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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018 December 6 MinutesMINUTES A REGULAR MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE CHULA VISTA POLICE DEPARTMENT Community Room 315 FOURTH AVENUE December 6th, 2018 CHULA VISTA, CA 91910 5:00 PM 1 Roxana Kennedy Chief of Police MEMBERS: Ray Aragon Martin Barros Gustavo Bidart Norma Cazares Patty Chavez Takisha Corbett Jose de la Garza Henrietta Harb Marla Kingkade Peter Mabrey Ternot MacRenato Anthony Millican Gerry Sablan STAFF: Captain Vern Sallee Captain Phil Collum Captain Eric Thunberg ASM Jonathan Alegre DCA Carol Trujillo SAS Cathy Miller CALL TO ORDER: 5:05 PM ROLL CALL: Present: Norma Cazares, Patty Chavez, Takisha Corbett, Marla Kingkade, Ternot MacRenato; Peter Mabrey, Anthony Millican and Gerry Sablan Not Present: Ray Aragon, Martin Barros, Gustavo Bidart, Henri Harb and Jose de la Garza City staff present: Roxana Kennedy, Eric Thunberg, Vern Sallee, Jonathan Alegre, Carol Trujillo and Joseph Walker PUBLIC COMMENTS: No public comments. 1. Approval of minutes of September 2018 minutes made by CAC member Sablan and seconded by CAC member MacRenato. All in favor. 2. Chief’s Report: Chief Kennedy opening comments included:  38 promotions and 35 newly hired officers have been made over the past 23 months.  Police Foundation paid for a new canine; which replaced Griffen, who had passed away due to an illness.  CVPD social media team will highlight the story of our newest K9 and his officer partner as they go through training.  CVPD is dedicated to working with the community on domestic violence and was awarded the International Herman Goldstein award. Although the DV grant ended, CVPD has continued the project in one sector of the city, which has seen a drop by 24% in calls for service. The CVPD team will be speaking in the UK and Ukraine in 2019. Chief Kennedy is honored to represent the team on behalf of Chief Bejarano and Captain Turner who started the program under their tenure. CAC member MacRenato asked what would happen if the victim changed their mind after reporting the incident. Captain Sallee discussed the police policy used when responding to the scene and how the body worn camera captures the 2 seriousness of the call allowing the suspect to be arrested which would lead them to the help needed to stop the violence. Laws have changed for misdemeanor violence and officers are required to comply with arrest, thereby breaking the cycle. Chief Kennedy also stressed that the goal is not to arrest offenders, but to stop the cycle and provide strategies such as anger management classes and to make sure the offenders know domestic violence is not acceptable. CAC member MacRenato asked if domestic violence calls are still one of the most dangerous calls and Captain Sallee agreed domestic violence is one of the most dangerous calls next to traffic accidents because the circumstances can be so unpredictable. Chief Kennedy will share with the CAC members the write up on the Herman Goldstein award as well as post on Community Connection, the City’s newspaper. CAC member Cazares will share with her contact at the San Diego Union Tribune and CAC member Chavez would share through the school district newsletter. Chief Kennedy asked CAC members to mark their calendars for May 9, 2019 at 11:00 am for the annual Awards and Recognition Ceremony to honor members of the police department and public. One example will be to honor the diligent citizen who called the police after seeing a suspect put two small children in the back of a truck at 3 am. After investigation, it was discovered the suspect had broken into a residence and took both children who were sleeping from their beds. The children were recovered, and the suspect taken into custody. CAC member MacRenato asked if it was possible to meet Officer Christopher Lawrence at the ARC ceremony. If Officer Lawrence attends, members should be able to meet him. The Police Foundation is hiring a new Director and the Evening with Heroes event will be held on July 27, 2019 from 4 pm to 8 pm. Chief Kennedy hopes CAC members will be able to attend since it is such a worthwhile event. The annual Holiday meal program will be December 18, 2018 from 7 am to 10:00 am. Members may meet at Walmart (1150 Broadway) and join in helping with the toy and food give away. Toys remaining from the event will be offered to needy families officers encounter on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. 3. 2017 Crime Stats Supervising Public Safety Analyst (SPSA) Joseph Walker was introduced and began with discussing his participation with the City Clerk’s office on establishing a web page in the City’s committees site and a description of each one. Members bios, the agenda and the minutes of the meetings will be posted. CAC member Cazares was thanked for her leadership and participation when she attended the Human Relations Board meeting with Chief Kennedy. The Human Relations Board was pleased with the open dialogue established and will help the Chief, CAC and the police department in any way they can. SPSA Walker continued with a Power Point Presentation with the police department link (Departments/police-department/about-us/open-data-initiative) to the variety of dashboards which will help the public find information on crime, calls for service and other safety related data. The dashboards display data trends and filters help generate different levels of details. Currently, the data indicates that vehicle burglaries continue to be the highest crime. A question was asked on the difference between burglary and larceny. Larceny is any type of theft from people or business. An example would be, someone stealing from stores. Transient activity and traffic collision data is also available on the website. In the next update, the department hopes to include data on speed limit activities and domestic violence. 3 Captain Sallee discussed reengaging a program with different law enforcement agencies doing a one-day visit to a selected site to target high problem areas with speeding. CVPD hosted the first site visit with five other agencies attending. 