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Officer, thank you. Do we need to do all that over again?

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Nope, it's okay. I have notes. Thank you, though.

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Thank you. I don't see Officer Millis yet. So what I will do is go to our next item,

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Item 5, which was a presentation from the Burlington Police Department's recruitment

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team.

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And that is Corporal Carolyn Irwin.

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Hi.

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Hi there.

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And thank you so much for coming tonight.

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Really appreciate it.

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And I don't want to mispronounce your name.

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Is it Ahnhaag?

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Yes, Ahnhaag Bajwa.

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Thank you so much.

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You're welcome.

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Ahnhaag Bajwa.

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Is that correct?

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Yes, ma'am.

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Okay, thank you very much.

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I really appreciate you taking the time

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to join us this evening.

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Recruitment and retention is definitely a very big topic

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in the city, not just amongst the city councilors.

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Any city councilor can tell you

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that we constantly get questions

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about how things are going,

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how many officers they have,

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who is in line for training, and things like that.

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And I got the idea of inviting you.

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It is something I wanted to do for a while but I loved the video that was produced a few months ago.

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I thought that was a really great product and it made me think about what else you might be working on

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and also maybe at the end after your presentation of the information you'd like to give us we

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could have a quick conversation about how to highlight your work more through city counselors,

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through social media and another few ideas that we could maybe follow up on

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afterwards but right now the floor is yours.

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Hi, so I'm Carolyn, Corporal Erwin,

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others know me. I just hit my 20 years on July 12th so I've been at BPD for 20

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years and I know I celebrated with a lobster roll and a lobster in Maine

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both on one mail.

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So I've recruited, I've had 20 year career and I've recruited for

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a really long time. I recruited back, so I was hired in 2004, six years after I was

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an officer for almost nine or ten years, and then I worked patrol. I've been

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bike patrol community affairs with Lacey and then the current recruiter

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left and we were so short after COVID, after the movement, after the

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Floyd era and our recruiter left and we were so short on officers too where I kind of did it so long

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there like Carolyn can you go back in recruitment kind of help out for a little while and so now

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I've been there like in a year and a half in this role kind of really different recruiting now

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from, you know, back in 2010, a really different number of applicants,

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different, I guess I'd

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say attitudes, like I'll set up a physical fitness test or I'll set up a polygraph which

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cost us $450 and so

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did. I'm like, what does that mean? Not in the dating world but married

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for years. I didn't know what ghosting was. I was like, Oh, I'm going to ghost it all the time.

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People aren't showing up to PT tests and not showing up to this, but we're also paying for

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out of our budget. I think I'd say prior back in the 2010 eras, like if your paperwork wasn't

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filled out correctly, you wouldn't get through very far because attention to detail is so

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important for officers. If you didn't show up for a PT test and even let me know, we'd kind of

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be like, Oh, you're done. You didn't show up for appointment. We're now in this different

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era too, where I was like, Oh, you didn't show up. It cost us $450. I'll still schedule

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We'll be for another one because you already made it this far and really, you know, want to see more and length you and then

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I had somebody like not show up twice

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Anhad and I I've never had this before either in every position

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We finished a background investigation, which is our very last step before you get into law enforcement

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So it's a pretty important role. We say it's sort of our gateway like the last step before you get in

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And it's a long process somebody applies

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via NEO go online

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It actually goes to HR first

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So we don't even see some of the applications because there's some automatic disqualification.

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So if somebody uses marijuana with them a year, I'll never even see their application.

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The downfall to that is somebody will call and be like, we haven't heard from you.

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So sometimes it looks like we're not responding when really we never saw it because they didn't

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make it past that. But so once somebody applies and it makes it to Anhad and I,

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I kind of work more on this sworn and Anhad will do most of our civilian professional

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positions I'll invite them to a physical fitness test and also I send them our big like Burlington

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police application a pretty long detailed application so then when they come I'm trying

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to consolidate the hiring process too so people used to take you know six to eight months a lot

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of steps a lot of traveling back and forth so somebody comes now and I'll say all right let's

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do our physical fitness test and if you pass we'll do the panel interview on the same day

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Or vice versa let's do a panel interview so you're not all hot and sweaty first if you pass that we'll do your physical fitness test

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And if they pass that they have a psychological exam that cost $90 to do we used to do the MMPI to they just switched

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I'm gonna say that it's the Academy so our hands are also sort of tied because you're doing kind of like the Academy's physical fitness test and

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BPD could have their own that's more applicable

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But there's no point because you have to pass this test again the Academy

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So if I did a different one and

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And I want to hire them.

