um Malia under the school stuff you could talk about the bike bus okay sure you talked about um we're live okay so welcome to the uh Public Safety Committee for March 12th
um just see who we we have one attendee Emily okay from cbop right and we'll bring her over um in the uh in the program in the agenda so um
Chief uh we have a couple discussion items for just you to fill us in uh you know Malia is new Deb is new to the committee Malia is new to the township committee and um I thought it would be useful to just have you run
through some of these uh activities we already have in place like the video Alliance program and the domestic violence and I I did see in the uh monthly report from our um uh Lieutenant pomari that he did
mention the video Alliance being helpful um and so and both Deb and Malia are also our Communications committee people and if we're looking for recruits and volunteers we would want to get on that so maybe you could talk about what
the video Alliance program is and and how it helps the police yes good evening everybody uh um first I want to um condolences to the family of detective Joseph asano from
North Police Department um who was uh shot and killed uh Friday Friday evening um you know um to the family to the friends and to uh New York Police Department uh we will assist them as much as we can um you know the
arrangements are for uh this Friday so um you know very sad for the long enforcement community and it reminds us of how dangerous this job could be um and that you know our officers are out there every day um responding to calls
um keeping us safe and um we just um pray for all of our safety and um you know just um we we uh we'll take care of each other public um law enforcement everybody so everybody together um to
get into the Maplewood neighborhood uh video Alliance um so it's a program where um actually the registration for it is on the township uh website where you can go um you will you
can enter your name your address uh phone number email address and what it is is that um you know a lot of residents have ringed cameras or um different types of U surveillance uh video uh cameras in front of their houses
um and it's not for the police department to tap we're not tapping it or we're not going for a live feed however it's for when uh the incident happens in the neighborhood um we have a list and our detectives are able to call that person in that area and see if they
have any type of video that can help us out so it makes it a little faster so a detective can call or email that person and say listen we had an incident here um you signed up for this um and as you don't I mean even if at that point you don't want to send it you don't have to
even if you register but if we call you and we say we had an incident over on your street um we we received your information uh from the registration can you help us out and can you send us a any video you have between this time
frame and they can send it um so that that's where it becomes useful and and you know some some people may be at work and can't uh you know they can they can send it to us from work or wherever they are um but also when we have a a major incident even with that um officer
usually is going to knock on the door anyway to see if um you know um if you possibly have any video that can help us out and and every time we send out a press release also we put at the end if you having any video or anything to help us out you can send it to us but this kind of cuts it out a little faster for
us if you register uh we can get that information and um will'll help us out with uh with you know the incident we're looking at so that's pretty much yeah Chief are you looking for more people to participate yes so more people can
participate it's on the township website um we can do even a more push with our community service bureau um as far as the activities that we have coming up like May Fest that we participate in um of course National Night Out and then every time we out there we'll push that
we have this program that can assist us also with this program we um you know we're speaking with the person who registers we also bring up the fact that we do home we do free home surveys of the home and we and probably half of them that we
have on our list uh requested that so we will come out for free and um you know check the home and see if everything you know uh the safe saf this it could be so helps us out with that so maybe we could uh get that on one of our Communications
de yeah I was gonna say it feels like a good tip Tuesday for Cindy to do in her social media campaign um Absolutely I'll get it on our list yeah I actually called to get one and the officer called right back and was so nice and we haven't scheduled it yet but
okay um I'm we're planning to take advantage of that and I'll sign up for the video surveillance nice yeah you're in a good block there um they should have it at the at the table at the bike Fair coming up too the
um bike rod there information so um the domestic violence Response Team let's talk a little bit about that I know we we were down volunteers I think we're up now and where are we now yeah we're doing we're doing pretty good uh Head Up
by Sergeant Fields um currently we have um 10 volunteers so that's that's pretty good we have 10 volunteers we have um and some of them just came from training
uh two um had a training on the 11th of this month and they're almost completed with their domestic violence advocate training so with the 10 uh what we what so if uh somebody is a victim of domestic violence and they and they come to our headquarters of course we got to
do the police end of it statement and everything else when we do that we call Advocate out so when Advocate comes we leave the room and what what's discussed and whatever happens in the room happens in the room The Advocate is uh you know of course listening and giving um
services that um the victim might need a shelter or food or um you know um giving them references for places they can go but um that's you know that's after the police side of it of course we got to do an investigation and uh you know
sometimes make an arrest or do a restraining order but after that um The Advocate uh takes over and is meeting U with with the victim so we're doing pretty good so we have 10 so do you think you need more now or you I think we're good you're
good now yeah we're good and uh we we have an on call system so um there's always somebody one or two or maybe three that we can call the coverage um you know um during during the each
month okay anything on this okay um so a couple Saturdays ago I went to Kane college for a police a conference on police and community and um I would say
to to a person who was speaking they all talked about the importance of police being out in the community um establishing relationships uh with the clergy with with Civic groups um and so it got me thinking about you know our community
service bureau and I know that out there and we see them around but I thought it would be useful for you Chief to just give us sort of a big picture approach or what are we trying to achieve there um what activities do we have how how do
we come up with these activities what assistance do you need from others to to make these happen yeah so um I was like K too I didn't see you there I was I was at that same uh Symposium um and the uh so so the whole
the philosophy of it is that um we want our officers to be involved in the community we want we we were um um at one point we had a audit come out and it was um a group of chiefs that came out
um I believe I was a captain at the time they spoke to me and they said that um this department needs a robust community service program so uh Chief Deval started the community service bureau where we had um we have officers that
are dedicated to um meeting with the public and uh doing different activities with the public of course communities community policing is not just what the what that Bureau or that certain officer it's supposed to be with all officers
