screaming was last night when they came back. Oh, there was there was some yelling, I bet. All right, we're up. Okay, we're going to get started. Um, this is the October 8th meeting of the public safety committee
and we have our three members of the committee present. We have one um member of the public. Um we're going to start off first public comment. Is there anyone who would like
to speak to the committee? Yes. Um and and the mayor needs to be moved over. Schwarz needs to come over. All right. They're both coming over. Okay. Hi. Be right there.
I'm actually here in two roles. So, I know that you're letting me join as a panelist um because of providing for the Maplewood Community Board on policing role, but I'm also wearing a separate hat as a Maplewood resident. So I don't however.
So let's let's deal with you as a Maplewood resident first and we'll move you back to the panelists and then we'll move you back to the audience and then move you back as a panelist when we get to the community board on please. Okay. So you can kick me out and then I'll Yep. Just stick around.
Sure. So tell us about your resident. What what comment do you have as a resident? Sure. So, I just wanted to um let you all know I sent an email earlier this week. U my my children both attend
Seth Bdon Elementary. Um I've lived in Maplewood for about seven years. I live on Tuscin Road and I'm really coming to the committee for for two points. One is that I'm I have two kind of separate but
coinciding asks. One is that, you know, obviously many students in the dis in the South Orange Maplewood School District, they walk to school. And I know that this has been a long-standing concern for our walking families because it's not just the kids that are
vulnerable when they walk to school. Um, but many families have experienced, particularly walking to Seth Bdon, issues getting to school. Recently, my 8-year-old, who is old enough to walk to school by himself, he walks with a buddy. I have a younger child, so I'm
always usually about a block away. Um, he was crossing at Tuscin in Oakland, which is has a crosswalk at the library getting to Maplerest, but then also over at Tuscin. That roadway because drivers
are basically peeling off of Springfield are really pedal to the metal driving through to Tuscin. It has been this way for a very long time. Um, actually my house has had two car accidents on it. Um, one was in the middle of the night,
but I think it does still highlight that there's been a history of people speeding. It was two cars that our neighbors saw like racing. Um, another time one of the signs that says don't park was driven over. Um, but I watched my son really almost get hit by a car
when he and a classmate were in a crosswalk. The driver did not slow down. The driver kept accelerating. I my I was with another parent who watched me really almost kind of fully lose composure. I I'm sure you can all imagine
being close enough to see something happen but being far enough away that you have literally no power and it's your kid. Um so I I'm asking this committee to to really delve deep into figuring out what to do with Tuskin. I'm
asking the committee to look to the district, the school district, and see if there is a world where we can have crossing guards at the library and the Mapler area. Many kids, I watch them, they they stop and then they they see it's clear and they just run because
they're so afraid of that that car that's peeling out from Springfield or even from Oakland because there are cars that oftent times are subverting going on on m more popular roadways to then getting around through Maple around
Maplerest. Um the other ask that I have and I think it's related is and I was told by another paranist at Bdon that maybe this is already happening that the town is looking at Tuskcen Road already and if that's the case I'm not trying to like
belabor the point since it's if that's true the town's already looking then that's wonderful. Um but I think stop we've been told on our street that we could we can't have speed humps because there is a need for the fire department to be able to get down Tuscin. Um, we've
seen other roadways though in in the area that that has not been an issue, but we've also been told that those roadways had similar concerns with the department. But we also have a farmers market that's once a week that blocks off the entire way. So, I'm not sure why that's permissible. And I don't want to
end the farmers market. It's wonderful, but why then there can't be other traffic things that are kind of taken into account. A three-way stop sign perhaps at Oakland and Tuskin. Maybe that would alleviate some of these general concerns. Um,
and speeding in general on Tuscin. I know the department, from what I understand, there's a reluctance to issue tickets because oftentimes it is our residents, but the reality is 25 miles an hour. When cars go over that, there's a reason that that is a speed limit that is set. If cars are going
faster than that, we are looking at extremely severe injuries. an 8-year-old child that weighs 60 lbs, maybe getting hit by a car, going faster than that. It is the injuries are extraordinary, and we I I don't even really want to go there.
So, I just I sent an email. I'm sure it was rev. I don't mean to belabor the point. Um, but I know this is happening. I know because other parents in my neighborhood have told me. I know families have told me. I know adults have told me that
these crosswalks are, you know, I wish drivers were following the rules. They're not. So, if the town can look to alternative ways to ensure that drivers have no choice but to slow down when they're coming off of roadways
that are faster. Um, and not just for kids, but for the grown-ups as well. And thank you. I'll put on my other hat now. Right. So before you go, um, so we talked about, uh, Tuscin and, uh, the whole stretch of Tuscin from Maplerrest
down actually the valley. So we had our traffic engineer look at some of that and they're they're going to make some changes as far as some crosswalks. Uh we're also talking about the crosswalk you are you mentioned on Oakland
um to put some uh lighted crosswalks the push button crosswalks there um so that we're we're aware of it and we've received emails from others and we've or you know we're
taking a look at it. Um we have not I I'm for two things. Uh I don't think we've done uh or have done a full analysis of other traffic calming measures including speed humps, but that usually comes at the end after we look
at other things. Um so we'll continue to do that with our with our township engineer and the consulting engineer from dynamic traffic. The second thing is and the chief can can respond to this. Um it is our position with the
with the police and the police have been responding to doing more moving violations. Um because we we hear it from people all the time that people are driving too fast, they're not respecting pedestrians um whether they're in the crosswalk or
wherever. Um you know, it's just it's just sort of a cutthroat world out there now to drive. Um, so we're aware of that and we've talked to the police. We've talked to the police. We've talked to the chief about Tuskin Road. Um, he's aware of it, but we're we are it is on
our radar and we're trying to to address some of this. Thanks. I appreciate it. And I I I won't I mean, if there's things that for folks that live on the street, you know, we all kind of have been wanting to we want to feel empowered by by being
able to flag this more often. There's been things that have happened before and and I haven't decided to be normal Ray about it, but if there are things that we can do as residents that help, you know, inform the committee as to specifically what we're seeing. Um
there is that one police I mean I'm happy to refer to the actual accident that happened on my front lawn but there's you know just if there's ways that we can make that not aggravating but helpful in the process um I'm happy to be a resource because
it's been an issue for some time. Okay, we we're we're on it. It's going to take a little time. It's also a money issue. We're getting near the end of the year and we've used up our trafficcoming budget. So, it's uh you know, there's some realities there, too. But, you
know, we're we're going to see what we can do before, you know, in so in the short of a short-term response and a longer term response. I appreciate it. Thank you. Uh I see we have another attendee. This is the time if anyone would like to make a public comment.
Um, let's see. Vanessa, I don't know, Vanessa, if you wanted to speak to us. You could just raise your hand if you do. Okay, I don't see it going up, so we'll we'll uh we'll move forward with the
police department. Um, so, uh, Deb and Malia, you brought up the parking enforcement in Maplewood Village. So, I'm going to let you handle this. Um, I think you were looking for some information of, uh, the parking enforcement officers and the universal police officer that's
there. How are they addressing time limits on streets and parking lots, illegally parked cars, uh delivery vehicles, and then also chief, if you give us and and Patrick, if you give us a status of the license plate reader.
So, Chief, you want to talk about how we're enforcing parking enforcement and sort of the traffic there where illegal parking we there was just a huge blow up online about in social media about uh the parking illegality that goes on
constantly in the village. And we're getting now um even a greater number of Uber and GrubHub pickups and drop offs and it's getting to be a little crazier.
