third semi-annual
police audit report presented by the oir
group and Viola perea is going to start
that off
okay I'm going to need a little bit of
help here to get the screen set up
you mean like F3 is it F3
F5 sorry there we go good afternoon Mr
Mayor counselors I'm Viola perea City
auditor and today we have the oir group
here with us to present their third
semi-annual police audit report to
council and I'd like to introduce our
presenter today Miss Teresa magula with
the oir group
thank you
all right good afternoon Mr Mayor and
Council it's a pleasure to be here today
I would like to start off by saying that
my colleagues Steve Conley is usually
presenting with me he unfortunately cost
caught the last known case of covid in
the pandemic and is not able to be with
us today so you get me and hopefully we
can run through this together
and Theresa I know you were introduced
but before you begin if you can just
state your name and your position and
the company please yeah absolutely so my
name is Teresa magula
I am a police practices expert with the
oir group we are acting as the city's
independent police auditor
and our team that comes to the table is
a group of independent police practice
experts we have about 17 years of
experience doing this work I myself have
been doing it for the past 15 years we
began here in your city on March 1st of
2021 and today I am presenting for you
the third of our semi-annual reports so
I've been before you two previous times
some of you were on Council the entire
time and some of you were here for the
second
so
hopefully you'll see the amount of
progress
that the department has been able to
provide here
so there's a lot of talk recently about
the scope of our audit
and we are
somewhat Limited in the amount of review
that our particular group does based on
the contract that we have with your city
so in this particular third report we
are looking at the cases that were
initiated investigated and closed by the
department from June 1st of 2022 through
November 30th of 2022. so each of our
reviews looks at about six months worth
of cases
we determine in our review if the cases
themselves were complete objective and
thorough so we're looking across those
three parameters and then we also look
to see if the outcomes of the
investigations were appropriate in
response to what the department found
as part of this particular report I give
you guys some key demographics and again
those are what are outlined in our
particular scope of work in our contract
so I want to take a moment to talk about
exactly what these cases are
in this period there were 16 cases that
we reviewed 11 of those are what are
classified as formal citizen complaints
so those are complaints that come from
members of your public to the police
department they typically are from an
encounter that an individual or
individuals had with your police
department and those are initiated Again
by a public complainant
there are five cases in this time that
are called internal investigations
those are the investigations that the
department itself initiated they may or
may not have to do with an interaction
that the department had with a member or
members of your public
but the department itself initiated it
versus a person from the public coming
to the Department
there are complaint cases that we do not
look at it's not inside our scope
so those would be cases that are of
lower degree of intensity or seriousness
cases for example in which the
complainant reaches out to the police
department it is determined that that
complainant is not articulating
something that would be misconduct so
for example
um I'm mad that I got a traffic ticket
right if there's no misconduct
associated with the traffic ticket that
may not be something that we review
we also do not as a general course look
at uses of force I know that that's been
a question that this Council has had
previously
if there is a use of force in the course
of a complaint investigation we review
that use of force package
the department has been very transparent
with us they have provided the full
scope of the investigation that they do
into the use of force but as a general
rule we're not looking at the uses of
force unless and until they result in a
complaint
so I just wanted to kind of make that
clearer before we begin
we also look at any litigation that was
brought to the city that involves a
member of the Las Cruces Police
Department in this period there was one
such case the reason we look at those is
to ensure that whatever matter resulted
in that litigation coming to the city is
being resolved internally as well so
it's kind of a risk management checks
and balances type of review that we're
doing there
so let me tell you about these 16 cases
that we reviewed
overall and I'm talking the whole scope
of of all of them taken together we saw
that the investigations were complete
they are quite objective and they are
thorough of course I wouldn't be doing
my job if I came to you and said they're
perfect we're done
there is room for improvement at this
point in our relationship with the
Department we're really in the weeds
with the types of improvements that
we're looking at so it has gone beyond
the more systemic processes and into
real nuances of case investigation
we're pleased to see that right it
allows us the opportunity to really get
into the nuances and the details
one thing that I'll bring up is that we
are seeing the cases once they have been
closed
so sometimes you will see that I am
bringing up something that I've
previously brought up in a prior report
why why didn't they fix it in the
meantime
sometimes our recommendations happen
and then we review cases that were
closed prior to that recommendation so
there might be some repeat as the
department is catching up and hopefully
they're catching up within about a cycle
or two of our audits
but that's the reason why you might say
we already heard this one why didn't
they fix it
we see overall that the actions that are
taken in response are very appropriate
and they really display that commitment
to accountability overall the department
is engaging in more real-time training
more one-on-one counseling the types of
discipline that we found to be more
appropriate this period than in the last
and the department is also including a
lot more relevant background information
that we as Outsiders third parties might
not know so sometimes the department
internally is very well aware of a
variety of things that are happening and
we ask about them because we don't know
about them as external Auditors and so
now they're providing that with much
more regularity in their investigations
so as I mentioned in every new cycle I'd
like to report out to you on what
happened as a result of our prior
reports
in this particular cycle we saw again
that improved quality of Investigations
as an example
we commented in our first and second
cycles that we would like to see the
department conduct more regular
interviews of witnesses of complainants
so that the full scope is investigated
and they've started to do that with much
more regularity
we see this time that there are much
fewer timeliness concerns so especially
when we first came to you we were very
concerned that these investigations were
getting drawn out and why were they so
delayed the department has staffed up
the Ia unit and so they have more
investigators that are doing the reports
and they're also just adhering much more
regularly to those timely standards
and we saw as I mentioned last time
we had some challenges around this
philosophy of discipline with the
department they at that point responded
that they are working on a disciplinary
Matrix they are still working on that
Matrix it is not unheard of that the
Matrix takes a while to get into place
so I am not concerned today that the
Matrix is not moving forward and is
currently in place it's something that
is quite nuanced and can take quite some
time to put together I look forward to
seeing the department progress in that
so that we can see a lot more regularity
standardization of the discipline that's
coming out but again not concerned
standing before you today that this
means that the department is just not
committed to it it is a process that
takes time
one thing that we're really pleased to
see is that the department implemented
what they have called their Force review
Cadre
so again I mentioned we're not regularly
looking at the uses of force
but in the areas that we did get the
opportunity to see them we felt that
there was space for a little more review
and evaluation the department internally
created a review Cadre these are experts
that are appropriately trained to review
the force in a more detailed and
systematic way both the use of force
itself and also holistic pieces that
might benefit the Department's training
equipment policy violations unrelated to
the force and so they have developed
that and they've implemented it it's
currently being used today to review
uses of force that might have some
questionable aspects that should be
evaluated
we also saw that there was Improvement
in the management of what I'm calling
Specialized or special units there were
some challenges and concerns around the
level of supervisor training the way
that those units were being managed and
the department really swiftly came in
provided a level of sworn Authority
supervision a lieutenant position over
those units and then is also continuing
to provide the mid-level supervisors
with a lot of training so that they can
appropriately supervise those units
and we frequently provide
insights commentary model policies for
general orders that we feel could be
improved could be better aligned with
best practices Nationwide that's part of
our regular review process in this
period we saw that there were some
necessary updates to the persons with
disabilities policy the department is
actively working on that so essentially
when we are recommending they are fairly
in Fairly short order when they can
turning around and implementing those
Implement those recommendations
so now we'll talk a little bit about
those key demographics that I mentioned
that I bring to you
the incidents that we saw in this time
frame were mostly initiated by calls for
service so members of the public call
the Police Department police department
responds something in the course of that
interaction results in some kind of
perceived or real misconduct on the part
of the officer
so those are the calls for service
we saw two cases coming in from your
Ethics Hotline
we saw one case come in from public
observation so a bystander observed an
arrest that was occurring felt that
there was some misconduct in that arrest
reported it to the police department
one was related to supervisory issues
and one was a welfare check
that number has gone down since our last
period in our previous period we were
concerned that perhaps these welfare
checks had some issues or concerns
around them and we have seen now one as
opposed to a
I believe there was four or five in our
previous period
complaints total we had 39 allegations
okay so for one complaint you can have a
number of allegations
so 16 complaints 39 total allegations
the types of allegations that we're
seeing most commonly are what are called
code of conduct complaints so this would
be things like the officer was
discourteous
the officer was performing in a manner
Unbecoming of his or her role as a peace
officer
we also saw a handful of complaints
related to kind of the procedural
aspects of Public Safety my report that
I requested was delayed
there was a failure to investigate my
traffic accident in the way that I
thought it should have been investigated
we saw some complaints related to
compliance with laws or with policy so
that persons with disabilities policy
that I mentioned there was a complaint
related to that particular policy
we see a handful related to activation
or failure of activation of the body
worn camera
and then in this period we had two
allegations of excessive use of force
the findings as I've listed there the
majority 16 of them were exonerated
exonerated in this context means that
the act as alleged occurred so it did
happen but it was within the
Department's laws or policies
there were 11 that were sustained that
means that the ACT occurred and it was a
violation of Department policy or law
nine of these were unfounded which means
that the ACT did not occur as a
complainant alleged
and three were not sustained which means
that the department in the course of its
investigation could not prove or
disprove whether the ACT occurred or did
not occur I'm going to talk a little bit
about those last two categories toward
the end but overall we have a alignment
with the Department on this so we feel
that those findings were appropriate
based on the evidence that was collected
in the course of the investigation
there were 21 Las Cruces Police
Department employees and we saw them
across the ranks you can see there
as I mentioned we saw some challenges
with those special units those are the
non-sworn employees and supervisors that
you see listed there
and again the department has moved very
swiftly to correct
the concerns and challenges that they
found in those units
I provide you the officer race
14 of them were Hispanics six white and
one black and what I'm looking for when
I look at the race of the officer versus
the complainant would be any disparities
or disproportionalities that might
suggest that something is going on with
regard to potential bias and as I
reported last period there is nothing to
indicate that there's a disproportionate
rate of treatment of one or another
particular group
for the cases that are sustained the
department can Implement discipline
and in this period they ranged from what
is called a verbal or written reprimand
so those would be the lower level
disciplinary ranges up to suspension in
this case the highest we saw was a
20-hour suspension
what we were pleased to see is that
they're always accompanied by training
or counseling whether it's the lowest
level or the highest level every officer
who's receiving discipline of any kind
is also receiving the commensurate
one-on-one or larger training that is
required to correct that behavior
in this time one officer was terminated
for an unrelated matter
and one officer resigned prior to the
completion of the investigation
I'll turn now over to the demographics
more on the complainant side
they come from throughout the city
two of them were
complainants who reside outside of your
city limits but the incident that
had the complaint occur happened within
the Las Cruces City Limits
and then their race again there because
I like to check to make sure that those
disproportionalities
are not
coming to the to the Forefront and they
are not
so as I mentioned we have
recommendations always around improving
the process
I mentioned at the start that we
requested that the department include
more background information things that
we might not know as third party
investigators there's always room for
that so we continue to recommend that
anytime that it's something that's known
to the department they put it in that
investigative memo so that we are all
aware of it
one issue that continues to come up in
more nuanced ways now is framing all of
the allegations
sometimes a complainant will make five
or six allegations in the course of
their complaint and we noted that in
some cases the department didn't always
frame them uniquely we'd like to see
that happen on a more regular basis
in some cases the department becomes
aware of an allegation that was not made
by a member of the public but you're
watching body worn camera and you see
something
that the member of the public did not
raise but the department is aware of
we're thinking things like use of
profanity
and we would again like to see those
raised and framed regularly
and then we have again our concern
around not the timeliness itself
but making the member of the public
aware of any delays okay
so there are some cases where it is
perfectly acceptable that the delay
occur for example an officer is on an
Extended Medical Leave is on military
leave cannot be interviewed and that
investigation cannot be completed in a
timely way
perfectly acceptable however the
complainant is not aware that the
officer is on medical leave and is left
wondering what happens on my complaint
right
so we really encourage the department
and recommend that on a regular basis if
a complaint investigation is going to
take longer that they communicate that
out so they complainant we are
recommending a 180 day timeline as the
best practice and so we look forward to
seeing that happen
and sending out the appropriate
correspondence to complainants if it's
going longer than that
and I said I'd loop back to this and
here it is
um
this is a really weedsy nuanced one but
one that I know that you'll get
unfounded as I said means that the ACT
did not occur and not sustained means
that you couldn't prove or disprove it
in very few but enough to note the
department concluded that something was
unfounded and we believed it should have
been not sustained now why do I say this
is nuanced and weedsy because at the end
of the day the outcome is still
non-disciplinary
still decided that perhaps misconduct
did not or could not be proven
but we feel that that level of detail in
that accuracy is essential
for several reasons
we're looking for patterns of practice
across time right
so if we see a handful of not sustained
not sustained not sustained we might be
looking out for that now with that
particular officer
also find that the perception in the way
that that complaint is investigated and
adjudicated is important
unfounded suggests
or the perception is that it is favoring
an officer's perspective and of an
incident
versus not sustained if the evidence
and it's clearly unfounded absolutely
absolutely unfounded
but if it is somewhere in that gray
where it is not possible
we would like to see not sustained be
used
so those were the process and systematic
changes within internal affairs
and now we also as I said talk about
policy and training recommendations
I mentioned there's that update to the
Disability Policy the department is
actively working to update this
we also have some considerations for the
use of force Cadre things that we think
that they should look at and we
recommend that they look at and report
back
one is to the use of force general order
we reviewed a case which is in your
packet of an officer who gently placed
his foot on the head of a subject who
was in a prone position
the policy currently prohibits use of
force to the neck any pressure placed on
the neck
but it does not explicitly say also the
head and so we would like that kind of
nuance to be considered by the use of
force Cadre
we also saw some considerations related
to the use of de-escalation taking down
the temperature of a particular
situation
the department to its credit is very
committed to regular recurring
de-escalation training
and so we're just going to have to see
that play out
it's something that we are often looking
at across the country and are hopeful
that that training is starting to really
show itself in the way that officers
show up to situations
finally we saw in one particular
instance the use of What's called the
wrap device if you are not familiar with
the wrapper for members of the public
who might not be it's a device that is
placed around the body of a subject
it is meant to restrain movement if the
subject is acting in a combative manner
and in that particular case the use of
the wrap we felt was appropriate however
we noted that the wrap was used on a
woman who was reportedly pregnant and
the Department's own policy discourages
use in that case you could imagine if
you're
tied in tightly for a handful of hours
it's probably not advised for vulnerable
populations
so we are not against the use of the
rapid device
what we would like to see is the use of
force Cadre
look at uses of the wrap device to
ensure that they are consistent with the
policy for its use and in this case we
felt that that was not appropriately
reviewed
finally
officer professionalism this is
something that we continue to harp on
because and I must impress on you it is
the exception in the cases that we
review
overall your Police Department is
extremely professional patient and very
commendable in their interactions with
the public but as we know it only takes
that one instance of officers acting in
a manner that is less than professional
to put this department in the headlines
so we continue to harp on the issue use
of profanity
on professional communication or
immediate aggressive interactions
and the department has reported back to
us that they are continuing to train
on the code of conduct in roll call
briefings in one-on-one and that
supervisors when they become aware of
any kind of Officer professionalism
issues are training the officer
one-on-one on the spot when that is is
known so again it is the exception to
the amazing amount of work that this
department is engaging in we continue to
impress its importance because
the perception only takes one instance
and and we would like to see
um the department be acknowledged for
the good work that it does versus the
one or two or three instances that hit
Youtube and immediately go viral
our contact information is here I know
there are members of the public here who
may want to reach out to us
if so that is the email address that
reaches us if you would like to see the
report I believe that it is currently on
the transparency website of your city it
is also on our website
and it has a lot more detail than I'm
able to bring to you today
we have counselor Abate the mayor Pro
tem and then councilor Graham and Ben
Cuomo
thank you mayor and thank you for the
presentation
um one of the questions that I want to
bring up is not you didn't mention it
right now but it's something that we see
within our oversight committee is that
on recommendations I am curious how you
also use the lens of federal law and
state law when you give recommendations
we've seen in the past where one
recommendation wasn't quite what we do
here in this state so I'm curious on how
you're adding that layer in
yeah thank you Mr Mayor thank you
counselor
um you're right there was one in which
we cited the ninth circuit and you are
the 10th circuit so certainly we do
acknowledge that
the way that we bring um federal law
other other best practices and model
policies is as kind of the scope of our
larger experience so certainly in that
particular instance we cited something
that may not be applicable here in New
Mexico but as a general best practice
wanted to bring that to the Forefront
okay thank you and so when are you when
you're making recommendations though are
you also looking into
um what is at applicable for the state
so that we're not missing anything
yeah and thank you Mr Mayor and
counselor yes absolutely
um we had one case for example which was
around the relationship between a minor
and an adult
um
I believe that's coming in your next
report but we went to the New Mexico
statute and and looked to see what was
appropriate here in your state for those
kinds of relationships different than
what happens in other states so yes we
are certainly looking through those
lenses as well okay
okay and
things like wanting to make sure there
was like 180 day timeline for reviews
what is the type of timeline that you
see is General when
um looking at building new types of
orders or other suggestions that you've
provided if you have a scope on those
types of timelines
yeah thank you for that question
counselor
um I would say that it really depends
which is not a satisfactory answer
typically
for something like the disciplinary
Matrix that I was speaking of that will
take quite a long time
if it's something that requires going to
the union anything related to the
collective bargaining agreement that
will take quite a long time if it's
something like
take a look at your persons with
disabilities policy and make sure that
officers are required to call a sign
language interpreter to the scene that
perhaps could be done in relative short
order so it all depends on the nature of
it I mean I unfortunately can't give you
a a real response for timeline no that's
fair thank you very much and I do want
to say thank you for bringing up the the
case that you know the calls and the
cases that we see here is a very small
percentage of the overall calls of
service that have to be provided so that
might be something that might be brought
up later on on those types of
numbers and things but thank you very
much
your counselor mayor Pro Tem
thank you mayor thank you Teresa
appreciate you being here and for your
work I've been asked it's an interesting
place to be a pair on the diocese and
looking at it through the lens that I
looked through being a social worker and
working side by side with many of the
officers some have retired and some I
see out there there are a few familiar
faces but mostly new faces to me
um and and so I I we get a lot of
pressure right from all ends like police
accountability decrease you know funding
to police and those things and or
you know we need more out there and so
it's this interesting balance for for me
and but always looking at protecting the
city and and its people for sure and so
some of the questions that I'm getting
are sort of very fundamental and very
like first day you've come to us and I
just want to clear the air about what
does oyr stand for if anything
yes thanks for that question
Mr Mayor and mayor Pro tem oir stands
for office of independent review okay
um it the name comes from a time when
Mike donaco who was who is the principal
and the founder of our group started the
office of independent review for the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's Department
um as a result of that he created that
office
since left that office and started to do
this type of work for smaller
jurisdictions other jurisdictions across
the state and the and the country and
tacked on the word group to it so
because we became a group of individuals
who all do this job
so it is a strange name we are an office
that is also a group but that is what it
stands for thank you I appreciate that
so I think that clears air for many of
the folks that been asking me and have
tried to locate it on your website and
could not so maybe something to change
on your website so it clears the
ambiguity
um now your qualifications Teresa
specifically you mentioned that and and
the rest of your of your group there are