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They have to pass this test again in the academy if they fail that.

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So I want to ensure that our applicants are passing this test.

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So we do what the academy does, which is a mile and a half run and a 500 meter row.

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So you do the physical fitness test, you pass that, you do a panel interview with

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three people on it.

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If you pass that, you have the MMPI because that costs $90 now, which also BPD covers.

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It used to cost 25 and I had applicants cover it, but $90, I feel like there's

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a little steep.

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And a polygraph, which is a lie detector test.

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And that's mandated through also the police academy.

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A lot of states do not do polygraphs.

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And so that's $450.

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And then if you make it past that,

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then we're doing a background.

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So it's our very last step and usually it's a detective

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and it could take a month to two months to three months.

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One, because they have tons of calls too

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and they're doing this during their workload.

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And then we're calling family, friends, references.

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We're going to their house, we're going to addresses.

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is a little poking a little prying, seeing their work ethic.

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Well, we're getting people to the background phase

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and we're calling them and saying, we want to hire you

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and we can't get ahold of them.

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And we can't say we want to hire you.

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Like they're just not answering their phone

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after all this work and after this process.

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So I've had a police officer in that role.

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I ended up setting the application

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with like parents' names and sisters.

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I mean, I called one's mom.

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I was like, okay, where's your son?

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But she never called back either.

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And on how we've had it in every position, I think dispatch a CSO and police who have done the whole proc and

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future in park patrol

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Where we did the whole background and just never heard from them again. So it's a really long story of but one

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It's a long process and two would just it's a different. It's it's

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It's sort of that

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mix with

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Not a lot of interest in law enforcement with there being a shortage and

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kind of dealing kind of what the whole

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you know, nation is. And now maybe a mix of law enforcement not looking that great to people or them wanting to join. And unfortunately, I'm not are you able to just share this.

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I took a snippet I deleted the names, or blacked out the names for you. But unfortunately, back when I recruited back in 2010 I'll get maybe 300 or BPD would get 300 to like 350 applications.

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Is there a way, can we zoom that in or no?

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Is that good?

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It's better. What you can't see is, so in January, you'll see all the people, all right, well backing up.

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So this is a spreadsheet that when an officer earlier was recruited that the chief set up,

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and it was kind of a quick way to look and see who was applying and where they were in the process.

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So I got rid of names for privacy, but in January you can see when people applied, February

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is another month, it's light gray.

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So you can see, but it's hard to see that, but so only four people applied in the whole

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month of February.

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Only three people applied in March, two people in May, and this is how many applications

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we received total.

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So in one year, we've received 26 applications so far.

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Last year's number, I think we've had 112.

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So this trajectory is insanely low.

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So since January, this many applications.

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And you can see, so green is sort of moving you forward.

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Pink is where you're out of the process.

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blue is pending and yellow has been hired and already 19 people are out but

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either and most of them withdrew themselves you can see one I mean somebody

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applied and they had a Brady letter meaning are for like they worked at

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VSP got into some trouble Sarah George said they wouldn't prosecute them or

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the paperwork so we can't hire somebody who has a Brady letter somebody

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with a injury, somebody didn't have their work authorization, so they're a non-U.S.

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citizen, which is fine.

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We hired that, but you also have to have your permanent resident card.

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So this person didn't have that.

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Somebody applied who just got tased, maybe like last year on an incident and gotten a

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fight with officers.

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I couldn't hire them.

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So a lot of it isn't us saying, we don't want you.

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It's a lot of people drawing up.

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And when I say that, it's Anhad and I calling.

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So I'll usually call people. We email twice and then physically make the phone call.

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And if I don't hear from them like two weeks, sometimes we call again or sometimes I'll be like, okay, and let them go.

