market 18. >> That sounds long. >> That's the year to date. That's actually shorter than last year. >> All right, we're up on YouTube. >> We're on YouTube. We'll talk later. >> So, good evening everyone. Welcome to
the public safety committee meeting um of November 12th. And looks like there's only the five of us. We'll see if anyone else joins us. But at this point, I don't see anyone from the public.
So, we will move right into the police department uh report and discussion items. Uh Chief, last time we talked about parking and traffic enforcement in Maplewood Village, and you sent us some
statistics. Um do you want to go over anything? Yeah, just that um the one statistic I sent you was uh November. It was only a week. Um so you see that our moving violations almost matched a whole month
the the month before was because we um started picking up enforcement in Maplewood Village. Also um this week we just started um our um part-time parking enforcement officer who's working evenings. So, they're in training this
week, so they should be seen this week out there. Um, and next week he'll be um ready to go on his own. So, um and on top of that um our officers have been doing um um our West Coast uh vehicle um
has been frequently in the village and um has been making um issuing um mostly u no stopping and standing and illegal parking. and when we see a moving violation, we issue for that as well.
But um yeah, so we've um we definitely picked it up and um we're down there for those violations. Um if you see October um the stats, we issued um 160 parking tickets and uh
seven moving violations. And the first week of November, we issued 24 parking tickets and four moving violations. I I see most of the moving violations are um well, let's I won't say most, but a good number are for not having proper
documents, uh insurance cards and all that kind of stuff. Are these uh and there's a lot of other stuff going on there. Um people aren't being stopped for that. They must be being stopped for some other reason and then getting tickets
for the documents, >> right? So, they might be stopped for something. They get the secondary ticket for that. We actually had a vehicle um towed in that area for not being registered. Um but um yeah, so we um you
know, it's the violations. Um, you know, of course we always get the complaints about the left turns into the parking spaces. Um, but, um, most of it is stopping and standing um, running into the store,
>> right? >> Uh, parking um, finding their own parking space where there's not a parking space. That's where we're seeing a lot of those tickets coming from. >> Yeah. Mr. Daffis shared you shared with you these here's three three cars that are just standing here waiting.
>> Yeah. >> You know cars have to go into the other lane and it's just very dangerous. >> Right. And and also but also a lot of times is um the way the parking is is people are waiting for the car a car to back out so they can take the slot and
then sometimes it holds up traffic and those are cars trying to uh I'm not saying in this particular picture but a lot of times >> right >> that that's that's what's happening. Well, I believe that picture um these appeared to be cars that were waiting
for like Uber Eats or GrubHub or you know some of those delivery and so that's what um at least that's what the complaint was. >> Yeah. So we were down there for those type of complaints also. Um you know we
as you know we picked up we picked up the enforcement down there. So we're we're down there for those looking for those type of complaints uh when we see you. >> So in terms of the the the number of tickets given I'm looking in October parking tickets of 160. Um how does that
compare to um I mean we could compare it to ourselves but I'm also wondering like is that typical for a town of our size? Uh, so we so I would say yes, but also we were down a couple parking enforcement officers at that time, but
when we complete November, we'll see a more accurate um number because we'll have full staff at that point. >> That's exciting. >> Yes, >> I'm excited. I want to tell you about two things that happened since our last meeting that bothered me a lot because
I'm looking through all the parking um citations and I'm only seeing I think a couple of them for handicapped. I was in the village in a parking spot right in front of words next to a handicap parking spot and I ran into the bagel store and when I got back to my car
there was a construction vehicle parked in the handicap spot did not have handicap plates and I saw the person across the street and I went over. I said, "Excuse me, is this your car? You're parked in a handicap spot. You're not allowed to be there." And the guy just said, "Well, there's no place to
park." And I said, 'Well, look, I'm going to pull out right now and I want you to move your car. You're not supposed to be in the handicapped. And you know that it was very it's it's frustrating to see that. And then there's that spot on that same block
down closer to that corner um you know where the stationary store used to be and there's a streetery. So there's a handicap spot and then half a spot. It's not a spot. the streetery takes up most of that and I can't tell you probably
every time I drive through Maplewood Avenue I see a car pulled in there so they're half in the handicap spot and I think that um you know once we get some more enforcement going on you know I think you could have officers and our
parking enforcement in the town every day and get dozens of handicap um parking tickets written daily. >> Patrick, when do the uh streeteries uh go away?
