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2022 07 26 BPAC Minutes MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BAYTOWN POLICE ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN July 26, 2022 The Baytown Police Advisory Committee (BPAC) met in a Meeting on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, at 6:00 P.M. in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, located at 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Lt. Rodney Evans Committee Member Michael Springer Committee Member Dr. Marissa Moreno Vice Chairperson Dr. June Stansky Committee Member Richard Hunsinger Committee Member Cpl. Steve Ocanas Committee Member Athena Greene Committee Member Eric Bolenbaucher Chairperson Angela Jackson Assistant Secretary John Stringer Police Chief Jerris Mapes Legal Counsel Chairperson Eric Bolenbaucher convened the July 26, 2022, Baytown Police Advisory Committee (BPAC)Meeting with a quorum present at 6:00 P.M.,all members were present with the exception of Committee Member Dr. June Stansky who later arrived at 6:02 P.M. 1. MINUTES a. Consider approving the minutes of the Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting held on June 21, 2022. A motion was made by Committee Member Richard Hunsinger and seconded by Vice Chairperson Dr. Marissa Moreno to approve the meeting minutes of the Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting held on June 21, 2022, as submitted. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Chairperson Eric Bolenbaucher, Committee Member Lt. Rodney Evans, Committee Member Michael Springer, Vice Chairperson Dr. Marissa Moreno, Committee Member Richard Hunsinger,Committee Member Cpl. Steve Ocanas, and Committee Member Athena Greene Nays: None Other: Committee Member Dr. June Stansky(Absent) Approved Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 26,2022 Page 2 of 8 2. CITIZEN INPUT a. Receive citizen input concerning police outreach, community policing, officer training, as well as policies and procedures. Chairperson Bolenbaucher announced Mr. Don Aikey had signed up for the Citizen Input Item. At 6:02 P.M., Committee Member Dr. Stansky arrived at the BPAC Meeting. Mr. Aikey proceeded to share that he had attended five BPAC Meetings. During the meeting held at Lee College, he heard Chairperson Bolenbaucher say that the BPAC was an Advisory Committee that did not fix anything but report to the City Council. Chairperson Bolenbaucher confirmed that was correct. In that same meeting,Mr.Aikey heard Chairperson Bolenbaucher state twice that concerns raised by citizens could be handled right there at the meeting by speaking with the Police Chief. Thus,he presumed Chairperson Bolenbaucher was breaking their own rules. Mr. Aikey also expressed his concern with him being the only speaker out of the entire population of Baytown. On another note, he expressed his doubt on computer-based trainings and commended Lieutenant Rene Hinojosa for having his boots on the ground trying to make a difference. Lastly, Mr. Aikey relayed his complaints with the procedures on citizens speaking during the meetings. Mr. Aikey believed that did not allow for open discussions. Likewise, if the Committee Members wanted to speak to a citizen, they were told to stay after the meeting. Regardless, he thanked the BPAC for having good intentions. b. Receive an update on the concerns brought forth through the Citizen Input received at the June 21, 2022, Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting. Before receiving the update, Chairperson Bolenbaucher acknowledged Council Member Charles Johnson who was in attendance of the meeting. Police Chief John Stringer began his update on the Holloway Road complaint. The area had been on the Baytown Police Department (BPD) Special Investigations Division Head Operations Plan later that week. For the integrity of the investigation and other planned enforcement in the area, Chief Stringer could not advise at the time of the complaint. A Lieutenant over that division was present at that meeting, so he and Chief Stringer spoke with some of the residents and assured them that the matter would be addressed. BPD continued to work the area with increased traffic stops from their Street Crime Unit. Earlier last week, Chief Stringer spoke with one of the citizen speakers on the Holloway Road complaint who said to have seen the activity decrease. It was not completely solved, but BPD was beginning to make an impact. After that meeting, BPD received additional requests for the Middleton Road area which they had begun working on as well. Council Member Johnson had ridden out with the Chief and spoke to a resident who, likewise, said it had not completely stopped in their area, but that the traffic stops seemed to have made an impact. Next, Chief Stringer spoke on the mental health and juveniles concern. He had spoken with the supervisors over the mental health officers in the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) to ensure they understand that their program was intended for all ages. Officers needed to slow down,take a step back, and be more empathic. Through that effort, BPD identified a lack of resources available to Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 26,2022 Page 3 of 8 address the mental health needs of juveniles. Thus, one of BPD's requests through the Bay Area Mental Health Coalition was to identify resources and create a list in a database that officers could draw from and either use out in the field themselves or pass on to family members. BPD also encouraged its officers to continue a conversation with citizens on all calls beyond mitigating the situation.The idea was for continued communication and for officers to move beyond the business of what they were doing. Chief Stringer explained officers may