some attorneys I don't know that all of
you attorneys but would you also clear
the air around what your qualifications
are not sure I think thank you Mr Mayor
and mayor Pro tem so yes
we have Mike janako who is the the
founder and the main principal of oir
group he has an extraordinary and
extensive background his bio is on our
website he was a federal prosecutor he
was
founded the office of independent review
in L.A County a real extensive
background in this work for many many
years
we have my colleague Steve Conley also
an attorney worked in this has worked in
this field almost exclusively for his
career another colleague of ours Julie
rulin is also an attorney again also
worked on this um for the majority of
her career
I am not an attorney I have my master's
degree in public policy with an emphasis
on crime policy I come to this work
really looking at it from the lens of
the policy perspective
I started my work with the Los Angeles
Police Department Office of the
Inspector General
and I've been doing this work for the
majority of my career as well so
certainly a really deep
set of understanding when you see a case
come to you in final draft or or in
um these reports it's something that
each member of oir group has reviewed
so the way our process works is that one
individual is the lead on the case but
we all collaborate into that draft so
the whole scope of our team is taking a
look at the concerns and challenges of
your department
I appreciate that I've been on numerous
multi-sort of
jurisdictional teams and I think that's
in my mind the the best approach right
um and so I appreciate I appreciate that
and and the lens that you bring
specifically to to the table I think
that's um very important
um you know in in reading this and I
went over this a couple or three times
I've read the old the old reports as
well and probably as you mentioned being
along with mayor
and I see my colleague out there or did
yeah there's Jack Ekman
um you know one of the reasons why we
had you know hired you is sort of the
breadth of of the experience that you
had but this was something that had been
established before
um you know my time and we had a bit of
a lull and then we we hired you to come
in as an independent auditor so
important in many ways and as a result
of that we developed an oversight
committee that some of us sit on and we
have a public safety select committee
that also
um you know we have an opportunity to
meet with Chief in the DC's to speak to
some of these issues and concerns and
and I know there's been some concern
about you know what exactly happens in
these these meetings and I know that I
you know I've I've committed to giving
to the public you know looking at
revamping some of of of what each of
those committees are doing and how we
respond to the public and so I know
through the oversight committee this has
been looked at and there's been some
recommendations made and then more
specifically some recommendations that
some of this go to our Public Safety
select committee and and those are
things that I'm committed to to looking
at but in in overall I
I I've heard you say that some of these
um complaints are coming you know from
the various categories some are being
through our Ethics Hotline
um and I'm I'm
concerned about where that information
is placed and how how easily accessible
the hotline is in not only our the
website that I'll see the transparency
website that they've developed a couple
of years ago and
um would you say that in the questioning
that you have is that Ethics Hotline
basically
um
kind of shown or out there so people
understand that there are various ways
that you can complain or are larger you
know whatever issues you might have in
in your estimate and what you see is
that
um an easily
finding number that people can can look
for
um yeah Mr Mayor and mayor Pro tem I
certainly appreciate that question it is
something that is a bit outside our
particular scope I have not evaluated
where the Ethics Hotline is posted or
available the fact that we are seeing
two complaints from the Ethics Hotline
I'm not sure if that number is low
relative to kind of the total number of
issues that Community has but certainly
the extent to which it is publicized may
help with that yeah thank you thank you
um so some other concerns that I have
are around the de-escalation that you
made mention of
um the idea that our chief and others
are saying yes that we're going to get
regular training I've noted so you know
I've read there's a March training
there's a training further further into
the year specific to that but I guess
I'm I'm concerned about how quickly are
our supervisors indicating there might
be an issue
and how regularly are they looking at
that because in my understanding is is
that they're reviewing these cases any
kind of of
use of force and sort of managing those
in my estimate and and working on the
one-on-ones now it feels like I guess
I'm looking at time frames how quickly
are they doing that because a lot of
times you know this is behavior that you
have to get you know you have to address
almost immediately and I'm not sure I
don't get a feeling like it's happening
immediately and maybe that's just the
way the the reporting is is is is is is
done here
um but I'm interested in in knowing from
how these cases are moving from incident
to the supervisor being made aware to
having these one-on-ones and then how
quickly is the training happening is
that something that that we should be
concerned about because it feels like
some of the issues that you've made
mention the de-escalation the
professionalism the use of profanity the
areas where I'm super concerned about a
knee being put or like to the Head those
are all very concerning to me and I want
to make sure that we're heading this on
very quickly I'm not waiting um you know
six months till till something gets to
IA yeah yeah Mr Mayor and mayor Pro tem
absolutely agree and appreciate that
perspective I will defer to the Chief
and the department as to how quickly it
happens internally that's a process that
we are not part of but I will give you
one anecdote from a case that we
reviewed which is we observed
interaction between a field training
officer and a trainee and the moment
that the incident completed so they had
closed the incident officer safety was
no longer a concern that training
occurred immediately on body worn camera
to say
this is how it would have been better
this is how we should approach it next
time let's do X Y or Z in the next time
we go out so that is one instance I
can't say that speaks to the whole
department but would defer to the chief
yeah I would like to hear from Cheetah
on that I just think it's really
important that that happens almost
immediately and I'm not sure how those
cases get to an immediate resolution
good afternoon Miguel Dominguez police
chief for the record mayor mayor Pro tem
your
to answer your question it depends on
the incident
the counseling sessions happen almost
instantaneously if it happens in front
of a supervisor depending on the
severity we can put together a training
bulletin that could be up the next day
we've done that we actually discussed
that this morning if we're investigating
something uh any one of these incidents
and there's uh
nuances within the investigation that we
know the investigation is going to carry
out a while but there's areas within
there that we need to make sure that
that are being addressed in the
department-wide we can put that training
together immediately and get training
bulletins out as well as put training
together
that show deficiencies if it's a use of
forage training that we need to put
together
it's part of our biennium training that
goes on but we can immediately jump on a
small issue for example but if it's a
little bit more of a of a broader topic
we handle it through through the
training that comes out through the
academy so Chief how are you addressing
it in the immediate like you have to so
your supervisor is observing it at one
but what if they're not observing and I
thought that in the discussions that
we've had in public safety meetings that
you've indicated that any use of force
is being right you're you're your
supervisors are looking at them they're
looking at the body
cameras I'm thinking how regularly I'm
not sure that's what I'm concerned about
those other 50 something thousand calls
that you're getting like how are those
being the use of force being reviewed
I'm just concerned about there's just so
many right and I'm not saying news
supports but so many calls how are we
addressing
um from a supervisor standpoint the
immediacy of any issues that could be
um hit head on and addressed
mayor mayor Pro tem we have a system
called blue team so anytime there's a
use of force it's reported out the exact
day that it's sent up the supervisor
gets that if they're not on scene they
still get the blue team report they look
it over and The Blue Team report is
pretty much where it happened uh when it
happened what type of use of force is
used things of that nature but the
supervisor has the video as well as the
report and they immediately look at all
blue teams if there's a significant
issue immediately it goes to IA but if
there's a training issue a training
deficiency that also goes to to IA into
our compliance
component within the Ia and training is
put together if it's a if it's a small
issue it's done as a training bulletin
if it's a larger issue and could be a
problem moving forward we take a look at
the policy we took a little take a look
at the current training and make
adjustments as necessary Chief in the
training that you're talking about is
this done specifically with an internal
trainer or when do you seek outside
training
you're talking about
instructors from outside the department
we we have several courses that we've
taught or we've brought in outside
trainers uh for use of force and uh
liability issues things of that nature
we we train internally but we also bring
in outside instructors um
use the force more specifically training
is that done internally like at your
I guess how often is that training being
conducted with your officers
mayor mayor Pro tem that that is done
annually use of force training is always
it's always at the Forefront so it's
talked through the academy but we have
issues that are coming up uh
de-escalation actually we actually have
a PowerPoint to cover a lot of the
training that we're we're doing uh as
part of the next presentation but as
well as this presentation things that
have come up through the audit uh our
Audits and training that we've
implemented specifically because of
issues that were found through the audit
but as well as training that we've found
that before it was even sent out to to
oir group we've put training together
just to make sure that we're not having
these issues uh happening again with it
being the next day or two weeks down the
road because by the time they get to a
look at the audit or get to audit it uh
it could be a problem so we jump on it
and try to jump on it as fast as we can
so the the
the
specific case related to the person with
a disability or really any disability
how are you addressing that and um you
know I mean I don't know that you can
train for every disability but
um how is that how are you doing that
specifically what sort of things actions
are you taking specifically
make sure to that umbrella disability
right
um framework mayor mayor Pro tem I uh
don't want to steal Lieutenant
gutierrez's Thunder because he has that
part of his presentation but we did look
at the policy and we incorporated the
state as well we actually have some uh
some experts because of their family
members within uh they they've actually
provided us a real real uh real life
situations where uh that have been
extremely helpful for us I'll let
Lieutenant Gutierrez cover that in his
next training issue that's okay yeah no
it is I just think we've had some issues
again with the hearing impaired with uh
people who are have autism
um other other very specific things that
are are concerning and although I think
having folks that have lived experience
is is a very important thing I'm
concerned that
um we're we're not looking to
evidence-based programming that might be
out there very specifically to address
the issues as you're seeing them happen
and so um that that's a concern of
buying
um and then
around the use of profanity the
professionalism we've talked about that
Chief and I know how important that is
for you how are we addressing that in
terms of professionalism and then I'll
tack on the de-escalation I think those
are all very important things that that
we see that that continue to be a
concern of mine mayor mayor Pro tem that
that's a huge concern of ours as well
it's brought up pretty much in most
trainings that we've been discussing
lately our professional intelligence and
emotional intelligence is is part of all
the training that's coming forward as it
pertains to use of force the escalation
things of that nature and some of the
profanity that actually happening with
the citizen it's off to the side but we
need to we need to do as much as we can
and we are to eliminate the the use of
profanity
thank you thank
you thank you I didn't in past reports
Theresa I've seen the recommendations
made to achieve and to the city manager
and sort of that what appears like a
blanket statement
um what how much time are you are you
giving folks or how
are are you asking for them to turn
around sort of that response of how
they're going to address and this goes
too cheap too how you're going to
address those issues and is there a time
frame that's given and if if so it feels
like I want those um to be very
meaningful and to give very specific
areas that you will be addressing with a
time frame but it feels like the time is
so quick and and maybe that's part of
the issue I'm not sure but I I feel like
I've seen it enough times that it feels
um
that it's a statement and not a specific
things that I'd like to that that are
going to be addressed
mayor mayor Pro tem we address every
issue that they they recommend to us we
take a look at it in some cases we've
already acknowledged that there's an
issue and we start the process but they
they've brought some uh really uh Keen
perspective as far as some of the
training that we've been able to put
together but as far as a time frame
there isn't a time frame but we know
time is of the essence especially when
when we're going through these
Internal Affairs investigations so we
try to do it as fast as possible again
the the immediacy depends on the type of
training
thank you Teresa any any
yeah you know I would comment as well
that again it depends on the nature of
what we're recommending
um and certainly
part of the challenge with the work and
the way that it's structured currently
is that again we're seeing cases as
they're closed so sometimes we'll
continue to see something come up
and we the department has said we've
remedied that particular concern and it
just will take that six-month cycle or
perhaps the second six month cycle to
see that return
we do not have a particular structure or
framework to hold the department
accountable to our recommendations which
is why we bring them before you and and
Mr city manager thank you thank you I I
am I guess I'm asking and I've I've I've
had a conversation with counselor abeda
um and and some of this
um you know to EVO to Mr peely
um I'd like for there to be a robust
explanation that is given
um specifically so that with some time
frames I think those are important
um and and
um if if we have to loosen up a time
frame to be able to to have that occur I
think that's that's that should happen
but I I wanna I wanna be clear that um
oh you know we we would like we want
accountability I think that's the
important thing we want people to feel
safe in their community and
um we and we want police to provide
um you know um that that safety in the
most professional way that they can and
when we have we pay the amount of money
for you to come and audit and provide
all the Keen expertise and specific
recommendations
um I think if if there are issues or
concerns in terms of what is being
or or funding is an issue then then we
should know that very specifically so I
feel like there's still some gaps in the
way we're communicating that information
out and and where we're communicating
that out
um is is important
um to me but I I don't feel that it's
still like we you come you talk you
speak
um to us but there's still some holes in
in
um sort of what's happening and and you
know and every six months it's different
right it's or it maybe there are some
things that are the same but it's making
it very difficult for me to really get a
a picture of what exactly is happening
like for example we've been talking
about this quad Course Review Cadre that
I think is going to be a really
important aspect or that disciplinary
Matrix and I understand the nuances of
that I've been an administrator I've
been an administrator that has had very
um
reviews from a federal and from the
state and so understand the pressures
and the stress that this creates and and
sort of sometimes the animosity right
because everybody's trying to do the
best work that they can and it it feels
like everybody's criticizing you and the
work that you're doing and and so my
hope is that that we continue to look at
this and that we we're open to the
recommendations but I also feel there
has to be recommendations with time
frames in it and and and and as quickly
as we can turn some of these things
around because as you said that one call
can make the right for all the good work
that's happening can really be
disastrous for for the city and and
let's be frank we've seen some terrible
cases that have really put us at a
disadvantage frankly and and and so I'm
as much as
we can be accountable to that
um I I'm appreciative and I just feel
like there's things that we can tighten
up a little more and so with that mirror
I'm going to turn that back over to you
yeah thank you mayor Pro tem counselor
Graham and councilor Ben Cuomo
here um thank you so much for all of the
work that you put in and for your
presentation
um two comments and a question for round
one here obviously anticipating
additional rounds
um The Counselor Beta had alluded to you
know some of these numbers
um you know you mentioned it to a few
complaints lots of calls for service and
I have those numbers teed up
so in this period 33 complaints out of
691 calls for service
so just just seeing that number and
realizing it's a shocking amount of
calls for service I also appreciated the
statistic included that the number of
complaints in this period was lower than
the previous six months despite fewer
calls for service in those previous six
months so more complaints and still that
lower number of calls for service 54 552
so just
you know I I appreciate the quantifiable
along with the qualitative
um a second comment I've just as I was
reading and listening to the
conversation unfold I was thinking about
you know that thoroughness and
expediency can sometimes
butt heads and be I'm reaching back to
like high school science here like
reciprocally inhibitory I think it said
like sometimes like one kind of stops
the other
and I for one appreciate the
thoroughness despite the fact that yes
it takes time and I also recognize that
as as a leader and as Council adds
additional adds layers to this process
things like you know pushing or
enabling a use of force Cadre I never
okay
um
every time we add a layer we're also
adding time and I just want to say that
I appreciate that time and I think
getting a more complete picture is my
preference than necessarily speeding up
the timeline of hearing these reports
and I understand the pressure I mean
we're we're a culture that functions by
Tweet now we want to know everything
immediately so just
my two cents on that and then for the
question
um based on your presentation one-third
of the employees in this report were
non-sworn employees or non-sworn
supervisors and for my own edification
and because I think it's a
pretty like common question can you or
members of of our group explain what a
non-sworn employee is who does that
constitute how is it different from what
we would just think of as a commissioned
officer of a police officer yeah thanks
Mr Mayor and council member I will defer
looks like deputy chief no chief
who will answer that particular question
and thank you for your two comments very
well received
mayor constagram thank you for your
question all non-commissioned is codes
ACO and all of our civilians and PSAs as
well
all non-police officers pretty much
so
non-sworn what is that
what does that even mean like you like
taking an oath kind of thing okay that's
correct
okay so you said codes ACO your Police
Service aides
and civilian civilian Personnel okay and
the
I think for me as as a civilian the
distinction feels a little blurry
maybe
um you know if I if I call 9-1-1 I can
potentially get any of these employees I
may get a sworn officer
or I might get a non-sworn officer
mayor concert Graham it depends on your
call if you call in about a dog issue or
a codes issue calling 9-1-1 you would
get a coach officer and or an ACL if
you're calling 9-1-1 for anything else
you're going to get a police officer
okay thank you that help
that help thank you we have counselor
Ben Cuomo and then counselor Flores
thank you mayor
thank you so much Ms magulla for being
here in your presentation I'm just going
to jump right in because I have a lot of
questions and I want to be respectful of
my colleagues who haven't gone yet
um several of my takeaways from this
report were around the biggest ones were
around de-escalation use of force and
frankly how often PD is encountering
people with either mental health issues
um substance abuse those kinds of things
right so those were my biggest takeaways
um I am cure so I think it's important
to know also that youth someone are
operating in a vacuum right with your
scope and so I understand you know why
you would say that some of the
de-escalation issues don't ring in the
alarms but we're not operating in a
vacuum right I I do have
um increasingly higher and higher
concerns around the the lack of use of
de-escalation and so
um Chief maybe this question is more for
you around
or actually either of you one what is
the official policy on de-escalation for
the Department
mayor councilor Ben Cuomo I don't have
the policy with me but I can get it and
get get you the official policy but any
type of uh incident that we go to and
somebody
is being
belligerent or you're in an area where
you you're going to have to
possibly use Force you have to give
commands to try to keep from that keep
that from happening so you pretty much
you use verbal commands and verbal your
Verbal Judo and your in your skills
before it escalates so you de-escalate
yeah absolutely I think there's a lot of
data that shows especially now that
we're talking about Crisis Intervention
and those kinds of things that often
show that mere presence of a uniform for
so many people escalate the situation
right so understanding that and then
understanding that if when you get out
of your vehicle and you're using
profanity and elevated language how I
imagine de-escalation practice takes a
lot of discipline what is the training
that goes into that because like I said
Chief I just have growing concerns
around the lack of use of de-escalation
and mayor concert Vancouver we we have
over 136 000 calls of for service last
year
um we we have had issues with not using
proper de-escalation techniques but they
are a million skill amount of of the
times when we actually did use uh
de-escalation techniques our training is
very robust we we constantly trained not
it's official training but as well as
we're constantly talking about it in our
uh you know Patrol briefings things of
that nature we're always talking about
de-escalation and keeping making sure
that our officers are de-escalating and
uses of force all the use of force
reviews that's the first thing that the
off the supervisors looks for was was
this an uh an incident that could have
been de-escalated
um
know that one of the recommendations
talks about the Cadre evaluating some
um de-escalation practices right will it
will you also include the lack of use of
de-escalation in the disciplinary Matrix
yes we will okay
this question may be more for you I
and forgive me my questions are all over
the place I was sort of taking notes as
I was reading the report
um
I think one of the biggest things I did
want to raise that I found some concern
with both how it was reported on the
report and today to be honest was
um and involving one of the cases that
placed the officer placed the foot on
the subjects
head and you the no the report said
lightly you said gently I just want to
note that my gentle is different than
your gentle and that's very subjective
and on page 22 it reads one in one case
the involved officer self reported that
he lightly placed his foot on the
subject's head and while the subject was
in prom while the subject was in prom
position this tactic was briefly
evaluated in the investigation the
involved supervisor reported that the
tactic the detectives were reasonable
and appropriate
later in the report you say we recommend
that the Forest Review Cadre evaluate
uses of physical Force directed at the
head to determine if they are reasonable
and necessary both in this incident and
going forward and evaluate the current
language in general order two five five
in your professional opinion when is it
reasonable or necessary to place a foot
on a person's head or neck
um thank you Mr Mayor and councilor Ben
Cuomo
that's a very difficult question to
answer
there are certainly circumstances that
might rise to the level of deadly force
that might require that type of force be
used and certainly across the country
this is something that has raised quite
a lot of concern and quite a lot of
evaluation
um
we have looked at a variety of different
policies across the country looking at
for example even head strikes with a
fist to determine if those are
appropriate in today's context and and
truly it is up to each department to
decide at that point
and we are in the process of seeing how
that's developing across the country
concerning the way that it was reported
I think
not it should
frame an issue like this more directly
in terms of
why you why you wouldn't recommend this
be use
reasonable use of force and in the
department
um I think we're seeing it across the
country why this is concerning