>> Think next week. >> Okay, because that would be a good time, Chief, to uh really emphasize the enforcement. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Because I think there are some of those weird situations where a half a spot is
open and people think they can park there and what have you. So, no. So I think it's our our feeling based on what we're hearing and seeing is that you know that if we could lower the
tolerance level in the village a little bit even you know for if officers are just driving through and see these cars double parked just to hit the horn and lights and get them to move. Um, I mean, folks are just stopping, particularly the Uber Eatats and and the
pickups and and you know, listen, let's be totally honest. We get a big problem with the Roman gourmet delivery guys. They're constantly illegal parking in front of uh the the supermarket there, between the supermarket and the pizza
place. Um, and we know it's challenging because we don't I know the police officers don't want to, you know, negatively affect the businesses and it's all it's all very tough. But, um, you know,
somebody's going to get hurt because you got people walking across the street. It's dark and people are going into other lanes to go around cars. They're No one's no one's being patient. Everyone is pushing >> Yeah. >> pushing the boundaries. >> Yeah. I I um I I expressed to my
officers we're do we have been doing details there night for two weeks and they told you know um do what you got to do. This is also important because as we get into 2026, we're going to have more discussion
about um parking meters and you know the whole idea is to move cars and so some of the I was glad to see the overtime parking tickets because that helps move the cars. Um so >> yes.
>> All right. Anything else? >> I confirmed the Friday is the last or Saturday is the last day of screery. So, we'll be pulling them out early next week. So, >> okay. >> I just want to like just thinking about the Ubers, the and the eats and the Door Dashes and stuff like we just don't have
anywhere for the where the deliveries to to go because we have parking spots, but we still I mean I know I said this last time, we don't have any short-term drop off zones. And so, I know that we've worked on parking campaigns like it's okay to walk, you can park a little farther away, but those people, they
can't really. And so I just still feel like we need to think about because this is our economy. This is how people this is how it works now. We just need to think about where we're going to have these pickups and drop offs. I agree with Miss Engle. I think that it
would be really helpful to have some very short-term spots just for picking up, especially it's, you know, it's the the Uber Eatats and those kind of drivers, but then it's also people that just want to dip into town and pick something up real quick.
>> Yeah. But, you know, that you designate these and then you they have to be enforced. It's very hard. Very hard because we can just about enforce the parking that's there now. I know. I'm hoping that if we get more enforcement, we'll, you know, and
especially like I like that idea of flashing your lights, a little bit of honk from police officers and people cuz once they see enforcement happening, then they're going to be like, "Oh, I actually have to pay attention to this. There's there's a presence here, you
know, keep giving those tickets out." Then I think we're going to see a short-term parking spot be able to work >> and the double parking will go away because those those cars will have somewhere to go. >> Well, I think we should throw it back to the Village Alliance and really to be
honest and and let them figure out some of this because it's their businesses that are generating um these pickups. Um, and you know, it's also we have uh Uber drivers that don't know the village
and end up pulling into these, you know, spots, making lefts and going one way. Today was one way in the parking lot the wrong way. Um, so if we're going to solve it, I think it's got to be solved from within
and and maybe challenge the village alliance to come up with some ideas. Well, I would love their input to see if they're are interested or supportive of having these pickup zones because we did it during CO and I know that the businesses get sensitive around parking
which I understand but we're also approaching the holiday season which is the most important season for our retailers. I will contact Erin Rose and let her know that the public safety committee has discussed this a couple of times and we'd like to get their input
on on um the feasibility of setting up some of these drop off or pickup spots. >> Great idea. >> Okay. Anything more on this, Chief? You want us to uh complain anymore? No. Okay.