Okay, so the uh the good news is we um just recently hired two new uh parking enforcement officers. Um we hired a uh uh another full-timer and a part-timer. Um it's just going to take us um a couple weeks to get them up to speed because they're both in training right
now currently. Um the full-timer just started Monday. Um the part-timer will start next week and we'll get them up to speed. But the um currently we have um a full-time parking enforcement officer and a part-time parking enforcement
officer and they uh work mostly uh during the daytime during the day shift. Our universal officer works from 10:00 to 6:00. He works Wednesday to Saturday. So, he would be more um more up to um
enforcing those um later after work um type um problems that are happening in the center and also our regular patrol as well. Um so, we're we'll make a more emphasis of um enforcement in the center and and especially when we have our
parking enforcement up to speed. one of the uh one of the part-time parking enforcement officers that we're hiring. He will be working evenings. He'll be working Tuesday through Saturday. So, that will assist us in uh more enforcement in those areas. uh
Springfield Avenue. Uh we um we gave uh grace during the uh the paving and construction um on spring as far as parking in the lots, but um since that's uh concluded, we'll be back to enforcing those areas
as well. And and Chief, what about the uh the delivery vehicles? I mean, you know, honestly, what happens if there's a if there's a car with the with the flashers on and a police car comes by, often times they just drive around.
Yeah, I got I got to make more of a a point of that. They can't, you know, double park or park in those type of areas. Um there has been um a history of giving courtesy to delivery people because they're making a quick uh drop off, but we'll um we'll enforce that
going forward. So, um, go ahead. Oh, sorry. I've always thought we need, this is not for this meeting, but that we need just like a drop off area or like a Uber pickup area. We've talked about that before in various groups. That might be something we want to
consider in I guess engineering. Yeah, the enforcement's going to be the the kicker either way. What um Chief, what one thing that we have been hearing is that some of the delivery uh drivers, they don't even park in a spot, like an illegal spot. They just stop in the
middle of the road, like just on Maplewood Avenue. Like they'll just pull up in front of a restaurant and just stop in the middle of the road and put their blinkers on and stay there for a period of time until they get the food. So, um you know, that's something that, um, you know, is is really, uh,
concerning. Um, I wonder if you have any, um, stats on the the enforcement that you guys are doing. Is that something that you can, you know, share with us? Uh, I don't have the stats on me, but I can definitely look those up for that.
like when we look at the other enforcement um actions that you're doing and we we see all that green. It'd be great to see right to see some of that cuz you know we got a get a lot of residents coming at us that you know the enforcement and so to be able to show the data would be really
helpful. Um and then just to clarify so you you have a full-time and a part-time and then we just hired a full-time and a part-time. So does that mean two full-time and two part-time? Correct. Okay. And they cover the whole town. Yes. And when you said 10 to 6, like 10:00
a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Yes. So there's no one even on duty when probably these things are happening with the dashes picking up at night. Well, we have we have our regular patrol officers, right? Yeah. That that we have we have postcards. So they're doing everything. Are they doing
parking enforcement? Oh, yeah. Definitely. They do law enforcement. Uh we we have postcards that you know we have certain cars that are in the west said west, east, north, south and that's their post. So they're they are u doing enforcement in their
post. So I was in the village uh recently and there was a police officer who was in the Rickleton lot and then happened to pull out in front of me. So, we drove
down Maplewood Avenue together and I saw two cars illegally parked and the police officer drove right by. So that's the kind of thing that you know maybe the officer was on his way to somewhere had a call had something else but you know
that's the kind of thing where I think residents are seeing and one of the cars was like it was like half in a spot that was covered by an eer a streetery and half in the handicap spot. So like that's like a really egregious Yeah. I can't I can't speculate what the
officer was doing but it possibly could have been thrown to a call but possibly missed it. But pointing it out, pointing out your officer should know that we're all driving around town and we're, you know, Yeah. and our residents are seeing all this stuff. Uh, and what's the status of the license
plate reader? We we're just getting quotes this week still getting them refined. It's expensive. So, you know, we've got quotes that are up to $65,000. So getting those down, you know, kind of
whittleled down to just what we need, getting them on state or co-op contract has been um a task. There's there was no budget line or capital line for license plate readers. So I think there was some misconception because I have, you know, understanding
the conversations the township committee has been having about enforcement, I started to get quotes on these, but this isn't anything that the township committee has previously discussed or allocated money towards. We're near the end of the year. It is possible that we have available funds to transfer into a
line where we could spend. That's my hope. U but it also may be that we have to wait until next budget year to allocate this as a capital expense. The other piece that I'm thinking about, and I I originally hadn't expected these would come back as expensive as they
are, um, is, you know, the the most recent parking enforcement vehicle we have, I believe, is a 2019. So, there's a question of do we want to put $65,000 of equipment in a car that's going to be eight years old. So, you know, we'll
give that some thought as well because it may be that we need to come back. Um, just to talk about the LPR is part of the reason why it's so expensive. You know, the the technology to do regular license plate reading is less expensive.
You can get you get a setup for, you know, maybe $30,000. Um, where, you know, you have a usually two cameras on the vehicle that are just getting license plates and checking them against. Let's say it's a a resident um parking permit or if it's in a lot
against you know who's paid in the lot. For downtown, we're talking about time limit parking and that requires a lot more equipment, a lot more cameras in the vehicle because they have to for each license plate. They also have to capture um the location of the valve
stem on a tire and log that so that when they come back around they check to see where that same vehicle and that same uh valve stem is to see if it's moved within the last let's say it's 15 minutes or two hours so they can issue a ticket and that's a result of not being
able to chalk tires. So having all that equipment and then software in a vehicle becomes very expensive very quickly. So all that to say, you know, I should have an it's more information uh at the next meeting.
Can't so none of that equipment is transferable for the OPR to another Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So let's say but the concern will be are we going to put it in a 2019 vehicle now and end up you know paying to move it in
a year and a half and you can transfer it but it's expensive. Yeah. And I'm not saying it that means it's prohibitive. It just means it's something to consider what that cost is as well. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. I mean that's I have the same question. You know, I think we're we're trying to
balance this against the proposal by the village too of putting paid parking there. Yeah. And presumably the rationale for paid parking is to move cars to make it easier to park. So, uh, enforcement can
also do that if we do it well. Yep. It's really not about raising revenue. Um, it shouldn't be, but but there is there is a reality of that if you give away more parking tickets or you give out more parking tickets, you are going
to raise some more revenue and that there could be a point where I would assume these readers last for five years. There could be a point five years where they pay for themselves. Yes. Okay. I heard you say about that chalk. That's not uh
I thought that was the standard procedure. That's not allowed. Not for years. It got it got challenged in court. It got kicked out. You're defacing my property. I used to go wipe that off. There you go.
