Zoom or on YouTube. So, give me one moment. Okay. Oh, we do have a bunch of people on and uh uh Okay, we have Russell on. So, Soima, Gail, and Kenia. We'll bring
her over a little later. All right, we're up. We're good. Yep. Okay. So, folks, welcome to the uh August 13th meeting of the public safety committee. Um we are going to do public
comment first. So, if you'd like to uh speak with us, please raise your hand and we will move you over to a panelist. And I see Russell has raised his hand. Hello all.
I hope you weren't sitting in that same chair all day. No, no, back home. So, that was at the office before. Oh, okay. All right. Um, well, thanks for uh taking the time to to include me on this meeting. Um, I appreciate it. Uh, I don't know sure if
everybody's aware. I would like Vespa parking at the train station. Um, hi Dean. Um, hey neighbor. You're back. I'm back and I'm not going to leave. Um, anyway, uh, I sent notes to I I'm not
sure to who who I sent it to the town council. um and uh received a ticket down the down in the train station for parking, a place I've parked for the past 6 years along with other Vespa and scooter riders. Um a little bit of a
surprise. Um uh and then I they said I should petition the town council for uh some type of solution to this. Uh they they found out in this morning's meeting that they um the the the New Jersey Transit really said they can't do anything or at least they're not doing
anything at this point point about moving um bikes bicycle lockers. Um so I'm hoping that you guys allow me at least as an interim solution till something's worked out where I'm not taking a parking space per scooter
because I think that would be a waste of parking downtown. um and allow me to continue parking and uh and let the police department know that it's okay to park there. So, um do you do you have the uh photos that can you share that photo of where how
where you parked now? Yeah, let me just uh shrink my view here and make sure I'm going to share the right things. Uh um hold on. I'm sorry. No problem.
Uh, okay. Um, and Patrick, the mayor needs to move up. Be moved over share. There we go. Okay. So, this is not downtown. This is
Europe. I was traveling this past summer and there's scooters all over the place and I saw this as some solution where they take up a one parking spot. They could probably fit four Vespas there uh at one parking spot. Um I just sent this
to Vic Duca as a as an example. Um this is my Vespa where I park at the train station. This is on the um town side of the train station, not the park side of the train station. This is right outside the area of um where you go down stairs
to get on the underpass to get to the center track. Um, this is a wider shot of that. Um, so you can see it from the parking lot. And this is a little tighter. Uh, that's another perspective. There are the bikes. I try not to park
where the bikes park. Sometimes there's Vespas to the right of me. Sometimes there's Vespas over over here. You know, there's about five or so Vespas that frequent this. I'm not saying they're all there at the same time. Uh, sometimes they are. Sometime it depends on the weather. depends on I don't know
how many people are going to drive it. Uh I'm there like about three days a week. Um at least I try to be. Uh and that's kind of it. And so I'm just trying to either you know if there if there's no solution for me to park there. I don't really find that I'm very intrusive to the situation here where
I'm in the way. No one's going to be hanging where I park that thing. And I've been doing it for the past six years. Just got a ticket out of the blue and then so here I am after two months of trying to make something happen. Okay. Basically it So, so Chief Sally, um this
morning we discussed this at engineering and public works and planning committee and Mr. Kitner is uh been tasked with working on some solutions. He was not able to get to it since our last meeting. In the interim, what we'd like
to do is to just temporarily allow these uh scooters to park here under the overhang until we can figure out some other type of solution. And we don't want him to get tickets. Okay. Yeah, I'm writing it down. I'm
just writing. Okay. And on the the side. Yeah. On the town side. Now, I'm not saying I'm the only person, you know, I'm I'm speaking up. I'm not sure if anybody else has spoken up and I'm not sure what the needs on the other side of the train station, but this is where I'm from. this is the, you know, I
don't want to be, you know, the only person like, but there's other people that do this and I don't know about the other side of the train station. Okay. Well, let's let's solve what we know and that's fine. That that we'll have we'll have a grace period for you and any of the other people who are parking there to
park there while we work on some other types of solutions uh possibilities. We may end up keeping making that permanent, but at least uh we the chief can put out a notice not to give out tickets.
Vic, I feel like we can figure something out here to be sure. I mean, there's space um and we just need to like make sure we're compliant with, you know, DOT rags and all the other kinds of things with regard to obviously for ADA
compliance, but just feels like we have space, which is unusual for us to have. So, um you know, I think we can figure something out. Let's let's hopefully that Paul Kitner will be able to come back with some suggestions. He'll look at all that.
Yeah. So, are we leaving it as I can actually park there or are am I waiting on a decision? No. Chief, he can park there, right? You'll put out a notice. Yeah. Yes. Temporarily till we um figure out the proper place to park.
Correct. And the town and the town council has my email as well. So, if you want to inform me of any changes or we know we know how to get you. Okay. Great. Listen, I appreciate that. Just come to every meeting. stick around if you want. We got
I know I stayed in for the this morning's meeting and I was very um uh taken aback by some of the comments and uh and I appreciate you guys are um uh you know um not from you from the public. Um and you know you guys put
yourself out there and and I appreciate all you do. So thank you very much. And I and I know Dean personally and um and uh we won't hold that against you. Don't worry. No. No, but you got you guys do a lot for the town and maybe unsung heroes. So, I
appreciate everything you guys are doing. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you guys. Good to see you, Russ. Okay. Thanks, Chima. Okay. Hello. Can you guys hear me? We can hear you. Okay. I'm back.
Um I was at the meeting earlier this morning um discussing the town's ordinance with the overnight parking. Um the same thing that I was saying earlier. Um it's just very difficult especially for people that live in two
family homes to coordinate parking. Especially if multiple people live in a house and they all have cars and you just have a one straight driveway. It's it's very inconvenient. It causes a lot of problems actually, at least in my house.
Um, I know the town opened certain parking lots for parking, but like I stated previously, sometimes I get off of work in those during those late hours. And I personally don't feel comfortable walking from the lot to my
house versus just being able to park in front of my house. I think it's just it's easier. It's more convenient. Um, so I was just saying in terms of getting rid of the ordinance or just allowing certain people to receive
permits to park in front of their house. So, uh, Chief, uh, we we discussed this this morning a bit. Um and there was a question of if you could uh just spell out from your perspective
uh you know your view on the overnight parking. Yes. I I think overnight parking should continue. Um I think the reasoning for that mean the prohibition right what's that the prohibition of overnight parking.
Yes. Yes. Yeah. So the uh correct. So the um and the reasoning for that is um it it does it does assist us as um as far as law enforcement. Um we do get a um a lot of complaints about uh vehicles
parked and not moving for several nights at a time. Um it allows us to um make the correction of any abandoned vehicles. Also um it's assist assist assist us with uh different complaints we get uh loing um noise complaints
um and uh you know different different types of of complaints we get um assist us to be able to uh move that vehicle or if that if that vehicle is um is obstructing traffic um a lot you know
different things we need to for we need to move uh vehicles for uh weather conditions, emergency um state of emergencies also. Um you know is it it um a lot of a lot of quality of life issues
also um so we get we you know we get we get a lot of complaints about um we do accommodate a lot as well um for parking. I don't know if um the extra parking spaces or parking lots assist or
if there's some way to do more um um for for residents receive more permits that are that are residents, but it does assist us um to um enforce overnight parking as a as a police department.
Could I ask question? So then uh the so something like in this case it's a um dead end right by Maple Crest Park um Biden Parkway South.