We can find other places in town, but we'll we'll move on. um the new parking permits. So, we're the type C is the one that's the overnight with the permit. Um that's the one that we talked about. Uh so, let me
just say something. I I one of the proponents of uh parking on the street overnight. I explained, you know, the program and blah blah blah. And she said to me, you know, this is only going to work if you ticket the other people that don't have permits
because once people feel that, you know, you guys are that they're paying $600 a year and other people are parking on the street and pay and parking for nothing, then this is all going to not work. So, um, we're going
to need some enforcement of overnight parking. That's that's one thing I can tell you we enforce. So I mean >> okay >> we you know we we get one or two streets here and there where a resident will say I didn't see any enforcement but for the most part u most of the town
we enforce pretty heavily with the overnight parking. >> I can affirm that they enforce overnight parking. >> All right. >> They go through sections I think. So it's like you know you're okay for a couple weeks but then they come around.
So, you'll get a ticket. >> And then the second thing is uh we're going to have this type P parking uh permit which is for the Parker Avenue residents. So, that ordinance is just winding its way through. Uh we'll give it final
reading on the 17th on Monday night. So that basically will allow Parker Avenue residents with this permit to park um on some of the side streets where we have no parking for school times and things like that. So um I'm
sure there'll be some kinks that we have to work out, but that's going to be a new thing, too. Um and then just going through the rest with the bike Parker Avenue bike lanes and the drop offs. Uh the bike lane
ordinance is also going to be given final uh approval on the 17th and um that's going to be no parking in the bike lanes. Uh we're also going to do no stopping or standing on school days uh from essentially Maplewood
Avenue to Prospect Street on both sides of the street. So um uh Mr. Weary is going to be working with Mr. Kitner to get signage up for all that. And of course with the bike lanes as part of the contract,
they're also going to put up um no parking bike lane signs up in addition to marking on the street and things like that. So the striping is supposed to start taking place November 24th, I believe, uh Mr. Kitner
said. So um by the end of the month, we should be pretty well set with the bike lanes. Then Deborah's gonna go for her first bike ride. >> You know, November 24th is the anniversary of my bach mitzvah. So they didn't >> There you go. What a gift.
>> And make my b mitzvah. >> What a gift. I won't be around. So hopefully there'll be no mess ups. Um any questions on that stuff, Chief? I'm sure Mr. Weary will keep you and Mr. Weary, you do coordination with
engineering and police as we get the thing going. We want to make sure uh that everybody's knowing what we're supposed to be doing. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Um Chief, I believe you raised this once before about the speed limit on
Springfield Avenue, but in any event, we got a request from Springfield Avenue Partnership to reduce the speed limit. Uh and we have a recommendation from a consultant uh to reduce it to 30. Um the uh
partnership is saying either 30 or 30 uh 30 or 25. This morning at the engineering public works meeting we talked about uh a recommendation of 30. Um wanted to get your input and also deputy mayor Herman because you didn't
weigh in this morning because I kept it very tight. >> Yeah, I I agree with reducing it to 30 definitely. um 35. Um you know I actually you know driving up and down
spring you get up to 35 is it seems like your speed you know even though the speed limit is 35 it looks like you know this guy is going way over the speed limit when it is the speed limit. Um so um you know with with all the pedestrian crosswalks and the businesses and the
bumpouts and um especially during school time but um there is certain times where it gets very congested where you can't even you know go past 15 sometimes but um when those those times when it's not congested
um getting up to that speed is uh pretty fast in that area I think from my observation. Uh, Deputy Mayor Herman, you didn't get to weigh in this morning, so you want to weigh in now? >> I do. I um So, I I would actually be in
favor of reducing the speed limit to 25. I I kind of thought that was the speed limit. It seems to be the de facto speed limit. And I wonder if there's going to be confusion. You know, the streets, all the streets feeding in and going off of Springfield Avenue are 25, but people
don't drive 25. You go up Tuscin, people are going 30 up Tuscin. You know, that's a problem. We have a problem with unsafe driving and with speeding in our town. And I think that um 25 would make it easier to have the same speed limit on
all of our roads. Um and you know, if it's at 25, people are going to drive 30, but if it's at 30, they're going to drive 3540. So, um, you know, I'm going to be the the outlier on this and say I think we should do 25.
