on picture. It's the actual thing. Yeah, that's what someone said. I'm just dying. I'm dying to take it off. Actually, wait until July 6th. Yeah. Uh, it's a challenge. All right, we're up.
All right, Chief is wrestling with his camera. Not successfully either. There we go. Sideways. There we go. There's better focus now. Oh, not now. When you get closer. When you get closer. All right. Got to go real
close. Yeah. Good. It's going to be, I think. Yeah. You better get some IT help up there. Okay. So, we're going to start off. If there's anyone from the public who would like to uh speak, um they can raise their hand.
I don't see any hands going up, so we'll go right into our discussion items. Uh, the crossing guard count, I believe, uh, Mr. Weir, you spoke to Committee Angle about this. Yes. And Chief Sally, so we
want to get data on corners and, you know, we could look for a couple things when we're looking for data. We could look for corners. we have currently where the crossing guard where we don't think that there are a lot of kids crossing and maybe we want to reassign the guards. We
can look at corners where we maybe don't have a guard but we think there are kids crossing and maybe want to place a guard there. We could look at you know corners we added recently like a long prospect and do counts there to see how they're going to start uh or to start gathering
data. My recommendation is let's look at what we think are the three lowest performing corners because every time we talk about crossing guards and maybe where we need to use them uh where they're not currently we always talk about well maybe we can move them off this corner or that corner. So, I think,
you know, let's get some real data as to, you know, where when that comes up, what those corners look like, what and you know, we always talk about uh Pearson and that might be one of the ones that the chief recommends, but you know, let's first start to get data on some of these uh these low frequency
corners. Um, so I'd ask the chief to come up with the the uh the three intersections that he recommends. You know, I we were going to do three because we don't want to have the crossing guard do it, right? I don't want we don't want people counting children while also stopping traffic and
looking for vehicles and everything. So, we would be sending out staff in addition to the crossing guards. We're in a good place now because we're fully staffed on crossing guards and we have an opportunity where, you know, we on a typical day won't be using um as many parking enforcement to do crossing guard
duties or police officers. So, we can take them and three of them and and have them count at corners. Um, so that would be our uh that'll be our first effort. So, one one suggestion I would have is just to uh make the crossing guards where we're
doing the counts comfortable so that they don't think that we're going to do counts and then get rid of them. Yep. Yep. That this is really just to allocate, you know, the crossing guards and they may be assigned to other places if we do close their corner. Okay, it's
a good point. Do we have any uh corner like crossings that are not staffed that we're looking at that you might want to do counts at as well? Well, sometimes they come up like from time to time they'll come up to where people suggest a guard at a corner. Um
but given that you know we can't we're not going to be able to count every corner at once, right? We think we can do three uh because it's going to take morning and afternoon on a day three uh staff people. So I'd recom again recommend we start with the low corners. Yeah. And and let's see because then if
you say hey let's look at this other corner if we do count to that corner and there's less people or or the same as the where we're already staff and maybe you know that'll help inform that discussion. Yeah that's my recommend and we can do anything but that's my
recommendation my thought. I think we also I I just think we need to remember that where crossing guards are located is the chief of police's job, not not ours. We can make recommendations, but it's his decision.
Did anybody hear me? We may not agree with you, but that's fine. Well, it is his it is his decision, but it doesn't mean that we don't have to say anything. We can we don't have to. No, no, no. I I think you might have maybe I was blanked out on
that part of my comment, but because I said we can say all we want, but it's ultimately his decision. So, let me add one thing to say to the conversation because this is a message that I got in my neighborhood um WhatsApp group just this morning. Um
just a PSA to please be careful in the crosswalks. I was nearly mowed down by a reckless driver on Prospect again moments after the crossing guard's duty was over. I don't know what else we can do about that intersection, but people just don't seem to get it. And this is the crosswalk right at the top of the
crescent across Prospect. Um that as I know you all know has been a challenging um spot. So just wanted to share that. Um I I definitely think that's probably not going to be one of the three to look at. But um it's pretty busy and it's
also busy with commuters. It's we get a lot of commuters that use that crosswalk and people don't stop there. Yeah. Okay. So this is all going to be take taking place now and then a plan for September.
Yeah, I think we you know this is something we probably attack seasonally. Yes. Okay. Uh Deputy Mayor Herman, you want to talk about safe storage of firearms? I do. So I um Okay, bring this up in front
of me. And um so in New Jersey, we are uh we are not a state that preempts local authorities from regulating firearms and ammunition um uh going uh more extreme than what the state does.
