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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCitizen Review Board - Minutes - 07/12/2023CITIZEN REVIEW BOARD (CiRB) REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, July 12, 2023, at 5:30 PM 222 Laporte Avenue, Colorado River Room (Main Floor) This information is available in Spanish or other languages at no cost to a person who would like this information translated or communicated in Spanish, or another language. Please call (970)416-4254 or titlesix@fcgov.com to make a request for information in other languages. Esta información está disponible en español u otro idioma, sin costo para la persona que le gustaria esta información traducida o comunicada en español u otro idioma. Favor llame al (9709)416-4254 o a titlesix@fcgov.com para solicitor información en otros idiomas. Auxiliary aids and services are available for persons with disabilities. TTY: please use 711 to call (970)221-6753. 1. CALL TO ORDER – Called to order by Shamera Loose @ 5:34 PM 2. ROLL CALL: Board Members Present: Shamera Loose, Beth Grant, Melissa Rosas, Mike Ruttenberg, Mike O’Malley, Board Members Absent: Sally Lee (excused), Allison Dineen (excused) Staff Members Present: Lieutenant Jeremy Yonce, Jenny Lopez Filkins, Senior Assistant City Attorney, Jessica Jones 3. AGENDA REVIEW—Shamera Loose 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION a. Public Input – 5 minutes per individual (None) 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Mike O’Malley moved to approve the June 2023 minutes, which was seconded by Beth Grant. June minutes approved by Melissa Rosas, Mike O’Malley, Beth Grant, and Shamera Loose. Mike Ruttenberg abstained from voting since he was absent for the June meeting. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Rules of Procedure Discussion: Consider whether to adopt Rules of Procedure, as drafted or with other amendments. CITIZEN REVIEW BOARD (CiRB) REGULAR MEETING 1. The Rules of Procedure are governed by both the City Code and the Boards and Commissions Manual 2. If there are sections of the Rules of Procedure that the board would like added back after modification, they can be added as discussion items to the agenda. 3. Shamera Loose notes that there are no proposed amendments to subcommittee procedures, attendance is addressed in the Code, change references to rules of procedures instead of calling them bylaws. 4. Beth Grant asked whether it would be appropriate to substitute email address for home or business. There was consensus to add “to the subcommittee’s email address” and delete the reference to mailing the notice. 5. Beth Grant asked when the best time would be for a subcommittee member to state that they are unavailable. Subcommittee members should state that they are unavailable at the time the drawing is held but that in order to maintain the objectivity of the random drawing, it would be ideal to avoid recusing due to unavailability. 6. Beth Grant suggested where the rules reference notifying a complainant about the date and time of the sub-committee review meeting, it says this is at the chairperson’s discretion. Beth asked whether it would be appropriate to change notice to complainant so that it is a requirement. This is a policy decision, and there was consensus to keep it as at the chairperson’s discretion. 7. Beth Grant suggested that for the purpose of complying, whether it would be appropriate to change the phrase that references the trigger for the time to begin running on the review deadline to the date when the last subcommittee member receives the link to the file from Professional Standards. Members no longer receive the files by mail or flash drive. Given this change in process, there is consensus to change this to “when it is delivered to the four members”. 8. Beth Grant asked for clarification about who is responsible for ensuring a review report is conveyed to the complainant as described in the last sentence of section 5.2. Going forward, this task will be handled by the administrative support staff person assisting the board. 9. Melissa Rosas asked whether it would be better if the review report referenced in section 5.2 should be sent to the complainant by the Police Services Professional Standards Unit. Consensus was that it is better for CITIZEN REVIEW BOARD (CiRB) REGULAR MEETING the report to be conveyed by the CiRB administrative support staff person. Professional Standards Unit personnel will provide the complainant’s contact info to the administrative support staff person. b. Mike Ruttenberg moves to adopt Rules of Procedure with the changes noted in 4 and 7 above, seconded by Melissa Rosas. Rules of Procedure approved by Mike Ruttenberg, Melissa Rosas, Beth Grant, Shamera Loose, and Mike O’Malley. c. Voicemail: None d. E-mail: None e. Training: FCPS K9 Program does many demos for groups and community events, since the dogs sometimes get bad PR. The demos give handlers a chance to dispel