Um, so Chief, you're going to just follow up and then you're going to provide some stats on enforcement in the I think we're I think we're primarily focused on Maplewood Village. So you can I think is that correct? We can narrow our We are right now, but I will say that on
Springfield Avenue, cars, delivery trucks are double parking all the time on Springfield Avenue. Well, that's I'm talking about the Yes, but I'm talking about the parking lot. You're talking about the delivery cars are double parking or people are just parking illegally or double parking in
the village. I don't think it just happens in the village. No, no, I'm not talking about that. What I'm saying is the parking stat the stats on enforcement of overtime parking, it should be in the village. All the stuff, even those those blinking cars on Springfield Avenue that the
police go around shouldn't happen. I agree with you. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, I misunderstood what you were confirming. And I do just think that I know I said this right at the wrong meeting, but there's still there's a major there's a problem here because there's nowhere for all of these cars to go, right? We talk about parking, but
those 15minute zones or whatever for pickup or drop offs, you know, because there's nowhere for them to go there parking, there's not a lot of parking in the village. So well we can certainly I mean you know it it then it becomes a uh
you know where do you put these and you know you you essentially removing parking spaces. It is I mean we had them we had them during COVID obviously for pickup 50inut spots were in downtowns all over the place. Um
and then after that each town sort of analyzed where would they make sense, would it make sense to keep some of them etc etc etc. And so maybe there's an opportunity to have some of those to have some areas
where uh the pickup vehicles can along with residents who are just picking up you know food that maybe there's a few spots scattered. Usually it's on the end of each, you know, section is a
15-minute spot. Just another option to think about. Yes, Summit has them. Yeah, I'm aware. Um, yeah, I know. Okay. Anything else on your dean and see if the MBA has talked about it recently or if they're still
interested in that? Get back to you. That would be engineering, right? That would be an engineering meeting discussion or what? Um, it probably be dual thing. We want the police input too. Yeah. You know, because the thing is about enforcement
and I think the only way these things work is if you enforce it because people park there and once they realize they're not going to be get a ticket, they just stay there. And I don't know how, you know, there's no way our parking enforcement people can go around every 15 minutes.
So, it's mostly on the honor system like it is now. That's the difficulty. You know, it's not like at the airport where you, you know, if you park in a wrong place in the airport, they give you a ticket right away. So, um, okay. So, uh, we're going to go into
the police activity at the high school football. Uh, and Chief, if there's anything that you need to talk to us and closed about this, just say that. But I think uh uh Malia has some questions. Yeah, thanks. Um I just so I put this on
a while back when uh we heard that there was um there were some issues at the Columbia High School football game. I think this is maybe like 3 weeks ago perhaps. and there were some underassmen
that were taken to the hospital and there were reports and parents were hearing a bunch of things um that you know that officers were on scene and so I thought it would be a good idea to check in and see you know just how the police department is working with the school district on this um you know and
what um you know what parents can expect at the football games. Yeah. So every um home game we have uh officers that are present for u for security and assist the uh assist assist
the school officials there. So we we um take our direction from the school officials. Of course they know all the kids and everything. Um our our first priority is just to make sure that the kid is u okay. You know we is found intoxicated. we call the first day. Uh
whether they're sent to the hospital or a parent is called on scene. Um that's what the school does because they have their information. And um pretty much the the the the officers or the uh the police departments um we just we just
assist the uh the administration there, the school administration. So, um if a kid's uh intoxicated, we notify the uh admin that's there and then we follow their lead from there and then they um take care of it in the school. Um
tomorrow there is a meeting with uh the police and the school officials and also Candace Davenport uh to discuss these issues um regarding um some kids coming to the games intoxicated. So, there is a meeting tomorrow. Um but that's pretty
much our stance on that. We we um you know we assist uh we help out uh and then we um you know the the school admin uh takes over from there. Okay. So the the officers are ba basically there to um
you know like do you go up to the kids or Well yeah the officers are there because we're hired we're hired by the school to be there. So we're there for for security reasons. So, we're we're um you know, each game they hire three to four officers u for
Friday night games and we just happen to be there. If we observe it um we're the first to observe, we'll contact the school administrator right away and if the school administrator needs our assistance, then we assist. So, we pretty much follow their lead um at at
the school event. That's that's our involvement. Okay. Because it is m it is in Maplewood. So, um, but this is considered an offduty. Yes, it's offduty job that we're we're hired by the school district for, uh,
security reasons. And, um, we're there pretty much for security. And again, if the admin asks us to help assist, we assist. And if we observe it first, we call the admin. And that's our It's been like that for
years. That's how we Yeah. It's not the Maplewood Police Department's responsibility to just be security guards at the high school games. Um, so they have to duty,
right? We're just talking about um I mean the question is more also it's about their involvement and also the substance abuse. So I'm really glad to hear that you're meeting with the school and with our um our health department um Candace. Um, I think that's really
great. Um, because I think it's the substance abuse that, um, parents are really worried about. Um, so I don't know if it's gotten, you know, worse. Um, Deb missing, you had a want to jump in. We talked a bunch about this at YouthNet
because Officer Luen, um, is our PD representative at YouthNet and he was at that game and he has a lot of compassion and care for kids. It's really amazing to hear him talk, but he had a lot of ideas, too. and we were talking about an education campaign um geared towards
parents also. So we were talking about ways that maybe they can have a table at back to school night or ways that we can reach parents because we also think that parents either don't know that their kids are drinking or some parents are giving the drink the the alcohol. Um so there's different just how do we reach
the kids in advance and we have a municipal alliance meeting coming up also. I was hoping that Candace was going to put this on the agenda to talk about there because it's a big problem that goes along with the vaping that we've been seeing in the schools. Now it's the underage drinking. Um so it's how do we prevent it and how do we
educate the kids and the parents about what's going on or the risks to it to to create safer measures I think. Yeah, absolutely. Pat, another thing for the list communications.
Well, a lot of this is going to A lot of this falls on the responsibility of the school. So, I mean, I think they they're the ones that have the direct contact with the parents and um let's hope that we don't have to have contact with the parents. I mean,
they're going to do they do it in a different way. When we have to have contact with the parents, usually is because there's an issue. So, we ought to make sure that I'm glad that I agree with you. I'm glad that there's going to be a meeting and we should push it on to the school. Similar what we were talking about with the parking today at the high
school. You know, the school is saying, "Uh, what are we going to do?" Well, it's your responsibility, too. The whole district's got to get behind this. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Um, this helps. Thank you. Okay. Uh, crossing guards.
Malia, you up again. Oh, yes. Um, so I've gotten several emails. I think all of us have gotten those same emails about crossing guards that haven't um where there the crossing guards haven't been there and an officer
has been filling in for them and they haven't been there for the publicized hours. So um again this is from a couple weeks back but I think all of us were on these emails from parents um calling us out on this.
Yeah. So we um Yeah. So it it was a couple weeks back uh we had uh we had to do some things um internally and also um do some investigation why this was happening and it has been corrected. So
um again happened um a few weeks ago unfortunately but as you see it has we haven't had um those calls or those um communications. We've been out there um um vigorously checking the corners and making sure everybody's where they're supposed to be.