um The public's concerns are reasonable
as well and so I felt important to me to
note that there was discrepancy in the
reporting
um the way I saw it
um
who this is for chief can you just tell
us more about the Force review Cadre I
know it has seven members I believe I
saw I'm just curious there is very
little information Chief about the Cadre
mayor counselor
specifically what what question would
you have as far as if you can just tell
us is it is it formalized already how
you selected its members how often
they'll be meeting
mayor concert yes it's it's already
formed the way it works is if we have a
use of force that needs to be
investigated it's given to the Cadre
they get together and typically it'll be
three of the Cadre will look at the use
of force and and uh and use all of their
their expertise and their knowledge of
the education to go through and and
see if the use of force was reasonable
and or unreasonable
for specific cases that's correct and
then they will also then sorry be
a larger policy around use of force
mayor councilwinkleman that's correct
and then they would be making
recommendations to you Chief or your
leadership team that's correct they
would be made to the internal
investigations and then in turn it would
come up okay I would love to know
um it doesn't have to be a specific
timeline Chief but maybe by next report
I don't know if this forced review Cadre
looked at some of the recommendations in
the report were for the Cadre to look at
um let me look at my notes de-escalation
training and consider evaluating use of
force use of de-escalation in force
reviews
The Wrap
um tool and there was one other thing
maybe you it's at the top of your head
yes in general order 255 review some of
that I'm curious if those are something
we could get an update on for when they
review that and what considerations
you're making
thanks Chief
um
you mentioned in
I was curious
Missoula for you I think a couple of
things I wanted clarification on on page
19 you talk about
um and you briefly mentioned it actually
around the distinction of the unfounded
and
um
the other word and you said and part of
the quote in the report says and
imposing a more definitive pro-officer
outcome than is warranted by the facts
is in its way no more appropriate than a
disciplinary sanction would be without
Clear Proof I was just hoping if you
could further elaborate on that yeah
thank you Mr Mayor and councilor Ben
Cuomo so essentially it's what I had
mentioned before that
um
in the absence of evidence that could
prove or disprove to find something
unfounded favors an officer's account
over that of a member of the public
um
and again it is just not an appropriate
finding given the totality of the
evidence that's available yeah that's
super helpful thank you and I just I had
it on here and I wanted to follow up on
that and then in in the report you also
make a mention of progressive policing I
was wondering if you could also
elaborate on what that means
um yeah Mr Mayor and councilor Ben Cuomo
um so when we use that term it would be
um
people policing that is aligned with
kind of the modern day standards of
policing focus on that Community aspect
focus on the elements that were
presented in Obama's 21st century models
of policing so those types of models of
policing that are in a sense Progressive
that are moving the ball forward that
are progress from a police institution
that we have seen perhaps in in previous
times I I appreciated the mention and I
wanted to ask you about it today I think
after today certainly I'll be doing more
research myself on that to to ask
um you know better questions while I'm
up here I did want to note that I
thought your recommendations on persons
with disabilities was really important
especially bringing in Advocates who
work on that every day and not related
to persons with disabilities but I did
wonder Chief what the policy was for
when an officer encounters someone who
doesn't speak the language they speak
what is the process for
obviously imagining many of the officers
speak Spanish and if not they have
someone who does but I am curious what
the process is like for in that scenario
mayor councilman Cuomo we contact
central dispatch and there are
interpreters
that are available to us not just for
Spanish but for example Mandarin or
Russia whatever the whatever the
language and we also uh can contact
language line which we use we've used in
the past and they'll provide somebody uh
on the phone if we need somebody
interesting yeah that's really good I I
just figured that was important given
that we're seeing
um a greater number of refugee families
moving to to the community that I
thought that would be
um an important I think my last question
on this round
um will be around the two-day Force
training academy what does that look
like Chief how often is that held who
attends those trainings is it new people
is it folks that are having some
disciplinary actions
foreign
good afternoon mayor council Jeremy
story deputy chief operations for the
police department councilman Columbia
the two-day Forest Academy can you
clarify in the report specifically what
it refers you know what I I was typing
my notes I just remember the uh report
making note of a two-day two-day Force
training academy and in terms of I think
it was someone being who was disciplined
was to go to this Academy and I'd wonder
if you could just tell us more about it
mayor councilman Coleman there's not a
two-day Force Academy now there's a lot
of different use of force training
obviously within the academy itself
there's far more than two days
um Advanced Training there's more in my
presentation later on I'm going to give
a breakdown that I think is fairly
detailed of all the training especially
in the last two years and then hopefully
that clarifies that if not I'd be happy
to try to clarify it further okay and
now I'll do the same I'll look for where
it was mentioned and I'll ask you when
you bring it up thank you I think that
may be it for me I
I did you know know several of their
recommendations many of them are
incredibly important I do feel like some
of the most important ones sort of go to
to the aspect of vulnerable populations
right people who are have are living
with disabilities hard of hearing
um
pregnant people I think that was
especially in the use of the rap device
and you know I also you know I think
it's important that as we continue to
have conversations around around Crisis
Intervention and project light and the
triage Center and all of those kinds of
things that
um we really do as a whole in the
department as well start adopting more
of a model of who
gets to respond to what calls when do we
you know it's about getting the right
first responder to the right emergency
ensuring that
a situation that may already in nature
have to do with be escalated because
someone is intoxicated like in one of
the cases that we just take better care
of of how we approach those situations
so that there are less injuries to
either party both whether it's the
constituent or the officer so I'll leave
it there I might have more questions
after more of my colleagues go but I
just want to say that thank you
thank you counselor Flores
thank you mayor and thank you Miss
and thank you Chief Dominguez for your
in the information you've provided I
just want to add to Michael janako's
credentials so for those of you who
don't know
he was with the justice department
just in Washington DC in the Civil
Rights division under Deval Patrick and
Deval Patrick became governor of
Massachusetts and then ran for
presidents and so did 20 million other
candidates but he was a candidate and
when I was president of the
Mexican-American Bar Association of Los
Angeles County
we had Los Angeles you know
um
we had a lot of issues and we did meet
with devel and and Michael when he was
there and and several others attorneys
in that office and and they all came out
to Los Angeles not all maybe two or
three of them came out once twice maybe
three times and so I'm very happy to
hear about oir
and I I found Michael to be
I just a wonderful human being and and
so are you I bet yeah but I just want to
give that little bit of background about
his his credentials and um
and how they reflect so well on oir I
I just want to share with everybody in
this room that we have that police
oversight committee and then the another
Public Safety police oversight committee
and then the Public Safety Committee but
night I know as much about them as you
do
the only reason I know something about
police oversight is because if one of
the three counselors aren't available
to attend I I go in there and I I asked
our prior previous City attorney
if that was kosher then she said that
would be fine because I wasn't breaking
any any uh
Oma
I wasn't
violating the Oma
so but nothing gets reported to us I
want the public to know that and I think
that as I know that there are community
members right now and I don't know if
you're aware of this Miss magula but we
have several members in our community
present today who are the
Engineers of a promo a proposed
oversight committee and their concern is
that there hasn't been enough
transparency and and I've I was at one
of the authors but we do have a couple
of them the two main ones in our
audience today
and and I will tell you that in in
reading your report I think that the
report is excellent what I find
astounding is that you only reviewed 16
incidents
and it's like okay
um
so it'd be great to have an analysis on
what the conditions were
that to me and I'm not saying we you
know we we don't live in a
perfect world
so we're not going to have zero
incidents but I think that in a
population of 10 000 people
hundred thousand excuse me hundred
thousand people
to have only 16 incidents that are quote
worthy of sending to your office Amazon
worthy I mean I mean I'd like to think
I think I would like to think that
those were the only incidents that
occurred and with all due respect to the
police department the officers I know
that officer Kelly is is the officer who
patrols my area and I'm and I'm glad
he's a neighbor
he's in my district and
um and I and I in my experience with
with Chief Dominguez Chief Gallagher
Chief Montoya and bazaska
um
you know it's very positive and so and
and they always say it only takes you
know like One Bad Apple to to ruin the
entire Barrel but
I I don't understand why we just I I
mean I I should be thanking God but
16 out of and but that was only for the
last three or four months okay but then
um and those incidents have gone down
from prior reporting uh the the
quarterly reports that you submit
so
um What What In Your do you do any
analysis as to see what the objective
factors are in the in the community
um to us to determine why there's such a
small number my concern is that
you get you repo you review and and
analyze and make your recommendations
based on what's sent to you
there may be things sitting there that
don't get sent to you is there any way
of you Discerning whether there's
something missing something not quite
right with this picture
or do you believe that this is a good
reflection of the state of
of Affairs
yeah Mr Mayor and counselor Flores thank
you thank you for highlighting Mike
janako's bio appreciate that to your
specific question
again it comes down to unfortunately our
scope of work and as it was authored for
this particular engagement we only
review those cases that meet a certain
threshold so the ones that come in from
the community that are classified as
formal complaints and the ones that are
internally initiated by the department
it
yes but
but is that review process based on what
the contract between the city and LCPD
excuse me uh
is is that because of the terms of the
contract so could the the terms uh be
expanded to include a little bit more
review or how would that work if it
could work
Mr Mayor and counselor that would be a
discussion for your Council and with the
city
I guess my question is
if this election of cases sent to you
I guess is I would say there could be a
a larger pool of cases for you to review
and there are terms in the contract that
would expand that review could expand
that review Mr Mayor and counselor
Flores as I understand currently the
contract could be modified but that
would be again up to your city yeah yeah
I understand that part I'm just trying
to understand and it's something I'll
discuss with Mr peely and maybe the
chief to understand exactly how how that
works but I I would just like to I know
that
the feeling right now in our community
is that you're not getting all the
information and there's that concern
that you're not getting the review of
all cases and I and I and I reviewed
your report I thought it was very
thorough the recommendations were
excellent and um but I was just like
whoa I it sounds really nice it sounds
like everybody can be walking down
Lowman at midnight and have a wonderful
time but um anyway so I interrupted you
I think no yeah counselor if I may
interrupt I just want to let you know in
fact I'll just remove it from my talking
point but I was gonna bring this up the
contract expires in May of this year and
and I was talking with efo and based on
what council had asked him to do they're
going to renegotiate with them we can't
say too much about it right now and
they're going to expand the contract
I just I'm aware of that thank you Mr
Mayor I just wanted to make sure that
the public knows
uh you know what we're going through
so proceed Miss mcgillin
yeah Mr Mayor and counselor Flores
certainly the of the total pool of
complaints we are seeing a percentage of
them that meet the threshold
and so we are not seeing all complaints
that are submitted to the police
department that is accurate
and so again to to Mr mayor's point
that is something that can be adjusted
as your city
feels is appropriate
and um do you by any chance get a
a it may be outside the scope of the
contract or whatever but do you you do
you by any chance get reports about our
um you know our lawsuits and all that
sort of stuff
yeah Mr Mayor and counselor Flores we
receive closed litigation that involves
members of the Las Cruces Police
Department and we review those
okay but the contract doesn't cover
your need to do an assessment or an
evaluation on that because there's
nothing in there about that yeah Mr
Mayor and Council Flores we had one case
in this period that case was closed
during this time frame and we provided a
memo related to that particular case it
was a case related to civil litigation
around active shooter training that had
occurred
and so we have that case in our in our
packet today I apologize if you thank
you I missed it but thank you
thank you Mr mirror
thank you councilor correct thank you
thank you again for your presentation
and and thank you to for your support I
I think a lot of my questions might also
come I I think I suspect you might
respond to a lot of these things
um in the upcoming presentation but I
I'm curious uh about two two things that
sort of stood out to me well three
really I do identify the pattern of
folks who are seriously mentally ill
that the police are are interfacing with
on a on a daily basis and I realize how
extraordinarily difficult that is
um in in our community and and thinking
about the systems that have created that
um sort of
transaction that has to occur
um but that's a bit of an aside but I do
notice that in the in the pattern of
things that come up I have a couple of
specific questions related to two things
um one is sort of your recommendations
for use of force you recommend
additional training I'm not sure if you
also
I don't think in the past you've made a
policy related recommendation for use of
force but I'm curious if you would
extend your recommendations or your
evaluation in the context of what you're
reading to potentially revisit the
policy related to use of force
um and then the second question is
um and I think my colleagues for really
bringing a lot of the most important
things to to light but the second is
related to supervisory matters and I
know that you all do not
um review supervisory matters as a
banner of course in your thing and I'm
curious both because of the indication
of
uh
just not sustained versus unfounded and
sort of the downgrading of things there
I have some concerns also about the
lines of supervisory matters related to
things that would go to Internal Affairs
and I think I'm curious if you have
recommendations about how to sort of
look at the discretionary space there
and what other departments might be
doing to to ensure that
um
that those things line up and I I say
that because lots of the things that we
saw in the packet resulted in a verbal
reprimand or a written reprimand but
very little
um sort of intervention and so in some
ways those seem to me to be things that
would not be so I guess if you can
disambiguate that a little bit and talk
a little bit about what your experiences
are with those things please thank you
so Mr Mayor and councilor Koran thank
you for those two questions
um
to your first question around the use of
force policy
I will be frank that we are treading
lightly in the arena of use of force and
so I we limited that particular
recommendation based on our evaluation
of one case that had the use of force
component
um so
again and I hate to keep bringing it up
but it is a limitation of our particular
scope of work so I would hesitate at
this point to make broader suggestions
related to use of force policy again
because it is not within our scope of
work at this time
um
as to your question around supervisory
matters versus those that are raised to
the level of internal affairs
when we first started our review we saw
a handful of supervisory matters that
the department fairly quickly realized
should go to Internal Affairs to due to
their seriousness and the department
elevated them appropriately so again I
would defer to the chief on this but my
understanding is that
at the moment in which it is
um realize that the matter might result
in discipline
those cases are elevated to the internal
affairs investigation process and so the
supervisory matters are staying at those
lower level of miscon potential
misconduct or um
incidents that might require that more
immediate corrective action like account
informal counseling versus those that
might rise to the level of sustained
misconduct
and I hear your point about that fine
line of discretion
thank you and I and I'm I'm asking in
part because I don't know all of this
context and I appreciate you at alluding
to that and and the Chiefs sort of
follow up on that do you want to talk
more
mayor concert
so when we first started with oyr there
was a couple of supervisory matters that
they suggested should have been uh
internal investigations
since then we've changed our uh our
process our procedure if you will we're
all uh everything that comes to IA comes
to my desk we have discussions over
supervisory matters are something simple
as uh uh didn't show up to court or
showed up late to court and ended up
having the case dismissed something like
that or showing up uh again a fender
bender uh accidentally tapping uh one of
the polls in the back lot anything of
misconduct code of conduct issues things
of that nature are are Internal Affairs
investigations
thank you and and I look forward to
hearing your updates I think
I think some planned shortly
um I think those are all the questions
that I have at the moment for you thank
you I appreciate your your report and
your feedback
so Theresa I've got one question or a
couple questions for you
okay so when when you receive a
complaint or an issue is it just one
person working on it or the entire group
if you are you allowed you know do you
go and if there's one particular area do
you go ask them what they think about
this or is it just one person who's just
assigned to one particular City for that
matter
yeah Mr Mayor do you are you speaking to
our our process as oir group correct
okay yeah so in this particular
jurisdiction Las Cruces
um we have um and for any jurisdiction
we have a project lead so in this
jurisdiction I am the Project Lead for
your city
um what that looks like is that I am the
person who is doing the statistics and
the ensuring that cases are received and
and appropriately
sent to my colleagues for review
um as well as doing a majority of the
case review here but essentially we each
take on cases
whether it is because we have a
particular subject expertise and that
case includes something within our
particular expertise or because of the
workload and the level of work that we
have so my colleagues and I are in
constant communication about the cases
that we're receiving and who should be
the most appropriate party to review
them okay I think you answered that that
they are if you if there's something
that you see and you you may you know
run it by them okay the reason why I
bring that up is because I one of our
first outside reviews
organizations was perf
and and they were a lot of
retired Chiefs or Deputy Chiefs who went
on to get Advanced degrees and they
formed this this organization so then we
would hear members of the public saying
well you know they're all former police
okay so I want to read the bios of a
your organization and to my knowledge
you have no one who was ever a police
officer right okay so Michael janako and
I think councilor Florida's talked about
that he's an expert on law enforcement
reform Office of the independent review
for LA County he was a U.S attorney who
was the chief civil rights division who
prosecuted police officers for the use
of force
Stephen Conley was in charge of the
independent review for Orange County
Sheriff's Department which is the third
largest Sheriff's Department in the
state of California Julie rulin she's
involved with her expertise as an
officer involved shootings and other
uses of force actions and Internal
Affairs investigations and then you
yourself you were in charge of use to
force complaints with the LAPD inspector
General's office and I saw where you
worked for mayor reveal ragosa who I
just saw a few weeks ago I was going to
text him but see what he thought of you
I won't put you on the spot Brian core
35 years as social justice civil rights
social resilience and Community Building
Samara Marion
Santa Fe Department of Public
accountability for 20 years real
procedures for use of forest
officer-involved shootings bias-free
policing and then Florence Finkel
prosecuted police officers for the New
York district attorney built in New York
City citizens review board so
and recently I met with some members of
the public
and on the token they said well there's
no there's no one there that has any
police experience you know it's so I
don't what I'm trying to get at is
I think
what you all bring is I think the
probably the best combination because
you know it's you're able to delve
deeply into it and a lot of times as I
mentioned you know in the past if you
had and I still think both you know both
firms did great yours and our previous
ones but I just wanted to point that out
and uh and as like as I mentioned that
was my second question was about the uh
the contract expiring but I'm going to
ask the chief something real quick so
Chief do you allow public ride-alongs
still or is that something that may or
yes we do yeah so I was just going to
invite members of the public who wish to
do this let let you know email me and
I'll convey to the chief you are gonna
you still make them sign a a waiver that
if they should get hurt that's correct
mayor they can't see the city that's
correct okay so a whole class so um
there you go just to let you know I mean
you guys want to ride along so you can I
have a day in the life of a police
officer or I'm sure also I'm sure Chief
Smith will allow that for the
firefighters as well but I just wanted
to point that out
um you know it's it's it's a whole lot
different when they see what's happening
you know I used to
and I still remember even when I was uh
22 years old my dad my curfew was 1 pm
1am and you know and and until I got
older that I realized when my my dad
didn't want me on the streets at two
o'clock 2 30. there's a lot of stuff
that goes on that you just can't you
can't imagine so anyways I just wanted
to point uh point that out and ask you
for that so again I'll just open up to
the public for them to if they want to
do a ride along so I appreciate that now
I'm going to ask I know there's very
many members oh yes ma'am go ahead
yeah thank you Mr Mayor I also I want to
add to
um your comment that
we don't have former police officers or
law enforcement officials former sworn
on our team
and I understand that sometimes that can
create this perception that how on Earth
are you coming to the table and trying
to evaluate the job that officers are
doing
um I fully respect that perspective and
in addition to the amount of experience
that we each bring to the table we also
are very aware that sometimes it
requires the perspective of an officer
who has lived the experience and so we
have a variety of either current or
former law enforcement who work with our
team
in the cases that we might have
questions about the as-loved experience
of an officer we will go to those
subject matter experts and receive their
input as well so I just wanted to
clean that up a little yeah I I just
wanted to point out that two or three of
these individuals who are in the group
actually prosecuted police officers for
their misconduct and uh I think that was
important and I mean so that's why I
asked you do you do all your other
members of the group see the what's
going on so that's good yes thank you Mr
Mayor
okay so I know there's a lot of members
of the public here who wish to speak can
you just raise your hand uh who wants to
speak so I've got one two three four
five six okay so if you all can make
your way down here I'm gonna let you
have remember three minutes total
there's one more discussion on the
police department so you can use your
full three minutes on this or half and
half or how we choose see fit all I'm
going to ask is it has to be germane to
this issue that was being presented
please you can't bring up any new
because this is not public participation
this is strictly for regarding this and
we have not published anything other
than this okay and I just need you to
state your name please
my name is Dr Earl Nissan and I live in
Las Cruces uh Teresa and I had a chance
to talk before the meeting
and I've zeroed in on doing some
research on the city of Anaheim
California
in Anaheim
oir has been auditing them since 2007.
