##VIDEO ID:DjCh1Y9la9w## all right we're live hello I'm here car good to see you Mr Deus all right we're gonna get this started wanted to welcome everybody to the Wednesday November 13th Public Safety Committee meeting for the township of Maplewood um just to quickly go through the agenda tonight we'll be starting off with our office of emergency management update by our business administer Mr wary followed by our southc fire department operations report by commit M DeLuca Chief Sally will take on the police report and narrative for September October and then we have a few discussion items on the Block um things that we discussed last month and a few things that popped up through the conversations happened since our last meeting uh next will be our public comment if we have folks that have things that need to share with us or questions to ask um unless there is a need for an executive session we make space for it but we may not use it um and then we will adjourn to meet next time um for our December 11th 2024 uh public safety meeting so to get things off like start Mr wary if you would start off with our OEM report thank you m CR um the we are going to Winchester Gardens this Friday for a tabl te exercise that they are holding uh for emergency management I will be joined by Mr Duca who is attending so it is uh was nice on to to extend the invitation and looking forward to that training I've also been working with the police department for additional training for our C members I know they're eager to stay involved and be active and so we're looking at the uh the catalog from the police academy that'll be released this month and we'll schedule them for training uh in the new year I know there were questions about fire I spoke with our fire chief and I responded to a couple questions that people had on OEM and the Township's response to fire we do have evacuation plans those are the responsibility of the police department to enact and you know we speaking with the the fire chief don't see much uh cause where they would be used obviously large tracks of wooded property have are up in the reservation um and so you know he's keeping an eye on that he um is said you know if a fire would break out that was in a wooded area uh that it would be turned over to the D um fire service forest fire service and so at that point scft would be assisting them unfortunately it is uh a practice that uh we have become accustomed to in this area over the last two months unfortunately and so scfd has not responded to any wildfires but a lot of the Departments around us have been dispatched to them by the state and scfda is held back to help provide cover for those areas that have responded I Know Chief Alvarez have responded with um other fire companies that he's involved with and so uh unfortunately that you know the state has a pretty good response to these we have putting out uh information to the public about the ban on open Burns so that means you know no charcoal grills no bonfires outside and we're also concerned about Vehicles parking on leaf piles we had a fire earlier this week in Maplewood from a vehicle that had parked on top of a leaf pile and at least for some time um was running and it uh it ignited and that the car was a total loss so want to remind the public uh to be cautious uh when when parking in the street as well as there's a lot of very very dry uh leaves on the ground it's a a situation we'll continue monitoring and uh you know keep making the public aware of precautions that they can take and should you know any situation arise uh we're prepared to uh take action that is the OEM report yeah overall do you feel that people have been responsive to um the notification that the they haven't they can't use their fire pits and various things um or is there more that we can do I mean there's always more we want to do and so we'll continue to to put out messaging I think you know we we don't have 100% compliance we we received reports of you know even after um the state publicized its ban and the township put out information that there were residences with open fires we continue to encourage residents who observe open fires or dangerous activity um even you know regarding fire you know the opportunity for a fire to start uh to report that to the police department so we can take action you know in in the interest of Public Safety more than even enforcement and you know there are things where you might not understand that there's a you know what you're doing could start a fire but you know the the large fire they had down closer to the shore the shotgun fire was started from uh at a at a rifle range where there was a trac around being used and that ignit um it caused the grass to become uh ignited and that spread to other areas right and so you know there are times when you may not realize that the whatever action you're taking could start a fire but people need to be very very cautious about what they do and we'll continue to put out the message about that thank you uh Patrick do um what about the water um preservation rules are there any in regard to wildfires you mean the chief water like water usage oh okay yeah I'm sorry because the chief him and I talked about how the water shortage or Water Crisis may affect firefighting so at this time that's not a concern he had separate from that today the state uh increased its uh watch on water and so we're starting we will put out tomorrow uh information about that restrictions on um water recommendations on how you can reduce your water usage um the I know that New Jersey American Water had put out an email today to all of their um to everybody in their areas and uh I receive that personally I know the state's putting out messaging we'll put out our