end up in a situation where they could determine other needs citizens may have that may not be related to the original call for help. In regards to officers speeding, Chief Stringer informed the BPAC that the complaints were justified. While he did not know the actual speeds, BPD personnel were exceeding speed limits in their city vehicles. Chief Stringer reported those individuals had received counseling. The following concern was about cultural diversity and sensitivity training. As mentioned at the meeting, Chief Stringer had discussions with the staff at Lee College about helping BPD expand its trainings. In fact, one BPD academy instructor was partnering with Lee College's Chief Equity Officer Dr. Victoria Marron. Dr. Marron gave BPD an instrument that the college used to get a feel for the climate of tolerance and acceptance at Lee College. Chief Stringer had a call scheduled with her the next day to determine how to come up with an instrument for BPD to internally explore how to expand that curriculum for officers, so the department could know what those officers' attitudes and thoughts were. Chief Stringer also needed to know what the internal perceptions about equality were within their agency. How were officers treated by their fellow officers and supervisors? What were their attitudes in general towards cultural diversity in their city? Chief Stringer believed the instrument, a survey, would give BPD an opportunity to see the things that needed to be fixed within their culture beyond the things they were already working on. Another concern Chief Stringer addressed was on family violence. He participated in a Zoom meeting with Judge Barbara Stalder, other law enforcement, and mental health providers where they learned that many non-English speaking victims across Harris County were being underserved when it came to family violence. Chief Stringer noted it had a lot to do with the language barrier. Other agencies lacked translations services whereas BPD had both Hispanic and Caucasian bilingual officers. Thus, Baytown was doing a bit better, but other issues had been identified. Chief Stringer wanted to take a look at that with their Hispanic Outreach Team and Lieutenant Rene Hinojosa. Judge Stalder had said that she would advocate for all agencies to receive proper resources which Chief Stringer explained would help with that endeavor. Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno questioned if it was found that some people did not call in for the fear of deportation. Chief Stringer replied BPD was not seeing that as much as they were used to. However, one of the things that had come up—outside of the Hispanic-Latino community—were human trafficking cases. Chief Stringer relayed in the Asian culture a lot of people lived in one place. When they engaged in human trafficking, they withhold the victims' documents. Victims were afraid to call because of that lack of documentation and for the fear that they would be left out there alone as they were not here legally. The people who ran the organizations also told their victims they were engaged in illegal activity making them double culpable. Chief Stringer explained those were the things BPD were having to overcome. Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 26,2022 Page 4 of 8 The final concern was about active shooters in schools as Uvalde was a hot topic. Four weeks ago, Chief Stringer requested Emergency Operations Center(EOC)Manager David Alamia to assist in organizing a multi-agency tabletop exercise regarding the matter. Police Chief Davis Smith of Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District (GCCISD) and Chief Stringer had been speaking on the matter since about October of last year. Chief Stringer proceeded to list the GCCISD and City groups that participated in the successful tabletop exercise. The full drill would be conducted at a later time and expanded to include other law enforcement agencies. In the exercise, they were able to test some of their policies and procedures—most of which did hold up on the City's side. The Police Department of GCCISD was still relatively new, so they were working through some things. Chief Stringer additionally noted there were improvement items being cataloged for an after-action report. He participated in a meeting with District Attorney Kim Ogg and area police chiefs where they discussed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for how they would respond to an active shooter in their schools or another critical incident. 3. COMMUNITY INPUT a. Receive and discuss community input obtained by the Baytown Police Advisory Committee Members. No input had been obtained by the BPAC Members, so they advanced to the following item. 4. BUSINESS ITEMS a. Receive a report and discuss the status of police outreach, community policing,officer training and policies and procedures. Police Chief John Stringer reported the biggest issue the Baytown Police Department (BPD) was working on was the combined efforts on how to address critical incidents—especially in schools. The agencies involved wanted to make sure they had the appropriate Memorandums of Understanding(MOU)or Interlocal Agreements as it encompassed more than the City of Baytown and Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District(GCCISD). In particular,Barbers Hill. • On training, BPD was working on a Firearms Training Simulator. While the simulator was a tool that gauged officers' decisions to use deadly force, BPD used it more as a de-escalation tool and to teach critical thinking. In the simulator, officers were involved in a scenario controlled by an instructor. Chief Stringer explained they were trying to eliminate "training scars" which occurred when every scenario had an officer doing the same thing over and over again. For example, if every scenario had an officer draw their weapon and shoot,that would be carried out on the streets. BPD was teaching officers in a moment of high stress to think critically which they were seeing success. Chief Stringer went through the simulator and out of the five or six scenarios,he only had to draw his weapon once. After each scenario, the instructors debriefed the officers on what they were thinking, what did they see, and what did their policy say about such things. BPD measured against policy, state law, and constitutional law. Moreover, a part of that training included a Physical Agility Test which was a rowing test with a 2,000-meter row for time and banded by age. Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 26,2022 Page 5 of 8 In regards to the comment made about combined agencies, Committee Member Dr. Stansky mentioned the major explosions, or flares, that happened that morning in Mont Belvieu. She wondered what was the combined effort made by both cities' Police Departments and if there was a group task force. Chief Stringer answered there was not, but the mutual aid was available had it been called upon. He further discussed the procedures if such scenario had occurred. b. Receive a report on the implementation of the Mental Health Initiative administered by the Baytown Police Department. The Mental Health Initiative continued to go well.Police Chief John Stringer reported the Baytown Police Department (BPD) still only had twenty iPads, but were trying to get more. BPD also wanted to expand the Clinician and Officer Remote Evaluation(CORE)Program as there had been a higher amount of calls for mental health complaints. All officers went through a Crisis Intervention Training that was forty hours and included a lot of de-escalation training. More than anything, the training taught officers how to communicate with people in crisis, how to ask the right questions, and how to point them to the appropriate resources. Chief Stringer presented a magnet from the Harris Center of Mental Health that had the new National Hotline replacing the old National Suicide Hotline.The hotline was for crisis intervention as well and the number to that was 988. Those magnets would be given to officers to distribute out in to the community as there may be a person in crisis that did not want to have someone come to their house. The hotline would give them an opportunity to connect to other resources. However, if someone on the line was suicidal,the hotline would reach out to cities' Dispatch Center to make sure someone would be sent out. The Bay Area Mental Health Coalition had began seeing traction with that and representatives from Congressman Brain Babin's office were interested in helping. Regarding the expansion of the CORE Program, Committee Member Hunsinger asked if there were any barriers in the way. If so, were those barriers at the county level as Baytown's City Council backed the program a hundred percent. Chief Stringer did not believe there were barriers. It just the matter of going through the process of getting the iPads when they were available. Chief Stringer then further discussed matters concerning the CORE Program which dovetailed in to Baytown's homeless population. He relayed his want to assign a sergeant and a couple of officers with the ancillary duty of making contact with the homeless to see how they could assist them. In regards to the Mental Health Initiative and CORE, Chairperson Bolenbaucher wondered if there was anything the BPAC could advise Council to focus on or if there was something the BPAC could help drive forward. Chief Stringer believed the BPAC could help by connecting them with people—especially mental health professionals in the Bay Area—to get involved with their Coalition as they still needed to assemble resources. As it was also related to mental health, Chief Stringer spoke on the homeless population and getting those associated resources as well. Since the iPads' implementation,Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno asked if officers had been actively using them and if there was documentation on how often. Chief Stringer answered officers did have to report that and believed the iPads came with a function to report back to the mental health - services that were provided. He had mentioned before that,within twenty minutes of the first group being trained,they had a save. Thus, Chief Stringer assured the iPads were being used on a regular Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 26,2022 Page 6 of 8 basis and believed it was used fifteen to twenty times a month. Chairperson Bolenbaucher was interested to see how the different seasons of the year affected those numbers as did Chief Stringer as it related to crime patters. Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno inquired about the first save Chief Stringer mentioned which he responded discussing the situation of a suicidal veteran. In Chief Stringer's discussion points,Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno noted he mentioned"ten more minutes" various times and wondered if that was something he would implement. Chief Stringer explained that was something BPD would ask their officers to do. It could not be a policy because there would be times when officers had to go. However, as a philosophy, it would get officers engaged with the community. c. Consider setting any tasks and processes for future meetings to include, but not limited to: • Community Engagement Initiatives; and • Discuss ideas for the BPAC's public service announcement to be advertised on Channel 16 and social media. Committee Member Hunsinger suggested having an item on the agenda for the BPAC to talk about what they would do for National Night Out. On that note, Chairperson Bolenbaucher wondered if anything