All right. It is Wednesday, May 28th. Uh we at the fire station holding fire station holding a public safety commission meeting uh at 6:00 p.m. I will call the meeting to order. Um if anybody is recording the meeting
other than the public safety commission, can you please let us know now? Anybody in the room recording? Anybody on Zoom quit recording, please let us know. Okay, Chief, what's the dog's name?
Dave. I'm doing attendance. I have to make sure Daisy is at home. Dave. All right. Um, I'll call the meeting to order. The um I'll take a roll call. Uh David Wenoy
here. Ed Javez here. Gary Graph here. Maria Burge here. And Kelly Dixon here. Uh and David Moscarto. We're all here. We have a quorum of public safety commissioners. This is excellent
news. All right. I'm going to roll right into public comment. Is there anybody in the room that would like to step up and make public comments? I think Daisy might have to say something to us. Anybody on Zoom would like to speak
for public comment? Please unmute yourself. I'll give it a second in case you're having technical difficulties. All right, I'll ask one more time. Anybody on uh online would like to give public
comment, please let me know now. All right, we're going to move on from public comment. If there's none, I would welcome um emergency services to come up. Please make sure you introduce yourself to the folks that will watch this a month from
now if you could. It's good to see you and thank you for your print out. Good evening. I am Patrick Leonard. I'm the regional director for AMR here in Western Massachusetts. Welcome. Kim D'Angelo, the operations manager for AMR. Welcome. Thank you.
So, a recap of the last month since we were here, uh, we've continued our busy trend working closely with the fire department. We're still averaging around 250 911 transports monthly. Um, you'll also see in the graph the starting to
integrate our fly car response. So, they were up here a few times throughout the month in service kind of still triing how they fit in with everyone. We recently had EMS week which was a great time for all of our providers. It's a chance to recognize them and all the hard work they do. Spent the day up
with our crews up here on Tuesday. The chief and deputy chief came by for some lunch which was great. Uh aside from that, we're business as usual. The trucks are up and running. We had our OEMs relicens inspection last month as well, which went no issues. They spent
maybe 30 minutes up here and they were good with us. So that's the kind of inspection we like to see. Absolutely. rank news. I also have, as you may know, the contract for AMR up here in
Greenfields is up for renewal. Um, we have been speaking with the chief in regards to some of the new language and some of the standards that are going to be in that contract. Um, as we seek a renewal, um, we have drafted up anou
that, uh, allows us to continue with the current language as stated within that contract, giving us an extens extension of no later than 90 days from today um, with myself and the mayor approving that going
forward. So, we're requesting for that 90-day extension so we can continue to work with the chief and we'll vote on that a little bit later to to give a a recommendation for the 90-day extension and chief will talk about this too a
little bit later. So, thank you for this po. Any questions from the commissioners about this? We'll talk a little bit more about this later. Yeah, we will be um we are working on a document that will essentially
essentially summarize the last three years of services um and the relationship that's been developed um what will be staying the same, what may be changing and some of the new innovative uh practices that are going to be going forward um in the years to come within that contract. and we'll have a document to present with the
chief and anybody else that he delegates to be there so we can actually go over it and review it and and share it to see if there's any feedback from anybody. Great. Yes. What someone from public safety will be present at that so look forward to that. That's
great. All right. any unusual challenges or uh events that have taken place over the last month that you want to the only unusual challenge we have is that we're actually fully staffed for
a long long time. So, uh Kim and the team will continue their work with recruitment and retention, right? Um there's a good group of tenured uh employees up here and we feel that with the changes that we've done with the schedule and the office um they see that
you know it's it's a positive uh environment for them to be here with the relationships between fire and PD um and again it makes Kim's job a lot easier knowing that we have the personnel to uh staff the trucks and some of the changes such as the fly car she mentioned that
we're working to the system we'll see enhanced ALS services for uh local BLS providers and some of the surrounding uh towns moving forward as we implement that into the system. I have to ask a stupid question. What is
QRV? So QV is a quick response vehicle. Um some agencies call it as a intercept vehicle. Um so an ambulance typically and stop me if you already already know this but most ambulances are staffed with two basics or paramedic and a
basic. Um back in the days it was always two paramedics. Um but because of the shortage of paramedics over the years they went to a paramedic basic model in ambulances and then as it continued to occur uh better utilization of resources was to put a paramedic in a what they
call a fly car or QRV. So now your paramedic instead of getting tied up on calls that were of low acuity or of no acuity, you save the paramedic for the high acuity calls and you don't have to send them to every call because they're just sitting alone waiting to go meet the ambulance the appropriate level of
care. This is a much better utilization of limited resources that we have to get the right level to the right level of care. So thank you for answering. Absolutely. Anything else? So just for you too, I should have done this at the beginning
and I do want to welcome Gary Graph. This is the public safety commissioner. So please introduce yourselves if you don't know him folks that are in the room and welcome Gary. We appreciate your volunteerism. Thank you. Great. Well, thank you. Appreciate Appreciate
your time. Got it. All right. Fire department is up next. Gentlemen, they are traveling. Oh, hello. Maria and uh
Kelly, can you hear us? Yes. If you have any questions for any of the folks, just um blur out and say you have a question or a comment. Okay. Can you hear us? Okay. Yes, we can.
