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2023 02 28 BPAC Minutes MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BAYTOWN POLICE ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN February 28, 2023 The Baytown Police Advisory Committee (BPAC) met in a Meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, at 6:02 P.M. in the Innovation Room of the Sterling Municipal Library, located at 1 Mary Elizabeth Wilbanks Avenue, Baytown, Texas, with the following in attendance: Michael Springer Vice Chairperson Dr. June Stansky Committee Member Richard Hunsinger Committee Member Natalie Robinson Committee Member Kirk Russell Committee Member Dr. Marissa Moreno Chairperson Angela Jackson Secretary John Stringer Police Chief Jerris Mapes Legal Counsel Chairperson Dr. Moreno convened the February 28, 2023, Baytown Police Advisory Committee meeting with a quorum present at 6:02 P.M. All members were present with the exception of the absences of Committee Member Lt. Rodney Evans, Committee Member Doris Thomas, Commit- tee Member Athena Greene, and Committee Member Natalie Robinson who later arrived at 6:13 P.M. Prior to their first item of business, Chairperson Dr. Moreno had the new and existing Committee Members introduce themselves as well as the City Staff present. 1. REPORTS a. Receive an update regarding the status of police outreach, community policing, of- ficer training and policies and procedures. Police Chief John Stringer presented the updates to the Committee. On police outreach, Chief Stringer first discussed the recent Coffee with a Cop event at Chick-Fil-A. While he needed to find out for sure, he believed the next event would be on March 14th. The Baytown Police Department (BPD) also held bike rodeos and pop-up park events in December, January, and February. Future bike rodeos were scheduled for March and April. Chief Stringer further reported their toy drive event had been a success as many toys had been collected and distributed to needy families. In the month of January, multiple security checks had been conducted for residential areas as well as businesses. Their services included providing those individuals with ideas on how to make their areas less appealing and accessible to criminals. Chief Stringer also informed the BPAC that UNIDOS continued to be successful. Their most recent Town Hall Meeting educated citizens on the dangers of purchasing vehicles online. BPD also held two(2)Rape Aggression Defense(RAD) classes in January with two (2) more coming in April and another two (2) in August. Their Safe Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes February 28,2023 Page 2 of 4 Rider Car Seat class was conducted in January with twelve (12) car seats gifted to families and three(3)gifted in February. He noted more classes would be scheduled for March.Moreover,BPD was still working on a joint mentorship program with the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District (GCCISD) Police Department. Their hope was to have a session before the end of the school year. BPD had also been collaborating with Lee College on their active shooter re- sponse. Chief Stringer anticipated they would have drills coming up sometime in the summer. On a separate note, Chief Stringer mentioned BPD had two (2) new officers in their Crime Pre- vention Services who were undergoing training. The Department was also exploring expanding citizen capacities to assist them and to allow more time for personnel to be out in the field. Chief Stringer mentioned that could include citizens assisting BPD with revitalizing their Badge of Ex- cellence programs for their apartments. In addition, the Department was looking in to using citi- zens to help with their disaster response with the Community Emergency Response Team(CERT). Chief Stringer then took a moment to recognize two(2)officers. Unfortunately,the names of those individuals were difficult to decipher from the audio recordings of the meeting.The officers,some- time last year, responded to the home of a retired army colonel who's son was in a mental health crisis. The citizen expressed their concerns as their family was African American and they had already had several interactions with the police. However, the citizen shared that they were happy with the service they were provided. On an additional note to personnel matters, BPD established an Ad Hoc Committee of patrol officers for community engagement initiatives purposes. To recap on all their trainings between December and January, BPD provided five (5) in-service training courses. In total, BPD logged one thousand four hundred and seventy-six (1,476) training hours for sixty-five(65) students: twenty-four(24) students were Baytown officers and forty-one (41) were from other agencies. In February, BPD had eleven (11) in-service courses scheduled which Chief Stringer named a few for the BPAC Members. Among those trainings were several Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) courses to further officers' license level, i.e. intermediate, advanced, and masters. Currently, of the one hundred and sixty-three (163) BPD officers, one hundred and thirty-seven(137) had at least an intermediate TCOLE certification. Chief Stringer further discussed their new hiring procedures and lateral recruitment.BPD had hired three(3) additional officers that graduated from their Field Training program.Also, for hiring new officers, BPD would go live with a Range Operations Adjust Instructor program. Chief Stringer also touched on developing their own Basic Peace Officer course that they hope to establish within the next year and a half. Committee Member Hunsinger