So um that gives us the opportunity to pass an ordinance that may be stronger than what the state has in place. And so with regard to safe storage of firearms, um New Jersey is we're pretty good. We're in the top half of the states.
There are about 26 states that have firearm secure storage laws. And in New Jersey, the law um goes into effect when you have when you have a house that has a um a child defi that's defined as somebody who is six age 16 or under.
When a child is in that house or may be in that house, then you are required to securely store your gun. Your gun must be locked. Um but there um we can do more. Um and there is a bill in the
state assembly that would take this farther. Um and so there is an effort for um some towns and uh municipalities throughout New Jersey to pass this because that would um you know help to encourage the state to do this on a state level. So um Trenton had a first
reading of an ordinance to do this last Monday and Verona is having a discussion item for this uh next Monday. Uh and then there's one other town and I want to say Bloomfield but I I'm I'm not for sure. So I will double check that uh
there is one other town that is considering this as well. So we would be among the first and essentially what I'm what what this would do this higher um level of standard. So I'm going to put in the chat chat a link to the state. Okay. So if you click on that
that is the um the state bill. So you can see none of our people are the primary or the co-sponsors on it. If you take a look at that, um, they spell out the reason for why we need this pretty clearly. And I just
want to read some of that. Um, having unsecured personal firearms in the home puts both adults and children at significant increased risk of accidental injury, accidental death, suicide by firearm, and increased lethality in domestic violence. Ownership of personal
firearms in New Jersey has surged dramatically since 2019. increasing uh by more than 300% in 2020. In 20 2018, 458 people died from unintentional firearm injuries. 116 of these were children. Um the American
Medical Association and others uh have declared gun violence a public health crisis. So by ensuring that firearms are securely um stored this uh reduces um risk of theft, loss, trafficked guns or
um you know it saves the lives of our residents. So um if you go through here essentially what this would mean is that well right now anyone who is a household of uh with a child 16 and under must have the gun locked. the um the
ordinance, this ordinance would do two things. Number one, it would mean that everyone would have to have it locked um whenever it's not in use. So, this means that it would keep this out of the hands of children, but also unauthorized users
and other adults in the home. And the second thing is that it specifies that the gun and the ammunition must be stored separately. So the gun must be locked, unloaded, and then the ammunition stored separately. And that doesn't have to be locked, but it just
has to be stored separately. Um, so those are the two main things that it does um in its update. The Trenton ordinance, the Trenton or I can put a link in there. They have a whole like [Music]
um I can email it to everyone or I'm going to put this link in and you basically go to page 41. So it's up here. They put all their things like they hold on the chat. They put all their things in the same. It's
like so the e-code is for Trenton and you go to page 41 and that's the Trenton ordinance. Yeah. Well, here it on the screen. Oh, you got it on the screen. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, and then they put in
here um and and I would use their um um what is it like uh um actions, you know, if you're found um to violate the ordinance. Um they spell out the penalties. The penalties. Exactly. It's
$1,000 first offense and then the second offense is 2,000 plus um community service or or jail time depending on um the judge's discretion. And then here's Mom's Demand Action, the draft one. Yeah. So, this is some of their draft
language. Um Malia, did you have anything more to say? I was going to ask the chief if he had any thoughts about this. Yeah, I'm done. Questions? Chief, what do you think about this? I mean, it's it's good. Um, the only way we can enforce it is if we're in the house for
something and we and we observe it. Um, you know, it's kind of like a um ordinance where, you know, it gives us um something to issue over in the house for um a domestic or something like that. Yeah. It seemed like it's more so
for um people that are authorized to have a firearm. So, if they authorized to have a firearm, they're supposed to um um secure it in this proper way, but if they're not authorized firearm, they're getting arrested
for for not supposed to have a firearm. You know, they they're not legally allowed to have a firearm. So, that's we can we can charge them that way as well. They're not legally allowed to have the firearm. Yeah. And this is this is for people who have who legally are authorized. they
have a permit and they're not they're not securing it properly. Correct. Right. And it's not I mean like no you're not going to go into homes and like do checks. Nobody has to like sign up or certify that they've done this. I mean most of the time like like you say
chief it's when you go into the house on another call like a domestic or another call or it could be when you know when or if the gun is used in in an improper way. Um yeah, it would also be an additional
um charge if you will, right? If something's something happens and then and they break that ordinance. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um um it's a no-brainer to me. I think we should Yeah. What I would suggest is um
uh Malia uh if you could run this by Jennifer and and just show her the language of both of these and see if she can come up with a draft. Okay. One and then um I'm in favor of if you want to put it on for
a discussion on May 20th. I'd love to. The recommendation of the public safety committee. Great. Sounds good. Okay. But just just run it by her to make sure she's okay with the language or if she wants to
merge the two languages or just say, "Yeah, I need her." Yeah. Yeah. So, I'll I'll send her all the language for discussion anyway because, you know, she'll have to review it after.