some common myths about the dogs. They receive a minimum of 300 hours of training. Fort Collins currently has 7 K9 units, with 1 unit retiring this year. None of the dogs are trained to detect marijuana anymore, and only one dog is left that is trained to detect psilocybin, since these substances have been legalized. Gunner is the only dog in the program that is also trained to detect both explosive compounds and “vapor wake”, so that when a suspect is walking through a crowd with an explosive, the dog is able to pick up and follow the trail. The dogs are always training in the “actual environments”, so in Gunner’s case, he is not socialized often other than when he is training. Some of the K9 Program’s capabilities include: area searches, article searches, building searches, narcotics detection, explosives detection, less lethal option, officer protection, suspect apprehension, tracking, vehicles searches. Most dogs come Europe, because they breed dogs based on ability vs looks, which Americans care more about. It is more difficult to get a female, because of their value for breeding; a male costs about $11,000. There are 20-30 tests that the dog has to pass, before it is selected; the handlers drive down to Florida and pick up as many dogs as they can. They take the dogs through a variety of locations, including Home Depot, a warehouse with a lot of semis, etc. In order to train the dogs, the handlers must find what drives them (food, rewards, etc.) to use positive reinforcement to reward them when they do something correct. People aren’t searched with dogs but will passively indicate by sitting down to CITIZEN REVIEW BOARD (CiRB) REGULAR MEETING indicate that a person has a controlled substance or explosive on their person. Fentanyl is a legal substance, so they only have dogs in the jail that are trained to detect it. Many airports have dogs that detect beetles, fruits and vegetables, money, etc. Sometimes, scents mingle so they utilize “hot scent tracking”, which involves the dog finding the newest, freshest scent. The dog is given a search command to look for an object that smells differently than the rest of the location. The dogs pick up on friction, skin cells, hormones, etc.1100- 1200 times/year, K9 units are deployed. 6-8 times a year, they are used to find a person. To train a dog to apprehend a person, they have bite resistant suits made out of the same materials that their toys are made; they are trained to bite large fleshy areas of the body, to minimize injury to both dog and suspect. Senior handlers respond to the scene whenever someone is bit to investigate. They interview the suspect about the use of the dog to find out their experience; most admit that it was a reasonable use of the dog. If SBI (Serious bodily injury) occurs, FCPS will evaluate whether it can be handled in house, or if it needs to be investigated externally. Dogs do not wear body-cams. They are too cumbersome for the dogs and won’t stay on; however, they do have protective vests. Dogs live with their handlers and go with them to work. They typically work for 8-10 years. Not a lot of people have experience with being bit by a dog that can fight, so suspects will surrender more quickly when dogs are used. Dogs can be used to call a bluff. They also can be called back, or can round a corner to pursue a suspect, unlike other tools that police officers have. For the most part, depending on the context, dogs only take commands from their handlers. Dogs are manipulative: they may come to anyone, to play, but they will only listen to their handler in a tense situation after they have received an order. They use Czech, Hungarian, French, and German as languages to train the dogs. Dogs have short-term memory, so electric collars are also used to immediately admonish them, at the lowest possible setting. These collars also have different settings to emit a tone, or vibration. Dogs are on duty from 8:30AM-3:30AM in Fort Collins, so the handlers evaluate calls to find cases where they can be helpful. Handlers have a pager connected to their vehicle, that can pop open the door, start the vehicle, read the temperature, roll down the windows, give an announcement, etc. These protections were put in place to protect K9 units CITIZEN REVIEW BOARD (CiRB) REGULAR MEETING when they are in their handler’s vehicle. Please reach out to FCPS if you would like to a ride-along or have any additional questions about K9 units. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Boards and Commissions have been contacted about decision memos. b. Upcoming trainings: for September, School Resource Officer personnel will present to the CiRB, and for October, Executive Staff will come for introductions. Board is interested in doing another training at the shooting range. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS-- None 9. OTHER BUSINESS -- None 10. ADJOURNMENT-- Shamera Loose moved to adjourn, seconded by Beth Grant and Mike O’Malley @ 7:07 PM.