>> I was I'm 425 as well, but I think the mayor wanted it as 30. I don't know that she was with a yes for 25. >> Yeah. Well, she's one vote, but um let me just tell you a practical thing on the 25, and that is with all the lights
um the lights now are time for 30 as we heard this morning. And um I think the more you lower it and you just stop people, then they're going to look for alternatives to Springfield Avenue to
ride on without lights. Um if you make it that if you make it too slow because the lights will slow it down and if you start reducing the the speed even more, um I just think you're going to have a a problem. We can
certainly I mean it's going to it's on for discussion Monday night so we can discuss it but I think 30 is is probably uh a more realistic um speed limit given the the lights we have there
>> which is why I would say make it 25 cuz >> you know how people are. Well, but I think Yeah, but I think the problem is, for example, my street, Lexington, is a straight shoot without lights. So, uh, we found that out before that that
became an alternative to Springfield Avenue or even, um, Tuskcen or, uh, Bernett. So, we want to keep as many cars as possible that are commuting or or traveling from one side of the other on Springfield Avenue. And if you make
it too slow or too bottled up because you can't get from one light to another going 25 and make it green. Um I don't know. So >> well if it's 25 on um Tuskin and on Lexington then it's not it's not like
you're going to get to go faster on those streets because the speed limit is higher. It's the same. Um, and um, I mean it's I I don't know if I've seen um, I mean there's there's lights on
Springfield and so people who are going on those other streets are going there to avoid the lights. Um, and and I also, I guess, would want to get a little more information from our traffic engineer. You know, I heard him say this morning that it was set it wasn't too clear to
me. He said it was set around 30. Uh, but does that mean that they can't be set to 25 or that could work or >> um Luca saying is that when you slow it down, people are going to want to get off Springfield Avenue more. Like the
same way that people avoid valley now and they take Prospects because there's less lights or they take Ridgewood because they want to avoid Valley because he gets backed up that doing the same kind of thing is going to cause those problems on Springfield Avenue. and he notices increased traffic on Lexington. And I now go to Lexington
because that light at Ruckers and Springfield Avenue does not change. And so I think part of the problems that we have with people speeding through Bernett and um Newark or Ruckers and Bernett is that you see the light and it's like, "Oh my god, there's cars there. It's going to change." And you want to speed up because that light is
very short and it's a very long wait. And so I don't take it anymore. And the same ones at Tuscan Road, like all those lights up there, they never change for the cross traffic because they're so set for Springfield Avenue to keep that car those cars moving. >> And we can certainly uh you know, Monday
night, we'll we can go back and if if we don't have agreement on a number, we can go back and um get more input from our traffic engineers. I think there's a big there's a big difference in the amount of harm that a
car can do to a uh person who is hit. Um even 5 miles an hour makes a really big difference on whether or not someone will survive. So that is behind my um desire to have it as low as we can. And
also um you know if we're going to be talking about scooters and bikes not you know ebikes not being on the sidewalks where are they going to be? They're going to be in the street and we need to make sure the street is safe for them. >> Okay. All right. So
>> kids cross Springfield going to school. So >> it's going to be on Monday night and um you'll be ready to make your points. You know what we'll what we'll say is that we discussed it at engineering public works and uh we came up with the
idea of 30 and then I'll mention um you know that at when we were at public safety that you had some desire to go even lower so then we can start the conversation that way. Chief, you have you have any opinion on 25 versus 30?