Okay, we're moving on to fire now. Welcome. Thank you. Please introduce yourselves for the Zoom meeting. Sure. Uh I'm Bob Strand. I am the fire chief in the emergency management director and my name is Peter Macyver and I am the
deputy fire. Thanks. Uh, and before I get into my comments, I'm actually going to turn it over to the deputy and he's going to give you an update on our uh, staffing our new recruits uh, and our training of our new recruits including
the EMS side of it. Take your way. So, uh, the two that came before you, uh, back, I think in January have made it through their initial phase of training for us, which, uh, we sort of took a different look at
this time around with our hires and concentrated mainly on the EMS side up front, uh, because that was our largest challenge, uh, that we faced, getting people sort of up to speed. it's really easy to send them to the fire academy
and kind of get them through that process. EMS is more inhouse. So, sort of streamlining that and revitalizing our program to better fit the department's need. Um, so super successful with that. We got them
cleared two months ahead of schedule. Uh, they've both received authorization to practice from our medical director. Uh, and they're off working on the ambulance. They are working with the groups to sort
of get a little head start before they leave to the academy and they are scheduled for the July class in Springfield. So, two of them will take off then. Uh, our latest hire started about a month ago and is slowly working
through sort of all of our onboarding. Um, and that's sort of How long is the academy for? 10 weeks. It's Monday through Friday. Everything from how to put your
gear on to hazmat, gas fires, and everything else you can think of. Excellent. Any questions for the deputy on any of this? All good. Good. So, uh, the deputy has applied for and received a grant for, uh, new nozzles. So, we pretty much
have outfitted all the apparatus with brand new, uh, solid boore nozzles. So in the fire service, everything seems to go full circle. Uh and now our complement of uh uh in layman's term,
the nozzle we're going to is uh is a smooth boore, which means the water comes out very tight uh uh versus a combination nozzle where we can change into a fog to uh smooth boore. We are learning more and more through science
of the changes in our philosophy of how we fight fires over the years. Uh and this actually takes us back to the way it used to be. Um where we can knock down a lot of fire very quickly with with just by changing the nozzles up. So the deputy did a great job and applying
for the grant and received it and they're in and they're all the firefighters are being trained on them and uh it's looking good. Our budget is tight. Uh but we should make our budget this year. Um next year's budget is
going to be even tighter, but we're working closely to make sure that we don't um the changes that we have to make within uh the department are structural and not something that anybody would see uh from a day-to-day
response or anything like that. So uh we have some ideas. We're making some changes, but it's it's it's it's I think we'll be okay. Um uh with that said, you know, the next couple years after this year are going to be uh I think are going to be
challenging. So, uh with the loss of some federal grants, the the city is, you know, um I think could have some financial challenges. I'm grateful that this year, uh we were able to maintain our services. Uh the mayor uh worked
very hard to make sure that we were um uh funded to the best that could be provided under the financial wos that the city has. Um so uh we are continuing operation as normal. Um any questions
about budget? Just the amount of the grant just so people know how much the how much we've gotten a few this year. The nozzle grant specifically was just under 15,000. Yeah. So pretty substantial
chunk of money for 26 nozzles. So y that standardized the whole fleet does um so the year is about to end right and so what's overtime look like going to come in at bottom line overtime
is what I've been saying right along like um overtime is always a challenge for us and you know like next year's budget We asked for an increase in overtime. We didn't receive the increase in overtime. We actually got a little bit of a
reduction. However, we're fully staffed. So, we're hoping that that'll weigh out, but overtime's always a challenge for us. Uh we do our best to maintain it, but um it's uh it's not like it's been in previous years. Uh the last not the
last year, but the years prior, we were hundreds of thousand of dollars over in overtime. um where we've had to go back and ask for more money to make up. I'm fairly confident that we are going to come in at bottom line, including the overages that we have in
overtime, which is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but we working closely with uh city hall and and making some adjustments. Um and you know, certainly these three new firefighters when they get up to speed
will have an impact. Um uh but we're I think we're doing okay. Good. Any questions? All right. I have two other items. The first one has already been presented to you. Uh we are in uh the contract for
ambulance services for the city of Greenfield is up. Our current contract is with AMR. Uh they have been a great partner for the city. uh because of the time frame that goes along with that, we still need to have um some discussions. It is I've talked to the mayor about
that. In those discussions, um she's hoping to have somebody from her office, a representative from public safety, uh and my counterpart uh from the police department, Chief Dodge, uh to have uh conversations where we can have a a look
at where we are, uh if we're satisfied, if we need to tweak anything. One of the biggest tweaks you've already been told about is uh the changes with the fly car, which I'm really excited about. Um uh that provides an ALS provider in a different capacity than they have right
now. Um and so we should see some changes with that. Uh what we're not seeing changes is the call volume. And for whatever reason, the call volume continues to stay at pace or increase every year. I don't have an answer. Uh
we've tried doing demographics. We've tried doing uh some analysis and and and the answer is it's busier and I don't have a clear picture of why. You'd be done a couple calls if you get the train to stop fighting
fires way up to burners. You show me how to work the fire hydrant in front of my house. Yeah. I'd be happy to go out there. Yeah. The brush season's over, so we're we're excited about that. Uh, you know, since you brought it up, we have been talking with the marshall's office
and the district fire warden uh to try to identify um why we had that rash of train fires. Be interesting to know if you get information back. Yeah, it kept us busy for a couple weeks. So, uh we're we're u
like I said, we're talking with them. Uh we've had some preliminary conversations with the train um um about them. Uh, but we just want to see if we can prevent it going forward. But trains by nature,
they cause fires when it's really dry. So, it's always been that way. And but we're we're we're working on seeing if there's solutions to that. So, I would ask uh respectfully for the commission to make a positive recommendation to forward to the mayor
for her to uh sign the 90-day extension with AMR to allow us to have the uh aggressive time frame uh conversations about ambulance coverage. Good. Um somebody I'll make a motion that we approve a 90-day extension with
AMR to the mayor positive recommendation for that. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Any questions about that? Oh, we haven't voted yet. We will vote in a minute. Any discussion from commissioners on online
or here about this? Do you have any questions? Commissioner Burge or Dixon, do you have any questions with respect to this vote? No. Can you hear us better now? Yes. Y Okay,
great. All right. And I'm going to take a roll call vote for positive recommendation for 90-day extension um for um medical um AMR.