had come up about their Committee not having any type of budget. Legal Counsel Jerris Mapes responded the BPAC could get a booth, but she had not received a response from the City Manager about finding funds in the budget for a banner, flyers, etc. The booth, however, would come with tables and chairs and Ms. Mapes hoped they could get a tent from Parks and Recreation. The Committee Members further discussed the matter. If the BPAC had issues in getting those funds for the banner,Police Chief John Stringer offered to take care of it. Ms.Mapes recommended the BPAC consider what they would want on the banner at their next meeting. The Committee Members continued to deliberate on how they would record input from citizens at the event. Chairperson Bolenbaucher believed there were two things needed for planning. In terms of the design of the banner, he asked if any Committee Member could assist with that. The second thing would be the questionnaire to record citizen input which would have to be approved through the City Attorney's office. Committee Member Dr. Stansky offered to work on the questionnaire and Committee Member Hunsinger stated he may have a resource to help with the design of the banner. Pertaining to future agenda items, Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno requested an update from Lieutenant Rene Hinojosa on the Hispanic Outreach at their next meeting. Committee Member Dr. Stansky also requested for the BPAC to have a written policy for voting in the future. To that, Ms. Mapes mentioned Council was looking at creating an across-the-board election process for all committees. City staff were just waiting to see what that would be as well as the time frame. Furthermore, Chairperson Bolenbaucher requested to see the monthly numbers of the Clinician and Officer Remote Evaluation(CORE) Program and the Mental Health Initiative as far as officer interactions. Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno added to that request if officers were passing out the decals. Where was the Baytown Police Department(BPD)on that?Chief Stringer inquired if there was any other information the BPAC Members would want and cautioned that the data may not tell the whole story. Chairperson Bolenbaucher clarified he was interested to see if there were any Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 26,2022 Page 7 of 8 repeat interactions that the CORE Program was being used for. Chief Stringer stated he would ask the program coordinator to see what could be found. To the Chiefs inquiry, Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno also wished to know how many people who had been arrested were now"saves"because of the implementation of the CORE. Likewise, Chief Stringer replied he would see what could be found. He then conveyed the sensitivity of that data and that he may need more time than the next meeting to get that information. Ms. Mapes and the Chief then discussed the legalities of looking at criminal histories. Considering the BPAC's quarterly report to Council, Chairperson Bolenbaucher believed the information would be beneficial. Committee Member Hunsinger further clarified to the Chief that the BPAC was looking for the impact of the program. Chairperson Bolenbaucher then addressed the second bulletin point regarding their advertisements on social media. The Committee had discussed the idea of having a one-minute video which the City's Media Team were willing to help with. Chairperson Bolenbaucher noted they needed help with the video's scripting which Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno offered her assistance. Assistant Secretary Angela Jackson wished to revisit the request on the monthly numbers. As Chairperson Bolenbaucher was thinking about presenting that information to Council on September 8th,if the Chief needed more time to get that report to the BPAC,Ms.Jackson suggested pushing back that presentation. The BPAC did have a meeting in August,but Ms. Jackson wished to make that note if Chief Stringer did end up needing more time. Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno suggested that to be determined in their August meeting based on what information the Chief received. However, Ms. Mapes noted some of the BPAC Members' term would end at the end of September. Chief Stringer assured he would do his best to get that information before then. 5. NEXT MEETING a. Consider setting date, time and location for the next Baytown Police Advisory Committee meeting, along with any related tasks and processes. As Vice Chairperson Dr. Moreno had solidified Lee College as a location, she inquired if the Committee Members had any other options. Committee Member Hunsinger shared that he would work with business leaders to figure out a venue and questioned if it had to be within city limits. Ms. Mapes recommended it to be within the city limits, so the Committee Members continued to discuss future venue possibilities. The date for the next BPAC Meeting was set for August 23, 2022, at 6:00 P.M. with the location to be determined. 6. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, a motion was made by Chairperson Eric Bolenbaucher and seconded by Committee Member Dr. June Stansky to adjourn the July 26,2022, Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting at 7:04 P.M. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Chairperson Eric Bolenbaucher, Committee Member Lt. Rodney Evans, Committee Member Michael Springer, Vice Chairperson Dr. Marissa Moreno, Committee Member Dr. June Stansky, Committee Member Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 26,2022 Page 8 of 8 Richard Hunsinger,Committee Member Cpl. Steve Ocanas,and Committee Member Athena Greene Nays: None • Approved mm Angela cksonf/- a ant ecr'" ''i'0,i City of Baytow;: . —, i 1 / p `' i \ ' OF t.=