>> Um I'm more 30. I think 30 is a good uh speed. Um, you know, so I mean it keeps traffic flowing. Um, but for the for the most part like certain times it's it's so congested that nobody's even going um
certain you know up to those certain speeds and there's a lot of lights like you said. >> Okay. Um, let's talk about the other request from the partnership and that's to prohibit the ebikes and e- scooters. Um,
we've had a couple incidents where people have been hit coming out of stores. Uh, we had a door uh break with somebody hitting a door. Um, do you have any thoughts on this, Chief?
>> Yes. Um, we definitely need ordinance for it. Um especially the um a lot of these ebikes are on the sidewalk um riding on sidewalks and um they should not be on the sidewalk. Also
um some of the problem with these ebikes is that um of course you know they um if they're not motorized they don't have to register or um or anything like that. No age. You can be young. Um, so a lot of
the young the young the young riders might not know the traffic laws like they have to ride with the flow of traffic um and those things but those delivery people um should definitely know better and they should not be you know you know riding on the sidewalks
and um driving opposite the flow and driving to a red light and everything that um a motor vehicle or a bike is supposed to do they're supposed to do >> with these bikes. So, um I um I I did read through a summit's ordinance. Um it
was pretty um I think it was it was basic enough for enforcement of it. It wasn't too detailed. It just pretty much said that um you can't ride a sidewalk. So, if you and even in uh I think Union County um you can't ride these in in
parks. So, um, and it just pretty much stayed pretty basic. So, if you know if you see somebody on the sidewalk, that's easy enough. And with their ordinance, you can, uh, confiscate the bike for 24 hours and a fine. So,
and then if >> I think we'll have to, you know, if we move forward. Now, this is this this started at code, but I wanted to bring it here. And I also pulled out um because we've get at the board meetings of the partnership, this has been a
recurring uh concern um so I pulled stuff out of the uh Hoboken and Bayhead ordinances um to to come up with this. But I mean, part of the issue is we when we tried to talk about this before in 2024, we got some
push back from the biking community. Um because the concern is if you you really can't ride on Springfield Avenue. So on a normal on a regular bicycle. So this doesn't prohibit regular bicycles,
non-motorized bicycles on on the sidewalks. It prohibits motorized bicycles and scooters. Um, and it's really just a matter of the speed, you know, that the motorized enhances the speed. And when you get
that speed and the walking folks, you get a little bit of a conflict. So, >> right. >> Um, >> and they and they and these bikes go up to um 20 miles per hour, >> right? >> Uh, some go to 28. And I was doing a little reading that um a lot of them are
can be modified very easily to go faster. So they Yeah. They can go on YouTube and find a way to make it go faster than a lot of them do. >> Right. >> My concern my concern is what Miss Herman said but a minute ago was that
where are they? It's not safe to ride on Springfield Avenue on. So I don't know where they go. We're saying you can't ride on the sidewalks. We're not putting bike lanes on Springfield Avenue right now. We're not putting bike lanes on any street that runs parallel to Springfield Avenue to
give them another route. So like or what are we saying? If you ride you can't we have Springfield Avenue anymore? >> No, you can ride you can ride on Springfield Avenue. I mean you can ride on Springfield Avenue. You just have to be careful. You can ride I mean anyone who's riding a bike on Springfield
Avenue. as a driver of a car, you have to give that person the respect and the distance in order to do that. That's required. Um, but it, you know, to to say that you can and we and it's really
a lot of this is the delivery vehicles, >> right? you get delivery vehicles um coming and they're really taking off and some even some of the scooters, some of the just people on scooters traveling, they're really racing down the sidewalks.
Um >> so what do the businesses say? Because you said this keeps coming up, the Springfield Avenue partnership. Um I would assume that the businesses in on Springfield Avenue need these delivery people to in order to sell their stuff. They're not happy with it. necessarily.