messaging starting tomorrow and that that you know goes on top of messaging we had done previously just about you know um reducing water usage but now obviously with the state increasing the um how they classify our water shortage we'll take that as another opportunity to remind the public yeah especially with regard to the automatic sprinkler systems people have first of all this is not a time of year to be using sprinkler on your lawn The Lawns are going dormant there's no reason to water them I think that just needs to be highlighted because there are a lot of residents who just have the automatic sprinklers go off at 6:00 7 in the morning and um it's just a waste it's a waste for them and it's just it's not a good time to be doing it and it's unnecessary so I'd like that to be included if you could into any um restrictions that are put out it will be yeah and that was one of the recommendations that the D put out in their messaging and something that we will copy in our messaging excent thank you does anyone have any further questions for Mr warry all right move on Mr DeLuca uh thank you so um we have a year Well January through the end of September so nine months of statistics for the scfd um they uh there were 156 fires most of those over half of those are cooking fires um 39 which is 1% of all incidents that the fire department reports to um are building fires many of those are out of town uh by far 48% % plus are rescue Emergency Medical Services um you know EMS calls we're we're sending out the ambulances um you know the good thing is we don't have a lot of fires here we do fight fires in other towns uh that's all Mutual Aid that's an important aspect of firefighting is that you help uh your neighbor and they help you uh last month or I'm sorry in September we uh went to three building fires one in West Orange one in Irvington one in Orange uh we were in a cover assignment that means we go sit in a firehouse in East Orange and we were dispatched to uh Milburn fire but we were canceled in route so overall for the whole year to date from September to the end of I'm sorry from January to the end of September there were 3,658 incidents and we're on par to reach about 5,000 which is what we expected of the incidents of the cooking fires um how do we have a metrics on how many of them were um notifications either by calling 911 or by the alarm system um I'm just we're just trying to get a gauge of if folks have smoke detectors and and in working order in homes and if they're doing the job I don't think we have that no and and most people don't are not have don't have hardwired smoke detectors they're batteries so it wouldn't go right to the fire department okay I also don't know where they are you know I don't I know you know and I don't know the demographics of who's calling but we do get a significant number of uh um cooking fires luckily the you know when the firefighter gets the firefighters get there either it's under control or they get it under control and then it's a smoke evacuation so um but the whole idea is to get there soon and and try to make it as limited as possible is that include like barbecue girls back it could it could yeah why are you thinking of it thinking of barbecue barbecuing tonight not right now I just finished that's right don't go out there now it's cold thank you Mr LCA does anyone else have any questions for Mr Lua yep all right Chief Sally okay uh September monthly report um robberies uh year to date we have uh up to September we have eight um aggravated assaults 11 burglaries 24 thefts 154 and auto thefts uh 40 40 40 year the date um the uh I'm looking at the UCR report and up to now um assaults are the same as last year so we had 55 last year we have 55 this year same scenario um domestic violence um is uh most of it um because we cleared most of them uh most of the thoughts are known to the uh victim um we do have we just we just just graduated five uh volunteers for a domestic violence Response Team yesterday so we do have 10 uh total so they will be um um training with uh the ones that are already experienced so we have more to uh address that issue um our UCR um robberies are are down um and they've been trending down for the last couple years however our burglaries are trending up and it's the same uh style burglary I've been talking about for months now um going to the home taking the vehicle uh we just recently had uh two on Monday uh uh Sunday into Monday morning um other agencies have helped us in those two incidents where they um actually uh located the vehicle that was involved uh a short Pursuit um and then it was terminated but um other agencies are active in assisting Us in these types of our burglaries and these other agencies are also getting these types of burglaries and we assist them as well um as I said before we have made arrests and um you know some of these are Active cases but we do have leads um and we do have um some video um from certain different jurisdictions that we think is the same people um and also we have uh fingerprints and other things so we're looking into that we also put out our um our officers in those areas hopefully to uh and we have deterred some I mean we had cars take off on us and uh leave the area and so um so we're we're still working on that um thefts um are up as well and that's uh you know your your package thefts and U shoplifting uh motor vehicle thefts for some reason this the straight M motor vehicle theft not the burglary style that I was talking about have been trending down every since um couple years so that's still going down so that's the um that's pretty much the UCR report up to date Chief can I ask you a question yes um what C so I feel like if we can put some information out on what the