but um there's some things that um need programming and need um direction from a specific unit and for you know officers are good at a a whole lot of things so are specialized in um detective investigation work some are um are are
great at uh traffic some are great at um dealing with children so we we wanted to get um you know certain officers that are great with community and of course children so the um so the reason for the
program is just the um to bridge the gap between the police department and the community um so the community will know officers not when it's a crisis but um are able to um you know meet with us when it's not a crisis so when it is a
crisis they're able to trust us and um you know U be reassured that we're going to do the do the right thing and respond properly um some of the things we have Pro uh planned for this year um and and some of this we already done because the holidays have passed but we did a toy
drive for um children that were in DC PMP and we had an organization come out and gift wrap all the toys we handed it out to two uh DC PMP offices one in uh Milbourne and the other one in uh
Maplewood so they were they gave us a list of uh of what kids wanted from from who are in dcpm different ages genders everything and um our and officers Don donated their own money donated their
money we filled the list our community service Bureau went out did the shopping bought the gifts back and then we had a community program come and uh wrap the gifts and you know of course we had we're playing Christmas music and um we weren't drinking no spiked eggnog or
nothing but we were uh you know we did we did everything we had to do and and um got the gifts out that was one program um also we partici we participate it's coming up April 30th the essis County Special Olympics uh my officers um um assist with that every
year we go out and and um we do that um we had an intern uh for the last couple years with youthnet so we bring intern in um they do great and then they uh learn some of the investigation things
and um you know and in um and right around with our officers and U that's a good experience uh just recently last week we did read Across America where we went to different ele schools and we WR to Elementary uh kids of course we do
the home security surveys that falls under that um we have open gyms coming up what we do with the um the teenagers at uh Columbia High School um play basketball jump rope uh you know uh that's coming up March
27th uh April 24th May 22nd and June 5th we have um the gym for that open G and of course one of our most popular programs is the junior Police Academy um you know so we that yeah
usually fills up and um they go on different they go to different places they'll go to um the essence County Police Academy and see the recruits there we bring them to the uh New Jersey State Museum um Nork assists us with their um the horses and the mounted
Patrol and motorcycle Patrol and we actually land a helicopter I believe this year we landed on Maple Crest Park uh State Police so um and a lot of other experiences and they learn drilling ceremony how to March and all that stuff um we just yesterday we're at the law
enforcement recruitment fair in uh in um Kane University trying to recruit our next officers here um and we do that every year um why we we assist with the YMCA after school programs events as
needed uh we do the mobile the JY DMV unit that comes out registration uh coffee with a cop and car fit for seniors also we do um uh I think we're going to probably do
it again but also um U baby seat um U make sure the baby seats are secure um we have uh people that are certified of that so that's a few things we do um and other things that that come about so that's uh that's pretty much the
community service uh Bureau and chief how do you assess um whether these are effective um whether
uh you know you might I mean how do you how do you learn of new things and incorporate them in here how do you integrate things in yeah so um so some of the things are are standard things that we have been doing like the uh open gym however we we
um we do get a list so we like we'll um see how many kids participated and we'll bring uh youth net in assist us uh with food and everything else um and and and usually it's um you know it's a good night for us U you know like the U
National Night Out not National um open gym we might have like you know 80 kids there and it's and the reason for that is because a lot of times you know dur during those months or even the summer months um kids are just you know
have nothing to do so we're giving them something to do that's positive and usually around that time we don't have um many incidents that are taking place you know we um you make sure they you know everybody's safe and gets home safe and everything else um also we get ideas
we we we send our unit to different conferences and we get new ideas of things that we need to do um and you know some again some things are standard National 8 standard um open gym uh coffee with a cop is pretty standard um
our uh at Kan University when we do the um recruitment um we we we can get statistics on that we we actually know how many applications we gave out um and how many people we met with so um a lot of stuff um you know we we grab stats on
a lot of stuff that we do U some things some things we we just can't grab stats on we just you know we just uh do it as it's coming and for example with the coffee and the cop are we reaching areas like on Irvington Avenue or up at Ridgewood
those little set of stores up there yes so we did it on uh Boon Avenue uh one time um uh uh we can move it to Irvington Avenue I don't think we done on Irvington Avenue yet but um I know the Starbucks it was more it was more
than the C we're actually serving the public coffee so we're actually in the back um you know um I don't even know how to name these Starbucks coffee I just say talk large coffee you know I got these fancy names and stuff but we sit there and we we we serve it um but
yeah but we got we look for other options you know in the past we've done it in churches before um so we can um find other locations um and just and then Deb you had you took your go ahead you put your yeah I just wanted to say um youthnet really likes the open gym program and I
know they're also looking at ways to recruit um youth for it so just that's been a nice um partnership and also want to mention since you said you've had an intern they're also recruiting for um businesses and you to be a a mentor again if you're interested in an intern
if they haven't reached will be I can facilitate that okay nice thanks and I and I know I was going to ask you about the uh coordination with other departments I know that in the past we've had police officers at some of our senior events serving meals and stuff um
I know that the health department is trying to do some um Outreach to vulnerable populations and doing some health faires and things like that are do you guys coordinate with them so that you know you either have when when
there's going to be a group of people you might have a table there or you might be part of what they're doing yes yeah we we have and we'll continue to do that we um we we'll jump on um other departments um events and we'll set up a table um you know and we have
with um with c dport and uh so we have done that and we'll continue to do that M you have anything to ask or ADD no I'm I'm just
listening okay all right Chief so if we if uh you know during the year if we if we hear of stuff or we thinking of stuff we're thinking of populations that we should be serving let's use this meeting as a you know a place to give the Chiefs some
ideas of how to continue to do Outreach okay and and the you know what was also Chief you heard at the at the conference the uh some of the towns using chaplain and stuff like that was interesting the
Trenton um Minister talked about we need a chaplain for the community right um but uh you know you continuing to use the chaplain I think is good I know they're internally they're they're helping you to work with some of the