and they in 2018
formed a citizen's uh police review
board
and now all I are just like a couple
weeks ago made a report but it was not
made to the city council it was made to
the citizens police review board
and then the review board
takes all of the recommendations and
meets with the police department and I
spent 40 minutes this morning talking to
someone about it and and Theresa knows
who I talked to so I'd like to have
Theresa address that how that works oir
in cooperation with a citizen the review
board the second thing in the oir report
that was just made in Anaheim there's
four pages of analysis of a police
shooting
resulting in a death
and I noticed that we are not
in the oir
report having anything said
about the police shootings resulting in
deaths
so I'd like to know from Theresa what it
would take
uh to change that if it has to be a
contract thing or whatever
but it seems that this is one of the
lines of communication that are very
um
apparent to us that we would like to see
oir to make a
thorough analysis like they did in the
oir report for Anaheim so I'd like to
ask Teresa to maybe comment on those two
things Dr Houston as I mentioned earlier
that your first question really is in
germane to our discussion we never
discussed any type of citizens review
board and so I'll leave that there if
you wish to answer it but we never
discussed that I asked did it be
pertaining to the report that she gave
and now the second one I think is
probably okay
here
where did Teresa go
hold on
yeah if you want sir
thank you Mr Mayor I'm a little unclear
if it's all comments or if I'm coming up
in between I apologize for going back I
wasn't trying to run away
um
um to Dr nissen's first point yes we
have continued engagement with the city
of Anaheim
as you well know there are many models
of police oversight and in that
particular model it is a hybrid model in
which Anaheim has both a commission
that's made up of members of the
community and the oir group serving in
that professional auditor capacity
to his second question related to review
of critical incidents again
would require a modification to the
contract
as your city sees fit it is certainly an
area that oir group has extensive
experience in it is a piece of the
puzzle that we believe is critical as
far as transparency and so we are
pleased to do that work throughout many
jurisdictions um
and welcome any contract modifications
as they might occur right thank you for
very much for that as I mentioned
earlier to counselor Flores I think ifo
was working going to work with your
organization because he's heard from
Council and I think there's going to be
an expansion there and thank you for the
other comment I don't know if you know
Dr Neeson City of Albuquerque he just
disbanded their citizens Review Board of
the police department they just did away
with it they just said it wasn't working
okay who's next
Terry
I have two questions but one my first
one is just in report state your name
please oh sorry Liz Rodriguez Johnson
and I have two questions uh but my first
one is is more of a statement uh and I
want to reiterate what councilwoman
Florida said which is we need to
understand how those cases that were
sent to oir were selected are they
reflective of what's Happening you know
in the city because they're only
reviewing what they're given so somebody
needs to or at least do a write-up or
some sort of documentation on how it is
sent to them is selected because if they
only get a
cases if they do not get the worst cases
then they're only helping us with uh you
know stuff that
can be resolved in you know in in a more
uh
amenable fashion okay so that's my first
statement I would just like some sort of
documentation on who's doing uh the
selecting and how are they selected okay
the second one is on uh the statement
that was made about the the Cadre Cadre
um the only thing I know about it is
what was written in a Sun News article
in August
and I'd like to know who's on that Cadre
but more importantly is there a citizen
representation on that Cadre
if there isn't why not and how
transparent are they going to be with
that information because it's most
people have already noted there's almost
no transparency when when serious
serious issues occur okay
did you want to respond to how are these
cases selected
yes thank you Mr Mayor so essentially
the cases are not so much selected as
they are based sent to US based on their
classifications so if a case is
classified
uh an internal investigation which has
the a number associated with it
um or if it is classified as a make sure
I get this right external investigation
category one so external investigations
have three categories
if it is classified as a category one
it automatically comes to us
so depending on the case classification
which LCPD has a model for how it
classifies
the internal investigations all of them
come to us
and the external investigations category
one all of them come to us
and that amounted in this period to 16
cases
and can you answer the second one about
the Cadre composition or is that
something the chief would work be
working on
mayor the Cadre does not consist of any
civilians at this time they're all
officers within our department
and um sorry Liz I can't take any
questions from the audience I will tell
you this the one that the counselor
Flores is talking about the oversight
committee we have I want to
three members three members I think at
large from members of the public who are
on that and I choose them and appoint
them
okay who's next Who's to speak yes yes
ma'am
state your name please
good afternoon mayor council uh
and I don't know your last name but oir
representative
so I don't think uh oh and Jennifer cry
sorry I remembered who I was
I'm sorry ma'am did you state your name
Jennifer cry okay
okay
um
so I don't think it's
uh
I think oir has very qualified people
but their experience with use of force
if they're not reviewing use of force
cases explicitly is not pertinent
and who is reviewing excessive use of
force and I may not be using that
legally correct but if someone's been
shot and died who's looking at that it's
my impression that they don't see that
and it's also and so she could maybe
answer that question and uh
and why aren't we given access to the
meetings of the oversight committee or
at least the minutes maybe we are and I
don't see them I go to the website
under
Police Department transparency
I see procedures
just a link to the procedures and I see
a link to the results of a community
survey that's it that is it
thank you
so ma'am the use of force if if they do
look at any they have to be closed I'll
just checking with EVO and almost all of
them are still in litigation so they
can't be looked upon until those are
finished but I thought I read in their
report that they don't ex they don't
explicitly look at use of force
one that they did and then of course
that is probably subject that's going to
be discussed when the contract expires
but even then do anything that's in a
few months and then even then only those
that are closed
and then as far as the oversight uh
Christine are those aren't those
available the
no the the
minutes or however do that
mayor of the minutes well oversight
meetings are not subject to Oma and
there are many topics the attorney is
present and there are many topics that
are discussed that are attorney client
privileged there are also things like
unreleased audit reports so not
everything is public
so Joslin could a member of the
committee give a summary and run it to
the city attorney's office and if that's
acceptable then can be read at a council
meeting in the future
thank you mayor
um as one of the individuals that sits
on both the oversight and the public
safety I know that there has been
um comments on how we do our reporting
while I believe all of us on Council I
know I just adopted standard practice
that I saw from my fellow counselors on
how to report I know that perhaps there
is another way so I've been working with
Christine on a standardized reporting
sheet that we could all use for all of
our committees and will be given to
everybody at of course your discretion
but like I said since there was no
standardization on how we report I know
that I report out items that I can but
with the regards of knowing that there
are sensitive information that are not
allowed to be reported out so there are
some things that I do not give out in
those in these public spaces
for those reasons but I am currently
working with Christine uh have a
different system out so that we can Port
out as much as we can with regards to
any sort of sensitive topics
okay great I appreciate that
okay next speaker
Bobby green president of the Donata
County NAACP good afternoon Mr Mayor Mr
manager and City councilors I'll be very
simple about this we cannot continue to
have the police
policing themselves
it's very simple the results of that
have led to millions of dollar dollars
in litigation it has resulted in people
who should still be alive
who are deceased at the hands of the
police
they had families they had the right to
live most of these people if not all of
them were unarmed
there was no de-escalation I watched the
videos I watched at least six videos of
excessive force complaints most if not
all of these were people who were
unarmed there was no effort to
de-escalate and there was no
accountability for the officer who took
somebody's lives
unnecessarily
and so it is unsustainable what we are
doing here
sending the audit the cherry-picked
audit items to the auditor they doing a
fine job but they're only given the
information that is cherry-picked for
them we cannot allow the taxpayers to
continue footing the bill
and people's lives being taken
unnecessarily because of a lack of
training or whatever the lack of
willingness to de-escalate all of the
procedures I've been to that implicit
bias training two-day training and that
should I mean you should not have to
train somebody not to kill a 75 year old
grandmother who doesn't speak English
you should not have to train somebody
not to kill somebody who's accused of
stealing a beer you should not have to
train somebody to pump 90 bullets into
an unarmed young black man's vehicle and
multiple bullets into him so that he is
now crippled that should not require
training that requires some change at
the leadership level let's just be
honest about it and so what I'm
requesting is that we look at what we
are doing here and the Damage that it's
causing financially emotionally
families that are being shredded why
can we not do something better than that
we deserve better the citizens of this
City deserve better
foreign
[Applause]
hi my name is Patty Hartman and I'm a
Community member and
I'm kind of echoing Ms Green's points
about
just today even how many things I heard
of oh this is being done we're looking
at it more closely more carefully more
deeply and who's looking into it it's
themselves
and we already have a problem with the
most serious kind of
incidents officer involved deaths
and they investigate themselves along
with other local departments that just
on the face of it is
I can't take that seriously not when I
look at the record of police here in the
amount of police that amount of people
that were killed I started following
this issue
not on purpose but when I moved here in
2016 I was like
is that another one is that another one
it seemed like every couple of months
and what I was amazed at is like
it it just was over in a day no public
outrage no no action
and I thought this is normal procedure
and it continued to be that way and for
about three years we were like number
one compared to similar sized cities in
the number of
police involved deaths
um
with with I so I have a problem with the
the Force review Cadre II because it's a
team of seven subject matter experts
from Force training and in Eternal
Affairs to conduct a more robust and
thorough it's still in-house and
with the amount of
uncomfortable
things that have happened since I've
been here in 2016. we I agree we have to
demand a different process and I will
state I may be cut off police problems
are Community problems
that means we are the ones who are
impacted by what happened we have a
right to be involved not just to make a
three-minute comment or you know and so
when you renegotiate that that contract
I'm hoping you will include the
community to provide input on expanding
the parameters of whatever they
investigate because frankly
I don't trust
either of you in charge of the police
you have failed to do anything about
these serious serious issues and that's
disrespectful to the community the and
my last thing there are a few officers
and this is this is what I was going to
ask you a few officers who have been
involved in several High profiles I'm
sorry you're three men and Sarah can I
finish this question please it's very
important I'll step in several
high-profile use of force case and
officer involved desk and this goes back
from 2010 to current these officers are
still on duty
where do you come in as far as being
able to identify
why they were why they are still on for
one thing but any kind of discipline
thank you thank you so let me let me
just say that I want to correct you
Patty you said that Las Cruces was was
the number one in police shootings I
think you meant New Mexico was number
one yeah no it was New Mexico and
Albuquerque unfortunately was number
three number three city in the United
States and that's what skewed the
numbers
well I'm sorry man I just wanted to
point that out and um both to you and
the previous speaker when you said that
the police are policing themselves two
things I want to I want to add to that
one I'm glad that the police when they
see something of if one of their
colleagues is doing something wrong that
they they spot it I would rather them
not I would prefer they do that and then
of course you've got oir which does that
as well so I just wanted to point those
those items out
all right next speaker
I'll get you next sir
I'm sorry I didn't see him
good afternoon my name is Maria Flores
counselors mayor a city manager Chief
Dominguez
um I have a comment I have a statement
and then a couple of questions
oirr report concludes that LCPD has
shown notable improvements and
encouraging commitment with a force
review Cadre and disciplinary Matrix all
part of internal review
problems noted were incomplete
investigations lack of rigorous
investigations timeliness of
investigation and discipline process
dealing with persons with disabilities
shows that the current policy is
insufficient the biggest and jarring
discrepancy is it neither lcbd
or oir make any effort to interview
complainants involved they rely on
reports which may be incomplete or
camera data which may also be lacking
the major issue is that oir states use
of force review process is not within
scope of work that is our critical piece
use of force is one of the community's
major concerns it does not measure the
accountability of the police department
and the interaction with public
it did State lack of ability lack of
ability to de-escalate and mentions that
officers would gain more by using a
professional and formal demeanor
throughout the interaction with the
public general order
103.05 expects officers to be respectful
controlled temper show patience and
discretion and abstain from using
profane or racist comments report
writing is also a weakness and adds to
confusion and incomplete information the
response from LCPD
appreciates review by
o-r-o-i-r review is thorough and
accurate lcps will take recommendations
into account
how to move forward
police reform police Citizen Police
oversight committee officers giving out
customer satisfaction cards
Public Town Halls by Chief of Police in
different ZIP codes of the city starting
with eight
eight zero zero zero one
um I always speak in memory to honor
Amelia Baca
and my two questions are I would like to
know if the wrap is a straight jacket
number one and number two you mentioned
an oversight committee this is not a
citizen over psych Community this is
another kind of oversight committee run
by Mr ikman and I think that needs to be
clarified this is not what we're asking
for thank you
I'm sorry uh Maria the questions that
you asked I can't respond to one was yes
well because we didn't discuss that and
oh the rap
right oh I didn't hear that so okay yes
I I wanted to know if it was like a
straight jacket
good afternoon again Jeremy story deputy
chief operation LCPD the rap is not like
a straight jacket it's a device that's
used to to restrain people or trying to
harm themselves primarily and so the use
of the wrap actually reduces injury to
people drastically so if someone's
hitting their head on on the partition
in the vehicle kicking
um trying to either hurt officers or
hurt themselves it helps immobilize them
in a way that does not restrict
breathing but also keeps them safe and
it prevents them from being able to hurt
themselves or anybody else but it's not
like a straight jacket yeah
thank you
my second question had to do with the
committee you've mentioned is oversight
yeah that's uh citizens oversight
committee that we have three individuals
sit on that are from members of the
public as well as councilor obeyton
myself
and we will review items that come in
whether it's to the hotline or various
other complaints and it can include a
really almost everything in regarding
City operations right it's a broader
spectrum of of oversight not specific to
one item that's correct but if there is
something that came up regarding the
police department it can get referred
okay thank you
okay next person oh this gentleman back
here yes sir yes yeah I'm gonna need you
to come over here sir
and we'll need you to state your name
please
mayor Pro Tem
Council and and members of the audience
what I want to do sir is a little bit
excuse me can I have you state your name
please okay I'm staff sergeant Harold
Morris retired veteran
but okay
what I wish to do sir it's a little bit
different but I've had a relative who
suffered from law enforcement he's now
deceased but I'd like to sing a couple
of songs for Black History Month before
the month goes out is that okay I went
through your secretary two weeks ago I
never got a hearing back so that's what
I came today sir
you would like to do what sing a couple
of songs
okay go ahead
one song is a Negro spiritual excuse my
back if you will
swing low
Sweet Chariot
Coming For To Carry Me Home
swing low
Sweet Chariot
coming for to carrying your home
I looked over Jordan and what did I see
Coming For To Carry Me Home
a band of angels coming after me
Coming For To Carry Me Home
swing low
Sweet Chariot
Coming For To Carry Me Home
Swing Low Sweet Chariot come and pour to
carry me home
this next song is what's called a whale
to try to set up in a nuancy there's a
person of color
he could either be a former prisoner or
just out on a Lonely Island
it goes like this Amanda Mr Spencer
taught me the song in High cruises High
School he was a white man and I bring it
up for this reason
when I made Allstate course in 1957
I didn't have a dad Mr Spencer called my
mother he said Miss Morris your son can
go to Albuquerque but he can't stay with
the group I repeat he can't stay with
the group
my mother called Mr Spencer she said Mr
Spencer if Harold can't stay with the
group he can't go
that is my first year I don't know what
he did but he arranged that I stayed
with the group
okay
heart done broken too
heart and broken too
left away it's called Left away
bring break a day
heart and broken tooth
carried asleep no more
candy to sleep no more
break a day
what can I say
heart done broke into
hmm hmm
[Music]
left away Mr miyagashima I'm not
bragging stuff but you know Janice is my
niece can I sing like her sir
sir I knew your dad I knew your dad sir
in Silver City
yes sir thank you
well thank you Sergeant Morris with 67
years have passed and you didn't skip a
beat you sound great
and thank you for your service sir
my name is Peter Osorio and I'm not even
going to try and follow Sergeant Morris
on that plane so I'm going to get down
to some very specific things one
counselor I beta made a comment and
asked a question about what legal
information is considered by or
G group and so my question would be for
the representative are you aware
that as of the first of this year
New Mexico has changed its justifiable
homicide instruction for criminal cases
and obviously that would be something
that would be
not ninth circuit or tenth circuit but
would be right here and the second I'd
just a question is asked for
clarification
I thought I understood am I correct
that there's absolutely no reason why
the city could not contract with your
group
to do a hybrid
evaluation
where you would be working with a
citizen
entity
if I could get the answers to those
questions
thank you Mr Mayor and Mr rosorio Excuse
me if that's wrong
um yes so to your first question we are
aware of that particular change
to your second question there is no
reason that we could not engage in a
model similar to anaheim's again it is
at the discretion of your City to create
whatever is appropriate for you
I think that takes care of
you
and see Liz I think did you use up your
three minutes I don't think so okay well
I'll give you one minute okay so uh the
chief can you state your name again Liz
Rodriguez Johnson the chief answer the
first part of my question but he didn't
answer the second I said if there is no
citizen representation on the Cadre then
why
foreign
again what the Cadre would be doing
mayor
Cadre
looks at our use of force uh incidents
there's not a a civilian that's part of
that Cadre as there isn't civilian
that's part of our internal
investigations as well they could lead
to discipline and that's uh that's
pretty much my
okay
Liz I I'll tell you this much and this
is why a lot of times different boards
are challenges for various local
governments
especially if it involves hiring or
firing or something any type of
disciplinary because sometimes those
members could be could be there could be
litigation they could be sued and the
city can't defend them there was a in
fact that's the reason why the animal
services board at one time was going to
allow non-members to be on that board
but then that issue came up and so
instead of having non-members they
allowed just various members of the
county to sit in there but they had to
be employees because of that one of the
biggest reasons so I understand what
you're saying and and and to many of you
who came up here
I understand your your sentiments but
please rest assured that
you won't have the complete information
just what you see what you hear and what
you read in the in in the in the paper
we have the other side of it and granted
my colleagues and I understand what the
men women of Las Vegas Police Department
go through and what they're dealing with
and what they have to deal with
it and and we have information that we
make those judgments when we do if we
have to settle cases
um and that's a tough job I understand
and there's unfortunately there's people
who do get hurt but I just want you to
know that it's not it doesn't go
unchallenged
I want you to be aware of that
okay as I think that concludes
uh ma'am you're gonna have to I I you
definitely went over your time
so
um yeah yeah well I think we I think we
I think we answered that so okay so that
concludes this part now we're going to
go to the Las Cruces Police Department
update
thank you are you going to stick around
for that or you're you're done yeah okay
thank you Teresa
so it looks like it says Chief Dominguez
is going to be uh doing that part or are
you going to delegate that
foreign
good afternoon everybody police chief
Miguel Dominguez for the record thank
you for the opportunity to present our
Police Department update in this
presentation we'll be providing some
statistical information as well as the
interworkings of some of our sections
and some of the great work that our
officers and our civilians are doing on
a daily basis I I need to say this
before I forget I'm proud of every
single one of them that worked for us
they do an exceptional job under a lot
of duress at times and
I wish that people would go on
ride-alongs and see exactly the
difficulty that it is to be a police
officer proud of every single one of
them but thank you
thank you
I'm going to begin with our LCPD
Personnel right now we have 169
commissioned officers the uh these are
actually officers that are actually on
the street right now we have more on
paper but they're on extended leave for
for various reasons military leave and
leaves of absence things of that nature
so we're in the we're closer to uh
almost 180 but we're at 169 actual
workers that are hidden or hitting the
streets every day
our 52nd LCPD Academy is currently in
session we're about to graduate 18 in
April
we also have a lateral Academy that
begins in mid-march which will have six
officers so combine the 52nd Academy as
well as the lateral officers will be 20
24 officers that should be hitting the
field training uh in April and that's
going to be a big help for us
our 53rd LCPD Academy is set to begin
July 2023 I believe it's July 16th we're
shooting for about 25 officers or 25
Cadets in that Academy we currently have
over 200 applicants some unique uh
things that we're doing with the 53rd
Academy we're trying to increase our
graduation rate so we're actually going
to be hiring uh these uh these Cadets
before the actual beginning date which
would be in July typically what we do is
they go through a series of training of
tests they take a written test a
physical test they have to pass a
background oral uh or a
um psychological tests and they have to
pass an oral board and then once they
make uh make it all those uh all those
tests then they all get hired pretty
much at the same time what we're doing
this year is we're trying to get uh get
them uh hired by June so that we can
indoctrinate them into the account into
the department we'll be uh letting them
do shifts of or shifting them throughout
the different sections that we have so
they can learn a little bit of the inner
workings of the department may also be
uh involved getting getting used to
working with the systems there's a lot
of new technology that comes along with
being a police officer nowadays and
getting them access and exposed to this
type of uh equipment will hopefully uh
increase the graduation rate they'll
enter the academy the ideas with a
little bit better understanding of what
it is to be a police officer and uh and
again give them some sort of confidence
before they actually enter the
department we have a couple we have
actually uh one of our Cadets in the
52nd Academy is
a former civilian employee she's doing
quite well and then a couple of
academies ago we had another one of our
civilian employees enter the academy
we've received feedback from both of
them and they know that they they
entered the academy a little bit more
confident and knowing that uh knowing
that the or knowing the inner workings
of the of the department so we're hoping
again to increase our graduation rate
excuse me
and chief didn't isn't this aren't you
hiring or didn't you recruit some with
um
degrees in Psychology or social
psychology or sociology or those type of
Sciences that's correct mayor we're
actually paying incentives for uh for
that type of degree sociology psychology
criminology and criminal justice we're
paying incentives for it
our 13 code officers and six Animal
Control Officers there uh these are the
actual number of officers that they have
on the street right now they're both
short and they need a uh some um we're
in the hiring process to get a few more
uh hired on but they are working uh a
large amount of of calls or service over
20 000 with that amount of officers so
we are uh trying to expedite that
process so we can get them out
especially the code officers well both I
shouldn't uh differentiate they're both
getting overworked right now so we need
to try to get as many officers as
possible Out There Our Police Service
aides uh thank you to city council and
you mayor for allowing us to hire more
Police Service aides we are actually in
the process of uh hiring more uh to
fulfill those those 12 positions they've
been a huge help in allowing us uh or in
taking a lot of non-entry crashes things
of that nature small small reports that
they're able to report or go to and take
the really they really help us out and
uh and increase our officers time to be
actually be on the street our 83
civilian uh civilians that were working
for us and all in various capacities
we're very proud of them and and the
support that they provide our officers
uh we couldn't do it without them so I
need to I need to give them a shout out
and let them know that we do appreciate
their uh their assistance
or 22 2022 calls for service was 136 280
and currently through January was at 22
507 officer our call service both of
those numbers equate to about 13 calls
per hour or minimum Staffing for patrol
right now is swells who
take take those numbers and see that
it's putting the culture service are
really putting a heavy Demand on our on
our current uh Patrol model that's why
we're asking for a few uh a few more
officers to help through the budget uh
process to help out with uh with these
calls for service uh types of calls for
service 64 of our calls for service are
one officer calls 36 percent obviously
multiple officer calls to be more
specific eight percent are two officer
calls and uh and it goes on and on up to
you know 10 12 officer calls depending
on the incident but uh again so that uh
13 calls per uh per hour can really
really take a Lo a toll on our minimum
Staffing
our incident reports or 23 709 currently
we're at 3 304. those numbers align with
our 2021 numbers
and our online reports are 1026 and 105.