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And then sometimes when I get the person, they're like, oh, no, we're not interested anymore.

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So I'll still put them as a withdrawal, but really they didn't really put much effort in.

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It's kind of us like being like, are you still interested? How can we help you?

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So really, I just, it's going to be really hard.

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I don't know really how to build BPD up with that amount or that little of applications.

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That means I'm working with four people, right?

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19 were already rejected or withdrew.

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Four people have been hired, three from that group, one from last year's 2023.

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So that leaves me with four people I'm working with right now.

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And somebody signed up for that PT test.

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I think August 8th is my next one that somebody signed up for so I'm not really

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sure I kind of move forward or what to do and I think our biggest problem I mean

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is just getting numbers like how do we get people to apply to BPD what makes

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BPD stick out with how will we get people what makes it attractive and right

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now I feel like when you Google Burlington there's not much like we have

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of that Reddit that's making us look horrible.

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We don't have a lot of housing

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and I think it's 16% above national average.

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So it's expensive and our rent's expensive.

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Our politics here don't usually align

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with what officers look for.

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Where people see that we arrest somebody

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and they're out the next day, like,

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it's just, I don't know.

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I mean, really, I just really don't know what to do.

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So I love like the brainstorming and ideas too.

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so we do our advertising. We created movies. We'll still do this. We do job fairs. We still do this.

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We're trying different ever. We did New York Post. That's probably the one we,

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which Anhad can brush on. This is more her. I don't even have like a LinkedIn Facebook

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that is not my forte. That's where Anhad comes in. But we try, New York Post,

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we've probably got the most hits from, but we've tried our local. We're the biggest

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This agency for mom, people know how to find us too, but I was telling Anhad to the definition

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of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results.

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So this isn't working, so what should we be doing?

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And we came up with some incentives.

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We're trying to be really creative.

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So Anhad and I created a sabbatical idea, which would be the first agency that I

200
00:13:07,690 --> 00:13:08,870
know that does a sabbatical.

201
00:13:10,670 --> 00:13:14,250
And there's more when I just met some friends from Alaska and she was a lawyer.

202
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and talked about it. I was like, that's a brilliant idea because it's all about like getting refreshed

203
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and what who more than like officers right like 64 controlling the city like if you have two on

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shift like just kind of get an overworked and burned out and I just heard an officer say

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maybe he's even last year that he returned on vacation and he was just going going going

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and you don't realize it you don't realize your body's like in this fight in flight this

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whole time in that we're we're doing that 40 hours a week every day and he took a vacation

208
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he was like oh my god and then he came back and then he had to get readjusted again to this

209
00:13:49,690 --> 00:13:53,330
and but he didn't even know he was doing it and I was like oh that's gotta be horrible for us

210
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so we were thinking a sabbatical could really benefit from off or officers could

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benefit from it and we came up came up with this proposal I think it was kind of you know

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00:14:04,450 --> 00:14:09,850
Mayor Miro's last week, so he's sort of like table it and then our new mayor I've never

213
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met and obviously she's been super busy with funds.

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00:14:14,750 --> 00:14:18,050
So I don't know if it's ever been looked at, but we're trying to get creative that way.

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00:14:18,110 --> 00:14:22,270
And we have a web proposal written after your five, 10, 15 years you could apply to

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this.

217
00:14:22,810 --> 00:14:24,630
You'd have to let us know what the plan is.

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Multiple officers couldn't do it at the same time, but hiring is every two years

219
00:14:30,050 --> 00:14:31,930
because the police economy is offered every two years.

220
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So it is staggered. So I'm always trying to hire for August and February Academy class.

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So our next group for officers are starting on Monday for a two week pre-basic.

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We'll get them ready for the Academy and they go to the Academy

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August 5th for 17 weeks.

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But I kind of lost my trail thought right there.

225
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Anyway, but also I've just done a lot of talking. Do you have questions?

226
00:14:58,300 --> 00:14:59,960
Thank you. So first of all

227
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:08,120
Well, you have, one of the notes that I had was challenges, right? So you already out the

228
00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:15,540
gate reviewed a bunch of that. This has been very, very interesting and very thought-provoking.