Great. Yeah. Okay. So, let's move to the police activity and go to the uh reports. Okay, wrong way. Go down. So, we had uh here's the
statistics for our the first quarter of 25. Um you can see we've had a lot of reductions. We had robbery. We had an increase. We had one last year. We had two this year so far. But everything else we're we're
reducing. Uh overall it's 29% reduction, 23 less incidents. Yeah. As far as the um the two robberies, uh there were both u juveniles. One was in the high school. we um identified that juvenile and the
second one was outside the high school but in the area of the high school and we we we we we're um still collecting some um evidence for that but I think we have an we will have an identification that second one. So those were those two
robberies was was around the school. Um the burglaries um you know are are they're still around us though. Milburn had two last night. Um but Maywood did not have any. So um I
just you know I I believe it's cuz we have McCree patrol in the area at night around that time when these are happening. And um so um hopefully we can hold on to that.
Um the uh autothefts, I mean it that that could be zero if people just, you know, um locked their doors and took their keys with them. Every last one of those is the car running with the keys in the car. And a few of them were from
the Waw Wa going into the store. Um so um that's that's that's the bulk of the incidents we have. Anybody have questions about this? Good job,
Chief. Um, let's move to traffic enforcement. Again, through the first quarter, u moving violations are up significantly for the first quarter of
uh 2025, 160 more than 2024. Radar up 35, 175% increase. Warning notices are up slightly. Vehicle stops are up a lot and traffic details. Now, Chief,
you're saying that you do less traffic details because you want people to do traffic in their normal patrols, right? Right. and we see the increase. So, it seems to be uh seems to be working. So, we just, you know, um you of course we have our complaint areas and we'll put
the officers in that complaint area, but we'll just have them drive that area and when they see a violation, then they stop it. Okay. I've definitely seen more patrol cars around town. So, good job. Yeah, these guys are
doing a great job. Right. Um let's see what else. Uh overtime. Chief, you want to talk about overtime? Um yeah. So um you know, we have we have a decrease in every uh category pretty
much as far as the overtime. Uh at least overtime is down uh 23 over 23%. the uh 911 dispatch overtime is down 62% and uh overall uh decrease of um
little over 32% what you see total cost. So everything's trending down um you know and you're attributing this to what? Uh the new schedule. So the schedule's helping us out. We have a lot more officers on a shift. So if officer
takes off or um you know or is ill, we still have coverage. Um and it's working pretty good because a lot of guys are getting their time off with no um with no complaint or no problem. So guys are getting their times time off and is not
causing us um a lot of overtime with it. And an additional comment on that. Last year's overtime was dramatically greater than the previous year. And so with these decreases, hopefully we're getting back to previous
year numbers. So I, you know, it's good that we're reducing overtime, but hopefully we're reducing it to a level that had been common in years prior to 2024. Chief, as the meeting goes on, you get blurriier. Just so you know. I don't
know if you if it's like this is what you're thinking about the meeting or it's just your camera. I'm trying to fade out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, these are good numbers all around. Thank you, Chief.
Okay. I just want to add add something. We had a um I don't have the information on front of me so I'm just uh we had a robbery last year. It was a it was um a shooting on Jacobe Street. I don't know if you guys remember that last year. Uh yes, we made an arrest in that case. So
recently just made an arrest for that for that incident. Um very good. Also, um I want to highlight officer Anthony Dolan who um I was just at his graduation tonight. He graduated, got his master's degree, and
gave the um the he was chosen to give the student reflection speech at at the end. He did a great job with that. So, I made a made a little recording as much as I can get on my little phone. So, did a good job. Congratulations to him.