officers but you know they all have institutions and they all we can all work with them externally too with their parishioners and members and things like that yes um yeah we met a couple weeks ago um I actually have um setting up a training for them next week with um a
chaplain who uh runs a program on um on How to Train chaplain for police um so we we have that coming up and then um I'm going to set up a time where they can actually uh swear in with the township committee as um official
chapels okay great I saw that you did the the reading um Across America at Tuscan that was really great okay um we're going to move to
parking something that we haven't talked about for like maybe five hours um so let's get this up so you know we've made some changes Chief to the ordinance uh to we adopted
a resolution to expand overnight parking we're working we're going to be working with DPW to put up some new signs because we want to right now there's not it's not good signage in the lot so we want to we know you guys can do your job better when there's signs and it's clear
for folks so we're going to be doing that but in this conversation about overnight parking um we also found some inconsistencies and and there are um in addition to the people who Park overnight that come to
the town to get the permits there's um people who Park in the pool parking lot by an with through an arrangement with the Condominium Association and then there's people who Park in the village parking lot which is behind Bagel Chateau there and that
overnight parking is permitted by application to the police department that doesn't even go to uh the clerk's office right so I think in talking to to Mr weary we are we would like to suggest
some coordination and some standardization of the fees and just to remind you what our current fee structure is if you live in a one two or three family detached house and you have no driveway or adequate
space for put a driveway in you can get an overnight parking permit for $240 a year and that allows you to either Park in a parking lot or on a street adjacent to your house um and we do that at $240 a year
because you don't have a you don't have a place to put your car so um that's that's again for this category of folks and then anyone can purchase an additional parking spot in a municipal
lot for 600 a year and then anyone in Maplewood can park in a municipal lot for 600 a year so um that's standard $50 a month um we
have and and maybe Mr we you could talk about what the current charge is for the condominium folks and then Chief you could talk about what the current charge is for um The Village parking lot yeah for Maplewood Village cond
we lease them 50 spaces a year they pay $10 per space per month so for those 50 spaces they pay $6,000 a year the the permit enables them to park Monday to
Friday 8 to 8 Saturday to Sunday 8 to 9 but I think in experience the cars are there more than just overnight and it's the recommendation of our Township attorney and me um that we
move away from a lease with mil with Maplewood Village condo but instead have those residents come to the clerk's office to get an overnight parking permit uh and treat them like we would any other resident in the township I think that's uh more in line with what
we do with other residents but also leasing public space to a private entity creates with it some um you know other difficulties and so it's easiest just to have it direct with the resident us so that's our recommendation for the
village Condo Association so you you would you would recommend that we go from $10 a month to $50 a month that's right and then there's a conversation or we should also discuss right now they Park pretty much 24 hours
right or at least it's available to them 24 hours so do we want to keep it as overnight parking and force that or allow them to buy full day passes what
I if we decide to do full day passes what I'd recommend is to stripe 50 spaces that way the police dep Department knows or or whatever number we determine is the right number for residents in that area that way the police department knows what
spaces we they can enforce in because PD or the park Enforcement Officers would have a list of all license plates that were able to use those spaces they could cross check them right now it's a little more you can park where you want in the pool parking lot so it could be a New Jersey Transit person park there it
could be Maplewood Village condo at certain times of the year could be a pool uh Patron and if we have no restrictions in the pool parking lot so there's no time limited restriction no because there's no public parking in the pool parking lot so it's either
you're you're a you're a patron of the pool but it's closed down overnight so you couldn't park there overnight right you're an employee at New Jersey Transit for some of the Le for some of the spots that we lease to them or you are from Maplewood Village condo also the library but that
was a short-term but if I if I if I wanted to park my car there during the day 's no prohibition of me doing that suppose I lived um in Avalon um it's not set up for public parking I don't that's a good question I
don't know that we would typically allow it but I'd have to find specifically where we prohibited there are times when you know I'll I'll talk to the chief because there's a landscape or truck that's you know parked across five spaces in there and we know that they're not permitted and uh the police
department will enforce that look sorry go ahead I'm just I just want to add that I know that trans excuse me transit has um security that drives a lot and they they check to see if U their employees are
parking in their spaces so there's somebody that's not parking in the space then they kind of push them along or right but if I if I was in let's say I worked at true Salvage Cafe yeah and and I wanted to park in the lot to go to work there's nothing
that prohibits me from doing that I haven't searched the code but certainly it's not our intention to have it open for Anytime public parking but that's something we need to consider yeah I think it's something we
need to talk about more um holistically with that lot because on the one hand we don't want to wait um space just by not letting people park somewhere because it's you know prohibited but there is a lot of space
there with a lot of parking spots that could help um in you know whether it's residential or the for the businesses I just think we should think of it a little we we need to dive into it a little more thoroughly I
think yeah it people use the spaces for other things as well like when there's the book sale the garden sale Christmas tree sale um and then I also wanted to ask are people using those spaces during the
daytime when the pool is open because that lot can be very problematic and it can absolutely fill up and so we have people leaving their car all day when we have cool cool patrons who can't find
parking that I I that's a little problematic yeah I know that Village condo they are permitted or they're leased for overnight parking but our experien is that they park there during the day New Jersey Transit they lease
100 spaces in the summer 200 spaces in the winter well non summer months yeah so yes the answer is that and there's nothing that prohibit a person who now lives in the condo
from parking from paying the $10 a month to park overnight and then just leaving their car there during the day yeah because there's no time restricted parking I like I like if we're going to continue leasing spots to the
Condominiums and New Jersey Transit I like the idea that Pat mentions of striping certain spots that are for those organizations um because I feel like if you're in an apartment and you're going to pay for a parking spot especially $50 a month
which I think we should raise it anyway and that is like the going rate I feel like when you're in an apartment um I feel like you're going to want to buy a spot that you can leave your car in because you might be commuting you might not need it you need it you know more for just overnight because there um I don't know what the alternative is street parking so I would be in favor of