Um Commissioner Lenoy, yes. Commissioner Jarvis, yes. Commissioner Braph, yes. Commissioner Burge, yes. Commissioner Dixon, yes. Commissioner Moscola, yes.
90day extension to our friends. Okay, last I'll send it over to the mayor. Sounds good. The last item I have, uh if you remember about a year ago, uh there was a group of uh citizens that came in with some concerns about uh
activities up at the fairgrounds. Um so we have issued uh through the state fire marshall's office uh some permits for fireworks again for the summer. Um uh the precinct 7 I believe is the
name of the group. Uh they have sent me uh a few emails with some concerns about that. Um so uh citing some uh health issues specifically uh and some other things. So we are going to be meeting with that community group uh myself and
the health director. Uh there's health concerns that that falls under the purview of the uh the health director. Uh but basically the concern is the um having fireworks. Um I will tell you publicly uh that we are governed uh by
the state fire marshall's office and although we issue the permit um it is regulated and inspected and checked by the state fire marshall's office. Um so I have spoken to the state fire marshall's office and when this meeting
is going to be conducted uh they will have a representative as well. Um uh I don't have any more to report on that other than to give the commission a heads up um that it is a item that um has been brought up um and and probably
more will be following up on that. Can you can you let us know when that meeting's taking place with the local folks? And how many times a year is it? Twice, but three times. It's twice, right? At the fairgrounds. Twice by the city. Twice by the city. It's it's a
um a total of four altogether. Four. Two are city sponsored. One at the Fourth of July, one for the winter carnival. Those are t those take place at Rocky Mountain. And then there are two private events that have uh I don't remember if we've gotten
permits for both of them, but I know we've received a permit for one of them. Uh those two are at the fairgrounds. The group's only concerned about the two at the fairgrounds. Are they concerned about the all four? I think they're specifically it's the fairgrounds, but they have they have raised some health
concerns that would that revolve around all five. All of them. Okay. That's right. And that's why the health department is important to be at the table. Y please let us know when that is in case somebody wants I just wanted to make you aware that there'll be some
discussions about that. That's great. All right. Anything else, gentlemen? The voting your dog is the official mascot on the fire. But why? I I lose a little track of time when we go out for a walk after
work. So, I didn't get home in time to drop her back off, so she came with me. It's a It's a dog friendly meeting. And cats, too, if you want to bring your cat. But yes, it's the highlight of my day is getting home and taking the dog for a walk. So,
Commissioners driving. Do you have any questions for the fire department? You guys suck. Commissioners on the road. Sorry, I didn't hear you. No, I do not.
No, I do not. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. All right. Thank you. Uh have one final thing to say. Sure. Uh uh and I apologize for it just came to me. Uh today we had a
um you know serious accident on Federal Street. I just want to say from an from a chief standpoint uh watching all the agencies collaboratively collaboratively work together from the ambulance. Uh Cory and ambulance happened to be driving that way came upon it. AMR, our
police department, and our firefighters. Um, they handle the call very well. Um, and I just bring that up because it's the way they handle every call. Uh, and I was very impressed on how everybody came together and was was able to um
deal with this uh this uh incident. Our our thoughts are with the family of of the drivers that were involved and we're hoping for uh the best outcome for them as well. But um I am proud of our emergency services uh and it was on
display again today. So thank you. Thank you all of you. Appreciate it. All right. I would welcome dispatch. He saved the best for last. Oh, that's from the peanut gallery. They were late. And they were late, too.
So there may order in the meeting. Order in the meeting. State name for the Zoom people, please. I am Cindy Hunter. I am the dispatch supervisor for police and fire. Thank you, Cindy. Um, first thing I would like to do is just recognize one of my
dispatchers. Um, she is a predium dispatcher, Taylor Cronto. Uh, Taylor has worked very, very hard over the last two years in the nursing program at GCC and she graduated uh last week. So, we are very, very proud of her. We certainly don't want to lose her. Um, I
know that she does have a full-time job coming up as soon as she passes her license test. Um, but I think she'll stay with us, maybe not be able to give us as much time, but we're very excited for her and her family. So, give her the best for us. They definitely will. Um, and I would just like to piggyback off
of what the fire chief said. There was a very serious accident today. Um, we actually happened to have three dispatchers in the office at the time, which was uh very helpful. Um they did a fantastic job. Uh two of them are newer dispatchers, one is more seasoned, but they did a great job and I I would just
agree with him that everyone involved did a fantastic job and our thoughts go out to the injured and the involved. Where was the accident? Uh it was on Federal Street near McDonald's. Um lifellight was called for it. So it's pretty serious.
Uh let's see. So call volume for April. We had 3,469 calls entered IMC. That's gone up significant at least from last month. Um 911 calls into and out of our 911 system, we had around 2,000 calls in and out.