Well, send our congratulations. All right. Uh community board on police. Let's see. Uh, can if you can move Can see over with the cat. Hello. Yeah. Sorry. And and of course the Monontlair State
behind you, too. Oh, yeah. My uh chapter for my authority. Um, am I supposed to be saying something? I didn't come ready with the report. I listen. We generally just uh invite the community board on police representative over in case you wanted
to share with us anything that's coming up or any questions that you know you wanted us to address anything like that. If not that's fine too. Uh I'm going to pass. I don't have anything to any questions. So thank you. All
right. Well thank you. Now we're going to move you back to your comfortable position of being on the on the attendee list. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, Patrick, anything on the Office of Emergency Management? Yeah, we're continuing to work on our EOP. It was
shared with all department heads and with the township committee last week. So, we're looking to get comments back and have them uh we're working with a consultant provided to us by the state to update that. So, we want to get them uh the comments Friday or Monday of next
week. And New Jersey Transit is having a strike this uh projected for this Friday. It would start uh Friday at 12 a.m. so midnight um from Thursday into Friday. And uh so we've met to discuss
contingency plans for that. We put out a public notice today on what that'll look like. Our jitneys will be running their regular routes though less frequent runs and will be dropping off at South Orange station instead of Maplewood Station so
that uh residents can get the bus from there to Port Authority bus terminal. New Jersey Transit is increasing the uh frequency of uh the bus from South Orange to the train. So the chief is
working with the South Orange chief to get us some hopefully some curb space for drop offs of the uh jinnies coming from the east side of the track. So then from the west side the that Wyoming shuttle will go to SOPAC for pickup and
drop off. We'll also uh be we may be providing some accommodations for box car to do pickups and drop offs on Valley. Uh they're looking to add buses and um quicken their routes a little bit.
Right now going to the train station takes them some extra time. So they were looking for if if they can running a a shuttle on on Valley from South Orange Maplewood, we'd be the only two pickups and then out to 78 into Port Authority. So looking for some areas on um Valley
for that. I'm working with the chief. you know, we likely are hopefully in front of town hall. And then we had shared some information about pickups on Springfield as well from the um there's an express bus that runs into
uh in Irvington and then to Newark Pen where they could change for other mass transit. So that information was put out today. The chief will keep working tomorrow for that, you know, to find where that curbside loading is going to be in South Orange. will put out another notice to the public.
Um, just so you know that I asked Mikey Cheryl's office, Congresswoman Cheryl's office about negotiations. Apparently, everybody's in Washington DC, but she said they're still waiting to see if anything progresses and if when they
know, we'll know. So, um I just want to say that I think we have a very good practice of using our OEM to be very proactive. Um a lot of towns don't do that and so uh we have a history of it
and you know it served us well of course during COVID and any emergencies but here's another example. We were we were very proactive on this, you know, got stuff out, thought through all this and and made plans. Let's hope we don't have to use them. That's one of the things about emergency management. You always
hope you don't have to use them, but if you do, you're prepared. So, okay, we're going to move South Essex Fire Department. Um, so there's going to be promotional ceremony. We have new captains and new deputy chiefs. It's going to be May 31st to Saturday at
4:00. And um we've brought on five new fire recruits and we're going to have them at the July 1st Township Committee meeting just to introduce themselves to us. So um in one shot we've diversified the
fire department um by a huge number. So and then you can you know in the in the agenda there were all the incidents yearto date. I don't need to go over them, but just uh again, you know, the the thing that u the fire department
responds to the most is EMS in Maplewood. Okay. Any new items? And um well, one new item. Uh uh Patrick Chief, do you want to talk? We did interviews of uh new new police
officers on Monday. Um and we're we're bringing we're going to be sending or we're bringing on three or sending to the academy some. Uh and and where will this put us once we bring have everybody on patrol? Um we have um
two that are already officers so they'll just transfer over and one's going into the academy and that'll bring us uh to um our full amount of officers three. So it will um will be um will be full and then we have a list now in case we
have any other vacancies for the balance of the year. We can go right to that list, right? Yes, we have a ranking and a list and uh if we get any other retirements then we can uh fill them in. will be back up and running. Great. I had uh I had one other thing I um I want
to add as far as uh new new things. Um after receiving a grant from the New Jersey Division of Highway and Traffic Safety, the Maple Police Department will be conducting numerous traffic enforcement details throughout the township that will target motorists who
commit moving violations that put themselves other motorists and pedestrians at risk. In addition, pedestrians whose own actions put themselves at risk will be contacted and issued summones and or warnings as well.