Right. Yeah, we haven't gotten those emails in a couple of weeks. So, also I I you know I I do get call when I'm on the road. I've been on the road a lot in the morning. Um we did get a couple calls about um um a crossing guard out at the corner and um I just
happen to be at that corner and the the guard was there. It just happens to be sometimes where you're looking at the guard might be like kind of behind a tree or something like that. But um but you know those cases that I confirmed that the the guard was there. So um the
system seems to be working at this point. I thought the story was going to be you got out of your car with your stop sign and helped people across the street. Well, I did that during the uh paving because we had we had a lot of cops sitting in their car. So I'm glad to see that you got out. Hey,
I had a direct traffic at Rutgers in spring. I picked up some of the slack. So, yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. And then, uh, we've talked and I know Deborah, you've talked about this, the CR crossing guard analysis. Patrick, you're working on
this, so why don't you take this? Thank you. So, this was a a discussion we started with Miss Engle about looking at all of the home addresses for students and what school they're
assigned to to evaluate where they walk and and overlay that with where we have crossing guards and make sure that crossing guards are stapped appropriately. It's been our response from or it's been the chief's response that you know while there may be some
changes year-over-year PD's those are minimal and PD is able to track those and make uh changes as necessary but we were there was an interest in looking at the actual data and confirming that that is the case. So we the school district did give us that data. It was very
helpful. Not just addresses and school assignment, but if they were assigned to busing and and some other information as well, all anonymous information, so names or or other details, but enough where we could plot some of those routes. We got it over to our traffic
engineer. We had a call with them um and with engineering and to talk about what we were looking for in the data. They gave us a an estimate of what they expect the cost would be to do this work. and it's somewhere between 7 and $8,000.
So, this is a uh an item that was not included in the budget discussion. It is somewhat of a large u expense and while maybe necessary, it's a little bit of belt and suspenders against what PD is doing. So, I think it's at least worth a discussion with the township committee.
So, I understand that this is something you all want to move forward on. So, I'm sorry. What would be the $7,000 for? Like, what's that for? For dynamic to plot walking routes from
a student's home to their school. And then we would overlay that with where we have crossing guards to ensure that the crossing guards are assigned to the best corners, you know, to the most, you know, likely corners where students would walk.
I don't know that we need to spend money to route each student. Um I guess I was just looking at because the pro the way the process has been in the past was just to have the stations at all the corners that we've had previously and changed but placements changed so people
were going for other areas. Um but the since then the school district has also said they're doing a new hazardous route study. Um, so wouldn't all of that be like related and combined about getting kids to school safely? Like this all started because Prospect Street, for
example, has had no crossing guards from Tuscin to Parker, but a whole group of students that used to go to SAMS was going to MMS. So that's how this whole conversation started. Just the way that PE kids are getting placed isn't in your neighborhood schools anymore. So, were
we able to like look at the data and see generally it doesn't need to be, you know, or we would need we would need to hire dynamic for $8,000 for them to tell us that. Well, when you say generally, I guess maybe we we should discuss kind of what that means because if if we're talking
about crossing guards, we're talking about walking routes. And I don't know I don't know what you would look at other than walking routes to between the home and the school. I don't know how I would make that more
like you do it with each household versus zones like do we have percentage of like this amount of kids that live in College Hill go to Tuskin Bdon right like I'm just you
if that's an interest we can explore it further I think you know especially when we we talked about prospect we were talking very specifically about, you know, guards a few corners away. And so my, you know, and where the proper
placement of them were and, you know, if guards were shifting a few blocks, my impression was that we were looking, you know, the reason we want data is to get as specific as we can. So if we have all this data and we're going to undertake the effort, I didn't I did not ask for a
more general review of that. If that's an interest of the committee, we can go back to dynamic and and explore what that would look like. We would have to draw for dynamic maybe neighborhoods and you know to try to help them with that, but we can explore what that looks like
if you're interested. So my question I guess would be um because the schools um the enrollment changes every year. So this would be basically like a shot in the dark. um
this would be a a snapshot for this year, but every year it changes who's going where from different places. And I I don't know if I feel like we should be taking on an annual expense or if we're talking about doing this every, you
know, 5 years or something like I I don't I mean that's kind of a a lot. And then the other thing I wanted to point out is that um I'm not sure how helpful it would be to be mapping out the shortest rout shortest route for every individual child who's walking because
the children don't usually walk alone. They walk with they have walking partners and based on their walking partners they establish their own routes which may not be the shortest but it makes sense to them because they pick up people along the way. And then I've
noticed a lot of the middle schoolers going to MMS, they like to walk down Parker because it's like cool since it's by the high school. So like the they're the routes aren't really the shortest routes. So I don't know. That's not going to really tell us, you know,
you know, it's it's kind of a lot to tell us routes that we're not even sure that they're using. I think that's why it makes sense for the police to make sure that there's from each area of town there's a
crossing guard located in the connect the dots to each school and then the kids walk to where the crossing guards are, right? And they pick up their friends or however their, you know, whatever their routine is. Um, as
opposed to trying to identify uh where the kids are coming from because to Deputy Mayor Herman's point they're it changes year over year. So it sounds like uh we're not looking
to do spend the money uh we're not recommending to spend the money at this point. Uh I would think if there's something else that you can come up with Patrick because you have the data. I don't know if there's any way other way to farm that data to come up with some of this information.
Yeah. I don't know if there's a way like again like to deputy mayor's point like and the mayor's point um I just think if there's a way to figure out like how they're like because I think they are trying to do a better job about placing kids to one of their like two or three
closest schools and if there was a way to create like a formula where every year you can put the data in. So, it's just telling you, I don't know, maybe it's maybe it's not necessary and maybe there's just coordination with the school districts when they're doing the hazardous routes. Like, I think we should be talking to
them closely and making sure that we identify some of our our problem areas. Prospect, um, Ridgewood, I've always wondered if that changed because the whole MMS and SS placement up there changed also. you know, Springfield and Tuskin, we were
just talking about all the like hot areas. Make sure that they're focused on in the school's hazardous roots because last time they weren't focused on all of our problem areas. They just did whatever they think they should do. You know what I mean? I don't know if I'm making sense.
I think that we should take a look at the school's hazard routes um and now like can we find out what their timeline is on that? Um can you ask at the municipal? Did he talk about I guess the last? Yeah, they discussed that with us and
either they are or will be in contact with the police department to discuss it further. Yeah, we I spoke uh to them and the superintendent um a couple weeks ago and um they I think they're ready to bring out the report, but I did bring a prospect. So I told them there's a lot
of kids coming from um the Parker Avenue area across towards Tuskan and they said they're going to update it and they're looking at that. So, um, and they said that's going to be, um, another month or so when they update that part of it. But I did bring up Prospect, um, on that.
And did you bring up other areas, too, like Ridgewood or Tuskan? We were talking about that today. Well, well, Tuskin in Oakland. Um, I, you know, I I I know I know it's an issue, but I just, it just recently came
to me that it was an issue that, you know, that this was a complaint. So, I I did not bring that up, but I did bring up prospect from the last year when we were talking about this. How does the school's hazardous routes get done? Are they just sort of picking
crosswalks or is there like a systematic datab backed study that they're doing? They do. They work with a like a a firm and they do this whole study. But last time, for example, they went intersection by in or corner from corner from Parker Avenue or from where South
Orange starts all the way to South Orange Avenue, but they didn't do the Maplewood side of Prospect Street. And so I don't know. I think they just look at last reports and reanalyze things or just like guess. And that's where I just feel like we in Maplewood can put together a list of streets that we want
them to look at if we know there's issues. I mean, Bdon, like where have kids gotten hit recently, you know? I mean, and I don't know, maybe I'm just not sure, but I never really got an answer about why Prospect Street was only done like literally corner to corner to South
Orange and not in Maplewood. Well, I don't know if there was an answer. I think some of it is just legacy. It's just where where crosswalks were. And they're very they're very hard to move once you establish a crosswalk. And I think that, you know, the question
is, do we need more crossing guard? What would I say crosswalk? Crossing guards are hard to move. Do we need more crossing guards? We're hearing that. I mean, no matter what the study says, we're hearing that there are some difficult areas for people to cross and,
you know, should we be thinking about more crossing guards? And I think that the hazardous route studies also go towards students that need busing because they don't have a safe route to school. So if there is a crossing guard that it creates a safer route if the kids walk that way, right?