changing the process to go through the clerk's office for a permit and and just having a section of that parking lot reserved because I think that makes it more clear for pool patrons as well they're like I can't park at that area and then they can park maybe all day and
overnight just in that area that's my use okay and chief tell us about the Village um The Village Center Lot yes so the Village Center lot um is
free uh for the uh residents that live above the the stores 166 to 180 um they bring in a lease um that they live there and their registration and they're giv a parking
decal to park uh alongside the um the train tracks you say that's free yes and why is that why is that well I I'm not the one to set the the payment for that it's been like that I don't
know yes fair enough fair enough something we need to look at sounds like and Patrick do you know I mean we could take a look at the leases with the with the owners but I don't remember when we negotiated the last lease I don't remember that being the
case no we we just renegotiated those leases and I can look them over tomorrow right but they also don't have a lot of spots designated for their residents in the apartments upstairs those Property Owners right because that was part of
the issue this time around in allowing us to renegotiate and renew those leases when we wanted to do the parking lot there was a lot of delay because the property at least one property owner is Pat can attest to was trying to negotiate
designated spots for their residents because they've never had that historically right Pat I don't recall being involved I mean there was a there was a delay but I think it was just a communication delay well it was a communication delay was
also an opportunity you know there was sort of an attempt although it was not pursued all the way through the Finish Line to have a negotiation about designated spots for uh residents because I mean I I used to know people
that used to live in those apartments and and they didn't have parking spots they would just park wherever they could they didn't have designated spots in the Village Center a lot did they have Town Town overnight lot uh
perits yeah they have them behind the building uh alongs the uh uh I can look at the leases with those buildings take a look through the code and
see where it's established that they get this benefit if anywhere yeah so it's not that they get a designated spot but they are allowed to park in that designated lot in any of the spots overnight yep so I can look
for that yeah what we're hearing is that it's free whereas we're charging other people for example if you park at the Woodland overnight you're paying 50 bucks a month I think it's it's it's 100 for a uh fulltime
spot yeah yeah y 50 for 50 overnight 100 fulltime right and yet we're in the Village People can we're getting some people are getting free spots yeah it just doesn't seem fair I'll take a look at the code and leases
and report back yeah because the lease could say that it's part of the rent that it's added to the rent but we don't know what the lease says but but if it's yeah that's what I was going to say you got to look through that because we have at least for some of the parts of that
lot Village Coffee lot as we like talk about it but we just need to get consistent I feel like so I'll take a look and then Chief you're saying that the the the residents bring in their
lease from 166 to 180 uh mapb Avenue what about like Jerry Rose because I see his trucks there at night yeah I gota look into that I'm not Jerry R we used to sell him we used to sell him uh 24hour parking at the
Woodland okay so he moved over and got it free it looks like it unless he's still paying for just parking there but that's not where we want overnight park that's not where we want 24-hour parking we can
take a Rose trucks there all day long all day night that's that not good sounds like a project yeah we have so many people complaining about parking in the village and so I I would really like to get a handle on how many of these cars are
there all day because parking is you know how many free permits we're giving away Chief free permits yeah you're saying yeah I I don't I don't have the Z number on okay we're g to take a look down the list yeah Mr wor can you and the chief like
and whoever else lives or whatever I think it's just a internal project that you can bring back to us so you can kind of flush out what all of this is all over town not just the two we've talked about I think I think the feeling is is
that we want some continuity of the so $50 you know that's what we talked about now whether one part of town I feel that getting charged and then others aren't I just it's just not fair yeah there just needs to be consistent so we need to see
what's what and figure okay so you got that Patrick yep okay um let's move to school drop off traffic so Chief uh last week sergeant
defasio and I um and Dave Barry we were at the middle school did you get a report from defasio or yes I did okay so you're you're aware what we what went on yes okay and I also spoke to um Paul kitner and Dave Barry on a separate
meeting regarding it okay yes so basically what we're talking about and we met we talked about this this morning and we kind of came up with the solution three here which come on solution here we go
so making this all temporarily one one way uh between 7:45 and 8:15 or so and do you do you agree with this Chief yes I spoke to Sergeant defasio he he endorsed it he said um know I want to
be we already make uh Bernette Street a one way in the morning right so continuing it making Maple and denell a loop he said is you know it shouldn't be that a problem okay so um Patrick We're determining that the you
know the chief the chief can just do this similar to what he's done at other schools correct yeah yeah okay so I think Chief what we need is uh an order from you to do this and then DPW is prepared to work
with you on getting the appropriate signage uh to put at the barricades cuz we need do not enter signs and we KN you know need left turn signs and things like that right Y and also I'll um go with the
school so they can put out um information to the parents right traffic change okay so will you contact the school and let them know we're going to do this yes I will do it too but you do that too all right okay because because this way it could be an
official um decision of the police and when do you think we could get this up and running the the the students I mentioned this morning the stud students have a presentation for an award on the 24th today is the 12th do you think a
week notice is sufficient that's fine I was going to say the 24th before you said that we could do that yeah I think the give us a week okay everybody's good we can ask the
students who made this presentation and the student council to help publicize it yes so we'll make it effective at uh that morning of the 24th okay so who's gonna write the
communication like that's what's being used because there should be coordination I feel like with the PD or public information officer the schools the PTA should get it out like Patrick can you have uh dindy work with the
chief yeah and the and the school I think as the chief communicates with the school will be in discussion because we want to make sure we're putting out the same messaging so yes you can you can just make sure that gets coordinated right yep yep okay um and before we get talking about
the the high school Malia you wanted to talk about the bike bus and I failed to make it a specific item so can you talk about the bike bus oh that's okay um yeah I wanted to just ask the chief because um so the bike buses as I'm sure
you're aware have um they started in the fall at a bunch of the different Local Schools Seth boen had one that I wrote in and then Mr DeLuca I think you were you met everybody at the school when we arrived um I think Mr weary you've ridden in one
of the bike buses I'm not sure which school Bo I've done it a couple times with my son yeah there's one going to tusin there's one going a Clinton I cheer on Tuscan bike bus um I believe there's a Delia Balden