Um our PDMS last month didn't give us as much as they normally do. Uh we only had uh four shifts covered by our pdiums. One happened to be in college and with our nursing program. Uh one had just come back to us. Um, so she uh but for this month we're on track for about 130
hours from the pdium. So we're happy about that. Um, unfortunately we did lose our trainee that you would have met last month at the meeting at Gordon. Um, he uh asked to put his training on a on a hold. We were only a couple weeks into it, so we weren't that far into it. Um,
he has taken a temporary job uh in his field of training or his field from college. So, we definitely wish him the best and he may come back to us at some point after he's established himself in his new job. We'll have to consider that. Um, in addition to the PDMs covering the
hours they covered, I covered 40 hours on the desk. So, I'm trying to cover more hours to save on the o not only not only on the overtime, but the shifts that the other dispatchers are having. Don't tell us that. You know how we feel about it. I know you
do. Um, yeah, it's been a busy month. Again, uh, we had some pretty serious calls and I'm just I'm very proud of all of the dispatchers and how they come together and they work together very well. Um, uh, the only other things I wanted to talk about is that we are almost at the end of the fiscal year.
So, next next fiscal year, um, our there are a couple of grants we'll be applying for. Uh, one is our normal training grant, uh, which covers our state required training for the year. Um and the other is uh something called EMD. We
have been talking about that. Uh it's a me emergency medical dispatching. Uh basically it's a structured way of handling a medical call. Uh you take you take the call initially and there are what I would call introductory questions. The answers they give to
those questions uh shoot you to the the um uh the issue of the call whether it's a stroke, a heart attack, child birth, that sort of thing. Uh when you determine what the call reason is, it gives you again another structured set of questions to ask which can then lead
to life- saving instruction such as CPR. Uh having a child um we've talked about it u at length with Chief Straan. It's something that he's very behind. Um we've also talked with Chief Dodge about it as well. Um I think it would be uh
prudent for us to pursue it. Um the major reason for that is um our customer service to our our callers. It would um expedite getting help to them knowing what the exact cause of the medicals are. Um so what I have prepared is just
a brief um description of what the EMD program is for all of you. I've also given you a copy of the guidelines for our two grants that we'll be applying for. You can see those as well. And you're going to read all these per per page by page, but Exactly. Okay.
There are two copies for the other two. Okay. Thank you. Um it's a bit of an expensive undertaking, but the the grant should cover most if not all of the cost of that. Will this be for all the dispatchers? It would be for all the dispatchers and the pdeiums too. The
pdeiums as well. Yes. Um so we it would require all of us to be CPR certified. And then there is a I think it's a two-day class now. It used to be a three-day class. Uh and then you are certified to EMD. Um it's definitely something we have to talk to our union
about um because it's a change in work conditions. So something we have to negotiate, but I'm hopeful that will move forward. How could it not be helpful? For sure. Anything anything that betters our our service to our customers and our callers
is a good thing. Um, that's really all I have unless you all have any questions. Everything's going good in your your new area. Everything is going going well. Yeah. Um, I would like to give kudos to Lieutenant Haskins again, just because
he's been a great a great mentor in this process and Chief Dodge and Deputy Chief Green as well. Yes. Um, it's it's only been it's almost two years, not quite two years. It'll be two years next year that I've been doing this and they've all three of them have been a great a great source of
information. So I appreciate that. Any questions commissioners, comments? None. One line. Oh, sorry. Commissioner is a protocol. In other words, is a EMD is a protocol? Yes. Okay. So, it'll be training protocol and standards.
Absolutely. Commissioner Burge Dixon, any comments or questions for dispatch? No, all set. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. All right. I I welcome the two youngest gentlemen in the room, the police
department up. We're moving slowly. State your name, please, for the Zoom folks. I just have to say the deputy chief put this together so the data in it is suspect. Okay.
Suspect to what? He doesn't fact check me. So it's fine. If there's one thing before we if there's one thing before you state who you are there's one thing that I've discovered is I call him Mr. Editor.
He's a good editor. So everything you send to him, you know, he's going to critique it and check your spelling. There might be issues. Just introduce yourself. Trust and verify. Todd Dodge, Greenfield, Police Chief. Miss Green, deputy police chief.
Welcome. Go right to the report. Um, total calls in March 3,671. It's actually down 335
calls. Um, 164 hours spent on those calls. That was also down 118. Downtown business district, 313. That's down 42 calls. Again, we sort of attribute that to the fact that there's actually a lot less stuff
happening. Oh, being down there proactive lot more proactive, a lot less reactive. Yeah, we're doing I mean it seems like it's pretty calm down there. So, knock on. We're down 156 or down one incident
report to 156. Accident reports are down 15 in March. Arrest reports were up 4 to 48. Citations were up 30 to 339. Proactive traffic enforcement continues
to be above average. And again, it's more still the learning opportunities. It's not a punitive situation in most cases. It's an educational situation in most cases. Definitely. Thank you. You did. There you go.