targeted types of automobiles are um that people could take extra precautions with regard to keeping you know if there's a certain type of car whether it's a BMW whether it's an electric car whatever that they're breaking in to the house to get the keys and then stealing the car right that's typical Mo yes I think we did that over a year ago we put it back out type of cars right I think it would be useful because we do have one um one household who's dealing with multiple attempts and successful attempts and um you know that's I don't know I just feels like there if there could be something that could be um done either to help them protect themselves this particular household but also others should they be putting their um keys somewhere that's not so obvious or is that invite those perpetrators to come further into the house or you know like I don't know the answers to these questions so I guess that's my um I think it would be helpful to get information out to the public to how they can protect themselves and what types of cars what brands what makes and all that stuff uh I think we should put that out to the public for some assistance yes we we we can definitely put out general information uh some of these cases are unique [Music] um uh I don't want to dig too much into it that um some things you know is easier for them to get to it to a vehicle possibly but um we'll we'll put out general information regarding um safety tips and the types of cars they looking for yeah I think that I just think that would be helpful um what or you can put out in a general fashion and then to those uh residents who we know have been um you know targeted if you will um whatever we can do to help them yeah I reach yeah I reached out to a few of them and um we talked about different things that we can possibly do great had a couple things um just wanted to ask real fast I know last year you had put out a one sheet that we had I'd seen on like the the window the 7-Eleven and the WWA reminding people because now that the weather is getting colder to not leave their cars running could you guys reissue that yeah as I've started to see more and more cars um in my morning coffee run running I just saw uh Irvington Police Department just put something out that was pretty good so um yeah we can we'll put that out yeah let's borrow theirs and also would you be able to inform the public specifically what the DVT does right domestic violence Response Team yes because I know some folks were thinking that when the phone call comes in and everything they should call the social worker if they just call 911 but there's other folks that are involved usually usually they work um when a victim is coming in to headquarters uh we have we reach out to them so they don't um you know have to um tell everything to the officer they they're volunteers they'll come out speak to them and um and pretty much they provided services to uh the victim of the of domestic violence all the service we we take care of all the you know the uh the complaints and the uh restraining orders and everything else but they take care of the resources they might have they can give uh the victim so that they're able to um you know manage and uh you know uh do what they have to do at that at that point so uh but it it was is very um it took a while to get these five because the training is pretty uh extensive but they retire they uh they graduated yesterday so that's good we got more more people and they're pretty much on call so um whenever we have an in like this we call them they come in and they assist I think it would be helpful to get the information out for domestic violence victims um and to have it as a static uh piece of information on um our website or the Police website to um assist just just numbers that because you know I have family member who experience the same and you know it's a long process it's been you know few years and it's still an issue for her life so I think it would be helpful to have that as just a static piece of information on our website right and I also think with the the idea around having folks feel comfortable reaching out to law enforcement for support like this it's a good I want to say Optics thing but letting the folks know that the police department has put an extra effort into providing this service for our Township for our our residents so that they they they feel more comfortable um reaching out um for support when they need it and not feeling like they have to keep it to themselves yeah and and Pat I think if that could be you could make note of these few things to bring to our um public information officer and that that can be scheduled when there's not a lot of nothing urgent going out that would be a good time to put out information just to inform the public and I would say even just this time now because we're going into holiday season all that stress yeah people tend to behave badly sometimes when they're stressed like that and holidays are tough for some people and usually when people have um holidays or days off they're together a lot longer yeah you know more in so I I just want to chime in here a little bit I I agree with the mayor 100% I think it's really important to have this information uh made available as an important resource to folks and it be something that's like uh a a long-standing uh somewhat permanent tag on our website and on the police site because this is a big concern and it's a bigger concern that we're aware of because a lot of people are victims in silence in this um they don't reach out it's embarrassing it's stigmatizing and it's downright dangerous to do so so um I I agree 100% I want to thank you chief for giving us an update that we have some new volunteers and they've been fully