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2022 04 12 CCPD Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE BAYTOWN CRIME CONTROL AND PREVENTION DISTRICT April 12, 2022 The Board of Directors of the Baytown Crime Control and Prevention District (CCPD) met in a Regular Meeting on Tuesday,April 12,2022,at 4:30 P.M.,in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Rikki Wheeler President Lloyd J. Herrera Director Loretta White Director Nicholas Rice Director Steele Arthur Director Kevin Troller Assistant General Manager Trevor Fanning General Counsel Angela Jackson Secretary President Rikki Wheeler convened the April 12, 2022, CCPD Board Regular Meeting with a quorum present at 4:30 P.M., all members were present with the exception of the absence of Director James Coker and Director Dr. Chris Warford. 1. MINUTES a. Consider approving the minutes of the Baytown Crime Control and Prevention District Regular Meeting held on January 11, 2022. A motion was made by Director Nicholas Rice and seconded by Director Lloyd J. Herrera to approve the minutes of the Baytown Crime Control and Prevention District Regular Meeting held on January 11, 2022, as submitted. The vote was as followed: Ayes: President Rikki Wheeler,Director Lloyd J. Herrera,Director Loretta White, Director Nicholas Rice, and Director Steele Arthur Nays: None Other: Director James Coker(Absent) and Director Dr. Chris Warford (Absent) Approved 2. REPORTS a. Receive the CCPD Financial and .Investment Reports for the Quarter Ending December 31, 2021. CCPD Board Regular Meeting Minutes April 12,2022 Page 2 of 4 Finance Director Victor Brownlees relayed the CCPD's first quarter financial and investment reports. He noted that sales tax remained strong by being 14% up from the previous year. In that same period, expenditures had been limited solely to the staff employed through the CCPD. As of the end of December, the City had yet to expend on the money set aside for supplies, capital equipment, etc. Mr. Brownlees projected the CCPD Board was on course for another good year. He would be in contact with the Chief and command staff on the potential to accelerate some expenditures over the course of the year as they had for the previous year. President Wheeler, in good spirits, wished Mr. Brownlees to speak over the riveting investment earnings and Mr. Brownlees noted he hoped that would rise with the sales tax growth over the year. b. Presentation of the Baytown Crime Control and Prevention District Street Crime Unit, Traffic Management Team, and Commercial Vehicle Enforcement (CVE) statistical reports. Assistant Chief of Police Richard Whitaker presented the reports to the CCPD Board. Instead of taking a lot of time going through the numbers, Assistant Chief Whitaker wished to speak over a few highlights. He relayed that, for the first quarter, the Baytown Police Department("BPD")had made changes to their Street Crime Unit. Assistant Chief Whitaker recognized Lieutenant William Aaron Crowell of said unit, was present at the meeting. He noted that BPD was setting out on a large sale gain identification initiative, and explained most of the violent crime that occurred in Baytown,and across Harris and Chambers County,was generally all gang-related.Therefore,BPD embarked on a mission to identify, document, and plan to put said gangs out of business. Assistant Chief Whitaker noted that the Traffic.Management Team was different from the Traffic Enforcement Team in that the Traffic Enforcement's big goal was to write tickets, while the goals and objective of the Traffic Management Team was to identify traffic problem-areas within the City,along with citizens,to come up with ways to address those. As of that point in time,Assistant Chief Whitaker had appointed two officers to the unit—one sergeant and another officer—which were merged with the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement("CVE") Unit. He noted, in the statistics, the CVE Unit had put close to 200 trucks out of service for the first quarter. Even though BPD was in the early stages of that unit, Assistant Chief Whitaker expected awesome things and recognized that was all possible in part of the Baytown Crime Control and Prevention District, and thanked each of the CCPD Directors. In addition,Assistant Chief Whitaker indicated that as of the last month, BPD had worked over 30 DWIs. He explained that in Harris County the DWI fatality rate was extremely high. Thus, the 30 DWIs was a major accomplishment for the Traffic Management Team. Director Rice requested for the number of officers on that Traffic Management Team and Assistant Chief Whitaker answered they had three CVE officers: one sergeant, and one other officer. Additionally,he planned on putting