So um I'm just wondering if there are instances that I mean and as Vic said this morning it's a much bigger conversation. we have a lot to consider um townwide and then the
parameters by which we might permit on street parking overnight. Right. So, um that's all the stuff we need to dig into if we want to pursue this as a possibility. But I'm
asking you as the chief of police, what um what you think about a car that's permitted on a dead end by Maple Crest Park as opposed to um you know in other areas of town. Is there a difference in
your mind of the public safety issue um you know with that versus other areas of town? Well, the my thing is the permit. If somebody receives a permit from their house, I mean, I don't I don't see a issue with that. It's just the um
townwide parking anywhere you want to. Um loing and u and and and leaving your vehicle there for, you know, um almost I mean, we we see cars that are abandoned. They're just parked there. And a lot of times we wouldn't know that unless we um
check those areas um for for overnight parking. So those those are the ones we're really u focusing on and concerned about. Yeah. Like and that's what I mean like if I was to get a permit, I would only well I should only be allowed to just
park in front of my house. Obviously I wouldn't want to park in front of my neighbor's house unless they give me that permission. And then it's like while you while you guys are patrolling, I know you guys are able to run people's plates and see that they live in that house and match the car to that house.
So that's why I'm kind of confused on why um residents wouldn't even be allowed to park in front of their house. Deborah, yeah, I'll just like elaborate. I think the question for you that I have for you, Chief, is um are you would you be
okay with these instances where we're in neighborhoods that have a lot of multif family houses being able to issue permits so that people can park on the street? Um because I do believe, you know, having lived over there, it is a hardship and it is really hard. And so I'm for kind of easing up some of the
overnight parking restrictions. I understand from a public safety perspective why but if we did um issue permits in certain areas well defined like the mayor said like how do you feel about that? Yeah. So the the permit is not my
problem. The permit the the getting rid of the whole town not having overnight parking is my problem. So like we we give permits out to certain locations and to certain uh residents. I have no problem with that. It's just I don't think the whole town should be banned
from over, you know, um people should not be able to park anywhere they want to all over town and we get those cases. Yeah. I don't think that's what I think what we're asking is because if we set up a a construct where we can permit
some residents and deny others, the parameters is what uh we're going to need to to figure out. the governing. I would I would I would need to think about I need to look into that. I can't I won't give an answer right now about that.
Dean, thank you. So, Chief, yeah, I don't think we're talking about a townwide lifting at this point. I think as you know we've received a lot of uh pleas to
look into this um from people like this resident who's who who's before us tonight who live in multifamily housing um and don't have uh you know there's several cars in that house and it's a
constant struggle to do the what I call the car choreography who's getting in who's getting out and the challenging of schedules. Uh this resident gave uh told us a little bit more about her situation earlier this morning in our engineering public works committee where she also
stated that she works really late. She has late shifts, right? Um and so while we've made we've tried to solve this problem by making um parking available in certain municipal lots that are near
some of these multifamily zones. uh for someone like her, it would require her to walk through Maplerest Park at like 2 am, right? Um in order to do that and obviously she doesn't feel comfortable doing that and I don't blame her even
when we have the new lights up and running in that park. So the idea is to, as the mayor said, to create some sort of construct. Nice word, by the way, mayor. Um to create some sort of construct. It's foulome. It's not as as good as folk, but it's
um to create some sort of thing that is really specifically tailored to these zones where folks are experiencing this because this is a hardship for them. It really talking about quality of life, their quality of life is diminished
because of this on a daily basis. So that's what we're trying to do and balance it against the concerns that you have obviously in terms of keeping uh the town safe. So, um I'm going to uh uh ask Deborah to
work with me and the chief and Patrick on coming up with uh some solutions on this. Um and I don't want to do it with a third township committee because then we get into having everything public. So, we will set up I think Dean you recommended we set up a working group
and that's going to be our working group. We're going to keep it internal. We'll also put someone on for DPW so we get their input. Um, and I and I want to validate everything that's been said by the residents and other residents. But I
I also want us to understand that there are particular issues here. For example, on the corner of Jacobe Street in Bdon, we have I believe it's about a 12 unit apartment building. Now, does that qualify those do those because no parking at all? Do those tenants get to
park on the street? And if they do, they're going to be parking in front of neighbors houses. Uh do we just limit this to two family uh zones or do we do it, you know, throughout uh a larger
area of town? So, those are things to work on. What happens, as the chief mentioned, right now we have um some streets that are snow emergency streets. For example, on on Prospect, right around the corner from me, someone has a permit to park on the street because he
has no driveway. He has to get his car off the street when it's snow emergency. We've heard a lot from uh our DPW that some of the narrow streets in in like Menzel and Jacobe and Hughes, they're
very hard to plow when you have cars on those streets. So, those are the things we have to think about. um certainly understand uh the issue. Uh you know, I think I said before when I first started seeing Janie, she lived on Jacobe Street, one
parking space. I had a park in Irvington and walked from Irvington to Maplewood down 44th Street to Jacobe Street. I know this. I know this very well in the snow, in the rain, dark at night. I
understand this. So, um I I think we have to do it. Uh and so let's set up this group of folks and we'll work on it and bring something back at to the next meeting. Yeah. Aside from your um what I'd like
more details about your my experience. No way. Yeah. But um I think I think there's there I think this will have to you know it's going to be a deep dive of uh parameters
to be set so that not everybody can get you know and and you know like most things you know it's going to be a lot of a lot of discussion and I appreciate you guys working on it and I think I think yes thank you. I think the other person that we'll have join us
maybe for some of it if not all of it is is our attorney because I think you said it mayor whatever we come up with has to you know it has to pass the the smell test so that it's just in family and friends get the passes and other people
get denied. So um you know let us work on it and we'll we'll try to come back with some ideas and I would just you're okay with that? Yeah, Patrick, I volunteered you, Chief. Okay, good.
I recommend that we also get some of the ideas that So, Chima and others may have about this because they Yeah, we can reach out to them. I don't want to put them on the grill. I want to keep this internal. We can reach out and get their views.