I mean there's no there's never any information put out to parents like this is how you should walk to school. We put out the list of crossing guards, but but the chief the crossing guard the decision to have how many crossing guards and where to put them that rests with you, right? The police. Yes.
Not the school. Not the school, although they advise you. Correct. Okay. And they use those placements in their hazardous routes analys. Right. Well, I think the the data the chief was collecting, weren't you going um like
crossing guard by crossing guard and you were collecting like like counts just sort of. But it goes back to what Mr. Duka was saying like that was kind of like trying to um reduce some of the crossing guards and it's hard to um
you know uh move a crossing guard but I I think the the point we're trying to move across guard to go to a more to an area like you know um intersection X and then move them to Tuskan and Oakland because that's the problem. But um
when we check you know we get we got to do another count because we're counting at the end of the school year. this is the beginning of the new school year. So, we don't know if there's more kids coming this year or that section and keep them there. turned in, you know, so it it um changes every year
and there's no way to like sort and filter the data to just see it without having to do the counts and and and then sometimes I'm nervous about moving the moving the the guard because we move that guard and then the two kids that are crossing there, you know, hopefully, you know, praying that nothing happens. But if we move the
guard, then we're in a tough situation. Yeah. Well, now is probably a good time to do counts, right? because before it the weather's perfect before it gets cold. I have another question. La I don't know if it was last budget season or two
budget seasons ago, but Chief, you were um advocating that maybe we should outsource costing guards. Is that something that you're still considering? Yes. Yeah, I I would like it. But yes, definitely. Of course you would like it.
So that was that was just more expensive than handling, right? same amount of crossing guards or is it like a overhead expense that you Yeah, it was it was it was a good amount. Yeah. Yeah. Hundreds of thousands of dollars more. Yeah.
So adding more cross guards to the roster would just be cheaper, but it's hard to find. And we we've done pretty good. I mean, we've added two um guards that are like um substitutes that that they'll double
up and then if a corner opens up, they'll fill it. And then also, we just hired another um part-time parking enforcement officer that also crosses. Um that also is a crossing guard once we get them up to speed. So, um I mean, we're doing
better, but um it's but that's still with the existing crossing areas we have now. That's not adding anymore, right? Crossing, you know, crosswalks. Okay. So, um, how do you want to leave this, Deborah? This is something that you've been
pushing. It doesn't sound like you want to go for this map. It isn't. It's an expensive one-time thing, and I'm not sure how useful it will be. Agree. Um, I think we should I I would like to coordinate the school
districts with their hazardous roots and make sure that we know what our problem areas are and that they're identifying them too. So, should we wait to get that report and then sort of dive into it a little bit and sort of match up what we're
providing and what we're seeing? I think that sounds from the school. Sounds right. All right. And but chief, can you just think about or look at data to figure out what other streets that you think are possible hazardous routes so that
they can make sure that they study them sufficiently? Yes. The way people drive, there's a lot of hazardous routes. Seriously, it's just terrible. I know. It's just so so much so many cars and so much traffic and impatience.
People are impatient. Yep. Okay, speaking of Columbia High School drop off, Chief, uh any ob any observations from the police? Yes. So, we um since this started uh in
the beginning, we were kind of giving courtesy to people because trying to get them to figure out where to drop the kids off, but even with that, we issued about eight we issued eight tickets um moving violations uh in that area. Um,
so I I think part I I think it's going well. I think um the hiccup we're having is that there's a lot of construction in that area that's that's um you know kind of uh once they finish that construction, I think it'll be a lot smoother. But it's like those side
streets off of Kingston are blocked off almost every day since school started. So that's hurting us in the flow of traffic. So, um, and now we're on Valley Street, the one construction. So, um, you know, I think once that clears up,
it it'll be a lot smoother. Um, but, um, we we were over there observing it. Of course, we we've, um, left that area for a little while. Went over to Seth Biden. Um, but, um, we we we received a complaint today, but
before that, we haven't really received a lot of complaints about the um, the drop offs. There's still people of course that are, you know, that are caught in traffic, might let their kids out. Um, that kind of thing, but right, uh, for the most part, I think it's it's going pretty good. We heard this this morning at
engineering and public works and planning committee that, um, the stretch between academy and prospect. There's a lot of drop offs there. So, when you're giving these moving violations, what are you giving it for? Title 39 violation, correct? Oh, um for
um impeding traffic. Impeding traffic. Okay. Obstructing traffic. Yeah. Obstructing. Okay. Yeah. And I'm sorry. We get the occasional um U-turn. Yeah. Okay. We we talked this morning about taking a
look at West Orange because they have a a township ordinance about drop offs. So, and then we can evaluate whether you feel comfortable continuing to do title 39 or you want to do a township ordinance. Okay. Yeah, I think the title 39 has been
working well. I mean, we've we we've done it and uh at Seth Bdon and um we've, you know, cuz you know, for the drop offs in front of there, um you know, we've we've um done a lot of
enforcement in front of the subway. So, um, and and a lot of it is, uh, impeding, um, obstructing traffic and, um, parking complaints, um, Brown and those areas. So, we've been we've been in that area kind of hard last Chief, are you are you when you're
saying enforcement, are you issuing tickets or just moving people along? Yeah. So for for uh for the year from the area from Newark Way to Springford Avenue, we have issued 55 moving
violations in that area. 55 Seth Bordon. Yeah. From Yes. In front of Seth Bordon. So that's from New York Way to Springfield. Springfield. Any at Columbia High School? Yeah. We've issued since the since we had this eight issued eight moving
eight since September since we started. probably do like eight in a day in Columbia. Yeah. Well, well, well, in the beginning, you know, it was a new traffic pattern, so we were kind of um, you know, Right. Understood. Directing people that way. But, um, but yeah, the conversation and we've
been, all of us on, you know, at these meetings have been incredibly grateful and happy about the increased enforcement for moving violations like for speeding and other places. same um with this um there's only so much
engineering we can do to improve the safety and the compliance to the new drop off zones. So, um, at this morning's meeting, we talked about really in order to make this fully effective is to get more
enforcement. And I think there I I don't think I'm misreading the room this morning by saying that our engineer plus everyone else on the meeting was fully behind issuing tickets for um instead of
just moving people along actually issuing tickets and making people think twice just like you think twice when you're speeding and you pass a a car, you know, a cop car. like you just just know you're not going to do it because you're going to get a ticket. I think
that is what we're thinking about. So So I um I think we've been doing very good in front of these two schools. So in you know again in front of subw school from September to now we've um issued 14 moving violations in front of that school. I was out today and
yesterday we issued um six and we issued three um parking tickets. So, um, we're getting we're getting push back from some parents. Why are you issuing parents dropping off? And we're we're we were we're on it. So, I mean, we've improved.