No, I mean some of them are maybe some of some of the maybe some of the food businesses, but there's I would say more of the businesses are not in favor of it because it is um they're having problems with their their clientele, their customers
um walking in and out of their stores and having to dodge these bikes. >> Mhm. And um you know it becomes a uh you know it's a it's a difficult
situation because yes the bike you you can you ride on Springfield Avenue people do it. Um but it is more of a challenge if you're on the street. Can you ride on the side streets? Yes. I mean the side streets don't have the level of traffic that jeopardizes
anybody from riding a bike. you know, Hilton or but but the the reality is nobody going to pick up something at El Re is going to ride on Hilton Avenue. They're going to ride on Springfield Avenue. >> It'd be faster on Hilton or Lexington to
your point. >> Yeah. Yeah. Another another thing on Lex. There we go. Um >> well, we got this the backup of cars in the village and the scooters and >> Well, it's also avenue. >> It's also in the village. We're getting some of these bikes on the street. I
mean, they they're bikes on the sidewalks. >> I think we're going to see more and more of this the >> delivery more people are getting them and we want to be incentivizing all you know, other modes besides cars to get the cars off the road, >> right? So, >> but you know, you're now you're you're
um you know, the way this this what I read here wrote here is that you could ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, not at a speed faster than what people are doing. You know, you could walk your bike or you could do that. But once you once you introduce a motorized vehicle is
essentially what you're talking about onto a sidewalk, it does create a bigger problem. >> Yes. >> So, so I chief, I wanted So, you're in general you think getting them off the sidewalks is a good idea, >> correct? Yes. All right. I will convey
that uh on Monday morning at the code meeting because this is going to be discussed again. >> So, and then it'll just have to be worked out and we have to meet with the bike folks to get them to, you know, understand what we're trying to achieve
and get some input from them. But when the bike folks recommend like if like if you're riding on spring to actually be in the lane so you can be u visible instead of kind of like hugging like where the cars are and the door might
open. I would think they would more so want to be like more I don't know maybe >> I don't know. >> I mean I think it also depends on who's riding. I mean, there's a very different I I have very different feelings over seeing school kids ride on the sidewalk
where I, you know, as a mom, I feel that's safer, you know, versus seeing um delivery people, you know, that may not be, you know, um from here or, you know, like looking this way and that. And I
don't know. I it's it's difficult. I don't think they should be on the sidewalk, but there's not a great place for them on the road either. So >> they they Well, first let's just be clear about in Hoboken and and the ordinance that I the sort of language I
put together here. A kid on a bike or an adult and a kid or an adult alone can ride on the sidewalk on a regular bike. A lot of kids who live um far away from their school have electric bikes, right, >> so that they can get across town.
>> That that would that could be a problem. >> Yeah. So they would but then you know they would have to find another another route. They'd have to work that out. >> Yeah. But we're talking about kids that are taking their bikes from Lightning Brook all the way to MMS >> and there's other ways to >> they have no other ride.
>> No, no, I understand they have to ride but there are other streets. >> There are other streets cut across. >> I have a question. If we're going to be putting if we're trying to say, okay, we can't have motorized vehicles on the sidewalk because they go too fast and it's too dangerous. We're putting them back on the street, can we add like some
kind of like share the road signage or maybe there's a cute campaign we can do on all of our streets with signage. Um, so that to get people aware that like you got to look out for for bikers, you got to look out for e scooters, ebikes, like it's not just a, you know, maybe there's something cute we can do that's
some kind of townwide like with, you know, we do banners all the time, some kind of placemaking for sharing the road. I also know the high school um wanted to start doing um education with the kids about how to ride these bikes and
following the rules and the flow of traffic and wearing your helmet and stopping at the stop sign and cuz some of these kids just ride right through the intersection. >> Do you know? >> Do you ever stop kids or or adults for that matter who are not wearing a
helmet? I'm just curious. >> Yeah, we observe it. Thank you. >> Actually, we even we also had helmet giveaways. >> Yeah, I know that it's it's great. I love that. Um, you know, I >> But but also I found out that some of
these helmets are not good for uh motorized bicycle, right? They're not they're built they're made for bikes, right? You know, they're made for that speed. >> They have to wear the right helmet to the point. >> Okay. Well, this is going to be one of those things that's going to get
discussed for a while. Um, but >> you think it is >> Sorry, >> I I just say that there's been some pressure from uh at the partner at the last partnership meeting in particular, there was uh some sense of urgency. So, we'll see.