Um Okay. And then, um when would be the next meeting? A month from now. Okay. on the same day. It's the second Wednesday of the month. It's Yeah, both of those meetings are the second Wednesday. I think this is the meeting where we will really focus. This is so it's um the next meeting is
September 10th. Yes. But you know, uh we we have your email, right? Yeah, we have we have a way to get back to you. So, we we will reach out to you so you'll be you'll be uh aware of what we're doing. And So, it's going to take a little time
to be clear. Um, but we are working on it. A lot of it is because of your advocacy, but it's um because we've had other people asking for similar things, but it's it's really complicated. So, it's going to take a little while. So,
you may have to, you know, tell your neighbors downstairs to move their cars once in a while. Okay. Thank you. So, we're going to move on to the next person that has their hand up. That's Gail. There's a lot of people that I talk to
that live in Maplewood where they complain about the same thing. Okay. So, Patrick. Okay. Thank you. Welcome, Gail. Patrick, are you moving back? Okay. Uh, hi. Uh, can you hear me? We can hear you. Can't see you. We can
hear you. Oh, okay. I can do that. There you go. Uh, hi. Yeah, thanks. Um, uh, I just, uh, wanted to follow up on
an email exchange we had, uh, a few weeks ago now. Um, I had sent and I think it ended up kind of on a large group after a while. Um, concerns about how essentially our residents and and local
police would end up uh interfacing with ICE in the case of any kinds of activity or raids that people are witnessing. Um, and I had sent, you know, that example where folks had seen ICE activity in their neighborhood in Massachusetts somewhere
and they'd called the police and the police kind of kept everyone away and kind of turned into a bad scene for everyone and they ended up arresting a resident who was like running after her mom who'd gotten stuffed into a van, things like that. And
I think where it ended up was I was kind of more pointed in asking the question of um is it not within our power to have more an ordinance or a procedure that's
formalized in how our police would interact with ICE in the case that like residents call and say we're seeing we don't know if they're ICE. We see these masked guys. They they have like generic police, you know, on their clothes and they're doing something in town and we
call for help because we don't know what's going on and how that would proceed so that we're not, you know, as residents kind of in the situation of standing by, not being able to do anything, recognizing these are federal, these may be federal agents and that, you know,
you can't just stop what they're doing, but that there's things that can be done. Identifying who they are. identifying if they have warrants for arresting people, checking what's happening if they're racial profiling people who are standing nearby, that
kind of thing. Um, could all be something we're more prepared for as a town. And I mean, I'm I recognize like there's been a lot of work done on Maplewood's a sanctuary city. Um there's there's been good work on this and I
feel like this is a good town that has kind of the idea of trying to protect these neighbors that we have, you know. Um so I just I kind of wanted more clarity on what's feasible here. Um I had a discussion with my neighbor who's
who's Alexis Carter. I think some people know her. she's a lawyer and she said, you know, there may be legal issues with that, but I was I was kind of pushing her and saying, well, what specifically are those issues? And she said, well, I
don't know. It's federal agents. So, I was like, if there's an issue, like we should know about it and have a plan rather than kind of assuming there's going to be an issue and not move forward with it. So, that's that's what I wanted to bring up and kind of come
back to. I know it's been a few weeks. Okay. Hi, Dean. You had your hand up. I do. Thank you, Vic. Yeah. Thank you, Gail. Um, and so, um, so Gail, this is not a legal opinion by any
means. Um, in fact, the state attorney general has yet to issue guidance or a directive to municipalities across the state, especially to sanctuary municipalities like ours,
which have formally committed to not engaging with not assisting, and that also means, by the way, not interfering with these so-called federal agents, Right. But what jurisdiction, what power
do we have legally to require them to identify themselves, to require them to tell us when they're coming? to require them to show proof that when they are going after someone, a household, that they have a warrant or they have some uh
as we say in the legal business, uh you know, primmaishia evidence or some sort of standard to stop that person and ask them questions. And the answers to those questions are not much jurisdiction at the moment. But there is pending
legislation in Trenton. It did not move forward. No surprise. very controversial. Did not move forward during the regular legislative session, but I hear that there's talk of it uh coming back during the lame duck, what we call lame duck. The state legislators
are on break until November after the election. They're all up for reelection, both the assembly and the state right now, and they will reconvene officially in November for the remaining couple of months of this current administration. Uh and one of the things that they will
be discussing is a pending bill that would do exactly what you're recommending uh which is to require identification to require pre-notice. So, but there could be um legal issues with that because these
are federal agents and we're not exactly understand yet what power we have to uh supersede federal agents or to uh sort of require them to
uh submit to local law enforcement directives. So, that's where we are. We have been we we've taken your recommendation very seriously because we are concerned about it. We are sanctuary town, right? So, we care about this. Absolutely. 100. And I'm glad you're here again to talk about
it. Uh but but that's where this issue stands. Um, and I'm really glad that people in Trenton are looking into it. And I'm glad that AG Plattkin, who as you know has been really uh, if there's anyone in New Jerseyy's been fighting the current administration in DC, it's
Matt Plain singularity and consistently, if I might say. So, you know, we need to get that directive and we don't have that directive yet. Um, but that's sort of what I know from the research that I've done since your emails,
mayor. Yeah, I just want to clarify u my understanding and Patrick and uh, Chief, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, we're still following the AG's directive that we last had plus
along with our own res uh, resolution saying that we won't aid or assist um the immigration uh whatever ICE is doing if they come to our town. Am I right? Yeah,
Chief. That's that's correct. And also, but like uh Mr. Davis said, we won't uh interfere either. So, Right. Right. Right. That's fair. But we did we passed the resolution January of 2017
um prior to the president's first term in this and then the yes and the department has been trained in that and also um if we need guidance we contact the prosecutor's office they have an assistant prosecutor um that we can reach out to.
Okay. Sorry, just uh I think two questions then in in followup. I mean in sorry the legislation is that the immigrant trust act or is that a different bill? It's a different bill.
Okay. A newer one. Uh yeah, it it's a very recent. It kind of got put together if I may say haphazardly uh right before the session uh came to a close. Um, but it's specifically geared
toward this issue of requiring identification and requiring notice. So, I mean, it's a it's a bit of time and hopefully it seems like ICE is having trouble recruiting, but you know, absent that
kind of more formal uh a bill passing or guidance from the AG, I mean, if someone jumps out of a van right now, tomorrow, and the police happen to be on the scene and they say, "I'm a federal agent," the police just have to believe them or like
what happens. Chief, of course, we would vet them. We would we would respond and and and vet them to see who they what agency they are and and uh so we would identify them at that
point and then so it's effectively if they have a badge or something like that that identifies them at that point you have to kind of step back, right? can interfere.
Okay. And and if a bill like this passes, um that would just be a clearer version of the same thing since we again still can't interfere. Absolutely. Guidance otherwise. Yeah, I think so.
Well, I mean, yeah, we get our guidance from the attorney general. So, whatever the guideline, the guidance is from the attorney general, we follow. Okay. Um, if you happen to have the name of the bill or the sponsors of it, can you
share it? Most certainly, Gail, I'll email it to you, include everyone else in that thread that we were all involved in. Okay. And then is there further steps from the town that would happen if that passes or is it you kind of take the
guidance and um or any more specificity that comes from that and apply it locally? Yes. From the attorney general's office. Okay. And the Essex County Prosecutor. We are we are under their directives.
Yeah. We can't supersede them. Okay. Um, and this is I mean this is also going to run up against the governor's race, right? So, how likely is the governor be after the governor's race?
Okay. The legislation will be in the lame duck session which will be after the governor's race. Okay. Okay. Well, that gives some advocacy avenues, although I can see that taking a while. Um,
okay. Is there anything else happening around this locally that you know where discussions are taking place or groups that are um pushing for different sorts of things? There are there there are and I think I
forgive me if I did not and I thought that I did. It's happening a lot lately. Aging is not fun. Um, I thought I circulated in that thread uh some presentations that local community action groups are doing like Soma Justice for instance in getting out
there uh getting out to different organizations and to merchants, shop owners and restaurants that may have uh you know undocumented or undocumented folks as employees. getting uh information out there on how to uh what
to do if this happens to them, if I shows up on their door, what not to do, what are people's rights, uh and so on and so forth. And sort of working with um these different groups and and sort of creating a community action plan that is uh apart and separate from law
enforcement. Okay. Um All right. So then it sounds like there's a fair waiting game going on, but there's some advocacy to be done.
Um, is there anything any other gaps locally that need filling from your perspective around like safety around these issues, chief? Go ahead. Yeah, he's the public safety chief.
So, um, again, we we um follow the AG and the prosecutor's office. Um, if uh ICE uh comes in and makes an arrest, we do not interfere. So, that's that's our stance on it.
And they're not the only outside agency that comes in, right? State police comes in, FBI, drug enforcement come in. Uh the difference is they usually notify you, correct? and you cooperate with them. Correct. We have um you know sometimes uh um even another municipality agency
will come in or um um you know or a federal agency but they will they um uh most times give us a courtesy call what they're doing and uh we don't usually don't participate. They they make their um investigation or maybe an arrest and
um and that's how it usually come happens. So you neither interfere nor participate and that's similar ICE except ICE doesn't notify you. Correct. Correct. And and we're clear that we don't participate with ICE.