I guess I just want you to hear that for your officers to hear that we are fully behind. Oh, they know. They know. We'll take the we'll take the heat. People are like, I got a ticket. You know, right? The only the only issue we're running into is because we have um a lot
of corners and we have extended times there and sometimes officers have to cover those corners. So we're unable to do the we're unable to do the enforcement because we're on corners but when we're off the corners we are doing enforcement and we're doing it like on a rotation
basis because we can't be you know everywhere. So we we try to we do our best to try to Yeah. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Um, so Chief, one thing, uh, I know we're using, um, barricades, you know, the the saw horses with the signs
and stuff. Uh, it would be useful at some point, um, for you to you guys to weigh in on the, um, viability of using the middle school scissor gate at some of those corners. Um, you know, that one
that we have at at Salter. So they're going down for a possible award Atlantic City on the 22nd. They're one of three groups, three schools in the state for that invention of that scissor gate. So Okay. Yeah. I just happened to go around
there and I saw that. Yeah. Okay. Uh and just remember that, you know, our plan was to make all these tweaks between now and and Halloween to sort of put in place at Halloween. Uh but enfor we heard this morning that
enforcement has to be a big part of it. So keep it up. Okay. Thank you. Regarding the timeline and I'm, you know, and the chief talking about all that the um construction, I'm wondering if we need more time to, you know, see how it's going. Um I'm just throwing
that out there because, you know, I think I think American Water is still going to go up and do prospect. I mean, there's still a lot there's just a lot of construction that's kind of impeding this prospect, but I agree with Malia that we haven't really seen what the traffic flow looks like because there's been so
many closures. Listen, we can put it off. I mean, the problem is at some point you have to say it either works or doesn't work, right? I think it works, but I don't know that we're if there's not going to be more tweaks once all like the roads are actually. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. There will
always be tweaks, but right, you know, right now we're kind of figuring out that what we have seems to be working. Um, but we I think we have to focus now on some of the enforcement piece and whether we as a township committee need
to look at any ordinance changes. Um, we will be able to do that before. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. But as far as the, you know, and I asked Paul today, we're not going to be putting up any real permanent signs or anything like that. So there's still a lot of possibility, but at some point we
just have to say the I think we have to report to the community that, you know, we had this trial run. We think it works, you know, fairly well. Um, and but if we want to make some changes going forward, we're still going to reserve the right to make some changes, but
and that it'll work better with ticketing. What? Yes. And with New Jersey American Water out of there. Yeah. Well, uh, okay. Seth Bdon. So, we're meeting Chief next week. We're meeting with the superintendent and principal over there. It would be good to have somebody from
the police department join us. Okay. Wow. I don't remember somebody who uh can talk about traffic. I don't know who it is, but that's at 1:00. Okay. We're going to we're going to walk through some of the streets there and
talk about um that and also talk about is it possible to carve out some of that front to make drop offs off off street. Okay. Okay. Um Okay. So, the next item is no parking
signs in residential neighborhoods. And that's my pet peeve. I know it's the mayor's pet peeve also, but on my block when they were doing the paving on Springfield Avenue, the police came around at midnight and put up cones with signs and
um staple stuff to trees and poles saying no parking on the 29th and 30th. It is now October 8th and those cones are still in the street. Those signs are still up on the poles and trees. We've
got to have a process of taking stuff down because people are confused. I went in my stretch of the block, pulled all the cones and put them in front of my house and took down the signs. But up and down in my block, there's cones in the street. They're falling over. People
don't know what to do with it. So, there's got to be a process that, you know, if you're the last one to put those signs up, you got to be the first one to take them down. Somebody else isn't going to do it. Gotcha. Yeah. We got a process. Yeah. Yeah.
And I can't keep picking up signs and cones. Yeah, definitely. Nobody got time. Yep. And then the longer we take the those cones uh get feet and walk off and we start losing some of them. So definitely. Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. Weary, please
off duty rates. Yes. Thank you. So we, as everyone knows, we went uh with our outside duty to jobs for blue a few months ago. It's been working very very well. Um, instead
of scheduling through our police department, you now have an app where not just officers from Maplewood, but officers from other municipalities of Maplewood is not available to cover offduty assignments. And we're able to
do the same in those other communities. It it does uh you know everything from vouchering, they they put up the payment, they give us totals on payrolls, so it's all very helpful. Previous to Jobs for Blue, the township charged 10% uh of the fee for
administrative fee, 10% of what we charge for um police officer as an administrative fee. When we went to jobs for blue, they charge 8%. So right now instead of us taking 10, Jobs for Blue
takes 8%, we take 2%. There is still a uh a expense associated with us administering the program. It's an expense likely larger or definitely larger than the 2% that we are currently
collecting. So I'd recommend to the committee that we increase the administrative fee. We looked at other communities. We looked at our own expenses. Um it seems like, you know, kind of where we were looking is the same where other communities have landed, which is that $5 flat fee per
hour for an administrative fee. And so that's what we will recommend to the uh if if this committee is okay with it. Uh that's what we'd like to recommend to uh the township committee for adoption. So, it would be it would be, you know,
right now that we we change these rates every year, but $9518 for the officer, $5 administrative fee, $15 an hour for the vehicle fee, and then 8% of the total cost goes to jobs for blue.
Anybody have any So, you see it that this is the proposal here. Uh, anybody have any comments, questions? This is your recommendation to us, right, Mr. Weary? Yes. Yes. Did I'm sorry I had somebody come that I
haven't seen in a year just stop in real quick to say hi. So, I just want to could I don't want you to be redundant and we can go o over it offline, but I just uh Is this not inclusive of like municipal rates for our events and
things like that? We're handling our events in house still. Is that right, Chief? That's my understanding. So, yes, we're handling in house. Yeah. So, we don't charge ourselves the administrative fee. Right. But not just the $5. The general
fee is less. No, for certain events. For certain events, like Maple Woodstock, Mayfest, things like that. There's a non there's a nonprofit. Yeah. Okay. That's not on here. Okay. Awesome.
Cuz those are handled in house. Mhm. Okay. Those are all those are handled in house. Yeah, that's right, Chief. Everything my understanding was everything getting the reduced rates handled in house. Yes, handled in house. Those are So, this is just So, these would be road
works. Uh the school has a different rate too. Is that handled in house? In house. Yeah, the school is handled in house as well. Yes. Okay. So, this is, you know, anything from New Jersey American Water to, you know, it it could be a private event that requires
um right police uh to be there. Like even, you know, if you're reserving one of our parks and you require police presence, it could be people putting it in their own sewer line out into the street and have a road opening permit. All that will get charged here.
Okay. So, are we okay to make a recommendation for that? Great. We'll have it for you. Mayor, put your thumb up, Miss Angel. I can't put my thumb up. I'm not on the committee. Right. You can you can go this way or something.
I'm I'm with I'm with her. I'll have it at the next meeting. Yeah. So, um should we put this on for discussion? That's normally do. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I would expect. We'll put it up for discussion. We'll I'll report that we make a
recommendation to do this and then we'll agree to have uh Miss Credidio do the ordinance because we have to do this by ordinance. Yes. And I will email Miss Fritz now and ask that this be added as an agenda item. Okay. For discussion, I mean.
Yeah. Okay. Um she's watching the Yankee game now. So, all right. So, uh, we're going to go to the crime report statistics that we always like those. Whoops.