trained this is such an incredible resource to have here directly and I want to just add that um the team does have the capacity to Loop in our social workers right because they can be helpful to victims uh and other ways like for instance with relocation Services because they'll be able to connect them to our street Outreach and and homelessness uh prevention um vendor who has who knows about relocation services for DV victims uh and that's often like the biggest part of this like because you can't find another place to go to and you don't have any help in that you stay in this dangerous uh situation uh over and over again at Great harm to yourself and your family so um I just wanted to kind of offer that about connecting all the great dots that we have here in Maplewood y thank you thank you all right is there any other questions for chief Sally we move to the discussion items all right apologies I'm sorry go ahead Mr uh Chief is there anything you need to talk to us about in close that is sensitive in nature I don't have anything I have something but we can wait until the end all right um so we'll move on to the discussion items um Mr du I thank you so much for forwarding on that um that me that metric uh the the uh chart that you sent earlier this afternoon regards to um some of the shift responses for things I don't know if I could pull it up I'm trying to get it real fast but did you want to talk about that or have uh the chief the chief can talk about it because I was under the impression chief that we were doing better when I got the September report and put them up against the previous months it didn't look like we were doing all that much better okay so well um I'll go for October all right I'll share my screen I got I got the information in front of me so okay uh we we actually uh started kicking in our details at the end of September uh to present so uh we started doing we uh conducted 162 total mult multi officer details so that means two or more officers were doing these details and this is what I was explaining last meeting where we had supervisors uh working um with officers on these details um I was I was uh speaking to Mr rir earlier today and I was telling we I um drove past one of the details that we had on Prospect where we had uh two officers uh conducting the detail and um you know there's a lot of traffic out there so um I think mainly uh U Valley Street uh do the construction Prospect I mean it was backed up all the way uh going back um and so that I think that affects some of the uh the speeding at certain times definitely but it's uh it's just it's a lot of traffic and a lot of backup um with that said um during that time frame of the month um we did have uh 36 speeding tickets issued and we had about 37 warnings issued for speeding so that's just speeding Alone um we've had uh we we we focused our details on um Parker Avenue and of course on Prospect but also we did the no uh no the the par the four-way parking signs where we've had uh some uh Improvement um failure to obey stop or yield we've issued 58 uh summonses during that period for that um that's not even That's not including the uh those are summonses but we also issued um it was uh let me see those are actually summonses and then we had also warnings in those locations and it was approximately about uh 10 to 15 warnings for that same offense so um I have um tickets issued for all kinds of different things during that time period um we've had uh as far as summes during that time period we had approximately 246 summonses issued for a variety of different um offenses and some the the warnings are are of course a lot more as we're trying to move to the sues but it was 463 uh warnings issued uh for for different um various um infractions the warnings uh when they get issued a warning it stays it stays in the system so we do see the warning so if officer stops that vehicle again uh they see the warning and they can issued the ticket so that's um so 162 multi multi officer details but also we done single details outside of that as well so that's where we're at for the month what are the warnings issued for are how do you determine I guess the question how do you determine the warning so so so officers have a discretion on what if they if they want to write the ticket any ticket or they write a summons or they write a warning so um is is is Officer discretion um you know um I've um and and that's that's pretty much it they can they have the discretion to choose which one they want to issue but the stop still made the the warning is given and that's and and that's the process and it's in the system so they if that vehicle does it again officer can see as a warning and then uh up it from there chief do we have any stats or anything do we have info on parking violation summonses issued yeah we do um I was focusing I was focusing more on the uh moving violations I don't have the parking in but we do have them yeah yeah I just I I mean I thought I saw it before but I didn't um delve in to try to find it in any past reports um before asking this question because we've received some um information of difficulties over at Parker and Prospect um with parking some of its enforcement and some of it is something we need to look at from um you know where we want to allow parking so if you got if you could take a look in that area for um conflicts of people parking longer than they should or parking illegally and um starting to enforce that because we can't you know right we can't engineer everything so it' be nice to like have some enforcement over there yeah yeah and um you know our details jump around so we're you know uh we're in Nork we're on Baker we're on U so we we get complaints from uh various areas and that's where we