Correct. All right. In terms of a gap, Gail, I would say that the the information sourcing that's happening um on the ground in the community through different groups should include and I'm
not I'm not sure at this moment if it does yet, it should include the school district, right? Uh so that the district is providing some guidance to parents. Um right because we know that ICE, you
know, in the first Trump administration, there were some boundaries that they were honoring in terms of what the law calls sensitive areas, houses of worship, schools, the courts. These are sensitive areas. Uh but this administration is not honoring even
that. They're going into schools. They're going into child care centers. They're going into houses of worship and picking people up. So, New Jersey, the state department of education has instructed the schools on how to respond to ICE for school
interventions. And so, I think our district follows that. So, I I we have a lot more on our agenda. So, Gail, we need to wrap it up. You have anything else? No. Thanks for um looking into it. Okay. Thank you. Um let's see who else
has we got here. Oh, we got more people. No, same people. Okay. And and can we're going to have you come on um when we do the update from the community board on police. Um
so I'm going to move now to the uniform crime statistics and share the document. The document that Deborah likes. I do. That's why I started smiling. It's my favorite part. I know. I saw that. I saw that.
There we go. Um right everybody can see this I hope. Yes. Okay. So um again this is for the first six months of the year and um you
know the only outlier chief is uh robberies. You want to talk about any of this stuff? You're on you're on mute. Maybe you don't want to talk about it. I'm trying to get out of that. Um the uh it seems like I've been talking about
these same uh five robberies for the last couple months because it's pretty much the same ones. Um nothing new really. U it's the it's it's juvenile related known to uh each other. Um little um you know I wouldn't call a
robbery a small crime but it's kind of like a um I know the other person. I intimidated him. I took something from him. Um and um it's not like um you know a uh normal street robbery where the person's not known. Um
I think we have three clears out of the five. Uh the other two um we're still trying to we might have one identified but uh not a charge yet. So those are the robberies pretty much. Okay. Um and as you can see the aggravated assaults are down. Uh the burglaries are
down even though we still have a few that um happened last month. um thefts are are down, auto thefts are down, and as you see, all incidents are down from last year. So, I I also included in the agenda some
information about the uh the violent crime statistics the FBI released nationwide from 23 to 24. So, um we we did have a decrease in robbery from 23 to 24. You can see from 5 to 1, we
bounced back up to five. But that's in line with national uh trends. Aggravated assault, we were down from 9 to 8. That's also in line with uh the uh national trends. Uh the burglary was
were up 14 to 21. That's sort of uh different. And uh burglaries were down about 9% nationwide. Thefts were up uh significantly. Um, and that's different than uh what
nationally was down about five% and autothefts were down and that they were down nationally. So, we kind of hit and miss on this. Some of them were down, some of them were up from 23 to 24 compared to national. Again, this is a sixmonth and the national figures are 12
months. So, this it may balance out, you know, the rest of the month, the rest of the year rather. So, um, but the but you know, in general from 24 to 25, we're down 28% in crime.
So, again, thank the officers for all they're doing. Uh, I think the shift change we made is making allows you to do a lot more in deployment and I think we're seeing results here. Yeah. And also um last summer a lot of
work with the burglaries. So we had extra details, extra officers, detectives uh solving cases. So that assisted in getting that big reduction in burglars. Okay. Anything more on this? I just have
a question because we've gotten some um uptick again at least from emails of residents who were having the burglary, you know, where they break in and take the keys and then take the car. Um
there's a couple residents that uh seem like they were having repeat offenses and it just as as we so uh well went through the whole like you're fading out. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Can you hear me now? I thought you were using your inside voice, but you're outside, right? I'm I'm outside. And uh Can you hear me? It's barely. No. Okay. I'll just say anything with
the uptick that happened um recently on burglary. Yes. So, we've seen a few. However, uh some of them are are um are not uh burglary style like there. We had probably two or three where they didn't
try to enter the house. They tried to get the car um and were unsuccessful and left. So, we had about three of those. So, where they actually didn't try the house, went to the home, went to the car for
whatever reason, noticed a video camera or how or however, and then took off. So, we did see a few of those. But, um again, we have um extra patrols in the area. Our detectives are working.
They have gathered a lot of video reviewing it and working with other agencies um u with trying to solve it solve some of these thefts and also the um burglaries as well.
Anything else on this? If not, we'll move to the uh next stage here. And that's the traffic enforcement for the first six months. Uh again, moving violations. Chief, you have a increase here. Radar is an increase. Warning
notices increase. Vehicle stops increase. Um, you know, we kind of in June, we didn't get as many moving violations as the year as the month before, but we're still better than a year ago. Uh, radars, you know, you see all these
warning notices, we were down this month uh this year, this in June 25 to June 24. And then, uh, stops, we were also down in June 25 to June 24. So I don't know if you have anything you want to say
about these chief. Yeah. So I um I did speak to my traffic sergeant and my captain of patrol uh showed them these numbers and uh we are going to um conduct more radar details. Um as as we were talking about this is
how our numbers were going up. We kind of stopped the um targeting details and that has helped us. However, um I want them to start doing we're going to start doing more targeted radar details um in attempt for um cuz you know our
number one complaint is we we get a lot of traffic complaints but the number one complaint is speeding. So our our traffic unit um h has been given assignment to certain areas to conduct uh radar details. So we should see um
improvement in that. Okay. Anyone have any questions or comments about these numbers? Did we meet your expectation, Miss Engle? You did. I love all the green. Okay.
Do we have any information on pedestrians? What? Like um you know, I thought that was one of the things we were looking at as well, like for pedestrian safety. You mean details like crosswalk details?
Yeah, like keeping track of um incidents. Oh, no. I'm talking about something different. Okay. Uh yeah, I'm sorry. Pedestrian accidents. Yeah. Yeah, I can get you that data also. But we did receive a grant over the summer u
that we did details on pedestrian safety. So, I can get you those numbers as well. We had we had a great when we did details on that. That's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to hear more about that. Yes. Okay. Uh anything more on traffic
enforcement? All right. Overtime, Chief, we saw a decrease in hours and in pay. Um and what are you attributing that to? Uh definitely the schedule. uh we we um you know so uh with the with the
schedule I mean we we still have the same amount of um of um of um special events that are happening over the weekend that we need to fill and we do have a lot of um things going on. We need extra officers but um with the
schedule we just it it puts more officers on those days anyway. So, we do have to give out overtime, but not as much as we did with the old schedule. Okay. Anything on overtime for anyone? If not,
let's go to the discussion item. So, Chief, National Night Out, uh, congratulations to your team. It was, uh, we had, I think, the biggest crowd we ever had. Nice crowd. Weather was great. The weather was great. Much better than many years ago when it was pouring.
Yes. Um, I think it was really nice the way it was laid out with the park. Um, uh, and you know to have pony rides and all those inflatables was pretty cool. Yeah. Congratulations. Pony rides. Yep.
That's awesome. Yeah, good good job. Uh, Sergeant Reeves, he puts it together every year. Um, does a great job. him and his team, the uh community uh community unit and uh rest of the officers who participate, they do that. They as they say to me,
that's their Super Bowl. So, they they really uh get up for that together. So, one one thing I noticed, Chief, uh and I and we're doing this actually for all events going forward is accessibility. Um, for example, the way
we you have the food that's down uh the hill, you have to walk down that hill for some of our seniors and uh the mobility challenge residents. That's, you know, we want to think about that a little more. I did notice that there we
really didn't have um seating for uh elderly residents who might, you know, need to take a break and couldn't stand up the whole time. So, that's something that in the, you know, next year we're probably going to ask you to to think more about that and come up with an
accessibility plan. And we're, as I said, we're doing it with all events. Uh Patrick has asked uh Liz in the event planning to make that an issue. Um, additionally, next year in 2026, Dehard
Park will not be available because we're going to be rebuilding it. So, you need an alternate site and I would suggest you take a look at Maplerrest. Keep it over I think on this uh you know sort of the eastern side of town. I think it uh
really gets uh a lot of walkability, a lot of folks coming out. So, moving to Maplerrest is is not that far away, but I do think coming back to Deart in 2027 would be good. Okay.