Distracted driving. Now, we know the difference between stop and roll. Yeah, we're doing that. That's that continues. Yeah, you could talk a little more to that. that that's in several different um deployment types like concentrations and he can explain
that special reports officer Lavin who you had met I believe at the last ESC meeting is well into his training now so he's our most recent hire okay so far so good okay I mean he'd already been through a full training
just a matter of getting him acclimated to us substation. I'm That's about It's pretty close to done. They got They kind of overbox in the front if any of you guys had seen it. Looks blue and white. It's blue and white. The entire top three or
four boxes was supposed to be just a solid band and our sign was going in that. So, Lieutenant Batinsky is working on that and we believe the contractors are going to come back and take out the center trim on those so that we have a a spot sign, but it's it's very close to
done. Shortest, longest project in the history. It really is smallest building ever. Um, stations, are we going to move in very soon? Very soon. Very. Construction on the report stations is currently underway. That's actually
looks pretty darn good. They were putting the carpet in today. The walls of the new report station borders are are framed up, tiled up. We're going over a cabinet plan right now and a property maintenance property processing station plan right
now. Um, I would suggest in the next week, maybe after next week or so, please come in and take a look because it is an absolute transformation of that area too and they deserve that. more than anything. Absolutely. That
building had been the same aesthetically and falling apart for the last 27 years. So when 98 you started moving7 Yeah. Yeah. So I mean it's it had been over a quarter century that we haven't done
anything to the aesthetics inside. We are now and it's looking really good. So, um, deputy chief actually ordered our new cars, two hybrid cruisers and one EV truck. Um, we have good plans for that
truck. I think as we discussed before, I spoke with Carol Collins just yesterday to get started on the installation of a two place charging system electric vehicle. I anticipate we'll use one side for the truck and one side
for what we may combine as a parking enforcement port administrator electric car small sedan small that he goes back and forth the port uh parking enforcement only needs it part-time so that would that would be the two places
in that charge kick um I did want to mention a couple of the calls I can let the deputy chief talk more to it but I did want to note the Elm Street home invasion call. And from my perspective with that particular call, I
e echo what Chief Strand said. What I'm seeing certainly recently, it's happened for a long time, but in the most recent calls, it's it's extremely evident as how well our agencies are jelling together. I would argue it's like never
before. And and they're saying it themselves, which is magic to hear. Um, uh, Commissioner Muscerato was there. Um, he helped, knowing water and coffees and stuff for the crews, but we had
various agencies in there and they worked together. You would think these individuals worked together for 30 years. Not a hiccup even in the slightest. U, the same thing happened today with the significant AC accident on Federal Street.
There was another mission that we talked maybe a little bit too um that unfolded over the last day and again these individuals just continue to gel harmoniously. It's amazing to watch them work because they just know what each
other is plain and simple. So, uh, you can talk about those if you like. The Elm Street, you have questions about the team, correct? I think it would be nice if you just give us a brief description of what the team does, how
it was formed. I know that you you run the team. You know, just it'd be nice for the public to know that we have this team and you know, you not major details, but just a brief, you know, how the team came about was 10 a little over 10 years ago.
Um, we decided to partner with the sheriff's office. So, they picked six people. We had six people. We we tried out, you know, we did all the standards to get on the team. uh and we formed this 12p person team uh between the
agencies. Uh we then expanded it out to all the surrounding communities to have you know for their any officers to try out for the team and and slowly over the 10 the past 10 years we're up to um what we got probably 32 members on
the team now. So what's the team name official name? Franklin County Special Response Team. Uh originally we were just um just a basically a tactical team with 12 members. Uh expanded it out to include tactical med bed med bed med bed med bed med bed med bed med bed med bed
med bed med bed med which incorporated the fire department that was uh you know that was their kind of this is how we're growing now you know and working together better. So they had we had members of South County we had Greenfield Fire. We had Monu Fire um all
tactical med trained up uh on the team. Then we decided to go one step further and have crisis negotiators. Uh now we we started out with I believe two now we have eight which is two two teams which is great or I mean you can burn up
people fast and I'll call it anyway but um they go through uh the FBI training and se and every year they go to in service and for that for that discipline. Uh top of that uh we have our operators who work they train twice
a month. Uh we have 19 operators right now and it's uh bas basic SWAT school uh refresher and SWAT schools you know SIG Academy or um we all subscribe to the National Tactical Officers Association
stuff. So we train through them either through webinars or through you know actual on-site training. That's where I went. You know, I went out to the down as far as Florida for command school training for the NOA. Um, and now we
have a drone team. Uh, wrote during my time or time wrote grants for we wanted a drone because that's, you know, why send bodies and when we could send, you know, equipment and, you know, for different uh situations. Uh, now we have two drones where you we've used them on
the Elm Street call. uh quite a bit and we also used them today for a call out we had over in Turner Falls area so that we have additional drone team members that are integrating into our team. So it's
um I don't know it's just we have the amount of agencies that are getting involved now like you know say ATH all the surrounding there's always there's buying into buy into the team and just keeps growing you know we have interest in um Northfield that wants to send a
member or two to try out for the team because there is a process you know you just don't just show up and say I'm here there's there's a buy in there's a cost on the department to outfit the people but there's So we we we put them through a a testing phase both physically,
mentally and uh there's other, you know, other criteria anyway before they can even step foot on the playing field, so to speak. So any comments or questions? Yeah, you weren't the first one there. I was I was going through there when it was on for you. You called me. I called you. I was
actually two Greenfield cruisers showed up just as I was already like committed and I was like, "Hey, I'm just going to the gym. Let me through here. I'm going through." You talking about Elm Street or Yeah. Yeah. Elm Street. Just as it was on Balden. It was like just a Yeah. a brief. So, u
a disabled person lives in the house that um was broken into by a a person masked with a firearm. according to that that person the the the homeowner was able to fight the person off, get in his chair and get outside and make a call and get
us there. Um, great. Uh, that's awesome. Uh, we got there super fast. So, we actually pinned uh the suspect in the house. There's no way for that person to get out. So we have the we have our victim
on the outside and all we have is a solo so solo actor inside that may be armed or according to the thing armed with a handgun inside and at that point it's just pin them in get our resources there and you know it's time give them
give them all the opportunities in the world to you know to come out peacefully and and handle it. took about six and a half hours before um we were able to go up. He was actually he made it from the basement up into the crawl space in the attic and hit under like 18 inches of
insulation. So, there's a million other things that this guy did in the meantime, but yeah, we were able to get him out. He was uh it was super hot that day. Uh attic insulation, hiding under there for hours, you
know, it just it was miserable. We were able to extract him through the ceiling. One of our guys stepped through the ceiling and they used that as the portal to get them right to the team that was downstairs. So they handled them right through because it just you're talking a operator with all its kit, you know, in
a at a crawl space, but you're hunched over and you have shields and you have all the equipment in the world up there to try to figure out what this guy's doing underneath the insulation. uh they were able to put him bring him down and their first instinct wasn't to, you know, hey, let's put him in cuffs and whatever. They they wanted to get him to
the ambulance as fast as they could, you know, and get him treatment. So, that's great. He's still alive today. No one got hurt during the incident. Um some minor damage to the structure, you know, some stuff we did, but I think the poor
guy just had his house fixed. He had a structure there a couple years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. But it was a whole it was a whole team event. Um you can attest to it. We had every agency and every just about every member there. And
it took it took all our equipment and resources to to work their problem out. Yeah. The first trooper was showing up just as I got to the other end of my hall. I just kept on hauling it out of there. Yeah. We used the reverse 911 to let people know in the surrounding area.