My favorite part. And this year I added this this month rather I added um a year. So here the crime I added the 2002 numbers
um just to give us a little sense of give a little more time. So um we had we had an error on this. So you know we have zero homicides at this point. Arson rapes all zero one had one one and one for the
last two years. So robberies have gone have gone up. But one of the reasons why I put the 2022 is you can see the the pattern of decreasing is really uh uh you know very very good. Um
you know you can see all the reductions. So chief you want to talk about any of this? Yes. So um all these um except for uh theft and autotheft
were zeros for August. So, we're this is up to August. So, uh the only things that we had a few uh was theft and autotheft. And the two and we had two autothefts in August. And both of those autothefts were at the Waw Wa with the
cars running with the keys inside. So, um and as you can see, the thefts went down. We had a few but it was um uh package thefts for August. So everything else um robberies, homicide, arson, rape, burglary, aggravated assault were
zeros. So um yeah, they're they continue to trend down. And uh you're talking about September, right? Um I think the last this goes through August. Uh yeah. So a August we had um
short up. Yeah. For the month of August, the only thing we we had uh was thefts. We had 20 20 thefts in August and two auto thefts in August. Everything else was zero in August. So
we had no robberies or burglaries in August. Um, as you can see, um, last year we were getting a good amount of burglaries in August and, um, we're doing we're doing real well with that because there are towns around us that are still
getting burglaries. So, um, we're doing a good job with uh with the the crime stat so far and uh, you know, we had a year-to-year reduction of all incidents of 24%. I did just a calculation of from 2022 it's
35%. So it's it's you know it's a it's a pretty substantial decrease over the years. Um you know so it's uh I think we're doing we're doing very well. Please compliment
the officers and just continue to do what you're doing. Thank you. Anybody have any comments on this stuff? Still helpful. Deborah, thank you. I still like them. Thank you. Okay, congratulations and thank you. Thank you
to all the officers for this. Yep. Here we go with uh traffic enforcement. Um again, you know, the moving violations are substantial for the first uh eight months of the year.
See, August we had the most so far going up. Yeah, we dipped down for a minute, then we came back up. So, that's good. You like this chart, huh, Chief? Oh, yeah. Uh, and then the radar summons is still, you know, a pretty substantial increase
for the first eight months. Yeah. The thing with the radar summons, they're kind of tricky because, um, again, uh, just you might get pulled over for one, uh, situation and then, um, you're issued some for something else. So that happens sometimes.
Warning notices. Um and then just you know the big thing is the stops pretty substantial increase yeartoyear so far in in uh stops.
And I know, no, you know, no one wants to see a police officer pull them over, but we get, you know, it's it's a day doesn't pass where someone doesn't complain about traffic to us. Uh it's just there's a just and you
know, a lot of people are working. They're going through our towns. They're coming to shop here. And um they just just everybody's got to chill out a little bit on the road. So again, uh, you know, compliment the
officers for this work. Any comments from other members of the committee on this stuff? Anything you want to see again? I agree. Good. Good job. Okay. It's especially good when they're pulled
over on a main street because everyone gets to see it. Oh, yeah. But yeah, we get a lot of complaints from residents. So, it's really good to have this backing up that um the enforcement is is is much higher. So,
that's a that's a great job. Um and Chief, the overtime looks kind of everything's under control there. Yes. So, there's a def um a dip in overtime from last year. Um again, you
know, um our our last schedule, you know, we had holes on paper, so we had to fill with this schedule. We're um you know, we're at least have on paper the start. We we don't have overtime to begin each shift. So, that's help.
Any comments about the overtime or any questions? Okay, we have a couple other items and I just have a few to add. Uh so chief, we introduced the new parking ordinance uh last night with the parking permits that we talked that you served on the working
group with. So it's a now it's a uh a class C license, a class C license, a class C uh parking permit, which will allow you to park in front of your house overnight. So that'll be up for final on the 21st and by the end of the month, we
should be ready to start issuing those permits. So, the clerk's office will work with you on all that. Okay. Yes. Uh Patrick was explaining it today at the department head meeting. So, we're ready to go.
And chief, you know, we've had reports of ICE activities. Uh can you give us anything about that? Have you heard anything? Have you any interaction with them? Um the last
chief, you uh muted yourself. There you go. The um it was so secretive you couldn't even tell us. They're secretive. So yeah, right. the um last time we we didn't have any contact with them, but the last report
we had that they were here uh was September 21st on Springfield Avenue where they um took two in custody and um so that's the last um report we've received of ICE and they haven't they
they haven't told us the disposition or anything or you know anything on any of them right on any of the ice abduct And have they um there's been to my mind six
uh people taken into custody by ICE in Maplewood. I I can't confirm that right now, but um I think it was I I'm not sure. I can't I can't speculate how many exactly. Okay.
And again, they're not Yeah. contacting you beforehand. And they're not including you involved not contact them beforehand or after. Right. Okay. And the AG's directive hasn't changed. Has not changed. No. Okay.
It will. Yeah. Well, it better not. Let's hope not. Okay. Um hope that prediction, Mr. Duca. Couple things to add. Uh so we we have um a rally that's occurring at the Union
Hall on Springfield Avenue. They're be they're going to be busing in two buses. Chief, I alerted you this. Do you have any thoughts of where they can park? Um, I would think they can park in the in the church lot, but I would have to reach out to the church.
All right. Although that's in the back maybe. Can you can you do that? Yes. Yes. Do is the group able to reach out to the church? They have a contact there. I don't think they do. I I don't know that.
Maybe we could share that with them. I I think it might be helpful to put them in direct contact. Well, if the church says no, we should have a spot on Springfield Avenue. That's easy. That's easy. Yeah. Just because otherwise, you know, people, we don't want buses driving
around looking for parking spaces. Right. Right. Yeah. Or on Tuscan. No, like as you come off spring. Well, they can park right on right in front of the church. Two buses right there. You know, people have to walk. It's 100 people walking back and forth. So
they all might want to go to uh get some ice cream on the corner. Um All right. So you're going to you're going to give them the or um can you give Mr. Daffis the the church contact
because he's in contact with the uh union hall and then they can they can check with the church and then the alternative would be right on the street. Maybe we could conone it off and just tell them that's where the bus will be parking.
Um, on Brown Street, you you mentioned Brown Street before on the ticketing. We've gotten complaints about people parking too close to the curb, I mean to the corner and also within 50 ft of the stop sign. Are you on that? Yeah, we we issued a couple the last two days on Brown Street.
Okay. Okay. And then um today I got a uh email from the M MMS principal um on Dunell Road here. Here's the middle school
uh Maple Avenue here. This part of Dunell from Maplewood Avenue back to Baker is reserved for commuters. Mhm. This part from Maple Avenue down to the end here is reserved for teachers and it's signed that way. We're hearing that commuters are parking
here and teachers are not able to uh get a spot to park. So, if you could have somebody um over there to take a look at that. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And it's pretty clear that this is for
teachers. Okay. Um All right. Anything else for the chief? Okay. Patrick OEM. Yes, we had the uh county and the state approve our emergency operations plan.
So, uh that is a good step. It's good for two years. That has been shared with the deputy OE Young coordinators. We'll get some copies printed uh for town hall, the police department, and the fire department. So, everybody will be
working off the same documents and electronic versions of it has been uh shared with everybody. And and this has to be done again next year, right now. It's every two years. Two years. So, so it's approved in two years. It was just approved this
great year effective June. So, yeah. So, we've got two years. So, that's okay. That's good. That is all. Okay. And any questions for Mr. Wary. All right.