Any other comments on this? I would just add in handicap parking spots to the accessibility, but thanks for bringing that up, Mr. Duca. Yeah, those are a good point. I I think that's correct because um uh you know, I think they they block off
a good number of spots in the parking lot for vehicles, police vehicles, fire vehicles, what have you. So, uh, and the game the gra game game trailer. So, I think maybe designating a portion, maybe one of those, uh, parking bays for
handicap parking would be a good idea. And that can all be part of the accessibility planning. Uh, speaking of special needs, uh, identification cards, Deputy Mayor. Yes. Uh, Chief, this is a question that
came up at our all access committee. Some of the um parents um who have older children said they they had talked about I guess years back they had been encouraged to get identification cards.
I don't have a picture to show but they held them up. Um and it's kind of like an ID card. Um, and so they asked me if if this was a program that the police department was still um still doing and
what the status of it was. And I've been here. I haven't heard of it at all. So um so this is something uh maybe for you to look into. Uh I don't know if you already if if you know about this program or have any update on it. Um
yeah uh yeah program we always done but um you're right we got to uh promote it and uh put it out there um a lot more than we have been. So so what is the program exactly? What is the um how does it work? Well, it's it's
um volunteer, you know, you come if you want to come in and um provide information um about um someone with special needs so that if we do get a call um if we're responding to somewhere, we know that there's a person there with special needs. So that's, you know, pretty much
gives us a um identification on that. It would be connected to the their home address. So you would know if you're going out to a call to that address. Correct. Correct. And then I guess what some of the individuals were saying was that I guess if you have somebody who is um non-verbal
Yes. that they could they could show the card. Right. Right. And also but also when when we pull up the information we can um inform officers of of that before they prior to them responding.
Um and who is the officer? Is there or who or is there an officer who is sort of the contact for this? Well, Sergeant Reeves is ultimately in charge of everything, but um we're kind of transitioning a few officers to different positions uh within that unit,
but I would say Sergeant Ree for now until I um identify the officer who will he will um Okay. dictate who will who will finish who will do the ID card. Yeah. cuz we'll want to if if that's something that um that you're still
doing and that you're continuing then I think definitely um getting information out to residents would be would be helpful and um and and I apologize that I don't know this if there is a dedicated page on your site you know that you could push people to to get
more information so yeah we can great thank you I will take this information back all right um we talked about the scooters already so Gun Safety Ordinance. Uh Chief, we just want to tee this up so that you're clear about what
we're planning to do. Uh we'll be having a final reading and vote on September 16th. Uh Deputy say anything more about it? Yeah. So, I I wanted to just go over so specifically, this is a gun store
storage ordinance that requires um residents to keep their guns locked when they're um not in use. Um and my understanding, and I just I wanted to just hear some feedback from you, chief. My understanding would be that this
would come into play for you when you're responding to an incident. The incident could be in the home or in a public place that it that has to do with a firearm. Whether the firearm is
discharged or whether, you know, it I don't know if a firearm is found on a park bench, for example. Typically, I believe it would be in the home if there is an unintended discharge or an a a very sad tragic discharge. Um,
and it would involve when you're going into the home already. Um, I believe it also could involve a domestic violence call if you're going into the home. So, I wanted to hear from you on how um because you wouldn't necessarily be
going to people's homes to check if they have their guns stored. It would be if you're already called there. Correct. If we're if if we have legal reason of being inside the home. Exactly. um for even if it's like a welfare check. If we're walking in an area for a welfare check and we see a
unsecured firearm, that's where I see that where that would take place or like you said a domestic or anything else. I mean, they will get the other criminal charges for that, but also they would get the town ordinance or it might not even be a criminal charge like you said,
we walk in, we see unsecured firearm, right? Right? Then they would get they would get the ordinance for that, you know, for not having the the firearm properly secured. Right. So as far as implementation, it would be one more thing that you would check when you go into the home like you
said on basis. Correct. Then the second Yeah. like you know find a firearm or a park branch, we might not necessarily know who who gun that is. So, you know, I mean, you know, but unless we check it and then it's to a registered person, but you know, other than that, you know,
so yeah, good point. Um, so the second piece of that would be public communication. Um, and I think the department does a really good job of pushing out communications. So, this would be in that area of making sure that the public knows that the firearms
must be um secured. And then also telling people, reminding them about the free gun locks that the department does have. And I stopped by one of your recent coffees um that uh that the officers held and
they had um the gun locks on the table. So, they were sharing that information with residents there, which is which is great. But um so the second piece would be the communication is like making sure um that people are aware. Yeah. So when we head out Yeah.
Yeah. When we when we hand out the gun locks we hand out a flyer u you know sending a new ordinance with it. So Oh that would be great. Yes. I think that would be a great um addition. So are you going to be working with our communications folks so to help to come
up with a baseline and then you can provide that to the police? Uh, deputy mayor, we can do that. We can come up with a fact sheet. That's a good idea. Yeah. And then we can both um, you know, we can have our town communications work
with the police um, you know, and get it out on both areas. Okay. And chief, you need anything else on this or you you're set soon as we No, good. You understood it. Okay. Yeah. Um, next up is the proposed 10K race.
Uh, and it's uh Deborah and Malia, you want to pitch in here? Sure. So, this was um the Soma Fox Running Club had reached out to both me and Miss Engel about scheduling um
they're looking to schedule a 10K race as kind of a signature race that they want to get going. Um, and they're looking for maybe next March or March of 2027. They're kind of looking in advance. They were hoping to do a um a
soma, so like a two- town race. Uh maybe they could call it mapso. We'll see. Um but they wanted to incorporate both towns. Um, so they don't have a route yet and they had kind of reached out in the very very preliminary stages to get
some guidance on who they might work with in the police department and at the town level to to work to schedule this and um and they do want to do it both with Maplewood and South Orange. And so we thought we might just bring it to you
and give you a heads up and see if you had any thoughts on like um I I'm not sure if I can think of any race off the top of my head that does cross both towns. So if if you knew if you had any suggestions for where to even
I I'll just chime in. Previously they tried to plan a race um on Springfield Avenue in the Hilton neighborhood and they worked with Chief Deval and they weren't able to do a course because of street closures and whatnot. So, they reached out because they want to work with both Maplewood and South Orange to
figure out what courses would be possibilities and how they would go about doing it and they'd be partnering with another race production company. Um, we also talked about South Orange just approved their third phase of the greenway to build their greenway from like Third Street to Chisawitz. So, we
talked about it would be cool to utilize the greenway if it's in March 2028 or whatnot. So I think the idea was who would be the best people from the PD for them to connect with to start brainstorming what could be possible and how to move forward.
Yeah. So with me it'll be my my traffic sergeant. So he um will he can work with uh whoever from South Orange or the the company who's running the the race. So, could we just um connect you on an email thread with them and then you can
add him on or do you want to send Sure. Yeah. You Yeah. Yes. No. And Chief, do you have any like red flags like things you want them to stay away from? Like for example, Bdon Avenue would be I to me I guess would be off the off the list because of all the
activity and the connectivity and the buses and everything. Yeah. Are there are there other streets like that? I would like them to be on Wyoming, but you know, Valley Valley's tough too, but um you know, but that connects us right Well,
Valley would be good because it connects us right to South Orange, you know. Prospect, too. Prospect is Prospect. Prospect, I assume, is not a red flag. That's that's a word. Yeah, that's um Did you say Wyoming was good or was not good?
I didn't catch Wyoming is good. Good. Yeah, Wyoming. I guess the the other question is there an interest in trying to uh touch various parts of the town or is that not matter?