this is uh this area we've uh we're
exploring opportunities to increase our
ability to provide different types of
reports that can be taken online
currently there's 11 types of reports
that can be filed
vandalisms of there's a few codes office
uh queue codes types of reports ACO
allowed animals type of reports but
we're looking at increasing the number
of reports that can be filed online
which will free up officer time as well
there's uh there's it was mentioned at
Ohio as far as our transparency page
there is there is so much more
information that we can get out there
and we need to get out there we have the
information we're working hand in hand
with our Pio office who manages our our
website to get as much information as we
can I I agree with them 100 we need to
put out more transparency-wise we have
the information we're just working
through the process right now so with
most of that stuff should be coming out
very very soon
these are the 2022 numbers fighting
crime up uh or violent crime uh 2021 saw
large increases in robberies and
aggravated assaults which resulted in
about a 15 percent increase in uh
violent crime in 2021 2022 flattened out
for us we had decreases decreases in
both robberies and agassaults which
obviously led us to uh zero percent
increase we were we stayed flat we're
glad with those numbers but we could
always get better we need to continue
working on uh on our uh
on our Intel to get a lot of this
information out specifically where
robberies the robberies spikes and rock
or spikes in robberies uh had a lot to
do with drug issues we know that because
the some of the items were actually
being stolen was those drugs they would
say I just somebody just robbed me and
took my drugs
um so that that's actually happened so
um we're working uh hand in hand with
Metro narcotics to to get get to the
bottom of these and we know uh through
Intel that we know there's a few uh
people that are victimizing people uh
consistently and uh again working
working together with our investigative
sections to bring these numbers down but
2022 was flat for our violent crime
there's the trend uh The Five-Year Trend
as you can see the spike from 2020 to
2021 was pretty significant uh we're
glad that the number leveled off but we
need to get back to uh numbers closer to
the 2018.
property crime was a different issue
however we had a 27 percent increase in
uh in property crime burglaries saw a
large increase burglaries the number
listed here includes commercial
burglaries residential burglaries and
non-residential burglaries
the the they all showed significant
increase I have a different slide in a
little bit that'll break them down a
little bit further but those uh we we're
seeing uh large spikes in the area of
about June July last year uh we put a
lot of a lot of effort a lot of man
hours to go in there and and combat
specifically the commercial property
using technology uh such as our camera
trailers as well as drone systems things
of that nature to to Really drag these
numbers down uh November and October and
December saw significant increases in
commercial burglaries for example as
well as vehicle thefts which were at uh
fifth or uh I'm sorry uh Auto burglaries
which were at a 10 increase through
through October uh through efforts of
our officers and uh specifically the
officers that work in the evening hours
which is the primary hour that hours at
the auto burglaries were occurring they
put a lot of work into it and were able
to bring that number down from 10
percent to one percent increase so these
uh these uh initiative strategies that
we'll be talking about a little bit
further with in the in the presentation
are having an effect our vehicle thefts
uh completely uh ballooned up on us uh
we have a very large increase and our
officers uh
continue to working on on projects and
and strategies to to mitigate the issues
with vehicle theft uh although we did
have 939 incidents of vehicle theft we
do uh
recover about 68 of those uh which is a
phenomenal recovery rate we've we locate
many of those Vehicles still within the
county the majority of them are within
the county or we found uh we find them
in Texas we team up with the vehicle
theft task force to El Paso PD has and
we're able to collaborate and and get uh
get to known chop shops and things of
that nature as well with the county we
work in hand in hand with them because
they have a large vehicle theft problem
as well
there's our five-year trend for property
crime
you could see the large Spike that we
had we've put together many many
strategies uh to and and initiatives to
try to drive these crime rates down
and let me show you this slide first and
see who this is the way they broke down
individual uh
individual crimes the residential
burglaries you can see the commercial
burglaries we had several people come
city council and discuss uh the issues
that they were seeing commercial
burglary wives and they were correct we
were seeing large increases uh
specifically in the in the middle part
of the of the Year again October
November December saw small decreases in
commercial burglaries they were still at
a point where uh uh you know that drove
us to the 76 percent Mark there the Otto
Burgers as I mentioned earlier were at
10 percent uh increased through October
through uh through our officer's work
and uh and strategies they're able to
bring this number down to 201
vehicle thefts again were significantly
High these crimes were happening uh and
not one specific area they're pretty
much spread throughout the entire city
with the exact with the exception of
commercial burglaries which were
happening uh pretty much Solano where
Solano to the to the river if you will
that's where we're seeing most of our
commercial burglaries but all the other
thefts that we have there uh res are all
the other burglaries and auto thefts
were scattered throughout the city
for the preliminary numbers in
2023 we started off the year really bad
the first two weeks again we started
showing the same same Trends as the year
before uh we we had a plan in place to
implement many of our initiatives to uh
targeting hot spots things of that
nature evidence-based uh type of
initiatives we implemented them
probably halfway between uh where it was
actually January 15th 16th which is the
the time frame that we use during that
uh that time frame from January 15th
through uh 20 or February 24th I'm sorry
we've been able to drive those numbers
down significantly uh right now through
February the 24th our Auto burglaries
have gone down significantly we're now
at 11 percent our burglaries
commercial residential non-residential
are nine nine percent and our Auto
thefts are actually showing a negative
right now we're at a negative 10 uh when
you break it down through the time frame
of our projects that we've uh
implemented uh uh we'll we'll present uh
some of those strategies and initiatives
here in a little bit but during that
time frame we're actually at negative 20
percent uh vehicle thefts and both
autobergs and burglaries in general are
all in single digits at five percent so
the work is it's it's it's happening and
we're we're actually proud of a lot of
the work that's being put out there it's
a it's a department-wide strategy so
hopefully we can continue on with that
uh in that trajectory to keep these
numbers down
our next slide uh traffic or is our
traffic section which will be covered by
uh Deputy Chief story as well as some of
our initiatives and strategies at which
time will will make a stop and we're
going to make several stops throughout
this uh presentation to allow for
questions
good afternoon again Jeremy story deputy
chief operations with LCPD
the first slide you see
up here is going to be our traffic
section the numbers is just a comparison
from 2021 to 2022 you see that there's
an increase just under 10 across all
three categories of crashes
um that increases concerning to us we've
had a lot of discussion about pedestrian
safety and other things related to it so
it's definitely not a trend we want to
see continue I want to take a moment to
explain the traffic study process
because that you guys get a lot of
complaints in that area and it'd be good
for the public to know kind of how that
works so when we receive a complaint
either at the police department or one
of you guys receives a complaint he gets
sent to us we initiate a traffic study
and the point of the traffic study is to
get data and evidence so we can make
decisions to allocate our resources
based on severity and need so we
generally place a data recorder box
which gathers all the data for what's
going on in that area for at least a
week many times much longer and that
answers three important questions for us
one is there a problem two how bad is
the problem and three what days and what
times is the problem occurring most so
if we turn it into an enforcement
project we can now pick the dates of the
days of the week and the times to have
the biggest impact
we also use our traffic trailers which
is the trailers where you see the posted
speed limit and then the speed that
you're traveling as you pass by as a
part of this those have a deterrent
effect in and of themselves they tend to
reduce the amount of speeding by
themselves and then they also record
data so we're able to compare the time
when the trailer is there when the time
the uh the times when the trailer is not
and we have pole mounted systems that do
the same and then the enforcement
projects are generated based on either
traffic study results or from Crash data
in high crash areas
it's been a while on this one obviously
the chief just presented the crime
numbers were concerned with the crime
numbers the citizens the businesses and
of course Council and City management
there's concerned with the crime numbers
they're not what we want to see that
being said there's many things that are
with that are outside the control of the
police department and are outside the
control of the city of Las Cruces as a
whole we can't focus on those what we've
decided is we're going to do everything
that's within our power to impact these
numbers
so over the past three months there's
been a lot of foundation being laid a
lot of groundwork all the operations
lieutenants have received a lot of
training and their ability to pull data
themselves process that data get the
variables they want the city's GIS folks
have been very gracious they've come
into the police department several times
it's been hours with us training Us and
how to use arcgis
helping with discussion and then
developing products to help us respond
to Trends faster and again use evidence
to drive our decision making
the first bullet point is
department-wide proactive crime
reduction strategy all these other uh
individual projects underneath that are
very important and they're having an
effect but it has to be under the
umbrella of a department-wide philosophy
and crime reduction and that philosophy
has to be based on evidence and what we
know Works fortunately there's hundreds
if not thousands of studies that have
been done throughout the United States
and the world and although there's
different variables in these different
jurisdictions we see the same Trends so
we have a good idea of what tends to
work in most places and we can use that
as a framework and then adapt to our
city from there and that's what we've
we've done now that that Foundation has
been laid our shift lieutenants have
developed an individual shift proactive
project so each shift is different
because they face different challenges
and crimes during their times and they
have different uh locations in the city
that might be problems during their
shift times but all three shifts have
been going full force since the middle
of January all the way through February
and that's one of the things that we're
seeing with these results that are
encouraging granted it's a month's worth
of data so it's a small sample size but
I think it's important to celebrate the
efforts that of the officers that are
out there doing it The Joint agency
operations we're currently in a
multi-month joint agency operation with
the New Mexico State Police again using
data to Target specifically stolen
vehicles hot spots in different areas of
the city and then they're also looking
at offenders that are repeat offenders
that commit a disproportionate amount of
the crime in the city
the collaborative projects with the
community I don't want to steal the
Thunder of community outreach in our
community Advocates because they're a
big part of this and they're going to
talk more about it but it's a
recognition that in order to solve these
problems we have to work with our
businesses and our residents and have a
problem solving mentality that's not
just call to call trying to solve an
individual call but looking at
underlying problems and working together
just follow
and the last bullet point is the crime
prevention education campaigns the
reality is if tomorrow we woke up and
people stop leaving their vehicle
running with keys in it lock their doors
and remove their valuables our primary
our property crime rate would drop
drastically now that doesn't mean any of
them deserve to be victims it doesn't
but it does mean that if they did those
things their chances of being a victim
would be drastically reduced so we're
working aggressively with our Pio to
develop campaigns to get the word out
that people need to understand that this
is a problem most people being
victimized are leaving the doors
unlocked leaving the car running
unattended or leaving valuables where
people can see them in the vehicle and
so if we can get people to stop doing
those things it would help us reduce the
crime in the city and prevent crime
the door hanger campaign it goes along
with all these projects you see the door
hangers are a part of it
um but they're kind of large I've gotten
comments that they're a little bigger
than they need to be but one side of
Spanish one side is English there's a
lot of information essentially they're
used if for instance if a day shift
officer sees a vehicle running in the
morning unattended and they can't make
contact with the the owner they can
leave this on the windshield one know
that we're looking out and two it offers
a lot of prevention tips and just
reminds them that this is a problem that
they need to be careful because they
could be victimized because of it we can
also leave them at places where there's
not problems and there's a box that says
prop no problems noted thank you for
securing your property and helping
everyone be safer in reducing our crime
this slide really Echoes a lot of stuff
already said so I know it's already
getting late uh the community policing
initiatives I will hit on that committee
policing has been along around long
enough where it means different things
to different people so I'll try to use a
very basic definition that when we say
community policing we mean the
recognition that one the police are part
of the community the community is a
police and we have to work together to
solve crime and solve problems and
that's through building trust and
through dialogue with the community
members
intelligence meetings there was a time
during covid where those kind of
diminish or stop they're back back in
full force that's just to share
intelligence amongst criminal justice
partners
problem oriented projects or policing is
again solving the underlying problems
instead of just individual call for
service the chief already mentioned
online reporting if we can increase that
that reduces or frees up officers for
other things
and then using our technology to assist
as well
the mental health initiatives there's a
lot of dialogue that's been back and
forth on this I want to just talk about
current initiatives the crisis triage
Center opened in July of 2021 since then
until the end of January there's been
207 law enforcement drop-offs total
between all agencies
188 of those were LCPD so it's 90
approximately 91
myself and Sergeant McCord had a meeting
with Jamie Michaels the staff at the
Christ Church Center Karina and her
staff are our International along with
other law enforcement Partners last week
and that dialogue actually was very
fruitful we we kind of had an epiphany
about ways that we can increase the use
of the CTC and relatively soon and
ultimately get more people to the CTC
instead of an emergency room which is
ultimately best for everybody involved
the 988 youth Patrol campaign
the 988 system is relatively new so
there's an education or awareness Gap I
think that exists just like probably
with the 911 system in the 60s
there's a lot of things going on with
the people that run 908 are involved to
try to shorten the that Gap but for our
part what we try to do is uh our CIT
folks have trained all of our Patrol
Personnel provided just simple wallet
cards so when they're at a call that's
involving mental health or somebody
who's in crisis they can provide this
information so that they know the
resource exists they can get basic
information know that there's someone
they can call 24 7 that there's a
resource that actually can come to them
if needed or even transport them to the
CTC without ever calling 9-1-1
and I believe at this point we'll stand
for questions on the first part
I wish you guys had just finished the
whole thing and then questions at the
end but that's okay counselor Graham and
councilman Copeland
uh
mine's an easy question I think
okay so feel free to laugh at me for not
knowing this robbery means someone's
taking my stuff like off of my person
like off of me robbery is the taking of
anything of value through force or
threatened use of force so it involves
either a threat of force or some type of
force that you used to take something of
value whether it's from your person or a
business it could be an individual or a
business
if that if that makes yes but that's
what differentiates it from burglary
that's why it's a violent crime as
opposed to a non-violent crime mayor
councilgram that's correct thank you
councilman Como
all right you want to go to this part
two
our next presenter will be deputy chief
Sean Nolan
also known as the lawyer
we we accidentally confused or I did and
I thought he was the lawyer when he came
in closed session so anyways
the response tends to be the same no
matter either way good afternoon
everyone Sean Mullen deputy chief
Administration Las Cruces Police
Department I will be taking over this
portion of the presentation
regarding investigation so as you can
see from the slide investigations an
intelligent line of business provides
timely and accurate intelligence
for our Justice Partners we can
investigate solve and prosecute crimes
within our investigations unit we have
our criminal investigations section
which is run by Lieutenant Peter Bradley
below him we have three Sergeants
We additionally have 14 detectives who
conduct these investigations as well as
two computer forensic officers
our Metro narcotics unit composed of a
sergeant and five agents as well as our
intelligence unit with two crime
analysts and a record specialist
so
just go into a quick uh description of
these sections our Metro narcotics unit
is their primary focus is to combat the
drug trafficking and the dealing here in
Las Cruces and doniana County it's
comprised of our excuse me Las Cruces
Police Department Dona County Sheriff's
Office as well as New Mexico State
Police
our intelligence unit if you scoot down
to the bottom of the page here they do a
collaboration with our investigative
unit and our records section where they
review Reports look for Trends and
identifiable means where we can follow
up on some of this information in a
timely manner and try and get a quick
response
look at our clearance rates these are as
standards from the FBI as you can see
across the board just so everyone knows
if they can't read the bottom LCPD is in
blue
so as you can see from all the
categories from the standard Reporting
System we are ahead of not only the
nation but also our region as far as
clearing cases
murders at 100 sexual assault 53 robbery
38 aggravated battery 56 burglary 20
felony larceny 23 and motor vehicle
theft 25 percent
Metro narcotics so for 2022 there were
381 call outs and the majority of these
call outs were for a Narcotics related
either methamphetamine or fentanyl and
of those 380 caught one call outs that
were 381 arrests 113 of these arrests
were for fentanyl I have on the slide
additional 30 pending what that means is
that these 30 cases are still pending
lab results so we cannot charge based
off of preliminary information
confirmation from a lab
39 search warrants were executed in 26
undercover operations
and these operations for undercover
they're run in donana County as well as
throughout the state of New Mexico we
partner with New Mexico State Police
Caesars seizures excuse me
as you can see uh
from this slide fennel pills were the
largest category or one of the largest
categories excuse me that with
methamphetamine so 71 and a half pounds
of methamphetamine cocaine came in at
nine pounds almost uh just over 69 000
fentanyl pills
420 grams apparent and just for that's
just almost under excuse me that's
almost a pound for those who are
wondering
and marijuana
in addition to 88 Firearms next slide
has some photos try and give you some
visual
so on this slide if you look on the top
right
that is methamphetamine
approximately five pounds if I'm not
mistaken
on the bottom right you can see in the
little blue bags those are pills those
are fentanyl
and then you have methamphetamine in
there as well
these are all seizures and recoveries
from the Las Cruces Estonian County
Metro narcotics unit they're doing a
fine an outstanding job from what I see
and chief would agree with you on that
if you look at the top left the seizure
alone was over 30 guns 31 guns as well
as ten thousand dollars in cash on one
stop this agent is being recognized
nationally for his hard work and it's
we're very proud of them in the work
they're doing
and I've included this slide for some
educational purposes for those who do
not know I know throughout the years
everyone's heard marijuana cocaine
methamphetamine and everything else but
fentanyl is relatively new to those who
are unaware of it so fentanyl is an
extremely powerful synthetic opioid it's
about 50 times stronger than heroin and
100 times stronger than morphine another
two two types excuse me of fentanyl
there's that which is a pharmaceutical
grade and is produced in a pharmacy or
from Pharmacy companies and it's used
for medical purposes cancer heavy
surgeries it may be prescribed then you
have illicitly manufactured fentanyl
which is what we're running into on the
streets and in our daily work and that
is the kind that's clearly made
illegally it's often added to other dogs
drugs to increase its potency it's very
addictive properties and it's a very low
cost so right now we're looking at
supply and demand issue so previously
fentanyl pills were going for about it
depends 10 five dollars a pill we've
seen it drop off but now that the supply
is so great and they're still relatively
a demand there they're even cheaper and
so it's more becoming more of a
prevalent drug in our area and that's
why we're seeing so much use in it and
what's being reported to us through the
agents and the officers who you see
behind me who are on the streets running
into this stuff on a daily basis
so illegal fentanyl is available in
powder and liquid forms which are laced
in other drugs just like
we all knew marijuana was a green leafy
substance then it turned into you know a
wax you can Vape it there are many other
ways that people are finding to break
this narcotic down and ingest it
and that's where I'm going to stop Chief
we're going to push right through
mayor can I ask DC Mullen can you hold
for just a second I think they might
have a question too on your presentation
counselor thank you thank you DC Mullins
for the presentation just a couple of
questions your investigation Staffing
are is that are you fully up to staff on
those
mayor councilman Como our investigations
unit is currently staffed for 20
detectives we are sitting at 14 right
now okay and for transparency
I have four that could retire oh so
we're we're constantly pushing for
bodies that sounds bad and I know we
kind of discussed that at uh at the
budget retreat but we're constantly
looking for officers and for folks to
get in there and really help with our
investigative efforts okay thank you
when you say you've made x a rest for
fentanyl for example what do you mean by
that do you mean that you've it's people
were selling fentanyl people
you got a call and someone was using
Fentanyl and you arrested them what does
that mean
mayor councilman Como so those numbers
right there 113 that is physical arrests
for Fentanyl and to break it down for
you that could be either possession of
the narcotic trafficking of the narcotic