229
00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:21,760
Could you just expand on the concept of a sabbatical? Would it be something that would be added

230
00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:25,760
to the benefit package? Would it have to be negotiated into the contract?

231
00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:30,720
Yeah, so our idea, so we do have a proposal written which I'd be happy to send.

232
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It hasn't been looked at or approved or anything yet.

233
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I believe from them, but the chief did look at it.

234
00:15:35,780 --> 00:15:36,880
And this is us being creative.

235
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It could be a no, but we're like just trying.

236
00:15:40,940 --> 00:15:42,000
We're throwing stuff out.

237
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So the idea was after your five year, 10 year, 15 year, somebody could apply for it.

238
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And it has to be used on how I think it was within like a year and a half.

239
00:15:51,380 --> 00:15:54,640
But I believe it's within 30, I'm looking at it right now.

240
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I think it was within the 30 months.

241
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30 months you'd have to use it.

242
00:15:59,380 --> 00:16:01,520
So if somebody else did have it, like say,

243
00:16:02,020 --> 00:16:04,280
so my academy class, there's four of us still here

244
00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:05,480
out of five, which is pretty impressive

245
00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:06,500
if we just hit 20 years.

246
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:07,560
So there's four of us.

247
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That also means four of us could go right now.

248
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So these four were I just hired

249
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and they're not even guaranteed.

250
00:16:12,020 --> 00:16:13,900
They almost just knows it outright

251
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because us four could leave and now we have these four.

252
00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:19,540
But they still have to get through training and FTO,

253
00:16:19,540 --> 00:16:23,660
which is why it's so important to retain officers because they're a known entity,

254
00:16:24,420 --> 00:16:28,380
where we're losing a lot of people sometimes in field training, too. And on them, too,

255
00:16:28,460 --> 00:16:31,880
like being like, this isn't what I thought it was, or some aren't making it like prone to

256
00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:38,680
paces very fast. So we thought you would apply and you'd also have to say the reason

257
00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:44,520
or what you want to do. So, you know, my friends did Habitat for Humanity, or they went to

258
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another country and participated or tried, but we were thinking also you could do a training

259
00:16:49,860 --> 00:16:55,060
or already missing a lot of family time. And then it would get really expensive too or

260
00:16:55,060 --> 00:16:58,240
say I have a seven-year-old. So I don't want to be gone even more like three weeks away

261
00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:02,100
from them. So I was trying to do if we could do like a project, but then also maybe you

262
00:17:02,100 --> 00:17:08,460
just need to like have a week at home with family or work on a house project and recharge.

263
00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:14,280
And not everybody will do this anyway. Like some people it's not their style and some

264
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,440
like we're not interested in this like they want more of the

265
00:17:18,140 --> 00:17:22,580
Eunice to be able to go into or like what we used to have but you need officers for that and I

266
00:17:22,580 --> 00:17:29,060
totally get that but I was like we need to build up our PD again um I'm not do you have it pulled

267
00:17:29,060 --> 00:17:39,340
up more were there other um qualifications sort of um no just that um you have to be um the only

268
00:17:39,340 --> 00:17:43,840
officers that can apply that have completed either their 5, 10, 15 years and they would

269
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:48,800
submit application and it's not you won't automatically get granted. I believe we put

270
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:53,760
in there that it has to be approved by our command staff which is our chief and deputy

271
00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:59,360
chiefs along with the BPOA if they consider you know this officer is eligible for it

272
00:17:59,360 --> 00:18:03,940
and they would also have to let us know what they plan on doing. So whether it is like

273
00:18:03,940 --> 00:18:10,280
going abroad to teach English or work on a project with a habitat with humanity or even

274
00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:16,400
a local community project, they would have to give us a write up before and after to show what

275
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:22,500
exactly that they did do. And even if it was some sort of training related to their position,

276
00:18:22,500 --> 00:18:29,900
they would also have to include an afterwards kind of like a post write up of what they learned

277
00:18:29,900 --> 00:18:35,440
it was beneficial for them. And this would be extra. So this is not taking their

278
00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:39,660
vacation time. Correct. If somebody applies and does the effort to go through. So this

279
00:18:39,660 --> 00:18:45,320
is also something like extra. Yes. But I think it was just nice to have an extended break