That I didn't hear that from them. Okay. I think they're more it may not end up being two towns. It could end up just being in one. Um you know, they're just trying to get some ideas as they work out the route. And are they looking generally to stay away from hills or doesn't matter
either? I don't think it matters. Okay. I think some guidance about what what routes they should be looking at and how to actually move forward with doing it and who correct people are to talk with in the town. Yeah. Like if Springfield Avenue was
difficult. Yeah. But I assume uh Well, how how bunched are the groups? I guess it depends on what part of the race, right? In the beginning, they're kind of bunched and then it spreads out, right? Yeah. So, you know, that's the difficulty with
closing Springfield Avenue. It could be closed for a half hour or more. Yeah. I don't think they want anything else over there right now. Yeah. Unlike Fourth of July, we don't close Ridgewood. We run along it with traffic going. So, I think those specifics are what they're interested so
that they can plan accordingly. Yeah. I recommend they submit an event planning request because I think this is going to touch more than just PD and even though it's in their preliminary stages. I mean if they can get it helps us on our end track these things even if
they have a common name contact information brief description where we can in their words not in ours circulated among the departments because I expect beyond PD we're going to want to get engineering involved right if we talk about Prospect Street we're thinking about next year we you know us and South Orange maybe doing
construction I think we'd like to get the fire department involved so I I think it makes sense for them to maybe do a or somewhat more formal process even with the information they have at this point so that we can you know I I would
envision us scheduling a meeting almost like we have an event planning meeting just at a very early stage. Yeah, I think so. And so it's okay that they don't have a date they can just submit that. Yeah, just date, you know, if they should include what they know if they're thinking it if they say it's going to be in the springtime, we don't know if it's
going to be 26 or 27. I mean, any of that information is helpful. The nice thing about that form and while it doesn't fit neatly for what you're talking about, we that gets circulated among all the departments, everybody kind of is working off the same information and that's helpful to us. Great. Thank you.
Okay. All right. Uh, Chief, at the last meeting I raised this issue of overnight parking problems at Harvard and Ruters. I forwarded you an email. Yes, we've been issuing. Okay.
Yes, we've been uh Yeah. So, we've been issuing Harvard and Ruckers and Okay. Um Yeah. So, that's been on our list of our Okay. All right. Um I got an email from uh someone on 44th Street that uh there seems to be some speeding
that's going on. If uh and there was a request if we could put one of the speed trailers there for a little bit, you know, one of the speed signs. Uh Paul Kitner is going to look at putting up making sure we have the 25 miles an hour there, but if you could just put that on
your list as a another street that we want to take a look at. You know, that's a cut through to avoid the light at Chancellor and Spring. Okay. Okay. Got it. And then the CHS drop off. Um, what we decided this morning is that we're going
to put your uh personal cell number on all the correspondents, chief. So, if anyone has any trouble, they'll be calling you directly. Is that okay? Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So, uh, here is
the, uh, here's the plan. And um yeah, we talked about this morning is we really have to make sure that engineering and uh police and DPW that we're all on the same page. So Patrick,
I think is going to be working with Paul to call together a coordinating meeting of whoever we need to have. And and I'm thinking also, Patrick, we might want to have uh the fire department there just so they know what's going on uh in case
there's an emergency just to know what's, you know, what's which way traffic is going to be coming that that morning or afternoon. Um so uh particularly chief uh there's a there's a big concern about beach and prospect
that um what's going to happen is this is going to be a difficult street to come out of and make a left towards pro to south orange or even getting into the traffic to make a right. So, in the beginning, maybe having an officer
there. Of course, we have officers here. We're going to need coverage on Parker to make sure it doesn't uh we don't have parking there. So, there's quite a lot to do. Um and again, we just want to make sure that
um your your team is on board and and coordinating with everyone else. So, that's going to happen in the next two weeks because we're this is being implemented on September 2nd. Just to add to the Beach Street um issue, some of the families have mentioned that they have kids that go to Dia Balden and
Clinton and so they have an early start time that's around the same time as CHS. So part of their concern is being able to get out of their neighborhood um to get their other kids or get the kids to school. And and the other thing, Chief, is that this is going to be we're going to
operate this, you know, for a six-month uh trial run, and we're going to be making adjustments as we go along. So any observations that your officers see uh you know we want that fed to uh Patrick
so that we can uh make adjustments as we go along and then we want to implement a final plan by Halloween. Anybody have anything else on that? You good, Chief? It's a lot. Yeah. All of a sudden you sunk in your chair.
I thought maybe you fell down when you thought I'm back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Goodbye everybody. All right. All right. So maybe actually I think believe it or not I think Kitner said to put his number on the on the
flyer. He did. So good man. Good man. Um okay. One quick thing. I uh we got something from uh one of the members of the domestic resource uh I'm sorry
domestic violence resource team. There was a question about uh insurance coverage and I I uh want to raise this. The the question is uh are our volunteers it's about 10 volunteers now are they covered under our insurance and
when they go to South Orange to do work in South Orange because they cover both towns are they co you know what kind of insurance is covering them? So yeah that thank you foring that to me. I mean, the short answer is in Maplewood, yes, they have coverage. We
have coverage for our volunteers. Um, I I want to give the resident a more more information with our response. So, we're getting that with with our uh risk manager. I don't know personally the relationship with South Orange, you know, and I
I expect that it's it's not a it's not a joint service with them, right? I think it's just it's organized together, right? It's it's it's not a shared service. It's it's it is it it's not an official shared service, but Yeah. Yeah.
Without it being an official shared service, if it's just organized together, my expectation is that when they're in South Orange, they're they're covered as South Orange volunteers. When they're in Maplewood, they're covered as Maplewood volunteers. That's one thing
that I'm not sure on. And and if No, I'm glad the question was asked because it it may give us an opportunity to clarify between us and South Orange. So you'll have a response. So will you take responsibility to get back to the resident? Yep. Yep. Absolutely. I know the mayor responded, too. I did.
So if you could wrap that up, that would be good. Yeah. And if I don't have a response this week, I'll I'll at least let them know that it's forthcoming. Sounds good. Um anything more for the police? Well, I just want to say like school is
starting before our next meeting. So, I know that PD and our um public information officer are working on getting like a uh media social media information out and about our crossing guards and stuff, but I just want to say to the crossing guards and everyone who works on back to school and all the
traffic um officers like both team. Yeah. Also, we're going to um at the end of the year, we did uh those counts on those certain corners. Um, we're going to do that again in the beginning of the year just to see if the numbers are the same or if we get more kids walking through those locations. Um, so we'll
we'll do that starting the beginning of the year. Great. Thank you. And and while uh thank you for bringing that up on the crossing guards, we have a full compliment. Um, we do, but some of them might not be
starting right away. So um we're is we continuing uh to hire people or looking for people um because we do have alternates you know like two extras um but I don't think all of them are starting u due to maybe um you know
medical or something to that effect. Okay, great. Thank you. Uh okay, Patrick, Office of Emergency Management. Thank you. So, a couple items. With the library now open, we will be using that
as a cooling center. And in our most recent communication, when we had some high heat days two weeks ago, we had included that information with what we put out to the public. We'll also be updating our EOP with that information as a cooling center. It gets provided to
the county because they put out a list. will maintain the setup we have for the police department uh for shelter services. So, anytime that the cooling center is not or anytime the library is not open and and this will apply for both Hilton
Library and the the main branch of the library. Anytime they're not open and someone is in need of shelter, they can continue to report to the police department and when necessary, we can open up a shelter at the heart uh community center. So, you know, that's good news. It's nice to have a cooling
center where there's more going on, it's more comfortable. And I I, you know, I hope that it's more used because we've seen that, you know, when we we put out notice to the public about the cooling center, the police department, and the opportunity to open up a shelter at the heart, we don't have residents who have
taken us up on that. So hopefully we get more residents who take us up on the cooling center at the libraries. We had a sto any questions on that one. All right, we had a storm a couple weeks ago. July 31st was a planned heavy rain
event. It turned out to not be as um dire as was forecasted for us. And looking at the the radar, it kind of split around us a little bit. We saw, you know, very high water levels in our in our rivers and most that was due to
rain upstream from us that was very heavy. We had some, you know, heavy rains here, but nothing to where we saw localized flooding that was forecasted. So that was, you know, fortunate that it averted us, but it gave us an opportunity to talk with PD and FD and
everybody about, you know, what our swiftwater rescue capabilities are. So for that day, we had swiftwater rescue teams from FD who are regularly trained, regularly staffed. So, you know, on on any given ship, they're generally available, and
we had those available and ready on that day. We also have a police sergeant who was uh trained with SCFD on Swift Water Rescue, and that sergeant was available that day and, you know, had all their equipment and they were, you know, eager
and willing and and so that's, you know, great that they have that training and have that enthusiasm for it. Uh, we put out public communications. I think it, you know, it worked generally uh well for that and thankfully we didn't have any um you know, it turned out to not be what they had forecasted.