things of that nature because our Metro
narcotics unit is the one who we're
charging these there are different
variations just like you've added that
could be related to that I could give
probably find a I shouldn't say it's a
probably I can't find a better breakdown
if that's something you're specifically
interested as far as possession versus
trafficking however it all deals on the
quantity of the pills they have if they
have over a certain amount I believe
it's 20 then they charge them with
trafficking instead of just possession
because showing a tent to distribute at
that point Thank you I'd be interested
in that I honestly have learned more
about fentanyl than I would want to know
about fentanyl from officer climack
who's been telling me a lot of these
um stories just about how cheap it is
and all of that so I I would I would
like to see those numbers just to
understand better
um I know that a few months ago I had
seen something
um around there was like
many cases of fentanyl overdoses in El
Paso are we seeing that here as well
councilor become so we do see some
overdoses I was actually trying to
provide those numbers prior to or for
this
um
work session so when you're looking at
deaths the Office of Medical
investigator which oversees the entire
state of New Mexico they were poured out
for the county and it's hard to
differentiate between what exactly is an
OD for fentanyl or another narcotic
until they're back from the lab for
these after an autopsy so we are looking
at that data preliminary numbers from
what I saw in the county or anywhere
between 50 and 100 from what I saw now
these are just drug overdose deaths
we're looking at breaking that down
specifically but we don't have those
numbers yet or I should say I don't have
those numbers yet okay thank you
thank you Marin thank you DC Mullins
um on slide 16 I noticed
um the clearing the case so I'm assuming
from start to finish right is what you
mean by that yes uh excuse me mayor
mayor Pro tem so clearing a case is
exactly that I apologize if I didn't go
into a little bit more detail there so a
case is initially taken by our officers
Patrol and they will classify that case
as being a felony or non-felony from
there the felony cases will go to our
investigations unit Lieutenant Bradley
and his sergeants will review that case
to determine its solvability factors and
how we can proceed forward with that
case based on evidence in the case
Cooperative victims things of that
nature so as you can see from this it
can either be cleared upon arrest where
physical rest is made a warrant is
issued for that individual it's sent
forward for prosecution through a grand
jury of sorts or reported out of
jurisdiction I
someone from Albuquerque was reporting a
crime down here and finally the victim
refuses to press charges
thank you DC moments and so I was
noticing although very high that you
cleared the case around sexual assault
still at 53 percent and when I first got
elected there were all those issues with
pending cases up at um
percent so in Santa Fe is that still the
issue is that why it's still 53 and you
know there was that huge push of getting
those cases that were backed up you know
moving through and making sure that they
were processed and so um is that still
is that I guess the question is why um
just 53 what sort of issues are are
compounding that issue
so we love every one of these categories
to be at 100 sure and unfortunately some
of them uh we just can't get there to a
prosecutable uh case and that could be
because unfortunately we have victims
who are afraid and do not want to
prosecute we have other issues where
there is a Pros a Prosecuting issue
where we don't have a suspect that we're
clearly to identify the
sake kits or the sexual assault evidence
kits which you're referring to those are
sent off that what that issue was
corrected so that's not a current issue
however there's a multitude of reasons
about why we just can't get there
um but we are leading the pack as far as
our region for the mountain region and
the nation as far as getting the ones
that we can and that come across our
desk solve for the best of our ability
and charged and kudos to that I really I
see that your high on most of these
leading the state do you have data that
um
relating to the number of cases that you
send to prosecution
and how many are just pending because of
of various reasons with the District
Attorney's office
so they wouldn't show pending on our
side once we make a clearance on the
case upon arrest or push it forward for
prosecution it's completed on our side
okay so I wouldn't have the number of
pending cases right now as far as what's
at trial or what's pending a prosecution
okay thank you DC moments thank you
appreciate that
good summer thank you okay uh councilor
uh Koran thank you sorry thank you this
is just very specific to what was just
being discussed so if the victim refuses
to plus press charges that also counts
as cleared right correct okay thank you
just wanted to make sure I understood
that
okay uh the uh this email and I have
just a couple questions so
regarding the detectives do you
allow or do you would you consider
hiring private detectives
to help out
so we do not contract uh private
detectives for the Department
um
and the I guess the private sector that
we do contract that helps our caseload
is that instead of doing background
investigations internal we do contract
with a background company to try to
alleviate some of the workload on our
investigation section for that
specifically but not on criminal charges
they need to be a commissioned officer
to charge and the next one would be if
you were to write a public service ad
for Fentanyl and meth or fentanyl I have
your meth fentanyl how would you how
would you do that and I think I think
I'm kind of like counselor Ben Cuomo I
hear a lot about it and I even see where
some people accidentally or unknowingly
somehow get fentanyl and and I I see the
pills that you have but I don't know how
people could accidentally get it I don't
know what I mean what are you seeing or
what are you hearing
uh Mr Mayor so the scary part about this
is that there's there's no easy way to
tell if your drugs are actually laced
with fentanyl there's no smell there's
no you know me identifiable color that's
related to it some states have gone as
far as to provide fentanyl test strips
where if you are a Narcotics user you
could buy these test strips and test
your drugs prior to consumption to
determine if it is laced with fentanyl
but even then the accuracy of those
varies depending on which ones you get
as far as a public safety campaign
um I don't think I would need to create
one there's already plenty of smart
people who have done those and made
those uh mayor Pro tem has afforded
information on not only from the Ad
Council but if you look at the DEA or
any of these other large organizations
they have bad campaigns and and we
piggyback off of their efforts because
it's very informative and
okay so I think you you helped me
understand that so the ones who are
instantly getting it they're taking
other drugs it's not they're just not
you know it never Finds Its way into a
legal Pharmacy or anything like that I
mean it seemed like it was just so the
the little information I'd hear it
seemed like they were just innocently
and somehow it's in there and I'm like
oh my goodness this is really bad here
so so you're saying those who are buying
other stuff sometimes these
Bad actors put put lace it with this
fentanyl is that what I'm hearing Mr
Mayor that's correct so okay we do have
those who disingest it because they want
fentanyl however some uh I guess dealers
if you would call them or manufacturers
of this illicit fentanyl do lace it into
other drugs to increase its potency
people are looking or chasing that great
or high and unfortunately because it is
50 times stronger than heroin and 100
times stronger than morphine it it can
end your life
got it okay thanks
all right thank you
good afternoon mayor city council Rob
Gutierrez Lieutenant of internal affairs
so in this presentation of internal
affairs I am the lieutenant I have a
sergeant and two investigators that work
inside of internal affairs that do
internal investigations I also have a
compliance sergeant who has an officer
working for him an r d specialist who
handles our policies and procedures
and that's that comprises of internal
affairs
let me go forward so internal Affair has
we have Ida Ida's which are internal
investigations
external investigations category One
external investigations Category 2 and
external investigations category three
now
the closeout rate we're going by a month
for January we closed out too and I Ida
Ida's internal investigations we closed
out one category one complaint and we
closed out a category three complaint
in February we closed out three category
one complaints which are formal
investigations and I'll get back to that
um
in March we closed out eight
uh category one complaints formal
investigations again April we closed out
One internal investigation two uh
category ones
and then we go to May two internal
investigations were closed out or Ida
Ida's one category one once again a
formal investigation then we go to June
we closed out one category three
complaint
going to July One internal investigation
was closed down to category one
investigations August four category one
investigations and two category three
investigations September One internal
investigation
closed out one category one then we go
into October three
category ones closed out two category
threes
now for November we had four category
ones closed out
and December fourth category ones closed
out now I'm going to explain I know
there was a question earlier internal
investigations come internally either
somebody saw something and the chief
improved an investigation so that is a
formal investigation it's going to
involve several officers or just one but
we are going to interview Witnesses and
go through the videos and do a complete
formal investigation category ones
external investigations those are where
people come up and say that this
particular policy was violated and we
it's gonna it's gonna involve more than
one person we're going to have to
interview the witnesses interview the
complainant exactly what happened and
then the focus officer on that a
category two
the easiest way to explain it is I want
you as the supervisor I'm the citizen
complaining to the supervisor I didn't
feel this was right you need to talk to
the officer about it it's not really a
policy violation he just doesn't like
that traffic set up a motorcycle or a
radar trailer in the middle of the road
and it caught him speeding he didn't get
a ticket he didn't get anything but he
wanted it known that he didn't like that
okay so it's not really a formal
investigation it's we did that for a
reason all right category threes there
is really no legitimate complaint and
we're not actually pinpointing an
officer somebody could say that a blue
LCPD car was speeding on I-25
and that's all the information they had
oh and it happened on a on a Saturday at
about one o'clock in the afternoon
that's all the information they give us
um really nowhere to go with it no
specific complaint no specific officer
and no specific way to find out how or
who that officer was or if anything
actually even occurred
okay and most of the time he had his
lights on he's going to a call and he
was speeding you know he was doing 50
and a 45 or 35 mile an hour zone so
hopefully that explains the the c3s
on that
make sure I'm going the right way
so
from the research and development side
and our oir group 25 cases have been
sent to oir not within their time frame
that they reported earlier this is
throughout the entire year the reviews
mainly positive they've improved a lot
of our processes we've updated several
policies
changes that were implemented on the
policies and wherever we could has
corrected the language we had online
training Refreshers somebody had asked
how instant the training is the online
training working through the academy
happens almost instantly within a week
there was a concern about a time frame
usually no more than 30 days from when
we're informed of the incident something
will happen as far as training online
training or training bulletin or some
supervisor is going to be notified and
they're they'll hold it in their
briefings okay they'll inform all the
officers of what's going on and what
needs to happen or maybe even just
reading the policy maybe it was just a
misunderstanding on their part but
either way it is taken care of very very
quickly policy revisions for last year
there was 15 policy updates and one
policy was actually created now blue
team updates once again these are
continual annual update it's because we
can't just sit idle things change we
need more information you need more
information and we need a way to compile
those statistics so we implemented a
little bit of tracking oer wanted zip
codes we included that now they want
race type you know Hispanic Caucasian
whatever the case may be we implemented
that whether the officer Cit
a show of force was used the use of
force details all that has been enhanced
we're asking for more so we can provide
you with more
de-escalation efforts are now part of
the blue teams did the officer have the
chance uh and if not why not okay same
questions that you all have we're asking
the officers to answer those for us
so we are paying attention to those
and that ends
my my part of it and we'll have DC story
unless we have questions
Lieutenant can you go back to the last I
think that's pretty impressive no the
one where it had that number of hours
looks like you know one more I guess
oh
yeah that's going to be the next side
sorry
that
back up again Jeremy's story DC of
operations the before I get into the uh
training I kind of want to give the
overview of what the training entails
the different types of training because
I think that will help answer a lot of
questions so there's four main types of
training that are done within the
department or law enforcement in general
the first is basic training that's our
Academy Level Training the Nexus field
training that's the field training
program after you graduate the academy
before you're on your own as a police
officer then we have in-service training
by in-service training I mean training
that's required by all officers to
complete during a given year or a given
two-year period and then the last one is
Advanced Training Advanced Training
training that either we bring in we host
a company or an entity to come in and
provide training and not every officer
may go through the training we put on
our own Advanced trainings and then we
also send officers to courses throughout
the country for Advanced Training and so
Advanced Training against officers you
may have a high number of officers that
go through a class or it may only be a
handful depending on what the class is
so this first slide is dealing with
basic training academy Level Training
it's contrasting what's required by the
New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy and
then what is currently this these
numbers are from the 52nd Academy which
graduates in April
New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy is a
677 hour program all the satellite
academies which we are one of them
require they require that we at least do
that curriculum we can add hours to any
of the categories we can add additional
classes but we have to do at least the
basic curriculum and we add ours and we
add classes so there's a lot that I
could put here I try to break it down
with some of the the topics that tend to
come up more the emphasis is on
scenario-based training as much as
possible every Academy we increase the
number or the amount of scenario-based
training we do and in every one of those
topics domestic violence use of force
CIT or communication skills there is a
scenario based component to it and so
some of them for instance domestic
violence there's two full days of
scenarios and then later in the academy
during Patrol scenarios which is three
full days 30 hours you do additional
domestic violence same thing with CIT
scenarios and in that one we actually
hire actors that are paid actors that's
what they do um has it not for their
main job but as a secondary thing to
provide role-playing for the department
and then we also do CIT scenarios at the
end during Patrol scenarios I'm just
giving you overview the the big takeaway
I want to relay is that our Academy now
is structured to provide training in an
evidence-based fashion not what's
convenient and easy what's convenient
and easy is structuring how most
academies are structured which is if I
have 40 hours of price intervention I do
my 40 hours all in one week and I move
on which is horrible for retention which
ultimately is what matters when we say
learning we mean retention if the
officer knows it at 100 at the end of
that week but six months in the job
can't retain any of it or very little it
doesn't do us any good so everything is
structured to enhance retention and
transfer to a real world environment
which is what officers deal with every
day
this right here is a slide of all LCPD
required in service again in Services
training that's required by all officers
this does not include what's mandated by
the state through statute or through the
New Mexico Administrative Code those
classes are given because we're required
to do those we're going to do those
that's annually we're required to do
domestic violence ensuring child safety
a missing person Amber Alert tourniquet
and child abuse I don't think I said
child abuse we have to do those every
year every two years in a biennium cycle
we also have to do hate crimes
interacting with persons with mental
impairment
Firearms smst or DWI refresher legal
update
I think that's it so outside of those
those are a given these are the classes
at the Las Cruces Police Department
required all officers to complete in
2022. the first one is legal Trends and
use of force we brought in an attorney
out of California and a very well-known
Law Firm who's very experienced in
litigation with law enforcement agencies
she presented two full days to officers
and then there was a session for City
for command level at the department and
then other City personnel
Duty intervene was taught to all
officers de-escalation last year in 2020
we did an in-person class last year we
did an actual course that's on our
online Merchant management system
we did a defensive tactics refresher
that was structured in four one hour
blocks instead of all at four hours
again to increase retention and transfer
active shooter response scenarios high
risk stops CPR AED was half the
department and then the other half
you'll see we'll do it this year and
then briefing trains we do a lot of
briefing trainings and I wasn't going to
put all of them on here but some notable
ones were the crisis Tree Arts Center
and Messina Valley Hospital came in
which was helpful to help clarify some
things for officers and we saw a very
noticeable increase in CTC use after
those briefing trainings
so that was in service advanced training
in 2022 these are all classes we hosted
so this is not an all-inclusive list
these are all classes that we didn't
conduct ourselves that we brought in
from other companies and entities the
first two were the same company blue to
Gold apologies
blue to gold is a fairly well-known Law
Enforcement Training company it's mostly
attorneys that teach it and specifically
in search and seizure so they came in
and taught two classes we then brought
in another company for New Mexico search
and seizure because as you know New
Mexico law is different than most States
and we're very uh restrictive compared
to the fourth amendment in general this
class is an excellent class we brought
them in twice last year we plan on
bringing them in at least twice this
year and then they're also the week that
our Cadets graduate this Academy next
month they'll have a full eight hour
class in addition to everything they've
already done the academy specifically on
New Mexico search and seizure
we brought in a company for that was
approved by the doj for interpersonal
skills for law enforcement the same
company taught the escalation instructor
which was a part of our grant
Force encounters analysis a company
called Human Performance Institute came
in and did that we did two field
training classes one for ftos one for
supervisors and fto and then excellence
in police training is a class that we
brought in that is essentially uh
focus on evidence-based instruction for
police and what's the best practices and
how do we support that with data and
randomized control studies which there's
a lot of that information out there now
what is planned or already been done in
2023 for in-service so de-escalation our
first class which is a classroom or
lecture based class with some
interaction and dialogue between
students was already completed those
sessions were in January and February
and have been completed we also have
scheduled de-escalation scenarios those
are scenarios reality-based training or
whatever term you want to use quarterly
and the first one was already completed
in January the first quarter
here in Cincinnati training for law
enforcement that class has actually been
two years in the making because of covid
and trying to coordinate with Roger Robb
from the New Mexico commission for the
death and hard of hearing it was and
he's out of Albuquerque so it's
difficult to get everything done but
that class is actually this in March so
those sessions will be done in March and
he will be coming in to teach that class
and then like the chief alludes we have
a sergeant who has been teaching this
topic in our Academy for many years who
will be co-teaching just to give the law
enforcement perspective how that might
present to us along with Mr Rob
fair and impartial policing refresher
will be done this year use of force
refresher the other half of the officer
for officers for CPR duty to intervene
will be done again and then a separate
de-escalation course for subject control
and essentially that's focused on when
we do have to use Force what's the
de-escalation process from there just
because we have to use Force doesn't
mean there's not things we can do to
ensure that it doesn't escalate any
further than it needs to and that's will
be in a few months
some advanced classes that we are either
hosting I'll point out the ones that we
run inside or internally
coming up again in March this next month
we have three classes from Blue to Gold
bulletproof report writing duty to
intervene and real world de-escalation
so that's there'll be a lot of officers
that go through that that will not be
the entire department and it's
identified based on need either by
assignment or through potential issues
that have been seen in other in their
other incidents to just provide
additional training and correct Behavior
we'll run another Advanced CIT course
which we tend to do every year the
exception of 2020 we ran one last year
as well
supervising Patrol critical incidents
it's a class as part of our supervisor
training program which is a whole other
topic and I don't want to talk forever
but that class was done in January
already of this year
already said we're going to bring in at
least two more New Mexico search and
seizure classes all of our supervisors
and a lot of officers have already
attended but the goal is by the end of
this year or early next year to have
every officer attend this full class and
then do refresh your training frequently
and then that same company for New
Mexico advanced search and seizure which
applies a lot more to investigations
some of the things that they have to be
concerned with that the patrol officer
normally does not need to concern
themselves with the supervisor legal
liability course was run last week
that's a company called Legal liability
Risk Management Institute
primarily attorneys in that company
there are some law enforcement retired
Law Enforcement Officers but that class
was last week was a two-day class that
all supervisors including our non-sworn
supervisors attended
and it's exactly what it sounds like
use of force instructor from fletchi the
federal law enforcement training center
that class is scheduled for June that's
a two-week course in use of force
review and so all of the Cadre that
keeps getting alluded to will go through
that class along with several other
officers that hopefully eventually will
make their way into the Cadre but an
excellent class that we're fortunate to
host and then basic criminal
investigations for new investigators or
any officers who have hopes of becoming
an investigator
the total training hours in 2022 just to
put a number for some perspective
there's 172 commission officers that