do our details it's uh complaints accidents and um you know so that's that's where we we focus on yeah so Chief can I go back to the warnings for a moment um do we capture demographics of the people that we give warnings to and and let me tell you where I'm going um there's some there's some criticism out there about the way in which discretion is applied that um either we have unconscious bias or conscious bias that you know certain folks get tickets and certain folks get warnings um I share your concerns you know the seems in looking at these numbers the warnings sort of equal the moving violations and I'm a little concerned with and I don't know this but I'm a little concerned without the data that we're not really able to measure whether there's any problem with you know how we're applying the discretion yeah um that's something I have to look into to see if that uh I mean you know what I'm talking about right you've heard this in the in the you've heard about this in the field I'm sure but but the um I would say the warnings and the tickets are in the same locations so it's not um you know but it could be different drivers right yeah it's more demographics of the drivers right right yeah that's something I have to look into I think that's a really good point so Chief we're able to track and enter and collect demographics now in Cody right or whatever the new system is the upgraded enforces enforces right um so we are able to track demographics right yes so I got yes okay so we this is so we can actually run a report and have a look at at that and this may be something that uh we can talk to the community board on police about I know Emily's here from the community board tonight as a liais on to this meeting um so we can kind of you know take a look at that and and help do some analysis through the board Dean that's only if we're capturing demographics on the warning true we may just be taking a name I don't know they said that the warnings are listed you you check the records it's there so I think the the driver's license number mean that's how you would have to track the the warning whether it the same as as a summons but um I I'll look deeper into it but should I think it's the same yeah I think it might be the same too as someone who's received a warning oh as much driving as I do on the to on the turnpike and I didn't think that it was the same until you know I had to change insurance recently and realized oh hot damn the warning is almost as bad as a ticket um because it is something that hangs out there and they know who you are so but but yeah let's confirm some of this it's important awesome well I know last month or yeah last month we were having conversations in regards to um pedestrian safety and particularly uh around commuter times and one of the issues that we ultimately came to is getting cones out and putting them on um Prospect to try to encourage folks to pay attention to to pedestrians in the crossing walks uh crosswalks and an additional police presence I know it's only been a month or hasn't even really been a full month but has the response been what has the response been for not only the cones besides them being run over which is what I see all the time um but in general maybe of how people are behaving in those intersections I haven't heard uh much of uh anything about the about the cones or anything but I have U heard U of course everybody is um happy about the the crossing guard there during during school but um again the times I drove I drove through there it's it's so backed up that um I think it's due to the Valley Street traffic that it's uh it's slowed everything down so it's a little too early to see if there's been a a huge Improvement other than to like Community morale yeah and I I haven't heard any complaints for um I hear uh traffic complaints and other places in town but I haven't heard uh recently complaints on Prospect us so okay that's definitely a change from previously um so I just to fill you in we talked about this this morning in engineering public works so the big picture is that Prospect Street is scheduled to be repaved in 2026 and in 2025 which is next year we are going to work with our traffic Consultants to discuss whether or not we want to change the orientation of um Prospect to a include bike Lanes B and no parking uh B to do bump outs uh at certain intersections or all intersections with pedestrian signs so those will be those conversations will happen in 2025 and we'll put together a plan that um we're going to be using State money so that it there's a a little bit of a a a delay a process you have to get approval by the state so in the in the meantime we're going to maintain the cones uh I did ask uh Mr kitner to get a better caliber or or uniformity of the cones cuz right now I know you're using some high cones some small some lower cones um but just get a uniformity of the cones so it looks uh a little more professional than what it looks like now um but that's that's it's not the permanent solution but that's certainly the solution right now uh it also might include doing some four-way stops on uh prospects so um that's all going to be discussed as I said in 2025 with the actual work being done in 2026 thank you all right um this afternoon actually we had forwarded to us a question regarding U the additional parking and mayor Adams brought it up earlier in regards to the parking enforcement in particular at the intersection of Prospect and Parker um there is going to be a groundbreaking in a new building uh potentially um put in the location where the current Jewish Center is replacement for it and making sure that folks are aware that that area is already Rife with speeding and tons of kids going to the high school trying to