um so they they were really um going strong in the fall um kind of took a break over the winter with the cold weather but with these nice beautiful wonderful days that are that we've been having they've they're starting to start up again and so I just wanted to ask
what um like what if any um you guys do to support these bike buses um what should we be doing to make sure they're safe the one that I wrote in to Seth Boyen there was police escort but I wasn't
sure if that was a usual thing or it was just because this was like a special ride that they had invited um um local officials and and media to be on so um if you could sort of tell us like you know what your
relationship is with the bike buses if you do any coordination if they tell you ahead of time if they're a go you know um just where are we at with this yeah so I'm sure that the one that we assisted and we were notified about I'm not sure if that we're notified about
all of them so if we're notified we could assist um to make sure it's safe um I I would have to ask U my community service bureau I was I've seen a couple but I wasn't aware but I just happen to you know drive by and see it and they
might have been aware but I just want to make sure that we're um you know I I don't who who organizes it is it the school I've actually asked them before and they said that they um I think worked with both PD and DPW I don't know if it's a consistent thing or if they're
still notifying but I know I've always asked like how can the town support and they've always said oh they've been great um Pat were you gonna say something yeah and I've only I've done Bo in I don't know four or five times um
it runs really well with volunteers and it's a long bus and a lot of intersection and I and there was a lot of bike buses it would require a tremendous amount of effort from the police department and not that it wouldn't be welcomed I mean
I think this is more of a maybe community policing thing than it is an actual policing um be riding in it and and with my kids you know everybody is observing traffic everybody's very cautious they get a lot of volunteers to help it R and I like
that piece of it right it's very very volunteer driven I think if there are ideas to improve it we should have uh one-on-one conversations with some of the organizers and see what they need to make it better uh but I would caution in
trying to uh you know put too much of our own into it yeah I agree 100% I think it's what it does by the way you just described it Mr weary is that um it teaches the
kids instead of being ES orted right or protected it teaches them how to be careful and and how to actually ride bikes in the community I think that's a hugely important part of it yeah yeah I
think that um it might be worth you know um so the bike buses um just so that you know Chief they they happen on Fridays it's a Friday thing so it's not an everyday thing it's just on Fridays but a lot of schools do on so Mr War's right it would
it would be probably too you know you couldn't have an officer on every ride that's just like you you couldn't do that but um you know and that's not even they're not asking for that um but I think it would be worthwhile to have a conversation with their leaders um and
you know maybe like how we offer residents um able to come to you for help with their security at their house maybe the leaders you know you could take a look at the routes you know um um I mean it is a good I think um thing for
the community um Outreach group um you know to at least to know them to establish relationships um you know um and just sort of open that dialogue because I'm not sure if it's open right now I have a
good contact if you agree I can get Chief Sally and and I together with them and have a conversation and I uh if that's all right with everybody is that that be okay yes okay I'll make that connection and then I remember when I toured the
police department when I first started here I saw a couple bikes up on the third floor that were uh marked for PD so maybe Chief Sally joins us one day over Outreach thing on over and remember we're doing the PDS running the Bike Rodeo at the health fair so there's
some kind of yeah yeah yeah my mind means concern is you know this is something that the community is doing it's very Community Driven and I just want to make sure that that it's safe okay so why don't we let uh since Patrick has a foot in each Camp he's a
biker and a uh administrator appropriate Authority but you can do some coordination there so let's go back to the high school speaking of coordination so Chief have you figured out a solution to the drop off at the high school
yet I I actually spoke to Paul getting there and about the high school um and they're looking at maybe making Academy Street a one way yeah morning um they also mentioned Parker Avenue one way but um I'm I'm not too
sure about Parker Avenue that's um because a lot of traffic is coming up uh Valley Street I don't know where that traffic is going to go but I think Academy Street might be a possibility okay a oneway drop off yeah we're also talking maybe doing something on Ken
waston and North maybe not letting all the cars come down to the through Parker because you know what they is pointed out they come down all the way to Parker many of them do K turns uh and then go back out and it
just creates all kinds of difficulties there yes and um so yeah you know there were talking about uh you know of course they're doing the bike lanes that go past Columbia so um we're talking about
that a little bit and um how we can stop um uh parents from parking in front of Columbia so the bike lane can you know so we're looking into all that okay so you're gonna be talking you're gonna continue to talk to uh Paul about some
of the suggestions as how we can designate some areas as temporary one ways for drop offs there and then we'll once we kind of have a plan we'll meet with the school and and lay it out and see what their opinion is is and if it should be tweaked or they have other
ideas and we'll go from there the one of the ideas that Paul presented this morning was um the oneway on Parker he was suggesting going from Prospect down to valley and you sort of have one lane that goes straight down
and then the other lane would be for drop offs because right now you're you're you're not really supposed to stop in front of the high school to drop off on Parker but people do anyway and you think a one way that
would that would not work I don't know I don't know yet you know I'm just I'm I'm I was just looking at you need to think about it right I was looking at I was just looking at other um I'm look at the surrounding streets like Valley I don't backed up and everything
else so um I'm not I'm not sure yeah because those people that turn off a valley where would they end up turning they're going to turn somewhere yeah Chief I I know you have a lot to think about with regard to this but um in the
meantime uh to we get enforcement where people are as Miss angle mentioned this morning people are pulling over wherever they want anyway or in the drop or not in the drop off zones or what can we get more aggressive
enforcement on um you know that because that would help if you know even if it's just somebody pulls over and a cop on site like flashes his lights behind them and then they're like oh okay and they move ahead to someplace they're allowed
to park because I see it all the time down the street you know um that would I think that would be just really helpful to like get people less comfortable with being able to pull over wherever they want because problematic so um I I spoke
to the traffic Bureau today and uh um so we're we're moving from like school to school so Seth boen school was a a big problem school for traffic um and as far as parking and our traffic Bureau has
been down there for about two weeks and um pretty much cleaned it up they have um the principal sent us a letter thanking the uh traffic Bureau for uh taking care of a lot of parking problems down there and traffic so our so what we're trying to do is so we're going to
