Town of Auburn

Police Commission 

June 8, 2010

PRESENT:      Ken Robinson, Hubert Topliff, John McCaugherty, Chief Picard, Lt. David Flight,  Jane Rego

Mr. Robinson called the meeting to order at 4:20 p.m.

REVIEW OF BILLS:

All bills presented were signed and approved.  

MINUTES of May 2010.  Mr. Topliff made a motion to accept the minutes.  Mr. McCaugherty seconded.  All in favor.

Department Reports

Chief’s Report

There was another incident recently regarding the dog that bit him in May.  This same dog went after two officers who had responded to a call regarding this resident.  The dog was tased by one of the officers.  The Animal Control Officer was informed and this dog should be out of town now.

Chief Picard recently made a traffic stop and found the stopped individual, who was without a license, to have in his possession a bunch of iron, burglary tools, needles and fresh track marks on his arms.  He gave no good reason as to what he was doing in that area.  He was arrested.

Officer Beaule recently made a similar stop where burglary tools were located in the vehicle.

 

Burglars are definitely out there.  Surrounding towns are getting hit hard.  The guys here are doing a great job.  We had two burglaries in May, one of which may have been an “inside job”.  Sometimes these “burglaries” are done for insurance purposes.  When you have high unemployment people have time on their hands and no money.

We have Officer Kapos out on the mountain bike – this is a great stealth tool, he can blend right in.  The OHRV is also being used.  We will be checking with NH Fish & Game to see if there is any additional grant money available this year for OHRV patrols as in previous years.

The motorcycle continues to be a valuable asset as well.

We also want to encourage neighbors to watch out in their neighborhoods for strange people or vehicles.  We don’t want people being “nosey”, but it would be extremely helpful to us if they could jot down a license plate from a suspicious vehicle or take  a photo of  anything that seems out of place or unusual.

Lieutenant’s Report

The Police Department was faced with what could have turned into a “mini-disaster” regarding the town’s “Bazaar” held on May 30^th.  We received word at 3 p.m. on Thursday that there was expected to be 10,000 people at this event as it was being well-publicized in Manchester where they were not having fireworks due to sponsorship problems.

We met with Bill Herman on Friday morning and got the OK to bring in twelve officers to cover the event.  Luckily, there were no major issues; however we were prepared, on very short notice, if there had been any problems.  Many people did leave angry as they expected a show similar to what Manchester puts on every year.

The new weapons are now all in service.  Everyone is qualified and we anticipate mailing the old weapons back by the end of the week.

The response to the new weapons has been very positive.

We have sold the cruiser that was discussed at the last meeting for $6,800.

The other vehicle that normally would have been sold as well is now on-line and in-service now.  This vehicle has been utilized numerous times and we anticipate making full use of it for undercover work in the future.

In order to fulfill the requirements of our grant through NH Highway Safety we need to purchase  Panasonic Toughbooks.  We cannot contact them directly, we need to go through their distributors.  We have gotten quotes from two of their distributors.  PC Connection only mails the laptops to you, it would be our responsibility to arrange for mounts, stands, installation, etc.  If anything were to go wrong with the set-up, the “finger-pointing” would start.  There would be so many people involved in the installation process that trying to rectify any issues that may come up could prove to be a nightmare.

The other company, Trans-Cor, out of Gerogetown MA. does the entire process, “soup to nuts”.  As Lt. Flight understands it, they come in a fully equipped van and process/set-up each vehicle, one after the other.  As they do the entire process, any issues with the set-up could be directly addressed with them.

The last quote we got from both of these companies indicated that Trans-Cor was $59 cheaper.

Lt. Flight is confident that they will do the job as promised and, as they will do the complete job, it’s a “no-brainer” in his opinion.

Lt. Flight has checked with the Town Manager, we don’t necessarily have to accept the lowest bidder, even though Trans-Cor is.

Both bids do not include IMC software and aircards (free with service).  When all is said and done, we should still have about $5,000 remaining from the warrant article.

Training will be conducted by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Dept.  One or two officers will be trained by them and they will, in turn, train the other officers.

Commissioner Topliff made a motion to enter into an agreement to purchase laptops from Trans-Cor.

Seconded by Commissioner McCaugherty.  All in favor.

Lt. Flight will contact the company and order six laptops to be delivered and installed.

Old Business

Follow-up will be done with Officer Chabot re: progress on repeaters.

Motion to adjourn meeting by Commissioner Robinson at 4:58 p.m.  Approved – Mr. Topliff,   All in favor

Next meeting, August 3, 2010, 4:00 p.m. @ the Auburn Safety Complex.