280
00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:49,040
because again, like it's just a recharge or what officers are seeing. Like I've been

281
00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:53,200
there 20 years, but these newer officers, but I don't know if I would know exactly

282
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:55,920
what I'm doing anymore on the road, it's changed so much for these newer officers

283
00:18:55,920 --> 00:19:02,840
are seeing so much more faster and like higher crime and more violence like I

284
00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:07,940
probably went to three you know homicides and so it is just we used to

285
00:19:07,940 --> 00:19:16,880
have one like every 12 years or 20 so it's it's a little different and again

286
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,560
we're just trying to be creative another and this was more retention so

287
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:23,080
this isn't helping like how to get officers to apply but it's like maybe

288
00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:24,380
be just something for the officers here.

289
00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:26,120
And then the other one we came up with,

290
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:27,660
we used to have like, if you get,

291
00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:29,800
say I not make some other recruiter,

292
00:19:29,860 --> 00:19:30,720
I'm supposed to hire people.

293
00:19:31,420 --> 00:19:33,960
But if another officer suggests

294
00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:35,840
that somebody should apply to be PDE or says,

295
00:19:35,900 --> 00:19:36,800
oh, come work for us.

296
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:37,660
We got a great job.

297
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:41,180
And they get hired, that officer gets a day off.

298
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:43,880
But for, on how to deny what you're saying,

299
00:19:43,980 --> 00:19:45,840
we need something more along the way

300
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:47,480
because it's such a long process,

301
00:19:47,860 --> 00:19:51,080
that officer and so the academy is four months long.

302
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:56,100
We do a two-week pre-basic, then you have a post-basic, then you have four months of

303
00:19:56,100 --> 00:19:59,320
field training, and you have to get off all that so you get your day off, but almost a

304
00:19:59,320 --> 00:19:59,820
year later.

305
00:20:00,340 --> 00:20:05,040
So we're thinking if we could come up with something like if somebody applies, here's

306
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:05,320
$200.

307
00:20:06,180 --> 00:20:10,860
If they pass the academy, here's $1,000.

308
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:17,340
If they get off FTO, here's $2,000, and they make it a year, here's your day off,

309
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:17,780
or something.

310
00:20:17,780 --> 00:20:24,320
like it should be more like something along so it you're vested in this person even more.

311
00:20:26,020 --> 00:20:34,000
Some kind of a tiered referral that would encourage officer to for lack of a better word

312
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:40,260
right now be like a buddy to someone to to help check in on this person with regards to that.

313
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:47,760
Yeah, no, that's great. I am jotting that down. Could you send to the Public Safety

314
00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:53,360
Committee the copy of the document that you had put together regarding the sabbatical,

315
00:20:53,820 --> 00:20:58,920
and we will be happy to follow up with the mayor to see if we can start a discussion

316
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:05,820
because retention is definitely part of recruitment, and that is something that we've all been

317
00:21:07,140 --> 00:21:13,120
If you allow me, I'm going to go, I see that my fellow counselors have their hands up with questions.

318
00:21:13,360 --> 00:21:15,980
I'll start with counselor, new visor, please.

319
00:21:17,820 --> 00:21:27,240
Yeah, no, I just appreciate it. I had a couple of clarifying questions and then I really just clarified questions and I appreciate the work and I appreciate you coming and sharing about it.

320
00:21:32,500 --> 00:21:49,280
So I'm curious about the drop-off rate, like looking at that spreadsheet, I know it's a lower amount of applicants, but in terms of the number of folks applying versus the percentage who are starting the process and not finishing, if that's been consistent, even though it's a total, and if you have to get back to me, that's fine.

321
00:21:51,600 --> 00:22:07,880
But I'm curious of the drop-off rates of sort of the – I don't know if it's fair to say, but part of me – my gut is telling me that it's somehow a reflection of the quality of the pool, because if someone's applying and they just don't respond, it feels semi-unprofessional.

322
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:16,020
And so, so yeah, I don't want to be like assigning a value judgment to it.

323
00:22:16,020 --> 00:22:18,940
But is that sort of changing in addition to the total numbers?