questioned what was BPD's ideal staffing. Chief Stringer replied they had authorized one hundred seventy-five (175) sworn positions and that he had also done a staffing analysis. However,he needed to go back and check those numbers. Committee Member Dr. Stansky wondered if BPD had someone in their department that dealt with news or media organizations. Chief Stringer responded that they did have Public Information Co- ordinator Ana Fernandez. However, media organizations choose how they approach their stories and they sometimes do not consult the Police Department. Even if the Department were to give them all the objective facts, their stories may not exactly portray the information given. On a sep- arate note, Chairperson Dr. Moreno asked a question regarding the attendance of BPD's commu- nity outreach,like Coffee with a Cop. Chief Stringer replied around seventy-five(75)folks showed up on the regular at each of their events.He deemed that as good considering it was a new program. Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes February 28,2023 Page 3 of 4 The BPAC Members and Chief Stringer then discussed a few ideas for community outreach initi- atives. 2. TEAMBUILDING EXERCISES a. Conduct teambuilding exercises with the members of the Baytown Police Advisory Committee to include: 1. Review of the Committee's Purpose; and 2. Reconsider the Committee's Buckets of Concern. Prior to the teambuilding exercises,Legal Counsel Jerris Mapes first read Resolution 2,674 Section 2(b) that identified the purpose of the BPAC as a Committee. The resolution reads as follows: "The purpose of the Committee is to enhance and encourage communication between the residents and the City and to provide comments, suggestions, and recommendations to the City Council on police outreach, community policing, officer training, and policies and procedures to ensure best practices are in place and operational to create a community of trust. " Ms. Mapes also recited Section 2(e) that described their powers and duties. It read as follows: "The Baytown Police Advisory Committee shall hold such public forums to receive input from diverse community groups to enhance understanding through communication and education, to improve and maintain the public trust of the Baytown Police Department, and to further the pur- pose of the Committee. " With that, Police Chief John Stringer and Ms. Mapes excused themselves and exited the meeting. Library Director Jamie Eustace proceeded to facilitate the teambuilding exercises for the Commit- tee. The first exercise allowed the BPAC Members to learn more about each other and the reason why they wanted to serve on the BPAC.After,Ms. Eustace named the original Buckets of Concern the BPAC Members had identified for their Committee to focus on. Those were as follows: 1) Mental Illness; 3) Transparency and Accountability; and 2) Positive Engagement; 4) Training and Development. The BPAC Members additionally learned through their exercises: 1)the basic data on the Baytown Police Department(BPD)and the BPAC,2)their accomplishments, and 3)the current community trends impacting BPD. Ms. Eustace stated she would type up all the sheets from the three (3) stations that each topic was discussed for record purposes. When prompted with the question of what stood out from their discussions,Chairperson Dr.Moreno answered with Committee Member Robinson's experiences as a BPD officer. She mused that was helpful to understand where the divide and miscommunication was.Nonetheless, the Committee's accomplishments inspired hope in them. Lastly,on their points of concern,Committee Member Hunsinger shared his difficulty with having citizens open up. Chairperson Dr. Moreno's concern was with trying to get their meetings out in Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes February 28,2023 Page 4 of 4 the community. With that, Ms. Eustace questioned the BPAC Members on how they wished to move forward as a Committee in 2023. She offered to come back to their March meeting with everything typed up from their exercises so they could tackle that big question.The discussion was unable to continue as the Library's closing time drew near. Chairperson Dr. Moreno requested the notes be sent to all the BPAC Members so they could come back,recap,and take action from there. 3. NEXT MEETING a. Consider setting date, time and location for the next Baytown Police Advisory Com- mittee meeting, along with any related tasks and processes. Chairperson Dr. Moreno relayed their next meeting was scheduled for March 28th at 6:00 P.M.The location was set to be at City Hall.However,due to the deliberation in the previous item,the BPAC agreed to meet at the Sterling Municipal Library once again with Library Director Jamie Eustace. A motion was made by Committee Member Dr. June Stansky and seconded by Vice Chairperson Michael Springer to approve their next meeting date, time, and location to be on March 28, 2023, at 6:00 P.M. and is to be located at the Sterling Municipal Library. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Chairperson Dr. Marissa Moreno, Vice Chairperson Michael Springer, Committee Member Dr. June Stansky, Committee Member Richard Hun- singer, and Committee Member Natalie Robinson Nays: None Other: Committee Member Lt. Rodney Evans(Absent), Committee Member Doris Thomas (Absent), and Committee Member Athena Greene(Absent) Approved 4. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Chairperson Dr. Moreno adjourned the February 28, 2023, Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting at 7:27 P.M. �+ fl�y�aaoaroy�fl /+' o Angela J kson, Sec m� City of Baytown ""n5&�ama¢°"-�Q"