Speaking of weather, we've got Hurricane Erin who is uh forecasted to be a category 3 hurricane right now. Low probability of it making landfall on the east coast, but we'll keep a track on that. Uh it would be late in the
weekend, early next week. So, we'll uh we'll be keeping an eye on that. And lastly, we met with the Maplewood Middle School staff on their evacuation plan now that the Memorial Library is open and they have an opportunity to use the
Memorial Library as one of their evacuation sites should they need to leave MMS. We, you know, have some experience with what happened with the gas leak, uh, within the last year and a half. And so, you know, we had good discussions about that and I think those
will be ongoing discussions on on kind of how that can can improve. And we also have a new school safety director who's starting soon, not yet announced by the school district, but when they are, we'll have an opportunity to meet u that person with the the police department
and with OEM. So, look forward to uh to that new relationship. That's all from OEM. And and Patrick, I there something came in while you were gone uh from the county. Um and I don't know if I have it here.
Let's see. Maybe I don't. It's a ready program. You do you remember seeing that register register ready? I do. They have a new They're transitioning from an old system to a new system. Yes. Yeah. Yep. This is for folks so that uh our
emergency management folks know who folks who are in need who can't get out of their house who you know have mobility issues who need power if there's uh you know to run medical equipment. So we I I assume we're going to be pushing that information out so
people can register. Yeah. And right now the the health department has is usually the one pushing that out. So, I provided that information to Miss Davenport, our health officer, and she's going to start using that. It's they're rolling over
the old information into the new system. So, if it if it was there, it continues to exist in the new system. We just want to make sure that any new people who are registering register in that new system. Right. Okay. Sounds good. Um,
oh, Beck, could I just ask, was there any result from the storms that went through this evening because my hair was straight this morning and any any this evening? I straight hair. I I had I mean I I it was it was uh a lot of lightning for a little while and
it sounded close, but we didn't get at least I didn't get any notification from the police department or the fire department that anything was happening. So, I don't expect there I know there's power outages by the pool and I've heard there's a live wire on Newark Way.
Okay. Which is a good time to thank the We all know that live wire on Newark Way. Yes. A different one. I saw a video dangerous one. Vic, they were waiting for emergency was on the scene. They were waiting for PSCG because they can't manage those. They
It was a a beautiful rainbow by the way. Oh, I missed the rainbow. Really great rainbow. with the with the power outage. Yeah, I'll follow up on the power on Bdon Parkway. I know because my friend's texting me from over there asking if I
there was it flashed on and off here. So, and but I have a solar generator so I don't know if there was outages. It just mine went on and off real quick and on and off over here. I'll I'll take a look at the numbers there and and see, you know, if we have an opportunity, you
know, given that it's very hot tonight, to open up a shelter where people don't have access to air conditioning, we can can do that. And we encourage anybody to to go to the police station if they need cooling. I lost power, too, two hours today.
I don't want to hear. You mean when you took a nap on the beach? That's losing power, right? No, we do not feel sorry for you. Sorry. Yeah. Try not to speak. All right. Um,
we're going to move to SEFD. So, um, all five firefighters have now gone through the fire academy, our new firefighters, and have been certified EMT. So, we're going to invite them to, uh, say hello to the township committee
on September 2nd. and I'll work with the clerk's office on making sure that and the chief to make sure that happens. Again, this is the most diverse uh pool of new recruits for the fire department ever and both fire departments ever. So,
I I think you'll be happy. Uh here are the first six months of uh responses incidents by the SCFD. You know, it's pretty close 20 almost 2500. Uh again, EMS by far is uh what's
driving it nearly 45%. Um and then you you know luckily the fires are low and a lot of these fires actually are fires that are fought out of town. So uh you know I think again we
want to have as few fires in town as possible. Um uh and you did I did add this false alarms, false calls because that is a growing concern and I believe um we heard from the fire official trying to do some coordination on that and getting
uh some of these alarms to be in better working conditions and some of these private concerns. Any questions on SCFD? If not, we'll move to the community board on police. And if you can move over our liaison,
one of two last standing or last sitting. Hello everybody. Hello. How you doing? Okay. Currently in the dark. Um been no power like Yeah. like at least like 30
minutes now. Um I was Yeah, I'm Jacob area. Um so I did have um some updates written down. Um so right now
um the community board on policing is working with DC Malloy on getting um regular reporting together starting with the use of force as well as the um internal affairs complaints
um the social work. Additionally, the civil um civilian um complaints and use of force reviews. Um I think we're currently working on a uhou uh which is almost complete and we'll be
sending that to the department soon for review. Um and that's pretty much the updates. Did you hear anything tonight that you had questions about or any input you'd like to give? Oh, no. I I thought tonight was very
interesting though. I wrote some notes on some of the public comment at the beginning. Um those were really great thoughts um from the public um that I will share with the board. Um but just as a member of the community, I'm really
interested in some of the solutions specifically regarding the permits for parking overnight. Um I thought that was really interesting. So yeah, thank you. Great. Thank you. Any any questions? I don't I don't have any at this time. No. Anyone else?