324
00:22:19,260 --> 00:22:19,820
If that's clear.

325
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:25,740
So it's hard.

326
00:22:25,900 --> 00:22:31,420
So when I used to get the applications for the 300s, that one's interesting because

327
00:22:31,420 --> 00:22:33,860
like page and page and page and maybe I didn't organize it this way.

328
00:22:33,900 --> 00:22:36,440
So I didn't know so much to drop off rate, but what's interesting about that is

329
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:40,200
somehow it's still sometimes only get four people or six per Academy class.

330
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:45,780
But I think and not even purposely doing it, but our standard has changed a little like I said

331
00:22:45,780 --> 00:22:49,560
I wouldn't have accepted if you had I applied to South Burlington PD and

332
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:54,740
Maybe it's not right either. But back then I was like, oh attention in detail. It's so important as a cop

333
00:22:54,740 --> 00:22:58,360
You're not here. We're now we're like, oh, you gave us the wrong cover letter

334
00:23:00,700 --> 00:23:05,800
Please send us another one so the tension in detail isn't there so you're right like I it is it's

335
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,660
changing a little that applicants were seeing and not saying, I mean,

336
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:15,220
I'm hiring four gentlemen on Monday and one has his doctorate and was in the

337
00:23:15,220 --> 00:23:18,140
Korean military and he's so smart. So it's not that either.

338
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:19,960
We also have some amazing people. It's just,

339
00:23:22,380 --> 00:23:23,220
I mean,

340
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:26,840
if I got four people out of 300 applications that won class versus A,

341
00:23:26,940 --> 00:23:31,420
I don't know what to do now right now with four that I haven't even done a

342
00:23:31,420 --> 00:23:36,080
PT test or gone any paperwork. Like it's just, it's so, so it has,

343
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:44,960
I don't know if I'm answering your question. I don't know the statistic. I definitely have a lot. I might have had as many responses back then, like, oh, no responses, but I think we had so many applicants coming in.

344
00:23:45,420 --> 00:23:51,520
And it was busier, right? Like, I would have a test date and I'd be down at the police academy and we would have 100 people there because it was for every agency.

345
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:59,900
We're now, I'm offering the physical fitness test every other Wednesday at BPD and nobody signed up for the past three. So I do think August 8th is my next one.

346
00:23:59,900 --> 00:24:03,920
as one person, where we used to have, as a Vermont agency,

347
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:04,660
like 100.

348
00:24:06,460 --> 00:24:09,040
Am I asking, what are you, am I getting

349
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:10,020
to what you're asking or no?

350
00:24:10,820 --> 00:24:12,080
No, that's helpful, though.

351
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:14,800
And I mean, you touched on it.

352
00:24:14,860 --> 00:24:16,660
But I mean, I guess like per, I don't know,

353
00:24:16,740 --> 00:24:19,160
like I'm thinking about like, and maybe if I'm hearing you

354
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:21,380
right, this is what you're saying, which is like per 100,

355
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,280
the folks who don't end up replying or like apply

356
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:27,960
and sort of like don't follow up with you on their end,

357
00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:36,980
maybe per hundred people that looks consistent, but you just made it up because you were talking about three or four hundred people applying to something or 200 people applying.

358
00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:50,380
And maybe it's, if I heard you right, it's sort of, it's also hard to compare because how persistent you were following up with an applicant might have changed.

359
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:52,140
So it's hard to compare the two.

360
00:24:52,620 --> 00:24:54,480
It is. It's a little different.

361
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:59,000
And I don't think I've had as many, like even back then,

362
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:00,000
though I think you'd say like, oh,

363
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:01,620
Corporal Irwin, I'm no longer in the process.

364
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,820
So again, somebody would let us know and we'd like to say,

365
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:05,360
thank you.

366
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:07,760
I don't think it's been this,

367
00:25:10,330 --> 00:25:11,390
I'd say, again,

368
00:25:11,510 --> 00:25:13,070
like attention to detail like Anhad and I,

369
00:25:13,170 --> 00:25:14,470
probably most of these cover letters,

370
00:25:14,670 --> 00:25:15,730
honestly, we're not complete.