received some amount of training during
2022 that could be one hour that could
be whatever the cap is
when you take that 34 848 hours in
average and divide it amongst 172 for
the mean that it averages to 203 trading
hours per officer in 22. just to get
perspective about the number of training
that's being done now again that's not
including any briefing trainings That's
not including one-on-one training that's
occurring between the supervisor and
officers That's not including our field
training program which is 17 weeks those
numbers are not included in this and
that's not including anything on our
online learning management system which
is tracked separately which is a
significant amount of training as well
I think this is my last slide I know
talk a lot this is an update to our
de-escalation grant um that was awarded
the grant period ends in August
everything has been completed except for
some overtime that we're continuing to
expand through uh additional scenarios
and then that other classroom or other
de-escalation course I mentioned
mentioned about subject control and we
do have to touch someone how do we
continue to de-escalate
and with that I'll turn it over to DC
Mullen for recruiting efforts
these historically before you leave I
have a question on page and then it
looks like counselor beta go ahead
counselor beta and councilman Como and
then I'll ask my
basketball uh with the availability of
all the different types of training is
there um any specific section that the
officers are requesting more of
that's a good question mayor councilor
beta I think we've had a lot of
discussions and I don't want to speak
for the officers behind me but I I think
they recognize that we're a professional
department and we have to learn to get
better
um
for instance the use of profanity like
there's not resistance to that the
discussion everyone agrees that although
understandable under stress at times
it's never it's never beneficial and so
that culture shift is occurring and uh
de-escalation although the topic the
word de-escalation has kind of a
negative connotation sometimes because
of the way it's used everyone recognizes
that by what what we really mean by
de-escalation is exactly what we should
be doing as police officers
other areas the the legal stuff the
search and seizure has really opened up
the eyes of a lot of officers and the
importance of it and the more we do the
more officers one of it which is exactly
what I'm hoping for because ultimately I
wish officers knew it at the level of an
attorney I wish I knew it at the level
of attorney because that's really what
we need to to be at to be 100 successful
so they've requested that we're going to
continue to provide search and seizure
legal training
okay thank you and
um when you are looking
um for kind of outside experts
um how is that availability looking like
these days for them to come in are there
wait lists times like that or is it
pretty good uh mayor counselor but it
depends on the course I was in training
before I promoted DC and so you a lot of
times you're planning at least a year
out sometimes you're sooner the for
instance the legal liability risk
management course that took about a year
and a half from this time I reached out
to the time we ran it and if depending
on which instructor it could have been
two to three years the federal law
enforcement training center use of force
instructor that one took about nine
months 10 months to get coordinated
others others are a lot quicker the
search and seizure training is provided
by an attorney who has a company in the
state of New Mexico and so that's
shorter available I could plan that out
within a few months okay thank you and
thank you mayor
I appreciate you also naming sort of
your philosophy on training what's the
easy versus what's going to retain more
officers so I appreciate you naming that
I just back to the report the question I
had for you on the training
um one of the cases that that related to
use of force review on here it says the
officer was also directed to attend a
two-day Force training academy which
scheduled for September 2022. it's mayor
councilman Cuomo it's the wording of
that threw me off it's probably not not
the best wording but it's a two-day
Advanced training class that was the
force encounters analysis class
and to give a quick summary of that
class that company what they do is they
they look at
cases they apply the law they apply
Human Performance and they have make
them do case reviews and some of those
cases are already deemed unreasonable or
inappropriate or resulted in charges
whether or not the officer knows about
them and so they kind of let them work
through to the same conclusions but a
very good class is Hands-On it's not
just someone up there lecturing to them
there's a lot of interaction that's the
class that that person attended that's
helpful to know thank you
thank you mayor thank you DC um story
quick question on I appreciate the list
um and and the number of hours
um what would be helpful is knowing
which ones are online which ones are in
person sort of what is the standard
right in terms of of what you're you're
providing to your officers at any given
time and then lastly how are you
documenting the
the the training that your offices are
getting for the year do they do they is
there a platform of sorts that your
document documenting all that and and
each officer has for the year right the
total number and whatnot I'm just trying
to get a sense
definitely a good question mayor mayor
Pro tem so there's two platforms let me
go back all the training I provided up
here the only thing that was done online
is this one Class ssds Collision online
learning management system everything
else was in person I have a bias towards
in-person learning but we do use our
online system it's uh the same system
that the entire city uses of vector
Solutions
so we have two systems that we track
training the main system is a software
called skills management so anytime
someone goes to a course they provide a
certificate that that training is
entered into their training record if
it's done in-house then we go off of The
rosters when they attend and it's
entered into that one system the only
thing that's not on there is field
training which is a separate system from
Vector Solutions and then anything
through Vector solutions to online
learner management system we can run
reports separately through that one but
the bulk of trainings through skills
manager is done it's words document so
when I pull that number
that is what is in skills manager that
Software System okay and that alone okay
good and then
how did you learn to be a slicer what's
what sort of training do you run your
folks through
um as a supervisor
mayor mayor Pro tem and I think as a
result of uh oir's audits among other
things we've recognized that we need to
do a better job of of training our
supervisor so when I when I promoted you
go through a field training
uh program as a supervisor so you're
with another supervisor learning the
ropes you attend a class called first
line supervision it's a 40-hour class
and you learn a lot of good information
there but that's not enough to prepare
you I was fortunate to go through a
three-week classical leadership in
police organizations before I promoted
but that was just based on chance and
luck of when that training occurred so
going forward where we're at is we've
implemented a full supervisor training
program the goal is to provide a series
of trainings to supervisors preferably
prior to promoting so when someone's on
a promotion list they start attending
these classes already so that includes
first line supervision that includes a
class on use of force review that
includes
a class on legal liability or supervised
reliability that includes scenarios for
decision making so applying to
narrow-based training but specifically
to decision making for supervisors and
I'm missing a bunch because I didn't
bring it up here but we've identified
several areas that are important for
supervisors to have training in to
enable them to be successful and then
separate from that's for new supervisors
separate from that we've developed a
program for ongoing training for
in-service for supervisors that would be
on top of what all officers complete so
we're not at 100 but we've we've made a
lot of strides the academy staff is
I think legitimately overworked at this
point but they've done a good job of
balancing all the tasks they have and
many of those classes have already been
done or already scheduled to be
completed for supervisors so probably
the first question I should have is
there a standard do you have like a
National Standard that supervisors with
the types of super types of classes
that a supervisor should be should be
taking and I'm looking for like I I know
because I'm a I was a supervisor and an
administrator right and it's very
different right being the supervisor
especially when you're having National
organizations say the only way to
recruit and retain and keep your people
is around those lower level supervisors
right that's where it's at that's where
you're going to build trust and develop
your your people hold people accountable
to Performance those things and it takes
a different level of training
um
and so wondering if you're if you do get
that or provide that
mayor mayor Pro Tim I couldn't agree
with you more sergeants the most
important position in any Police
Department because of that there is no
National Standard but standard New
Mexico is to attend a 40-hour first line
supervisor so this class or this program
we implemented is for lcpe identifying
the importance of it
okay thank you thank you for that
um and then would you be
um you know I when I think about I'm
seeing all the reports and I think about
the interviews and the techniques and
stuff there is a type of of interviewing
commotivate motivational interviewing
um that's done and I'm not sure if
that's is something that is provided to
you all or something that you think
would um you would benefit from
speaking specifically how do we
interview people whether they're victims
or Witnesses or suspects I'm not
familiar with that specific technique
but I can tell you that um so I'm
definitely not opposed to it I can tell
you that officers are given many
different classes they can attend so
they can develop a style for instance
there's a re-technique there's the FBI
interview interrogation class and so
there's a lot of training opportunities
in that area but I'm just not familiar
with that specific okay I'll send you
some stuff
um through Chief and Etho but um
something I think would benefit the
officers especially when we're looking
at and somebody mentioned the philosophy
of community policing and it's looked at
right very differently based on each
individual so I think it would be
something that I think would benefit
greatly but I appreciate thank you mayor
thanks no DC story can you go over uh
slide 27. I just had a quick question on
on
and see where it's said the second third
from the bottom all officers last name n
through Z four hour what happened what
about the officers the a through M uh
those officers completed it during last
year okay all right last year now it
just it just seemed odd
okay that was it
all right thank you
and we're two recruiting of it
Sean DC Administration again for the
record looking at recruiting efforts
this is our hiring incentives that we're
offering right now
um this just breaks it down it's up to
thirty five thousand dollars with an
option for a five thousand dollar
relocation assistance in speaking with
our Academy staff I know that right now
we have laterals that have come from
Nevada Kansas Arizona and other places
so we are reaching people who are
outside Donia County and the immediate
area so these services are available to
them currently we're looking for one
year of service for a New Mexico
commissioned offers officer excuse me or
two years of service if you're from
outside New Mexico
and again this is for lateral officers
for Cadets mayor and chief already
discussed this a little bit earlier but
this is a visual for you to get the
breakdown for a specific recruiting
efforts and bonuses or incentives excuse
me that are awarded based on Associates
certain degrees for a bachelor's in or a
good military service criminal justice
criminology psychology and so forth
so this is a quick slide this shows our
community engagement photographs from
different events that we posted
throughout the year
and before I turn this over to
Lieutenant wheeler for Community
engagement I'm going to dive into a
customer service software that we use
called spider tech
so as stated spider tech is a customer
service software that allows community
members to stay updated and provide
feedback through an application and it's
the way it works is that when you
contact central dispatch depending on
what phone you contact we have that
number obviously recorded when your call
is created through the CAD software or
the computer-aided dispatch software it
sends out a text message notification to
that reporting party it says hey we
received your call we we're going to be
sending an officer your way so depending
on what are the calls for service are
pending as the chief had discussed
earlier are hourly calls for service is
about 13 and on a minimum Staffing for
us we have 12. so there is a call that's
going to be pending somewhere so when
that call is pending if it's for a
non-priority call for service and we
have other priority calls that are
taking precedence for example
a garden hose or of a vandalism that
occurred no suspect information no one's
injured and it's been you know what I
mean 30 minutes and then we have another
priority call for a
ag assault or a domestic or something
that's occurring it would take
precedence so we send a delayed response
notification to that phone number where
we tell them or tell the reporting party
hey
um
officers are on their way however
they've been dispatched to a priority
call for service so we're keeping that
communication letting them know hey we
haven't forgot about you but we are
going to be delayed in getting to your
call
there's also an acknowledgment survey
that is sent out following the call for
service so after completion so
after an officer responds to this
vandalism he takes the call for service
provides the reporting party with the
case number they leave the call and they
clear it with dispatch a second fault
notification is sent to this reporting
party that says
Sean Mullen your case number is abc123
and these are the tips that you can use
we also provide tips in those
notifications for burglary prevention
auto theft and things of that nature
just as a constant reminder to the
individuals who have we have contact
with how to prevent themselves from
being a victim again in the future on
another crime
we also provide case updates and and
this uh right now is we're working on
improving this specific case update
module so once a felony crime is
reported and it gets pushed through to a
detective once a detective is assigned
to the case through our criminal
investigation section a second an
additional notification will be sent to
the reporting party that says Sean
Mullen has been assigned the detective
of your case and so we're keeping that
constant communication that's our goal
is to keep our community members updated
throughout the entire process
now a survey is sent following the call
for service and
it is not mandatory however we do have
people who choose to respond so total
messages that were sent out last year
just for 2022 were over 86 000 text
messages
that was the different community members
throughout the city now survey responses
we received in over 3 000 responses from
individuals and of those over 3000
responses the average was 4.5 out of 5
and you can see on to the graph on the
right that the categories are very
satisfied satisfied neither satisfied
nor dissatisfied very dissatisfied and
dissatisfied
and looking at the chart you can see
that the yellow and light blue for very
dissatisfied and dissatisfied makeup
only about six percent of our entire
interactions everything else is neutral
or positive
here's an example of the responses that
we receive
first one at the top officer pogon was
extremely helpful compassionate and
everything an officer could be
if you scroll down we have extremely I'm
extremely happy with the quick response
and you can see that these were date and
times in a case number now this
information is provided to the
lieutenants for each shift and it is
pushed out to them and is followed up on
so if you look to the center of the page
or the screenshot excuse me it says
never showed up I caught people breaking
into cars before and never showed up so
this tells us that the survey was
responded to at 8 56 a.m on the 20th and
this is the case in a Broadway on the
right like this is a perfect opportunity
for our lieutenants who are reviewing
these on a daily basis to say okay this
is somewhere where we can follow up and
try and you want to make sure that
either someone wasn't seen because the
officer came and went so quickly or did
the individual there may have been some
miscommunication between what was
relayed from dispatch to the officer on
scene about that individual wanting
contact
so this is just another way that we try
and improve our product and the service
that we're giving to the community by
getting this information straight from
them immediately following the
interaction instead of days later where
it may be forgotten this this gives them
an opportunity to respond right away
um
another one if you look towards the
bottom of this is how to file a report
online
and it gives a a corresponding case
number that we can follow up with and we
have a lieutenant who is reading these
and they can see hey this was my shift
who had this call for service I can
reach out to this individual or this
Community member and explain to them
that you can absolutely file a report
online you go to the RC Las Cruces
website to the police department and you
file a report
and that is going to be the end of the
spider portions presentation
sorry please go ahead thank you
um the spider I really appreciate you
sharing how how that's followed up on
I'm curious if there's also a process
for follow-up when something's really
positive so when an officer is clearly
called out for doing a good job I'm
wondering if that also goes into the
sort of supervisory conversations that
happened and how
it absolutely does so the lieutenants
get a breakdown of this sheet and it's
for the calls for service generally
within the day before and so on that
sheet there is a free text or an open
text spot where you see these comments
and if it is something like this one
specifically officer Bagan was extremely
helpful compassionate that is something
that the ship Lieutenant recognizes them
some of our officers do not like public
recognition and it's it's easier for the
sergeant to read that and the lieutenant
passes it on and says hey uh officer
Pagani works for you on your ship he did
a great job let him know and so if
officer pygon is someone who appreciates
it in a public briefing then it's great
and a lot of times for streamlining the
purpose it is addressed in briefing that
way not only the officer who's receiving
appraising those but his peers can see
it and it kind of drives everyone to you
know what I mean
uh operating on that same level and it's
something that we want to encourage and
we do encourage but for those who who
would rather be praised in in silence
and there's the one-on-one that says hey
we got a comment for you forward it to
him in an email or a follow-up
conversation says excellent job keep up
the hard work
thank you I appreciate that
I'm glad to know that that happens too
Lieutenant will be presenting from our
Community Partnerships
good afternoon Joy wedela Lieutenant of
Community Partnership for the record
good to see everybody hello city manager
mayor mayor Pro tem counselors wonderful
to be here
um some updates in reference to our
community engagement section uh just
wanted to comment that I love all the
comments already in reference to the
community policing obviously our Focus
as a department is to have every officer
a community policing officer it really
is our community that gives us the
authority and we build that through that
trust in the community and having
partnership with the community so again
some updates in reference to our
community engagement first off
neighborhood watch meetings this is
where I really want to Champion officer
glimp here who has now promoted to
Detective
he sits behind me yes exactly
um first off when when he was initially
starting this program we had seven we
are now up to 24 with the past one just
starting this last weekend in your
neighborhood counselor of beta so yes
um with that we've also started a
business watch initiative and so that is
very similar to our neighborhood watch
where it is our Community Partners those
neighborhoods or those businesses that
are in within that neighborhood coming
together to establish some kind of
communication system that they can reach
out to each other with
in order to have more eyes so to speak
for us we always look for things that
are Force multipliers is what I like to
tell everybody and a force multiplier
could be technology or it could be
another set of eyes another set of ears
and so again this is where that trust in
our partnership comes down to
establishing it right now as far as our
business watches we don't have that many
where we've got like two that are steady
like one in the motel retail industry
and then one also in the real estate but
there are several other businesses that
are interested and obviously we are more
than happy to attend those meetings and
to give that information to them
um National Night Out is something that
I will be discussing on an upcoming
slide it's one of my highlighted slides
so we're going to skip that one for
right now
um as far as lift up projects some of
the things that my community outreach
officers did was to particularly work in
the lift up area and to work
specifically with mayor Pro tem
with that in regards to that my section
did 104 directed patrols we part of that
was the Silent Night initiative that I
will talk about later on as well there
was a trace Arbor lace cleanup officer
Hernandez worked a lot with specifically
the museum Valley Housing Authority in
reference to different housing things
that he was having concerns about
officer klimik has an ongoing
relationship with 1900 North Solano as
far as like having play Streets there
barbecues there again coming back to
building that trust in that neighborhood
uh we held several events both at Booker
T Washington and at Loma Heights because
when it comes down to these
neighborhoods what we
realize is that there are kids in each
and every neighborhood and so if we can
go where those kids are and again when
it comes back down to building that
trust giving them a human face to this
uniform really helps in establishing
that trust
moving on to the presentations obviously
again we're at those schools this is
where I really want to Champion officer
Kelly where he specifically has come up
with a vaping presentation but it's been
so coveted that literally he's given it
now to I want to say every within our
jurisdiction every middle school and
high school but then has even been asked
to give it in doniana schools in their
jurisdiction as well
we've also gone into the assisted living
facilities continuing obviously they're
asking us for presentations on fraud on
up clearing scams so that's obviously
something that we're willing to give
them as well local businesses Reach Out
sometimes it is for presentations in
reference to like the larger business
groups that they have but a lot of times
this can even be meeting with the actual
business owners and going over things
like environmental design and what would
be the best proactive way to set up your
lights set up your cameras that will
help prevent crime or if a crime does
occur helps us in collecting the
information that we need in order to do
those case closeouts
again several different Community
meetings those Community meetings
typically are with the city councilors
and this is where again it's putting a
face on the Las Cruces Police Department
and hopefully building that trust while
hearing the community's concerns in
reference to what they're experiencing
uh
sled
I'm like oh
all right I got it
uh next slide um some other initiatives
that we have going on like several
different components
um we do partner with Special Olympics
here uh and again this is where we're
building that relationship to help bring
awareness to the special Olympians and
the events that they do a lot of times
it's the bowling it's the basketball but
that typicop is a great opportunity to
meet special Olympians from your area