I do. I'm sorry. Your hands up, Nancy. Go ahead. Raise my little yellow hand. Yes. Uh so, uh at National Night Out, um I think it was you and I, Chief, right? We were talking about um I think it would
be great for the the community board at least to have like a table at that. Yes, we do too. Our plan is to be at a lot more community um events. Actually, the community engagement
sector, if you will, um focuses on that. Um but what we do is we leave we put a list of events together and we give it to the board and we ask them to volunteer for one or two. Uh we did not
get very many people um interested in coming as volunteers at least um for national night out. I believe few of us kind of like popped in and popped out but to dedicate the time to actually sit through the event with at the table um we did not get very many um interested
members to do that this year. Um uh and the same is true for all the other events. We try to get volunteers to attend um sit at the table, give out information about what the board does and um if there's any available
positions or any um current things that we're working on to share with the community. Um but we just didn't get very many volunteers for National Light out this year. I think if you could even get a couple to It's not that long an
event and it's fun and I think it would be nice to it would actually generate like some volunteers for the community board of police like um and give a presence um it just seems like a a perfect event to do that. So I just the
chief and I talked about that so I just wanted to bring it here. So yes, thank you for that feedback. Dean, I think you're gonna say something. Dean's got his hand up. I sure am. Never shy as everyone knows. So, Cania, when is our next meeting? Do
you remember offhand? It doesn't matter. Don't look it up. But, you know, I'm gonna make a big stink about our not having any representation at National Night Out. Uh our charter talks about one of the
missions of our board is to we've forgotten this along the way. One of the missions of our board is to build relationships between the community and the police. And I can't tell you where
else during the calendar year at what other event you going to have people coming up to talk to police and about policing in town than National Night Out. It makes no sense to me that we were not there. There wasn't one person who could show up for an hour. I mean,
the rest of us on this call have two and three full-time jobs. And I'm running around driving around the state of New Jersey and all kinds of weather. And I made it there for 45 minutes and took some pictures and showed some solidarity. I mean, we got
I think I think let's I think we have to be careful we're not dumping on the messenger here. I think Yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm just saying I'm just saying can see I'm not dumping on you. I'm just saying that. No, no, no, no. I'm not dumping on you and I'm sorry. I'm just saying like this
is not a good thing. Like we need to be at these community events. People are not going to want to be talking about policing at Maplewood stock or at Pride. Okay. So, let's get out there. Especially National Night Out. I'm going to make a big stink about it at the next
meeting. Also, I think some of the questions that I, if I may suggest, as your liaison to the board, again, going to the board's mission, some of the stuff that you heard about tonight is really interesting from a data perspective. You heard about increased
enforcement, what does that look like, where is it in town for what kinds of things, right? Like, why isn't the board sort of interfacing and rolling up their sleeves to ask these critical questions? because this
is again why we have this board. Anyway, more to come at the board uh meeting next. But, you know, I'm glad you're here to hear it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Last year, I can say last year I did go to um National Night Out it and I
was um working it. Um and I came with my shirt, but I didn't have an official table and it was just kind of me getting a lay of the land. Um it it almost didn't feel like we had a place because everybody was busy doing different things. I don't
know where they would have um stopped at the table to see us. Um but there were places where we could have had tables because I saw that um there were other tables. But um I think this is something that we can go back over again and hopefully we get more volunteers. Um,
not to defend everybody, but yes, everybody has two and three jobs, but we wanted to make sure that we weren't overextending anybody for, you know, the sake of burnout. So, we did give them the option of choosing events. We didn't force anybody to attend certain events.
So, we'll kind of highlight this one more um going forward. So, thank you for your feedback, everybody. Okay. Thank you very much for jumping on. Absolutely. Um, let's see. Okay.
Hope you get your power back soon. All right. Uh, next up we have this, uh, parking thing that I sent out, the municipal parking service, the safety stick. Uh, and I have a little video. Let's see if I can share this and make
it work. Um, let me just show this. I don't know who had a chance to look at it, if anyone. But how can your city improve parking behavior? Illegal parking is an ever growing concern for public safety. In
2021, over 7,000 pedestrians were killed on public streets. But what if we could improve public safety through enforcement and parking behavior? The patented NPS solar safety stick with 24/7 automatic enforcement and solar powered HD cameras can easily be
installed in no parking zones with a few bolts. Zones include fire hydrants, bus lanes, bike lanes, and other important parking zones. The solar powered HD camera captures when a parker enters and exits an illegal parking zone with radar vehicle detection technology. All
information is then sent to your enforcement personnel for easy approval. Once approved, the citation is issued by mail to the partner. Reduce illegal parking and increase public safety for your municipality, all with no upfront costs. This is a zero-cost solution. NPS
handles maintenance and citation distribution in exchange for a small software licensing fee. NPS Solutions is dedicated to safer streets and safer cities with smarter solutions. [Music] I like that background music.
Yeah, you should have that on all the time. Yeah, I think so. Um, so, uh, I for some reason they sent me a packet back I don't even remember when, maybe it was after the league, I don't even
know. And then um there was an article in the newspaper about a lot of towns in New Jersey who have adopted this smaller towns. I mean this was sort of a bigger city that we saw in the video, but a lot of the towns like us, some in Bergen County, Mars County. Um and I guess we
wanted to just put it out here to see if we wanted to have these folks come in and just talk a little bit more with us about what this is and what applicability it might have in Maplewood and what even the cost is. What did it say? It said zero fees up front, but then she said something else.
What? You pay for software. I'm sure you pay for it one way or the other. Yeah, I know. I was curious. What the I did I can double check, but uh they did try it I want to say like a year and a half ago or so in downtown Summit and
did not implement it. Um it wasn't real successful. I don't maybe they've cleaned up the glitches. I think there were some glitches with regard to um ticketing um incorrectly or not like
the amount of time somebody was illegally parked was too short or something. I can't really remember. I just remember they didn't they were talking about implementing it throughout the downtown and ended up not not using it. But it might be better now. I mean,
I'm not opposed to having somebody uh come in. It's mostly for illegal parking, not as opposed to like meter parking or time. It's for like uh the stripe zones or places where um people are too close to a corner or crosswalk,
things like that. And we have some of those that you know we have problems with, right? Um yeah, it's not it's not at all for it should not be used for any kind of time limit parking, right? It's really no parking. Patrick, have
you heard about this or have any you Yep. I heard about it. I don't I haven't seen it used. Okay. And I'm not sure where in the state it has been used. Yeah, there I saw online uh there's a they did a webinar in New Jersey, which
I'm going to take a look at, but they did a webinar specifically for Jersey. Um, do people think it's worth reaching out and having them come in and at least have start a conversation, see what they can offer? Where do we think that we might use
this? Because I'm just trying to think. Well, maybe maybe in front of the high school and the bike lane. No, seriously. That was my first thought. Yeah. But then, you know, but then I thought, you know, I was thinking more about like where do we have no parking
zones, you know, and other than like we're not going to put one at every um fire hydrant, you know, so like like a like a big like a general no parking zone. I'm just trying to picture like where we might, you know, be the yellow striped, you know, the
in the village and on Springfield Avenue, we have a lot of those areas that are difficult to enforce because they could be like quick drop offs for businesses or residents just trying to hop in and out. Um, I think those are good if we were to use it anywhere. I think that would be the first place to
look. I mean, I can reach out to the parking services and summit. Uh, the director who was there when this was implemented as a trial is no longer there, but I think the woman who replaced her was under her, so she might
have some information if you want me to ask. Yeah, why not? I mean, I think I think we could be guided by what some other towns do. Uh, you know, they talk we don't really have bus lanes. We do have some bus lanes. people do park in our in um in bus stops which become a problem
because buses can't pull over then and then it jams up the traffic things like that but I think we can be guided by by them and this is a there's no commitment it's just sort of an exploratory effort yeah I'm interested
all right anybody object okay let's see what they can do um and then Nancy if you can get any information that would be good putting it on calendar. All right. Um All right. We're going to move now to second public comment. Don't
anyone Let's see. Have we got some people here? Uh is there anyone uh still on attendees who would like to speak to the public safety committee? If you do, please raise your hand. Vic, do you have the name of that
company off the top of your head? MPS solar safety stick. M as in Mary. Yeah, Mary, Peter, Sam. Uh, we have a Dewey wants to speak. Oops. Do if you'd like to speak, I can promote
you to panelist now. You'll have to accept moving over to panelist. Welcome, Dewey. You're muted if you'd like to unmute yourself. D, you're muted if you'd like to unmute yourself. Oh, I see another Dewey in the
raising his hand in the attendee side. So, let me this Dewey over. All right, let's try this again. Oh, now we got a couple Dewies. Hello. My microphone is working now.
Oh, good. We can hear you. Okay. Anyone else? Okay, we'll close that public comment period. Um, you know, we've never had that happen, right, in all of our Zooms ever.
Yeah. Um, Chief, any uh any need to go into executive session? I muted. I got one thing, nothing major. Okay, then let's um let's uh we're now
going to move by motion to go into executive session. This will close the public meeting and um then we'll at the end of executive session, we'll come back out into the open session. We will adjourn. No business will be taken in
the executive session. Um, so I need a motion to go into close. I move that we go into close. Second. All in favor? I I Okay. Uh, and Patrick, you'll let us know when we're set. Yep. Hold on. And can see I'll be
kicking you out, so take care. All