170 tickets were given in four hours. The Department received numerous “thank yous” from the community for addressing this concern on Olympic Parkway. CAC member Sablan was happy to see how data can be extrapolated and commented on the downward trend of aggravated assaults. Chief Kennedy gave kudos to SPSA Walker and his analyst team who worked hard to provide meaningful data to the police department, to Council and to the community. Councilmembers can reach out to their district and provide and educate the community with proactive messaging. CAC member Chavez asked if there has been an increase in hate crimes and cited the latest shooting incident in October at a Jewish synagogue. CVPD has not seen an increase in anti-Semitism in Chula Vista but has reached out to the local synagogues and faith based organizations. CAC member MacRenato asked what happens when a car is stolen and what the penalty would be. Captain Sallee explained it would be up to the District Attorney’s office who would base the outcome on the situation and level of seriousness. Rehabilitation would most likely be offered to juveniles and Chief Kennedy gave the example of juvenile first-time offenders receiving help with South Bay Community Services to avoid an arrest record. Every situation is different, and it depends on if it is a chronic offender or a poor choice made for the first time. CAC member Sablan asked if the dashboard information is “canned” or if the public may change the information. The public will be able to open certain fields which they can change the data range. It will be interactive, yet there are some restrictions. Deputy City Attorney Trujillo also discussed the SANDAG and ARJIS information which can be found on the Department’s web page. 4. Update on Department’s Proposed Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Program: Captain Sallee discussed the pilot program with CAPE which started on October 25, 2018, after a presidential memorandum for public safety was submitted by the Secretary of State. The Integrational Pilot Program (IPP) partnered with CAPE to accelerate safe UAS integration. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controls the National air space and restricts drone usage over 400 feet and it must weigh 55 pounds or less. CVPD will use the drones as first responders sending them into a life-threatening situation or to get to a location immediately. Live feeds will be supplied to the UAS com center via radio or MDC. The benefits to UAS will be shorter response time and having a seasoned staff member view the situation and provided expertise immediately. Live feeds will be able to be sent to the department cell phones to reduce possible 911 situations. UAS will be similar to SARA units which were undercover officers scouting out dangerous radio calls to relay to responding officers what to expect. UAS should eliminate any potential of danger and scan the scene quickly. Future forecasts would have an automated UAS system where one pilot can control several drones. Right now, it is a two-man operation. CVPD has also partnered with the fire department and was used in a recent fire in Eastlake. CAC member Kingkade asked if this would eliminate calls for ASTREA. Captain Sallee confirmed it would reduce, but not eliminate ASTREA. CVPD has conducted approximately 116 flights since October. Drones will be the future technology used for space automation innovations such as Uber Eats or flying blood from one 4 area to another. The long-term idea is to stage a drone at every fire station, so it could be on scene within two minutes of a call for service. Captain Sallee gave an example of a successful call for service using the drone. A victim was assaulted by a transient suspect who fled the scene. The following day, the drone was used and was able to pinpoint the suspect’s location and he was taken into custody without incident. Drones will be sent out on calls for service where it might deescalate a problem because officers will be aware of the potential dangers. CAC member Mabrey asked if the drone footage is admissible in court and it is. CAC member MacRenato asked how long would drone footage be stored and it will be determined by the statue of limitations for the crime. CAC member MacRenato asked who regulates citizens using drones. Captain Sallee explained they should be registered with the FAA. The police are under stricter requirements since it is a public entity. 9 officers will be taking the FAA test, and this is groundbreaking territory since no other agency has professional manned units. CAC member MacRenato asked if fire departments are using this tool and as of yet, no San Diego Fire Departments have used UAS. He asked if a drone could have been used in the Paradise fire to help but unfortunately the fire moved too quickly. CAC member Sablan asked if the program is being used nationwide. CVPD is the only law enforcement agency at this moment breaking ground with this program and have had minimal to no public concern. Last year CAC, Council and the ACLU were made aware to alleviate any fear. 5. Discussion of annual quarterly meeting schedule – a calendar with the following dates were handed out to members: March 7th (later changed to March 14th); June 6, 2019, September 5, 2019 and December 5, 2019. Good of the Order (in closing): CAC member Cazares asked command to share an update on SDG&E Park. The investigation is still on going and the Department will give a status update at a future meeting. CAC member MacRenato asked if a video will be available and was told video taken by members of the public was posted on social media after the incident. CAC member Millican gave kudos to the SROs and Crimes of Violence detectives who responded to a recent road rage incident where the victim died. The police officers were praised on their sensitivity dealing with the victim, the victim’s family and the school district. Chief Kennedy praised the COV team, whose motto is “we speak for those who cannot speak anymore”. CAC member Sablan, who did a recent ride along, also commended the CVPD training program where he observed officers interacting with an elderly woman who had fallen. Chief Kennedy invited CAC members to attend the swearing in ceremony at 9 am the following day (December 7th) where three new laterals and three academy graduates (one receiving the honor award) will be introduced to the CVPD family. ASM Alegre provided Foundation items for last minute holiday purchases. CAC was dismissed at 6:30 after a group photograph and everyone was wished a safe drive home.