371
00:25:16,050 --> 00:25:16,830
And it was us saying,

372
00:25:16,910 --> 00:25:18,510
can you please write the right agency

373
00:25:18,510 --> 00:25:20,150
or apply to the right position?

374
00:25:20,290 --> 00:25:20,750
Like one was like,

375
00:25:20,830 --> 00:25:22,130
I want to be a men's basketball coach.

376
00:25:22,470 --> 00:25:23,710
I'm like, well, that's Burlington PD.

377
00:25:24,250 --> 00:25:29,750
You have to attach a resume and cover letter, somebody attached their like roof quote, like

378
00:25:29,750 --> 00:25:32,530
so I got their roofing stuff and I was like, oh, okay, please.

379
00:25:32,830 --> 00:25:36,570
So, but also that's almost because you don't also want somebody attention to detail you

380
00:25:36,570 --> 00:25:41,290
want those great cover letters like you want your officers to be at a higher standard

381
00:25:41,290 --> 00:25:46,870
like so I also sort of, I remember Chief talking because I also have a lot of people

382
00:25:46,870 --> 00:25:51,910
not passing the run and our PT standards used to be crazy harder and right now

383
00:25:51,910 --> 00:25:54,310
I'm struggling with people and he's like, I don't know how I feel about the run.

384
00:25:54,410 --> 00:25:58,210
And I was like, but I believe you need a standard for somebody to reach to and

385
00:25:58,210 --> 00:25:59,750
also have a goal and work hard.

386
00:25:59,870 --> 00:26:02,150
So if you can't get it, all right, you're going to put some effort in.

387
00:26:02,290 --> 00:26:03,550
And at least that's what I want.

388
00:26:03,670 --> 00:26:07,350
Like to show that you want to be here and that it is a tough job, but

389
00:26:07,350 --> 00:26:08,430
it really is out there too.

390
00:26:08,870 --> 00:26:11,390
So if you can't like help this little stressor work towards it.

391
00:26:11,650 --> 00:26:13,570
And maybe that is old school thinking too.

392
00:26:15,530 --> 00:26:18,790
So I mean, I'm all these, like, I believe in both.

393
00:26:18,970 --> 00:26:21,110
There's things obviously we can do better and we need to do better, but

394
00:26:21,110 --> 00:26:24,150
But there's also some things that I believe in and have it there for a reason.

395
00:26:25,490 --> 00:26:29,970
And I don't think lowering standards, but you can definitely change standards if I don't

396
00:26:29,970 --> 00:26:30,690
want to lower it.

397
00:26:30,810 --> 00:26:32,990
We've got to make sure our PT things are clickable to the job.

398
00:26:33,270 --> 00:26:33,930
I'm going off on a tangent.

399
00:26:34,590 --> 00:26:35,110
No, no, no.

400
00:26:35,330 --> 00:26:37,630
I think no, it's a good tangent.

401
00:26:37,790 --> 00:26:41,050
I mean, so I have two more things, Councilor Grant, if that's okay.

402
00:26:42,390 --> 00:26:49,010
One of them is for you, Councilor Grant, actually, which is or anybody, I don't

403
00:26:49,010 --> 00:26:49,210
know.

404
00:26:49,210 --> 00:27:03,230
But I know that there's this public safety advisor group that the mayor put together and I'm wondering if it's and maybe this is too granular for the purpose because of the scope of work.

405
00:27:03,350 --> 00:27:12,770
But I'm wondering if like because it sounds like to me that you both are sort of and maybe if this is wrong but just not understanding fully the structure of the police department.

406
00:27:12,770 --> 00:27:15,810
that you are each other's thought partners.

407
00:27:16,450 --> 00:27:17,830
And so I want, like, do you have

408
00:27:18,290 --> 00:27:20,790
either like a professional development like couple bucks

409
00:27:20,790 --> 00:27:23,850
or are you in touch with other folks who are doing

410
00:27:23,850 --> 00:27:24,530
similar work?

411
00:27:24,990 --> 00:27:26,210
I'm just thinking of ways,

412
00:27:26,830 --> 00:27:28,390
because like I'm always happy to brainstorm

413
00:27:28,390 --> 00:27:30,330
and like how to prevent burnout,

414
00:27:30,530 --> 00:27:34,530
like is, yeah, like the statical idea

415
00:27:34,530 --> 00:27:35,610
of these other things that were mentioned

416
00:27:35,610 --> 00:27:36,630
I think makes sense.