Uh we sent officers door to door to uh people. It was during, you know, obviously it's during the week, so kids go to school. So if they needed to get out, we had officers escorting them to, you know, evacuate and in the safest way possible.
And Facebook's right there. Facebook, you went on Facebook as well as Elm Street. Uh that was on Facebook. And then uh as well as Federal Street was on Facebook to indicate there could have been a blockage. Traffic should yep
detour around. So, it worked well. Sergeant Cludier does that and she's on the money with those Facebook posts. Um, so both her and I have the ability to do them. So, I I I notice she usually gets right on top and then puts those Facebook. So, and they work well for us.
We have over 25,000 followers. So, it's definitely getting messages. You got to be careful. So, today the team was activated again. Turners needed help um to arrest a couple parties that they say they were using firearms
and they shouldn't have been using firearms. Yeah. So, I can't get into it much because there's a there's a lot going on right now with that, but I can tell you that the team was activated today. They did the clear. Um no, again, no
injuries. suspects were not home and I think it should go on but again we had our our operators we had the drones we had the CMTs we had the medics you know it's the whole it's it's serious business you know it's there's no
playing games with this so when the team is dispatched is it who is who's available because I'm assuming some of the folks are off right off so is it drop what you're doing or is it you know all the other departments know that individuals pretty much going to drop
what they're doing and move forward. Is that how it works? We have we use a program called I am responding and we send out a a message. Every member has a has that app on their phone and where the you know where where to report to what kind of incident it is, you know,
the basic information, but but you also can send your availability there too, you know, like so you know what kind of resources you got coming because if you only get I mean this is this is really extreme. Say you only get two operators and you have to um secure a house. That's not working. That that's that's
not going to work. But the thing is we're we we train periodically with uh like the Burkshire County special response team and Hampton County. So if we need bodies and vice versa, we can call in more resources because you know we're all we all subscribe to the the
same principles of you know when it comes to our plans or ops plans. But yeah, we use a that program uh that your report got available. Um you can even say um half hour out, 15 minutes out. But it's all situation dependent. Like
last night, we knew we knew this was going to happen either today or tomorrow. So we send out like a pressage saying, "Hey, um something's going to we're going to be used today or tomorrow. Just keep your you know your your address." What is all is it all the
folks or do you or do you folks at the command decide we need five people or 10 people? It's just it's No, when it comes to Yeah, we it's an all page because if you're using the team, it's a higher level of force. This is not uh we're not
we're not taking someone out for a sure for a warrant for a suspended operation. you know this is you know either some kind of weapon related or some high uh you know high priority serious incident you know yeah priority so and I'm I
subscribe to the I rather have all the resources available to me on the onset and I release as I go uh rather than you know I'd rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them. So, so for me, couple comments. One is I
was really impressed with how well, as Chief Dodge mentioned, how well organized it was. Um, it wasn't like what are we doing next? What like where is everybody, you know, and I was I was happily surprised that I saw some of our fire folks. I didn't know they were part
of the team and I saw them dressed appropriately and you know talked with them and you know the impressive part was just the the calmness and the organization and I have to say uh deputy that I was observing you uh
throughout this whole thing and I was really impressed with I could see what you were thinking about what your next step might be and talking with the guys on the team and get taking their advice and making a decision and going if that didn't work going on to the next thing. So, you really just want to, you know, but you know that I noticed that and
thank you for, you know, your your calmness and your, you know, I could see your analytics happening, you know, so that was pretty awesome to be able to be there and observe that. I appreciate that. Any comments from folks online,
commissioners, questions? I'd just like to thank thank everybody for the efforts and the training is so important and I'm so happy that you do it uh without needing incident. I wish I could participate in
some of this stuff from the sidelines but that just hasn't so thank you again. Any folks here? This is Commissioner Dixon. I I uh I agree with uh
Commissioner Burg's comments. Um and just, you know, as being somebody that's the one of the newest uh folks to the the team, I definitely have been incredibly impressed with the teamwork,
the camaraderie, the collaboration um with all of the different departments um and uh I think everybody is is pretty amazing. So, thank you again for all that you do. Um, I did have one question, but I don't know if this is the appropriate time to ask or
not. Um, and if it's not, just let me know. But the question I have as I was you were listening here is um, are there scheduled um, drills and things with the local schools um, in terms of
elementary, middle, and high school for things like active shooter, fire, all of those types of things? I was just curious if there's like a set schedule there. There's not a set schedule, but uh we work with the state police and um
all agencies and we do the lockdown drills, shelter in place drills, but that happens um there's no there's no exact like I can't tell you that June 1st we're doing them. They schedule them a couple times
a year and uh some of them are uh planned and some of them are are what they call it organic maybe. It's like they but they catch them off guard and see make sure everybody's doing um taking the proper steps you know for for the kids safety and all that kind of
stuff. But it happens every year. Um we as usual we have two people that are fully trained and post-certified as student resource officers. So, um, they work very closely with the Excellent. Thank you. I I assumed so. I
just was curious if you made me think of it. Thank you. Is it Is this team involved in those or No, no, this is these are just separate training. Yeah, separate. Um the team does train and active shooter stuff, but this is this is more