move them uh to another school and then to another cuz each school has a different um parking traffic issue and um so we're so we're trying to manage the Manpower with them and they're going to move from school to school so yes we'll get to Columbia High School and
we'll um do this do the same thing then come back around with that okay sounds good so yeah so just we'll we'll keep you and Paul talking and then when we're ready to go to the police will I mean go to the high school
will have that coordinated approach to them um okay give us an update on the police vacancies I know uh you had a March 3rd application for the test yes so um the the applications
aren't due back until um until the uh end of March end of March okay yeah so we have um another week and uh the test is not till um uh the first week of April so um the exact dates I have are
find them so March March 3rd we started heading out the applications okay they have to be back by March 28th before 4m. the test is April 7th so um we have it out um on our
social media we went to the uh job fair inl applications so um but we still have a um a push and we can still H out more and then we'll um and then once we get that then we'll be ready for the test and remind us uh
number of vacancies we have right now um we have two right away and we're anticipa a third anticipating a third before the end of the year yes okay and uh if the test is on the 7th um what how long do it take to process the
the uh test scores um do interviews do all that yes the uh test scores come back pretty fast but then we schedule a physical fitness test okay we take the top 50 from the written and then they take a physical fitness test
and then we um rate them from there um and what we do is um immediately we do a um um our admin here interview um the top candidates right then we and then we pick the top
candidates and then we do a background check and then we uh notify the TC of the top that we want to be interviewed and um what's what is the likelihood of in addition to this this these are be for
recruits what is the likelihood of of being able to entice somebody who's already an officer to come over yeah so uh what we're doing is uh if you are PTC certified meaning that you're already a police officer um they do not have to take the
test okay so they don't not have to take the written physical because they don't have to go to the police SC so um we'll rate them with uh resumés and interviews and essentially we have two lists one that's uh already officer and one that's will have to be uh go to the
C okay all right any questions on this stuff we're going to move to uh police activity so uh here are the crime report statistics for January
so these are very good Chief um you can see all the deductions the red is good here and the want to say anything about anything Chief yeah the two burgies we made an arrest in both those burglaries
those were uh commercial burglaries into a business and we made uh made an arrest in both of those the go ahead sorry the auto theft um is uh has been uh going down every year as
you can see right and that's Statewide as well okay and and what I was going to ask you is both on the theft and the auto theft both of them have gone down is there is this a pattern Beyond us is this anything we're doing differently with
either the stores or with uh the auto theft uh teams that we're working with yeah so the auto theft again um that's consistent with the state um but also uh we we have been pushing um in uh in our
in our information that you know lock your doors and uh don't keep your cars running also with the theft um we have been doing a lot of checks of businesses so um you know we have we were getting a lot of shoplifting and um and package
Stu so we we have been um U going to the business a lot we also uh this year uh we have we have a um a walking post officer who walks the businesses he walks in the businesses um he works
uh 10 to six and he he he's he's in Springfield Avenue businesses Arington businesses so um I think that's that helps us out as well okay and just for January to January 24 to 25 we're down 10 incidents
40% reduction so yes let's just keep that going any questions on this stuff here nope okay let's go to traffic enforcement crime prevention so this is a little bit
different again uh this is January to January so um you know just on these top four we've had more vehicle stops 10% more vehicle stops more radar
summonses more warning notice but moving violations were down and I guess Chief we're going to have to ask you again I know you know you said that there's discretion and all this
but um I I think you know we're hearing over and over again from our constituents about the concern of the way people are driving yes and I I've been uh
um pressing my officers to uh enforce traffic violations and as you can see the vehicle the vehicle stops have increased um the discretion is um as you see as a warning notice has gone up um you know again I can't uh tell an
officer to write a violation I can um but um you know I but we do want the enforcement like you know if you can you know when we when we uh interviewed lieutenants and the captain you know we were given
assurances that this was going to be a focus of their act you know of their position and the leadership position and I you know we've just got to keep pushing it I I you know I know you get complaints but I mean my
colleagues I think will will support me on this you can't believe how much we hear about this that people feel we're not enforcing the law that the police are not seeing and
we know you're out there um but this is this is something that we hear constantly but but I would I would say the vehicle stops have have increased so you know they the supervisors are um are
asking our officers for enforcement but again the supervisors can't tell them what to right but they have been doing these uh he stops understood Chief could I just ask what um when you say things like I can't
tell them what tickets to write or like when you just what you just said like the supervisors can't tell them what what do you mean by that well there there's there's no quarters and I can't tell them how many tickets right and I can't tell them what the right you have
discretion and the discretion is whether they think one is deserved or whether they want to write one well they make the Stop and they determine if they want to write the summons or they want to write a warning or um give them a
verbal I can't tell them to sit there and write us write the actual summons underst can there can there be like at your meetings with the officers or the shifts can there be um information given to them or Desire
by the township committee or that residents themselves are um asking for more um violations to be noticed for example like or I mean summons and you know moving violations
like that's as simple as going around somebody when there's somebody in the crosswalk that's not simple it's that's dangerous but also like this going into turning left into a a diagonal space down in the village which happens
all the time um so I guess I guess what I'm hearing from the community and what Mr Duca was just saying is that there's there's a real desire for people from people to have our
officers um maybe just just issue more violations so in the hope that people will get more be more careful get more um you know cautious about what they do knowing that they could get pulled over
and get a violation not just get pulled over so I don't know what the solution is but I think that's a common frustration um among the governing body and the community um that we can't just say we don't we don't have quotas and
that's fine but we but we just feel like there needs to be a little bit more and understand that some of the same people who are crying for more enforcement and more violations to be noticed will also get mad when they're the one who gets
pulled over but you know that's part of the gig so I I just that's I don't know I just it's hard to explain to the community um so I guess I'm just asking for some help there I have a I have a question I have two questions first well