We'll see what we'll see what comes out with the rest of this. I do want to say that if we are going to be putting saying that they have to take the road um then I feel even more strongly about the speed limit on Springfield Avenue.
>> Got it. Okay. Um let's go to the uh crime stats. Uh and I'll get there in a moment. Here we go.
Right. So, um, right to the robberies, those were we haven't had, um, you know, knock on wood, you had a robbery in, um, several months. So, all of those were the beginning of the year. uh juvenile
related uh that increase uh around Columbia High School. Um you see the aggravated assaults have going down. Of course, the big one, burglaries have gone down. However, we just recently had two burglaries. We had uh two in
November. We had one on Ridgewood Road. um where we believe we uh will have a uh an ID in that uh pretty soon identification. Um and we had one on Brookshshire where
the family was not home and um we were able to recover that vehicle later on. And again, those are the two high-end vehicles. Um get uh breaking in to get the keys and uh take the vehicles uh so
uh one we should have a ID pretty soon and the other one was uh nobody was home when that took place. Uh thefts have gone down, auto thefts have gone down um for several years, and as you see, incidents have gone down uh
30%. >> Yeah, it's um it's quite amazing the the drop in autothefts. And from 22 when we were at 83 year to date, now we're at 28. And even in all of our incidents, 317 down to
under 200, >> right? Yeah. I think the autotheft is because it's, you know, it's um cars running. I mean, all all of our autotheft has been um keys in a car. I I would say probably almost 100%. So, the
keys in the car, cars running. Other than that, I think it's harder to steal a car, just a regular car on the street. So, now they're uh now as the burg, you see the burglaries went up last year, that was a way to take the car. >> Mhm. So,
>> but even even the robberies, uh, you know, in 2022, we had 16, we're down to five now. So, >> y, >> it's really good. So, whatever you're doing, you and the officers keep doing it and thank you. >> I know this is some some of this I would
assume that this these kinds of numbers are being seen around us too. >> Yeah, I I would say with the exception of the burglaries, the burglaries are still happening around us. So, uh, we're doing pretty good with the burglaries. Um, our guys made some good identifications in the burglaries we had
in 2024 and that's what's helping us with actually this hopefully is helping us with some of the ones we just recently u had. So, >> okay, any questions on the crime stuff?
>> Nope. We're going to move to traffic. That's as easy as scrolling it down. >> Okay. >> So, uh, moving violations have gone up. So, you know, our, um, we're out there
and we're doing different details, different areas officers are issuing. That's very good. we our summones um have you know as you see you know um it's not record-breaking
but we're uh we're um we have increased from last year >> we lowered the speed limit you can do more radar >> right right >> what happened in March you guys are on fire that month
>> that was a good month >> March madness and um warnings increased slightly. So um you can see like our our warnings have shifted from last year. We're issuing more actual summones, >> right? >> So that's the shift
>> and the stops have increased too. >> The stops have increased. So and uh you know officers do have discretion but they do issue summones but they do make a lot of stops. >> Okay. Anybody have any comments, questions on this?
>> So, if you stop some like if you give like a if like for parking, if somebody does like a left-hand turn or they're you you flash your lights or stuff like you stop and you say, "Wait, you can't do that." But you don't give a ticket. Does that get counted in this or that's >> No,
>> that does not. Okay. >> No, that's just like a verbal. It's just >> Well, maybe you should count that so you can get credit for that, too, because >> Well, unless we write it down somewhere. I mean, it's just not going >> yell out the window. Maybe we should have a category for yell out the window. >> Well, if that's the case, if that's the
case, I'll have likeund attention. >> I do that all the time. >> The hell you doing? >> I mean, what are you doing, man? Move your car. >> Exactly. >> All right. Any uh anything else on this? We good? Good.