The Maplewood Police Department is fully committed to the safety and security and would like to remind residents, visitors to be mindful when driving and walking to make the roads safer for all. So, we're going to do this a state campaign.
Um, we are part of it. We're going to put out a um a press release and everything and get it out there. U we want to start this uh May 21st. We'll have we'll have um of course our regular officers out there, but uh
through the grant, we can have extra officers on the street specific specifically for this. Great. Okay. Anybody else have new items? Um, we'll go to our second public comment. Sorry, I was just gonna go
ahead. Um, just uh about the enforcement of at the high school for drop offs. We talked at engineering public works about the plans to implement drop off areas, but um there was a lot of comment and deputy mayor can obviously speak to this
and since she spoke about it this morning or not, I can just say um there's people dropping off their kids and they're parked, you know, in the drive lane. They're just opening the door and letting them out. There's a lot of kids, of course, crossing at the crossing at the crosswalks and things
like that. So, it's just kind of um hoping there could be some more enforcement or officer presence if they're not substituting for crossing guards or uh things like that. What do you think, Chief? Yeah, our um traffic bureau um has been pretty good. So,
they've been moving from school to school. They um supple for a couple weeks and Clinton. So then we'll work our way over to the high school and do the same type of enforcement. If there I was just going to say if there's uh not some place they need to
be or if they don't have to substitute for a crossing guard, can they be more regularly at the high school um until people, you know, and and enforcing meaning ticketing? Yeah, definitely. But we get, you know, we get the same complaint boarding and Clinton.
So, we try to, you know, hit each one. Um, I know, but yeah, we'll we'll we'll get we'll do Columbia as well. Yeah, I was wondering and maybe this is um you know also related to the crossing
guard situation but there is a officer who does crossing guard on Parker at uh it's like the Parker Academy and um North Terrace and um there's also that intersection at um Parker and in
the middle like that's Kensington. So, I wonder um does it make sense to have another go like officer um or having somebody stationed who can do enforcement? Yeah. Um we do our best to get over again, we have same complaints at every
school, so we do our best to get over there, but we'll we'll um we'll focus on that as a top priority and then we'll move them around again and then we'll come back. Yeah. We got to get get these parents in in order, man. Yeah. Yeah. We
got to be safe. I mean, you know, um Yeah. So, we've been out there. We've been doing it, but we just um we'll we'll move it over to the high school. Seth Wooden School was um in the beginning of the year was a big complaint. Um now the uh teachers are
thanking our traffic enforcement for what they're doing over there. So we can, you know, move them over and then um, you know, do the same type thing. Enforcement. Yeah. I know that was a big problem area. So, thank you.
Yeah. And maybe we can do a like a, you know, a public, you know, information campaign like the mayor was talking about this morning about, you know, more, you know, um, less driving, more walking, more
biking to get to school. So, thank you, Chief. Chief, can you come arrest my dog? Leave me alone. Arrest his arrest her dog.
Okay. Second public comment. Anyone want to address the the public safety committee? Okay, we're seeing no one. Um, Chief, do you have anything for us in executive? No, I mean that that was, you know, was
nothing really to add. Um, we we we had um, you know, a couple incidents where we made good arrests and um, you know, so Okay. doing pretty good. And you made the arrest on the uh, robbery at the gas
station. That was good. Yes. Also, we had a um a couple days ago, we had a aggravated assault confront the Waw Wa. Um a person came out and um struck another person with a bat, but we made an arrest in that.
It was it was random, but we made the arrest. Okay. Can I have one thing? Uh and maybe not maybe it's for the next meeting, Chief, but uh the universal walking post is a new thing. I think it'd be helpful to hear about how that's going. It doesn't have to be today, but I I think
it's it's a worthwhile conversation. Yeah, the um the universal officer is a great position. However, right now um we are well that maybe we need to talk about that. We could not not not in this open forum, but yeah. Yeah. I didn't mean to spring on you, but I'm just thinking about it now. So, I think it'd
be helpful. Okay. Chief, do you want to talk about it now or not? or just think about it and bring it next meeting. Okay. I think you said next meeting. Yeah, I'll bring it back next meeting. Okay. All right. I'm trying to get this meeting over so the mayor can
go watch uh the Villanova Nicks. Started at 7. Okay. I've been watching it and then I had to shut it off for this meeting. So, me, too. All right. Um, so Malia, you want to make a motion to adjurnn? I motion that we adjourn. I
second that. All in favor? I Hey, your