another four officers on that unit as soon as BPD got their man power stabilized. CCPD Board Regular Meeting Minutes April 12,2022 Page 3 of 4 Director Arthur inquired on as to whether Assistant Chief Whitaker believed BPD would get backing from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") on the gang-related matters. Assistant Chief Whitaker invited Lt. Crowell to help him address that, and noted BPD was working with a special set of District Attorneys from the District Attorney's Office who specialized in prosecuting criminal street gangs. BPD had already included the District Attorneys in their discussion. Lt. Crowell introduced himself and explained BPD would be taking a multiple jurisdictional approach. In addition to the resources BPD had in their agency,they were also working with other surrounding law enforcement agencies in multiple counties. Lt. Crowell stated that BPD included the District Attorney's Office in those discussions from the very start. BPD worked with a specialized DA who only focused on gang crime,the Chambers County District Attorney's Office, and the U.S. Attorney's Office on the federal side. Lt. Crowell relayed BPD was trying to mitigate the issues they have had in the past and come at it from multiple angles. Assistant General Manager Kevin Troller asked if Lt. Crowell found that a functional workload since to a previously mentioned point, a lot of times they did not receive the support they were looking for if the staff was overloaded. Lt. Crowell noted there was a huge backlog in the criminal justice system in Harris County. Thus, the more opportunity they were given to allow them to prosecute, BPD would do that and he conveyed that would also make it easier on that end as well. Director Herrera asked if they were bringing those defendants to a certain court or if it was by chance as to which judge assigned the bail. Lt. Crowell answered it was generally by chance, and proceeded to further detail the Harris County court system. Director Arthur commented that it helped the CCPD for the ambassadors of the Police Department to explain to the community that BPD worked hard even though they were only half of the solution, and thanked Lt. Crowell. Assistant Chief Whitaker recapped that identifying all of those gang members and making it extremely uncomfortable for them to do business in Baytown to where they decided to go elsewhere—that was BPD's goal. He noted Chief Stringer was in discussions with the Harris County Sheriff, the Chambers County Sheriff, the Police Chief in Mont Belvieu, and the Police Chief in La Porte for that area-wide initiative so they could run those folks out of Baytown that were committing the bulk of the crime in the area. In regards to all of the catalytic converter thefts in the entire region, Director Herrera inquired if that would also be addressed with the initiative. Assistant Chief Whitaker replied that was another part of the much greater problem since catalytic converter thefts were how members made their revenue in a lot of cases. Assistant Chief Whitaker believed the biggest thing, regarding those thefts, was to work on legislation for the folks on the other end—who were making those purchases—to make it harder on them by prosecuting them as that would cut down on the thefts themselves. He affirmed there were connections between the catalytic converter thefts, the shots- fired calls BPD received, and other shootings, of which all of those organized criminal activities linked back to those gang members. Therefore, Assistant Chief Whitaker relayed BPD will be more covert with their initiative. CCPD Board Regular Meeting Minutes April 12,2022 Page 4 of 4 3. MANAGER'S REPORT a. The next Baytown Crime Control and Prevention District special budget meeting is scheduled for Tuesday,June 14, 2022, at 4:30 P.M., in the Council Chamber located at City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas 77520. Assistant General Manager Kevin Troller thanked the CCPD Board for volunteering and extended that appreciation to staff. He reminded the District that their next meeting was a special budget meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at 4:30 P.M., in the Council Chamber. 4. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, a motion was made by Director Lloyd J. Herrera and seconded by Director Steele Arthur to adjourn the April 12, 2022, CCPD Board Regular Meeting at 4:42 P.M. The vote was as follows: Ayes: President Rikki Wheeler,Director Lloyd J. Herrera, Director Loretta White, Director Nicholas Rice, and Director Steele Arthur Nays: None Other: Director James Coker(Absent) and Director Dr. Chris Warford (Absent) Approved • 3 .. ...Apuitert. • Angela J kson, Sect-+: 40...- L City of Baytown %\\