of a when they do the lockdowns is more educational for the the teachers and the students on on what they need to do. That is that is more of a quick occurring event stop. You wouldn't even have SRT in by then. Yeah. The incident probably chances are it's long over by
the time the team would get there in say 20 30 minutes. So, just to recap a little bit on on the blabber it says we did receive some criticism which is tough. It's hard to hear. Um and one of the things I tried to remind everybody the criticism was why
didn't I know and all I could say was sign up for the reverse 911 thing. We can't go to everybody's door and tell you what's happening right now especially when there's only two people showing up as this thing unfolds. So, we swallow it and basically just give that
advice. Please, please, please sign up to receive those calls and that's easily done. It's now on I think town's going to be publishing it on their Facebook. I'll copy and paste it. Um, the deputy chief handles that from our perspective and of course
buyer does it on theirs. But I encourage everybody to get on that system and they will be notified of everything that's happening in that geographic area. Yeah. If you go in city of Greenville Emergency Management, it'll it'll guide you to where you need to be. I u I got a few phone calls asking to be put on it.
I can't we can't physically do it because it takes a register. Yeah, you have to register yourself for emails and all that kind of stuff. So, but there will be something posted in very very very near future on the sharp side to get that done. The end of this we joke um a little bit, but we did get to test
out all of our toys, which was good. Um you don't know they work until you do it, right? So, our drones were amazing. We learned a little bit. Um, they don't like blowing in insulation. We did learn that. So, probably won't do that again. Um, but we did, you know, they did CS
gas. CS. Yeah. Um, so those worked. Again, our our motive and our mantra the whole day, patience, patience, patience, patience. 20 years ago, as you know, we would have been in the door 10 minutes. we would have been itching to get in and
we would have been kicking doors down. It's just not the way we do things today. We just kept sitting back. There's no need to rush, take our time, and as we did that, good plans developed throughout the day as you had indicated. So again, we did
test a lot of our stuff, went to work on making some necessary changes, we use it, we figured new things out. So, um, it worked out great. They did. The the fire chief showed up briefly. I cautiously warned him to get out of
there. Um he had other plans, so the deputy chief stayed. You think it was the deputy, right? Was the It was the newly minted DC. Andy was very helpful. Uh we had a lightning problem on one of our drones and he had a solution to it. He's tech
immediately. Yeah, he's technical. We'll keep him for a little bit. Give him a contract. I think I was I think I was pretty impressed with the drones. I mean, they're good. You know, the little one is the big one's, you know, up in the sky, but the little one it's zooming
through little cracks in the, you know, the little opening of the house and it's flying in and out and, you know, used it today. It's pretty amazing what you can clear two floors before we send bodies in there. What a tool. I mean, if if we don't if
if we need more drones, all I can say is public safety commissioner should be pushing the city to get you those tools because it's amazing. I mean, guess the robot dog next. Yeah, exactly. We have real dogs. But yeah, thank you. So,
again, budget um budget. Happy to say at least, you know, the budgets went through. You know, certain departments aren't psyched. um of our original request, we got I think 700,000 less than we asked for. It's just a sign of the times. We're confident we can get
through it. 300 of that was cruisers. So we that was a big chunk. Um but the vast majority of just about every expense line that we have was cut. So u there's no question the mayor is trimming the fat and we're going to have to try to
figure that out. So, um, DC knows our mind right now is to keep our eyes peeled for grants. Grants are going to be our friend in these coming years. So, if you any of you see them, please let us know. Um, we don't see all of them. We are on a lot of different mail lists
that send them. Uh, the deputy chief currently is working on a burn grant right now, which actually it would do good stuff for us, but more so the city. He's actually looking to put up cameras throughout more of the downtown area. So, it's adding to a currently existing
infrastructure that we just don't have anything with right now. So, that grant would allow that to happen. And again, we can all sit at our desk and see what's happening things. How how's we're finishing up the year, right? How's the OT situation? Our OT's
good. Real good. We were just talking. So, we went over We go all the time. Um it looks like we're we're going to cross the finish line about even. Um not going to be a heck of a lot extra, but taking into account the fact that we had some
pretty significant buybacks throughout this year, that was surprised that we made it here. Yeah. Um again, we went without for a while. There's we've never staffed our our last position until just recently. Finally have that buddy. um
summer in training. We'll have one going into the academy. Actually, we'll have to introduce them somewhere, right? Or didn't Patrick didn't come here, right? Um not yet. Dispatch, probably not. So, we do have one dispatch. I'm stealing a dispatcher. Um he will be attending the next Holio
Academy. And you know, we it's good because he can work right up to it. We have He's working dispatch. Um he's he knows our software systems. He knows our people. He knows the jargon. He actually was in a sheriff's department. Was actually a a
sergeant in one of the jails out east. So he's he's got some law enforcement background. Um I think he was a a good pick when we did the interview process. He scored well. Good. Well, he's I mean he's reliable. He's there. Reliable. We know
his history. Yep. So um but again, budget, no, I I'm I'm we're pretty good looking at We were looking at it today. We're as the days pass, we're getting more and more with a fine tooth comb microscope taking a look at that. Um, but it looks like we're going to be
okay. Co- response um numbers stay relatively constant on that even though we're down two for the most part, right? You got one single responder right now and they had 31. So basically more than one a day for one a day in March. They
did 20 in person, 11 virtuals. Uh they had no hospitalizations, four section 12s, four ED diversions, which I say all the time is the point. Um no officers were injured and in those calls there was one person charged.