comment is first um Mr jca mentioned how when we were doing the interviews we were you know told more enforcement will happen but these are January numbers and those interviews I think were January so I feel like February numbers are more going to reflect any changes that have happened with promotion or just
rethinking about it them hearing that we want more um but my question is when vehicle stops when Ops maybe more people are getting pulled over and then they're getting a warning notice but can you remind me are officers able to see those warning notices when they look when they
check the license plate in the computer yes so then they'll see so so it's possible that more people are getting stopped more warning notices are going out and then maybe next time we'll see more moving violations so I guess I'm just saying like I feel like January number I'd like to see February numbers
um but also agree that we should reinforce that we want more violations given because what my colleagues are saying is absolutely true I mean everybody's talking about how we need enforcement because the cars are going too fast and it's not safe and it's affecting
pedestrian safety um that's all thank you yeah I want to add to that it's so I spoke to a Cub Scout group last night it's a bunch of fifth graders and when I asked them you know we were talking about we had to talk about an issue that affects the
community and so since they're kids you know we were talking about traffic safety and how can we make it safe to walk to school and and that was literally the first thing they said I was like so H what you know how can we make it safe and they're like o raise their hand they're like cops they can
give tickets I mean that that's that's what we got to do and um you know and I I hear I hear what you're saying you know about quotas and I understand that and I hear you know what Miss single's saying you know maybe the warning notices you know and I too would like to see February numbers and hope that we're
going in a better Direction um you know because you know PE I think people got really used to during those days during the pandemic when things weren't enforced quite as much um you know PE we've got a lot of
special snowflakes in our in our area you know and they you know they they their their time is the most important and they got to get to where they're going and you know and kind of like ignoring different um rules like you know I I've said before I I've sat at a
coffee shop and watch people do leftand turn after leftand turn after leftand turn I mean you just spend like you know a few hours and you get a whole bunch of people doing that I mean it's over and over and over and nobody listens and the only way they're going to start
listening is you know getting getting pulled over getting the light blinked and and eventually you know also the moving violations so so I just want to add you know my voice to the rest of the township and saying that I think it's really important um you know and we
really like to see that number going up you know because then hopefully that will translate to the safer roads that everybody keeps talking about because I hear it nonstop as well I'd like to jump in as well um I don't
want to beat a dead horse Chief um I I understand the position that you're in and certainly the data shows that there is an uptick and we're moving in the right direction and hopefully February and March and so on and so forth the rest of this year continues to show an
uptick trend um I also recognize that overp policing is a concern among the same residents who want to see policing so uh it's a balancing act um
so I understand that as well and I can just hear officers saying that right now uh in the locker room uh in the department right like wow look at them they're asking us to write more tickets but they're also going to be the first to come after us when we over police
so maybe the way to go about this because it is true we are hearing about this is the number one issue this is the number one issue and a day does not go by when we don't hear about this by email by text by social media tag um on
Tuesday there was um a a disabled woman in a wheelchair Crossing on Jefferson and valy on Valley at the Jefferson and Valley intersection in the crosswalk um and a driver just completely ignored her
and went around her in front of her and you know people just lost their mind to you know was in the middle of the day uh and it was very visible what happened and people just screamed and hollered
and the person just uh took off so so we know that there is aggressive driving I think Aidan Duca during engineering planning public works this morning really said it well that you know there is this complete disregard and disrespect for the law right now uh
people are just wild personally I see it all the time I drive on the turnpike you know every other day and people are just Brazen and they don't care unless they're stopped unless they get that ticket and it makes them think twice it makes them slow down at least
for a while um but maybe maybe the way through this is figuring out what an acceptable optic is what the right balance is what
percentage right not just kind of winging it and seeing if we have an uptick uh but rather strategically thoughtfully intentionally planning for it so that we have the percentage and uptick that we want over the course of
the next four to six months and because and we can get you this if you don't have it because the concerns are on roads all over town There's not going to be I think when we show the community
that there is an optic in enforcement that that enforcement isn't um disparate that it isn't inequitable right because it's happening that enforcement that increased enforcement is happening all all over town because there are
dangerous roads and pedestrian issues all over town so um I I think you know that's the way to go about it and we can you know talk about that through this
committee um through chairman uh Duca and um we can figure it out together but I do think that we just we really need to thoughtfully intentionally plan for greater enforcement in a manner that
balances both of both of those interests Chief you want to say anything uh no I hear everything everything everybody's saying I will um yeah further um progress so um on the
crime suppression details we we gone down and um I'm not not sure you need to say more I I would assume you know that reflects some of the crime going down around town so that's correct usually
that picks up when we um on areas to Target right so that that would fluctuate when these when these statistics fluctuate I would assume crime suspension fluctuates okay or or crime suppression rather okay all right
um let's move to overtime report Mr we Chief Sally anything out of the ordinary that you want to talk about I thought you had no um you g pop it up but uh it it seems to be uh trending
down so as we see from last year the only thing that's um that was higher see I can find my sheet um police overtime was up a little bit that's only because um it's from uh it includes January where we're moving
to a new schedule so we had to uh give overtime to make the shift but it's dropped down um a lot in February from uh January so I think we're turning down we're doing pretty good and the dispatch are we at full
compliment now um so right now we do yes okay anything to add Mr weary yeah so you know it it has to come down because last year we well overspent our overtime budget and that for good
reason right um and then some of those but beyond the chief's control um you know we had we had more details than we had you know Staffing to cover so it's always good that it go that it comes down it's good that we save some money but there's also a piece of this in that
you know when we don't have overtime we're hopefully removing those situations where we're forcing officers that work to ship Friday night to stay to cover Saturday ship because we're you know low on Manpower and Saturday night in a Sunday and forcing officers to work when they don't want to and that's good