and then again how we can better serve
that Community as well and again
building that trust within them
identials and bike rodeos those bike
rodeos are just that where it's the
bikes where we have them with the kids
with the helmets bike safety we can go
over all of that the identials for those
of you that don't know it's like a
little card laminated that we will make
for your children that has their
fingerprints on it it's a very
popular
Booth so to speak when we do have these
community events because the kids love
getting their card they'll have their
picture on it what we like to tell
parents is it is a way for us
heaven forbid if there was an emergency
to have their information readily
available but again it's also a great
connection piece as far as when the kids
they'll see like their older siblings
getting the driver's license well this
is something that now the younger kids
can then have as well
um we have um what I've entitled the
urban dweller project this is where
again I like to Champion officer glimp
this really comes back down to
um our community that
does not have a home and again that's
not a crime but this is working with
Community Partnerships like our
community of Hope and saying okay what
is occurring with these people are there
mental health concerns are there
addiction concerns and again what can we
do to best provide housing for those
that do want it and again I will
Champion officer Clement here over and
over where he's done an exceptional job
with that partnership with Community of
Hope we have the package theft project
which typically we like to run during
the holiday season that is specific to
those Amazon packages those FedEx
packages and that's where again
when it comes to community outreach one
of the great things we do obviously
follow up on hot spots in the felony
crimes and we want to assist the larger
picture of that crime reduction however
we're also here to take a look at
maybe those crimes that aren't meeting
that felony level that are still a huge
cause for concern within the community
and so when we do have things like the
package stuff or the shoplifting
projects those things might not reach
that felony level crime but because they
are still happening and because that is
still a concern within our community
the community outreach officers then can
hold those projects in order to address
that concern and address that need
again storage unit this actually comes
back into our commercial burglaries and
projects in reference to
Crime reduction there that one would be
a felony
Silent Night operation as I mentioned
before that one is highlighted at the
end and I will address it at the end
again some of the things that we do we
do like to partner with our Parks and
Rec when it comes to play streets and
block parties we also like to
partner especially with our local
businesses as far as pop-up events just
to give you some examples of some like
recent ones Barnes and Noble we had a
pop-up event where we specifically read
to the kids on a Saturday morning
awesome loved it and Dr Seuss's birthday
is coming up for those that don't know
March 2nd heads up
um just a side note I know
other pop-up events Village Inn we just
had like a copy with the cops another
one that we had was cookies with a cop
at the farmers market again we're always
trying to think of other little ideas
that we can be within the community
again giving that human face but then
also that's a time for us to become data
collectors in reference to what are your
public safety concerns regarding your
area obviously when it comes to the
Huger crime initiatives that we are
taking we can do these pop-up events in
those hot spots and again try to address
the again what we're hearing as far as
hey you know I'm concerned about this
residence or I'm concerned about this
crime that's happening at this park over
here again it can be a point of data
collection
some of the other things that we've done
is we've had been Vin etchings for utvs
and bicycle registrations that typically
takes place in the springtime uh now
that it's over the winter months we'll
pick up and have all of that taking
place on business decals this is really
cool because again
we want to think of ways to be that
Force multiplier and so this is where we
came up with a sticker and for those
businesses that are interested we have
the stickers readily available where the
sticker simply says that they are you
know they have cameras and that they're
going to share whatever footage that
they have and they can get on those
cameras with LCPD but again it's one of
those things where we want to take a
look at being proactive and force
multipliers that could potentially be
deterrents
Libby visits Libby is part of our code
section Libby stands for Las Cruces is
beautiful because of you and so codes
officer Auntie veros will take Libby
into schools daycares different
environments in reference to how we can
keep Las Cruces beautiful
um again for us we're always
emphasizing new Partnerships and trying
to take those new Partnerships and
applying them to making an overall
Better Community one of the ones that I
really wanted to highlight here when it
came to new Partnerships and to really
Champion the people involved both in the
community and within the city was our
work with the Kilby with the Kilby in
particular we had Community Development
we had police we had codes we had City
legal counselor Ben Como you were in
there but not only that it was working
with the community of hope it was
working with multiple businesses within
the med Park area and it was saying okay
we are having
all of this crime occurring and these
calls for service occurring here what
can we do to help people here and help
this community
just a little again like most of us
really love the data so I did the data
numbers specifically for that address
um for 2022 there was 215 calls
specifically to that address that
averages out roughly to 17.9 calls a
month
in 2023 we've had four calls there and
all four of those have been
self-initiated by the officer meaning
it's not a call for service but it's the
officer actually just checking out or
doing something there so again this is
where I want to give kudos because I
think it takes really those Partnerships
and there's still more to do there
there's still a lot more to do there but
when we're able to come together work as
a community to address these concerns I
think that's ultimately big picture
okay this is where we're going to go
into the highlights and I just
randomly selected some of these
highlights but they're good highlights
as far as
um again when it comes down to LCPD
cares highlights and what we're doing
this is something that our school
resource officers
they are still putting on these youth
leadership camps they are Uber popular
camps literally when we announced that
enrollment is open for them they will
fill up within like usually the first
couple hours and so that's where like we
announce it and you'll have like the
whole line there ready to sign up their
kids again I can't stress
um
the importance of partnership so with
these camps in particular we partner
with NMSU we partner with the National
Guard and we've also partnered with game
and fish in the past so in the camps
then it's great because NMSU is going to
introduce the stem so that's the science
Technology and Engineering and in
mathematics and so they get to go
through like a whole stem day where last
year you can see them in the stem class
and they were making little robots
wonderful but then not only that there's
archery there's fishing through the game
and fish
the museums were taking place so again
partnering with the museums where you
can see the uh
got and God bless that's actually my kid
there yes sometimes we get our kids in
and it's awesome had to sign them up
early but that's um a tarantula that
he's holding and I've told him that
there's no way that your mom would ever
ever do that
never
um but then there's also again
partnering with the National Guard they
bring in some really cool stuff where
they bring in the helicopters they bring
in a rock climbing wall again I can't
stress enough the Partnerships within
our city in order to make this happen
so that's one highlight
another highlight and again I'm going to
Champion now detective glimp here he is
responsible and has been responsible for
several years for putting on our
National Night Out
this has become a hugely successful
event that takes place on the first
Tuesday of every August
it has grown so much that this last
National Night Out we had 93 partnering
organizations show up
93. that's absolutely phenomenal
um
with that there was approximately 7 000
in attendance and so again this just
goes to show how we can partner with
different communities but then also
again establishing that trust within our
community and putting a face to this
uniform
and then finally the one that I wanted
to highlight was our Silent Night
operation that we did around Christmas
this year we have done this in the past
this year was particularly cool because
in the past
um
we've only been able to serve
approximately four families where this
past year we were actually able to serve
10 families and this is where we partner
with Casa de peregrinos we partner with
Toys for Tots and
as law enforcement agency most of us
will reach out to one another and we end
up knowing deserving families and so
these are families that they don't
necessarily know what's going to happen
but what we do is we will bring them
gifts after learning what their kids
ages are and then also a meal oh and I
missed a super important business that
also helped out Ashley's Furniture
there's one really deserving family this
year that
they needed beds they had no beds and so
Ashley's Furniture was like
we got bets for you
again just one of those things where
it's
really that whole idea centered around
LCPD cares
um we're in the end this year we were
able to
um yeah serve 29 kids within those 10
families and one of those families has
beds now as a result as well so and
again thank you to those Community
Partnerships
again without those Partnerships
we can't really survive as a law
enforcement agency
and that is the end of my presentation
however I know that Grace is up with our
LCPD cares Advocates and she's awesome
and amazing so any questions
[Applause]
yes this is Grayson David saravi with
our community advocates
good afternoon everybody
um well good evening
um thank you for having us my name is
Grace Deyes
mayor
LCPD cares community advocate
again my name is Grace Deyes thank you
for having us mayor city council members
and mayor Pro tem again it's been a long
day so I'm going to speed through this
as much as I can so please bear with me
um
were there cares program we are The
Advocates we are the community Advocates
that are work closely with our community
outreach officers and everybody that
spoke here today
with that being said the philosophy for
the cares program began in Spring of
2021 to express employees of the
department most of who also grew up
including myself reside in Las Cruces
have a vested interest in caring for
their own community
community Advocates myself and David
came along in January of 2022.
sorry if I'm a little nervous I've been
sitting there so I've been waiting to to
speak with you all today
um we have been a year in year in
already so I'm excited and delighted to
be here today to be able to share all
this information with you all today
our mission as Community Advocates
because there's only two of us right now
it's to unite Community with police
build relationship-based linkages
connect community Through Outreach
critical incident Aftercare and
supportive advocacy and continued
education education including awareness
prevention and a lot of what um we all
have talked about throughout this
presentation
I will also like to include that as
Community Advocates we we cultivate
Community by caring compassionate
connections we build together as a
village through that caring compassion
connections I cannot stress that enough
being out there in the community we do a
lot of talking a lot of connecting a lot
of sharing a lot of listening a lot of
hearing and a lot of
just hearing people out from our
community and
I think that's very important the goal
of a community advocate is to provide a
secure relationship-based linkages as
mentioned we provide resources we
connect dots we develop open Team
strategies together to
to unite and to you you wouldn't be
you'd be surprised if you noticed how
many people we have from out of state
coming into to our community that aren't
aware of what resources are even out
there right now I'm including myself I'm
learning as I'm even part of the working
alongside our community
um Outreach team and officers and
throughout my career as a community
advocate I'm still realizing what
resources are out there available to us
to myself including
I would also like to say the philosophy
began for LCPD cares because lcpt cares
about the community for which they serve
they care about providing quality
services they care about the safety and
well-being of all residents and visitors
to our community LCPD cares about the
quality of life and I think that's very
important to stress because my
background
um
but oh I won't go into my background but
I'm working along the our community for
a very long period of time I've seen
firsthand and I think it's important to
recognize our officers and and what they
do for on a daily basis with our
community because I've seen it
as Lieutenant wedela mentioned we
partner a lot with them through events
Advocates Advocates work closely with
our LCPD Community Partnership section
and engage with community at several
several events throughout the year some
that David and I have
really got involved with and initiated
is paletas with police there at the
Apodaca Park that was a huge success we
provided
families with over 300 paletas that day
and it was during summer so it was
really really good
Lieutenant Widow also mentioned Barnes
and Noble story time where we we really
use the opportunities to share connect
and hear concerns
um from all walks of life David and I
are not officers we wear just regular
clothing and some community members are
more comfortable approaching US versus
say law enforcement in a uniform
recently our Farmers Market cookies with
a cop and officers and ornaments with
Booker T for Christmas at which time our
Kinder class along with our Outreach
officers were able to and David and I
were able to decorate ornaments and then
provide them to our
stations both not the west and the East
for our Christmas trees
here are a few quick pictures of some
events that we have attended this one in
particular is
we work with all walks of life I will
share that whatever everywhere from our
little little little ones to our seniors
in in the in the senior homes we are
actively out there in our senior senior
um community centers
as well
um and this is where we shared some
events with some children
I believe this one was my my friends are
my police are my friends events that we
had at Conley
we work closely with many Community
Partners from lcps our community schools
our
um
non-profit organizations all over our
businesses small and and big we work
we're out there
and this is where we come into our
community engagement
through a community engagement we
partner we unite we collaborate we talk
I can't stress enough how much
communication it takes to just um build
and provide those resources
and here really hear those concerns I'll
share one most recent one when we had
coffees with the cops here at the
Village Inn
um
so it was shared with me
um being fearful of law enforcement so
me being I'm not in uniform and
uniformed was present we were all there
together having coffee I was very
thankful that an individual came to our
coffees with the cops and was able to
share that concern so through compassion
through Comfort through support I heard
this community member's concerns and I
think that those events through
through Outreach is is what's so
important to just
provide our community members
opportunities to express Express the
good and the not good David and I as
Community Advocates were that soundboard
we will hear you out we will we will
then share our information to whether
it's good or not good earlier there was
comments about law enforcement whether
we hear the positive
um we do hear lots of positive which
then we do share those concerns with um
Sarah lieutenants or Patrol or if
somebody's speeding three times and
they're afraid to walk their dog and no
longer and
um they're hesitant to come out of their
senior Assistant Living Center those are
concerns that we can then share with our
lieutenants and Deputy Chiefs and so
forth up our team
that's Community Advocates we strive as
mentioned to create collaborative
relationships within the city of
community Advocates reach multiple
businesses throughout this year I think
we really wanted to stress the
importance and just to inform our
community what is cares and we still
hear today what is the cares program so
we work endlessly every time we go out
there to introduce what it is the cares
program is what community Advocates do
and how we can be a resource to them
we do this through events such as
pop-ups and we've had pop-ups usually
they're going to happen between Monday
through Friday once or twice a week
where we're at locations such as and
we've had pop-ups before at CVS right
here on Solano in or Picacho in Maine
and we've had a pop-up on Walgreens and
El Paseo
we've had pop-ups during our senior
centers when they're having lunch or
other events we've had pop-ups on Solano
square at The Outdoor Adventure so we do
have pop-ups in what we would consider
Hot Spot areas that allow those
vulnerable populations to then come to
us to share their concerns some seniors
do not have cell phones some seniors do
not have access to Transportation so by
putting us out there as Community
Advocates we're able to to talk that a
lot of people just want to talk
which has been good
we also have one coming up at Desert
hope this coming week at our 1310
Vehicles so we'll be providing them
resources hear their concerns talk with
them maybe engage with them about
opportunities that are available to them
to receive Outreach Services some are
but connect with them in a way that
hopefully they can understand and be
comfortable to approach while we're
there for that time being
through through Community advocacy we've
also followed up on critical incident
many critical incident follow-ups
providing aftercare this I can't stress
enough how important it is because
this includes our
incidents such as suicide
or
gunshot victims were there's bystanders
around or armed robberies where there's
bystanders around bystanders around
David and I have gone into places of
business where we've spoken with
managers Witnesses just
those that have been around trauma and
that may need services
or to know what services are available
to him we've had some managers Express
concerns for their employees for for it
doesn't matter how big or how small the
business place the business is they have
those concerns and we're able to hear
those concerns and provide resources by
connecting the dots together
David and I have also implemented The
Compassion cards and this I'll share
we came in in January February March
around March I started realizing hey you
know a lot of our officers are going
into some very traumatic times
in in a family that includes their loved
one being
um or past passing away
um whether it's an unattended death an
overdose resulting in death
um a suicide a natural cause death
there's death
and then our officers of course they
handle what they need to to do and then
they go on to their duties and David and
I were talking and we wanted to provide
not only our officers but us as
Community Advocates and an option to be
able to provide condolences to those
families
some of these
traumatic events occur on a daily basis
and I'll share a woman that I spoke to
who was married for 55 plus years all
her family lived out of town her husband
just out of a sudden passed away
the trauma that they endures is
life-changing and sometimes they're
alone as Community Advocates through
compassion carts and yes oftentimes it's
just a card but law enforcement can also
refer us to be able to provide families
with that condolence in-person
condolences
um and that's we've done that we've done
that and we've done that for many um
occasions that occur in our community
[Music]
I will also include that including the
compassion cars we've also sent them out
for unattended deaths suicides overdoses
resulting that CPR as well for checks
there's multiple incidents that
sometimes involved up that we do take
initiative and
okay
the number of compassion cards that we
have sent it's over 90 compassion cards
we send them out weekly and that's just
to give you a number of
sorry
this is an example of our compassion
card sent again it expresses how LCPD
cares about their Community for which
they serve about providing quality
service and about the safety and
well-being of all residents and visitors
of our community
sorry my voice is getting all raspy
about our quality of life for all
involved
thank you
all right
another another initiative that we began
is in the January 30 right before the
February 1st
delivery date of the storefronts grant
um the the city of Las Cruces has put
out we began reaching out to businesses
small businesses in reference to the
storefront repair pro project David and
I have since then reached out to
at least 20 20 small businesses and we
continue to do so to inform them on the
eligibility and uh
ways to
um
find the resource to gain access into
the application process and whether or
not they can qualify or not
many many businesses have been very
grateful for this
um
we've spoke to and continue to speak to
many business owners not just in the
Downtown Plaza area but in many areas
around the city
um
we've been and I'll share some places
that we've attended the plazas on Solano
the plazas on Espina plazas on Maine and
then most recently the plazas on David
so we continue to be out there to
multiple businesses that have been hit
in these
um little small Plaza areas what um and
when I say affected or hit sorry I
should have said hit but affected they
have been affected by vandalism graffiti
or burglary
but that includes this presentation
um there's so much more I can talk to
you guys about but I'm going to leave it
at that and I know everybody's
it's after five
thank you
but we'll stand for questions if anybody
I know everybody's probably like
now we're going to work till seven eight
o'clock
counselor Flores has a question I just
want to thank you so much for reaching
out to all levels of our community but
especially our children and just thank
you so much thank you Mr Mayor thank you
okay yeah I think the whole Council
supports what you do and thank you very
much for that
you guys
that's that concludes our presentation
uh thank you all for allowing us to I
have a couple questions to ask you if
that's okay it's just real simple so on
the Police Service aides have you been
able to move any of those to the academy
yes uh yes mayor we have oh great we've
had a couple and we're trying to get a
few more of them there we have a couple
of police services that are showing
police officers how to take calls for in
some instances they're that good okay
and um on the enforcement trailers the
one with the red and blue lights I think
are most effective one day I was
following she didn't know I was behind
her counselor Flores and and when this
when it went off all of a sudden she
just really slowed down started looking
around and I just want to tell you I
think those really work
he thought she was going to get a ticket
or something she just
anyways thank you very much
everyone and stay safe Dr Nelson were
you wanting to say something
just
oh good night okay all right all right
well thank you very much Chief thank you
everyone on Las Cruces Police Department
thank you for your presentation thank
you for all you do stay safe we know
it's a tough job and you've we've got
your backs okay thank you
uh so entertain a motion to adjourn so
move to Beta second motion made by
counselor beta second by councilman Como
Christine
this is on the motion children the work
session councilor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Ben Cuomo yes
councilor cram yes councilor Flores
no I brought my tent I have my overnight
stuff
yes Council yes and mayor yes okay we
are adjourned it's 5 20 P.M
okay okay this is the agenda study
meeting for our March 6 2023 city
council meeting number one non-consent
one non-consent two non-consent two
non-consent three consent three consents
four non-consent four non-consent five
non-consent five non-consent six consent
six consent and seven on consent seven
non-consents
foreign