So the one co-responder that's active, are they is it daytime or not? What are they? She does rotating or she does usually split between day eve. She does. Yeah. She she'll work like 11 to 11 to 7 ft. Yeah. But sometimes she does 3 to
11. She she's there during the busy time, you know. Um that'll change once we get the new responder on. Yeah. And someone's We have somebody in mind for Yeah. I I can't remember her name right now, but yeah, she's already been interviewed. Starts with a C. They're
all Catherine. Christina, maybe. Christina. She's uh she's finishing her master's degree. Yeah. Which she I imagine she's done now. And then she'll have been interviewed by us and uh we'll start her
full-time role coming coming in June at some point. And then by that maybe August um Caitlyn will be back after her her baby move and so we'll have two and a half. Caitlyn's a boss, so she has
other other responsibilities, but we'll still have um Katherine and good information. Anything else? No, we're just hoping to finish up some projects and back waiting for additional
cruisers to be delivered. That's right. About six months. Oh yeah. Well, at least we got a good build. Um, what do you call it? Layout. Yeah. You know, it took some work, but we got we got to
the numbers we needed to be at. Yeah. Know, wasn't easy. I mean, out for a car now. Just for everybody's edification, it's over $100,000 for a car. I mean, you're talking now one of our radios now is
about 10 $12,000 for radio. That number goes up when you get a $60,000 car turns into 100 in about five minutes. Yeah, absolutely. Again, we we went so long without a new car, five years. Five years that there's no chance
any of the stuff in the old cars can go into the new ones. It's not going to happen. They were all new redesigned cars. So, playing cruisers every year ultimately cost. Yeah, we're in bad shape. But again, we appreciate the town helping and the mayor's definitely been helpful. The city council did vote in
favor of these three. So, we're forever grateful. But at that point in time, we have five of 12. So, understand seven of them are still more than five years old and growing. So, it's not a good recipe.
By the way, I see it. It should be three a year. should keep getting three a year. But again, we went through a bad phase and I I I I'm confident we're we're fixing that. But that is their office. That is every that car means everything. If you are in distress, they
need a car to get to you. Absolutely. It's plain and simple. And they have everything they need to help you in that car. So, um to to not supply a police department with cruisers is negligation. We got to help. Thank you. You're right.
Absolutely. Any further questions or comments? I just wanted to make one. I wasn't going to make it, but I want to make it. Um, I'm so happy about the collaborative stuff and it's not about anybody taking over. It's just collaborative and I like it that it's
local and regional. I did read a criticism and I would never not validate a citizen. So if that citizens out there, I will validate um what I read which was concerned with
paramilitary. So I I just want to say that um you know I'm dedicated in the classroom to teaching non nonp paramilitary side of things.
But I I want the citizens to know that when you're out there in a situation like that, it's tactile and it's paramilitary because that's the safest approach. And the other thing that I want to say about again not invalidating
a citizen's feelings or concern, we are civilian agents. We're not the army. You're not the army. It's not a military operation. It is a civil
authority in a democracy with a mayor with an oversight commission and we all communicate with each other. So, I I I just got to put that out there because I'm, you know, I'm I'm hearing from my chair what's happening and I immediately
get in tune with that and and I was in the system long enough to understand that when I had an insurrection in the facility as superintendent, it had to be a paramilitary operation and nobody got hurt and nobody got injured and medical
aid was rendered appropriately and that's exactly what you did. And so for for anybody that feels jittery about that, I understand. But I just want to, you know, I just want to put it out there that the world of public safety has many
facets. Empathy is there, co-response is there, paramilitary is necessary, and you know, you prove that. I drive around. I'm a citizen. um stopping and
educating when you could be generating revenue. Um those are all methods that add up together to make people feel safe in their community and not picked on. So, you know, I'm you know, I know
I'm promoting policing, but I am promoting policing because you hit it right on the head. 10 years ago, 20 years ago, when we started, cell extractions were not pretty. Okay. Um, methodology has evolved and changed. And I know the average citizen doesn't get
up every day and know all that. Um, but, you know, we're the ambassadors and and I just wanted to say that, you know, I'm I'm proud to be here in this in this commission. I'm proud of what happens in in our community and and I feel pretty
safe with it. And so, thank you for that. Appreciate it. I think some people just like to rattle around. Me, too. Any other questions for commissioners? Thank you, gentlemen. We
appreciate your time. Thank you. All right. Anything else that the commissioners need to bring up? Let me know next month. Anybody on line? Commissioner Wise, you have any
questions for us? Ask for a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. All in favor? I. Good night, folks. Thank you. Safe driving. Bye. Thank you. Thank you.
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