for the department and it's part of the reason why we um some officers had had promoted 12 and and one of the reasons we moved to it so I'm glad to see that's happening because certainly doing away with some of those forces are good for the Department okay thank you um can you
move over Emily Schwarz from the participant list hi Emily hi being brought to the principal when you guys bring me over yes there you go this is detention
time so this is an opportunity for uh the liaison to community board on place to give us an update if you'd like or make any comments or ask any questions the only thing I would note is that I'm I'm going to relay what the beginning of
the meeting started off with in terms of how the community policing model that maplewood's looking into how how our team can maybe connect there because it does seem like there's spaces where there's a gap
um and I'd also just note that I think MPD can get credit for community policing by having social workers like those kind of spaces also so just to kind of give you the department Kudos there in terms of looking more holistically at Public Safety um I think the community board on policing would
agree that that also goes towards the idea of what community policing does and as an aside when I was doing new work audit work I mean I if I'm going to talk to the community um members on the board
because there's all sorts of things that we already do here in Maplewood and it's obviously a much smaller scale scale than nework but it's great it's great to hear that that's something the department is thinking about in a more holistic and also measuring what that success looks like but no it's always
nice to be here I love the stats are the stats published somewhere publicly or is it just within the meeting for crime rates the meeting okay but you know these things get recorded So they are public but really they're they're internal but we use them
you know we put them up just so we could talk about them no they're just great to see I mean I always like being here because of just my professional background and my own intrig I could talk about Tusk and road if you want to but don't worry I won't bring up T and where I live um but anyways no it's just
thank you for you didn't have to bring me over but no I have no other okay nothing else that was flagged really can I can I just know because it is recorded that our soci crisis Social Work program is through the health department but they work collaboratively with the PD um but I didn't know about the domestic
violence Response Team program until today which is through the police department so I guess there's we're coming out of two different prongs but it's a different model so I just wanted to just mention it's to the health department I don't mean to take away from that I I think that what's from my
limited life outside of of this role in terms of what we talk about with Community model policing and also having officers kind of wear many hats but also working interconnectedness that's all things where I think every part of the of the the puzzle here should take take
take that on and be you know take that on as community policing here but Community safety really is what it's about you know Emily you rais a good point about the sort of promoting how we do have the intervention the social worker partnership with the police
because when we again when the chief and I were at this conference you know the state has a program and that's all you hear about the state program the state program the state program and somehow we never get credit for what we've done and I think we ought to look for
opportunities to to talk about what we've done because I think we've been very successful um for a smaller Department to be able to do this I mean we're not you know a large department and we're not getting State resources we're doing this ourselves so yeah we've talked about that before like I know we
talked about possibly um doing a panel at League of municipalities um and I think Kansas was working on some saport was working on some ideas about how to better promote what we're doing and showing us as a model um for other
municipalities that's good yeah Vic can we share the crime stats data with cop being that one of their roles is data analysis it directly relates to their to their mission um I would I don't see any
reason why not yeah so we can do it after the meeting so actually the stuff that I did I sent the I sent Kasha the uh the agenda so she has it oh that's right you sure did now I remember thank you never
mind I mean that's all from the UCR you know the crime report so that's a that's a a public document anyway right Chief yes okay good all right well thank you Emily
and Patrick We're going to uh get an update from you on the OEM yes the County's Hazard mitigation plan is currently before the state for review and then we will be coming back to the township committee to adopt
probably next month and the Emergency Operations plan we have a draft from the state and we'll be sharing that with uh all the respective department heads and staff to review that uh make comment we have to get that back
to uh the state I think it's within two weeks it's it's just a draft so we have some time we have until I think it's the end of June to adopt our new plan so we've been working on that uh the chief has been working on training for C have some available through um New Jersey
Transit that I know a few of those members are signing up to take so that's good and uh Chief and I been you know continue to talk about more opportunities for sir great thank you any questions for Patrick if not we will just put up the
stats for the uh um January for the South essic Fire Department um you you can see them here you know again by far the the work being done on Emergency Medical Services you know over 40%
between what we provide and what other a gencies for example South Orange Rescue Squad um you can you know it's interesting I put this smoke detector activation alarm because you know it's a pretty significant number of runs we
do um and then of course gas leaks with all the various uh construction that goes on and just sometimes when we're doing roads we break these pipes and what have you so uh and building fires luckily we don't have too many and the ones that we were having were out of
town a lot on Mutual Aid so anybody have any questions for these I have one thing that somewhat relates to South that'ss we were contacted by South orang Rescue Squad who has a tent and some equipment they
want to erect the tent and store the equipment um one because it satisfies a uh getting the tent I think they got it through a federal program and two because they don't have enough room in there uh building now so we've working with Chief Alvarez he's got some some room at
company too since sou orange Rescue Squad helps both Maplewood and South Orange it seems like a good fit there and chief was happy to take that on great okay any new business I got one piece I just want to I know I sent this
out to everyone but we have our deputy chief Malloy is going to be speaking at the women's History Month uh activity for the Hilton neighborhood association and that's Thursday the 20th and it's on Som women.org website today
very good uh Chief I hope some of the police officers will come out you know maybe maybe it's a good opportunity for the women police officers to come out and show their Force Yes actually um all the women police officers went to a
um uh an event today it was uh women in law enforcement okay yeah well just hopefully you could pass around I sent you that uh flyer last night maybe you can pass it around get some other people out to support deputy chief
so okay uh any other new items I couldn't help notice that the flyer says to Heart Community centor oh yes yes yes it's my I have that battle in I may you may have to give that one up I may have to well listen it'll be
lizz's the the one all right uh second public comment period is there anyone is we have no one left okay so we're not going to have that so let's have a motion to go into closed I'll move to go into closed