get there safely we have a a student who is visually impaired who lives two houses in from there so there's already a lot of orientation and things that have to happen um in the morning in general but to have tacked on top of it parking um illegally um regularly in areas that are actually well painted because I spend more than my fair share amount of time at the ethical Center um and there tends to always be a car park there uh for some reason um so again areas of enforcement that maybe had gotten dropped off the list or maybe hadn't been seen as priorities if that could be added to um that hit list maybe for patrol to spend some time going around there and checking to see to make sure folks are not parking in the yellow striped lines because it's already difficult enough to get around there and then with additional construction happening and new usage of the space it it it's just going to add to a problem if the habits been established if we can break people of it before it gets too late that would be wonderful um last month we brought up bike safety in regards to that program that the police department used to offer with the uh licensing and learning how to to to ride a bike properly checking your bike for various things um I know that uh detective Serge re usually does all those things and everything has there been a conversation have we started that planning for next year because it does seem from the tone of the responses we've gotten from the community that that is a need as well as something that they would really like to have come back yes uh detective Scott Reeves has re reached out to um uh Miss at the rec department to try to get a he has um a few tentative dates to do uh at deart um at deart Park um the organization we use is called easy riter it uh they come out they set up a course uh we uh they they they show the proper way to ride the bike everything obstacle course and all that and then we have we still have about 45 bike helmets um here in various sizes that we can hand out um so we we've done it in the past um we also have done uh assisted with uh the middle school and uh the week of respect where we um assisted them with bike uh a bike route um through through uh Maplewood and um so we we we've done it we're ready we're ready once uh we're looking for April to do the uh the uh the bike rodeo in Dart Park so we have few dates and um and Easy Rider is already um um spoken to about it awesome all right the final thing I've listed for discussion is it's kind of a not a repeat of what you've put out earlier I know that um Mr warry in last week's uh weekly update that goes out and everything a lot of uh information went out in regards to how to protect yourself during the holiday season and things that you could do but one of the items that I didn't see on there that I know ends up being a problem particularly here in the Northeast is space heaters and carbon monoxide um and from uh folks having things in their houses is there any messaging that we can put together or put out also to the public to let them know that I mean you really shouldn't be using space heaters but if you do here are the safe ways in which you can um just to alleviate issues in the future of folks burning them themselves or their houses down put out absolutely and I don't know if if Davenport had um mentioned but we're trying to get some um bigger signage for those cold weather numbers that hot the what you call her warming hot laon for our unhoused and and uh um underhouse um residents so that people have a place they can call um and have it more prominently displayed in the libraries on the bulletin boards as well as at the fridge and and in places where um some of our our unhoused residents um go to stay warm during this the the colder months um does anyone have anything they would like to ring up in discussion that hasn't already been covered looks like a no all right so this moment we're opening up to public comment if there's anybody would like to that's president's meeting would like to um comment publicly please uh well Mr where you got it have just one member of the public Emily Schwarz who is here representing cbop I can uh promote her to panelist in the very least to say hello I'm glad she's with us and we have our community board on police Retreat this coming weekend this Saturday awesome welcome Miss WS hello all good evening I um I was observing as I guess you all knew I wasn't sure if it was made and then Dean said I was here so I'm glad you all know I'm here I guess just for public to be aware the board expects to have some open seats beginning in January so if people in the community are interested in learning about what the community board on policing does if they're thinking oh this way I can get involved um they can reach out to any of the board members they can reach out to y'all and kind of ask questions because we are going to have some spots all right well thank you so much for being here and also thank you for all that you do for the community to continue on that anybody interested in volunteering in addition to getting more information from the community board on police if they want to fill out an application form they can go to Maplewood nj.gov SLV volunteer Maplewood nj.gov volunteer and that is a link to our application form there's a section there you can check off that you're interested in the community board on police and that will get boarded to the township committee and some internal departments that are applicable thank you doesn't look like there's anyone else so um Mr daff as you had stated that you had something you wanted to bring up in closed please um so Mr wary would you be able to move us into closed yes just give me a I I move that we go into executive sessions