Uh go back to I don't want to share that anymore. Let's see what I want to share. Here we go. Uh just SCFD. So here are the categories. I I changed this a little bit to give you major categories. Um you know 32 87 incidents January
through August. You can see, you know, again, by far it's rescue, emergency, medical. Um, it's interesting that false alarms also pop up there. Uh, false calls. These are things that just go off. So, but you know, unless any that's
about it, unless anyone has any questions about SEFD, maybe at some point we'll get the five fire five firefighters to come and see us. Um, and now, uh, Emily has been waiting
patiently in the, uh, attendee pool. We're going to move her back over to panelists, and she can give us anything, uh, an update or any comments from the community board on police. Putting on my community board on
policing hat for y'all. Um, hello again. And now I'm Emily on the community board on policing. Um, I really like the numbers, too. I heard that Miss Angel likes the stats. I enjoy seeing those, so thank you for putting those on the screen for me. Um, it's not because I'm
a public defender or anything. Um, in terms of updates from the board, we we don't have that much. Um, we have a board retreat November 16th that's open to the public. Um, we also have some vacancies coming up because we have some long-standing members that have done
incredible things but are moving on to new things. So, there are community members that are kind of watching this or what have you. I think that's on the township website in some capacity. Um, Pat, I feel like we've talked about that before. So, if folks are interested or
what have you, that's kind of the big things. But at the retreat, we're really kind of talking about goals for the year and ways to continue to have the board become something that is has longevity and ways to maintain and keep building on. So, it's kind of where we're at.
Um, any So, will you be advising us as to the the types of uh skills that you might be looking for in some of the new recruits? Sure. I mean I think you know there's there's three kind of avenues that currently is the board we look at. So
generally speaking I sit on the use of I I sit on the review panel. So we the members that are there we go to the department we meet with DC Mallaloy um and review certain matters and kind of make our assessment as to making sure
everything is co you know the way that you would want it to be handled which I will you know kudos to the department. We really see excellence in policing. Those times we are trying to figure out ways to actually have something for the public and the community to actually see
you know that we are going we robustly review that information. We are given all sorts of information reports camera but also maintaining confidentiality. We're kind of trying to figure out what that looks like. The other two units and units is probably a misnomer here, but
the other two one is community kind of building the department with the community and figuring out how that looks. In the past, that's have that's been more about having community forums. Um, but also having interactions with the department, having a presence at
community events, being available to our Maplewood residents that maybe wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable going to the township or going to the department, but coming to us um, and just trying to figure out how to build that more robustly. Again, I think a lot of this
is I realize it's 5 years postco, but more face fronts trying to figure out how to build that more and more. And then the other part of that is over the years in particular our chair uh Aasha has really worked hard on finding ways to have data. I mean even in this
meeting I think data having that information seeing what we're the actual information and using that um as an empowering tool for the board in terms of stops and how often they're happening and where they're happening and kind of having a sense for all of us here about
what policing is in Maplewood. um and where you know where's we we we can we can make it better and stronger and all of that sort of thing. So the what we're ideally looking for for community members are folks that a are invested in
the community um that want to be involved in those communic in in those conversations. And I think honestly like it's not like you have to have a law background or anything like that or law enforcement background. It's more about kind of that relationship building. Um, there are
folks that have all sorts of backgrounds on the committee already. Um, I, you know, there there are folks that have more strengths with things like data. That's not my strength. Um, I'm an attorney. That's why I do the reviews, but it's not, that does not mean that
we're building kind of clear channels to be able that anybody that's just interested can kind of sit on the board if they're interested. And anyone also can come talk to any of us about what our roles look like. So I I don't think it's um at this point I'm reluctant Vic
to say that anybody has to have a specific criteria if there's an interest to just come reach out to us and we can kind of talk through it. You know one of the things uh that the board is responsible for is the communication with the with the public about the police too. So maybe getting
somebody with some communication skills or presentation skills might be useful too. That's true. And that wouldn't be me necessarily. So that would be good to have. Right. You've already said you're an attorney. So I'm a public defender, though. So there you go.
I'm a little different. Yes, you are. You are. Uh, any questions for Emily? I think that's a great suggestion. I look for communications background. Yes, of course I know. I'm with her.
Um, so Emily, I'm gonna have you put on your other hat. You heard our conversations about crossing guards and all this other stuff. Any uh comments about that? You know, I guess my one I I am curious
actually how the district that conversation about the hazardous root of it all like what they actually are using cuz I that would be very interesting to see what analysis um that is and and how that input is taken. I I mean my intention because
again I'm sure you can all understand when it's like when it's your own kid who you literally see almost get hit by a car it's not a great um place to be. My intention with going to the board of ed meeting at the end of next month is
um to see if they've ever done anything with talking to each school parent body directly if there's ever been conversations because I you know Seth Bdon community we are a robust vocal group um but a lot of us do walk and a
lot of us have talked about you know things that we're seeing so I am curious you know kind of where that is particularly for families that walk um I don't know north south in town necessarily but above Springfield down Bdon that walkway too you know like
there's all sorts of pathways that for eight and you know 8 to 10 year olds where it's like there's things that should come into play um but I think it's great that you that the committee is looking to kind of overlap. I don't think it's I think it was smart that you guys were deciding not to reinvent the
wheel with some study. That data sounds really interesting though to kind of see where kids are walking. Um they are buddying up. Um but I think also like I I heard you say Vic, you know, driving is people are crazy with their driving and like on
Tuscan people pass me. People pass me on the street. People are driving 40 miles an hour. people are there's just no patience. There's just this there's this something that's going on. So, in some ways, I recognize that you're also faced with this decision
where it's like we can't stop the crazy. It's just like how do we make kind of, you know, you can't prevent some of this stuff cuz people are just bananas on the road right now. But I I do think there I think the board should kind of hear from parents that have walking kids. There
are some major intersections that I think are gapped. um particularly for the kids that live off of Tuscin that aren't coming down by Maplerest um that are coming through Tuscin and otherwise because we're not going to send them to cross over Springfield cuz
that feels that's even scarier. I've watched kids cross Springfield at um in between Rutgers and Prospect and that's always a disaster also. But those are just kids during the I mean they're not school, you know, they're just kids in the neighborhood. Um, but I mean I think
that's the best. Hopefully with our new paving and our new striping that will help because I think it was hard even though it was decorative and may have looked good. The old way we had Springfield Avenue is you couldn't pick up the crosswalks. So now
with the white bright crosswalks and the high intensity beacons we have on the new flashing uh pedestrian signs, it should be better. Let's hope. That's the plan. I mean, that's why I would say I mean, I I'll I'll probably end up saying this forever until you cut me off with
times up, Emily, but off of Tus Springfield to Tuskin, people really still don't understand the speed limit dramatically drops. And I think signage there would really be helpful. But stop signs also, if there's a world where eventually down the line there's a conversation. If there's money to be
raised, our neighbors are very, you know, creative over here. We've got some all kinds of folks that can stick a stick in the ground and put a stop sign up. But I mean, signage would definitely help, too. Okay. All right. Sounds like the chief can get a lot of speeding
moving violations if you focus on Tuscan right off Springfield. Um, all right. Got it. All right, Emily, I am going to cut you off. Thank you. That you you did our second public comment. Thank you. Take me all you hit three things
tonight. So, oh god, I'm going to get in trouble. Goodbye. Thank you all. All right. Thank you. Um, Chief, I we spoke last time that you were and if this is not appropriate for Well, I want to talk about vacancies and your recruitment of officers. Is this okay to
talk public or you want to go into private about it? And you're on you're on mute. So, I guess you want to go in private about private. Okay. So, um let's see. There's no one else here, so we can uh get a motion to go
into close session.