>> All right. Okay. Um, and overtime is looking good again. >> Yeah, down um a little over 20% from last year. >> Okay. >> Any other items for the police?
>> Chief, do you think we need to go into closed? >> Uh, no. We we did um we did swear in a new officer today, >> officer Rubin. He will start the academy tomorrow morning. >> And uh you do anticipate some more
vacancies coming up. >> Uh yes. So we we uh we're full with our parking enforcement officers. So we manage that. We're full with our crossing guards. So we're manage that. So we are um we will f fill some
vacancies in the patrol with our officers. So we're um we we're going through resumes now still and then um we will u start interviewing next week. >> Okay. Now we don't have a list anymore, right?
>> No, we exhausted that list and we don't want to go any further on that list. >> Right. Okay. And is there thought of maybe doing another test? >> Uh yes. in um most likely in the spring. >> Okay, >> go for the spring. But we do have a um
we do have um a test coming out for sergeant. We have a sergeant retirement. So that test is in February for that position. All right. Um
All right. And let's see what's next. Uh Patrick, anything from OEM? >> Uh we are starting to go through the county's hazard mitigation plan looking at projects that we had identified as helping out to mitigate potential
hazards in Maplewood. And so we're going to work with the county's consultant on identifying projects that would be eligible for federal funding. So, we're going through that with uh Paul Kitner now and hopefully get a couple projects
uh teed up for application. That is the only item to report. >> Okay. And on the SCFD, uh here are just the stats from January,
3,700 incidents. Again, the overwhelming majority uh have to do with uh EMS or almost almost half EMS. Fire is uh
uh and these this fire also includes when we provide mutual aid uh outside of the town. So >> what is a good intent call? Um those are things like um going to a
block party, schools, library, um things like that. >> You can see false alarms are kind of high. Um you know, we've got to work with people to try to get that down. >> Do we know more about the false alarms?
like why how why those happen. So >> um >> they're uh I don't have it broken here because this is just a category, but some of them are false alarms um that are like uh
what you kind of think is that they they you know you pull pull an alarm and run away type thing. Some of them are um uh kitchen uh sets off the alarm, kitchen cooking, uh or somebody's sanding, dust,
uh that kind of stuff. Then there's the alarms that are malfunctioning and some of the either businesses or industrial areas. So, it's all it all gets put into that big category. >> We have quite a few on the even on the
police side some false alarms. Do we still have the rule that you get three or four and then you get blinded? >> Yes, but we haven't um received a lot of uh those calls like we used to. >> I think a lot of people went to the Ring
camera and different things like that, but we used to get um you know the ADT and people put in the wrong code and you have to verify it was them and then you know that kind of thing. But >> after a night of partying >> Yeah. Right. Right. Right. >> the wrong number.
Um yeah, so on the fire side, you know, a lot of these are automatic. Um you know, they report directly to to the uh to the fire department. >> Yeah, it it might have happened to me. I'm sometimes burn things.
>> Yeah, there you go. So, you might have uh you might be part of that 700. >> My apologies. Um okay. anything on uh well I don't think we have anyone here from we have no one else here
so we have nothing from the community board on police anybody have any new items um chief I have a I have a question for you someone called today and told me that
they uh called the police uh and got the dispatcher and asked to speak to the uh desk lieutenant or sergeant and um they were not put through. They wanted to know what the problem was and all this
kind of stuff. What is the procedure? >> Is that a normal procedure? Um or do they usually put those calls through? >> No, they usually put those calls through. >> Okay. >> I don't know what happened there, but >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> You would expect there was a reason for
that though, Chief? >> No, they should have put them through. I don't know what I I can't think of the what the reason was for unless Okay. You know, I don't I don't know what the dispatcher said to them. Maybe they were on a 911 call or something. I don't >> Let me let me uh let me let me find out some more and then I will get back to
you on that. >> Okay. >> All right. Um anybody have anything else? If not, we can conclude the meeting. All right. Thanks everybody. Not tonight.