417
00:27:37,310 --> 00:27:42,090
But I feel like it's such a industry specific thing.

418
00:27:42,770 --> 00:27:48,510
that, like, we might not actually be the most helpful people. So I'm just wondering, oh, sorry,

419
00:27:48,930 --> 00:27:52,870
I'm just wondering if those supports exist and if not, the role that maybe we could play

420
00:27:53,250 --> 00:27:56,970
in being supportive is trying to make that happen, I guess.

421
00:27:57,390 --> 00:28:02,050
Yeah. Good question. If it is out there, we're not using it. Like, we're not using,

422
00:28:02,510 --> 00:28:06,150
I mean, if you think about it too, like, I really am a police officer. So my scope is,

423
00:28:06,170 --> 00:28:09,650
like, I'm an officer doing this role. I'm trying to do it the best I can. But,

424
00:28:09,650 --> 00:28:12,130
But again, social media is not my forte.

425
00:28:12,310 --> 00:28:16,010
I didn't come to be that, like I don't know, I don't have that.

426
00:28:17,890 --> 00:28:22,590
So I'm definitely, it would be open to you if you're, you know, if there's like a professional,

427
00:28:23,550 --> 00:28:25,610
we get inundated, like Anha and I and stuff.

428
00:28:25,690 --> 00:28:29,370
I just don't know sometimes too, like also to look everything up and I don't know all

429
00:28:29,370 --> 00:28:30,930
these things that are legit or not.

430
00:28:30,990 --> 00:28:35,130
And so I'm like a hot male and being like, you have today to respond to us.

431
00:28:35,130 --> 00:28:36,550
So the urgency, something like, okay,

432
00:28:37,510 --> 00:28:38,930
on has much more like, again,

433
00:28:39,030 --> 00:28:43,390
like the social, we're doing our networking there too,

434
00:28:43,430 --> 00:28:44,670
but no, we haven't used anybody professional.

435
00:28:44,850 --> 00:28:45,430
It definitely open.

436
00:28:45,570 --> 00:28:47,130
We're open to help because we need something.

437
00:28:47,410 --> 00:28:49,830
We need more than 24 applications since January.

438
00:28:51,130 --> 00:28:52,970
Yeah, Carolyn, did you want to mention anything

439
00:28:52,970 --> 00:28:53,990
from IACP?

440
00:28:56,470 --> 00:28:56,870
IACP.

441
00:28:57,130 --> 00:28:58,770
When you went to the conference.

442
00:29:00,370 --> 00:29:01,970
I don't think so.

443
00:29:02,630 --> 00:29:02,730
Okay.

444
00:29:03,110 --> 00:29:04,610
Are you thinking of something that I should be saying?

445
00:29:04,610 --> 00:29:10,530
No, because I thought you had mentioned that other people had shared like similar concerns

446
00:29:10,530 --> 00:29:14,950
and stuff. Or like that's one of like the professional development tools like you know

447
00:29:14,950 --> 00:29:20,010
there's this big conference and of all the law enforcement professionals were there.

448
00:29:20,230 --> 00:29:25,590
So that's I guess a way a tool that we use to kind of brainstorm of all law enforcement

449
00:29:25,590 --> 00:29:27,430
people to see what else we can do.

450
00:29:28,150 --> 00:29:32,010
The thing is it was interesting because we're all sort of are in the same problem

451
00:29:32,010 --> 00:29:35,710
and nobody has this answer to like change it.

452
00:29:36,390 --> 00:29:39,410
A lot of it too, sometimes we're trying, right?

453
00:29:39,530 --> 00:29:40,790
Like we have the hiring bonus,

454
00:29:41,250 --> 00:29:42,170
but obviously that's not working

455
00:29:42,170 --> 00:29:44,070
with 23 people applied, that the money,

456
00:29:44,490 --> 00:29:46,210
and a lot of people are saying it's a different culture

457
00:29:46,210 --> 00:29:47,670
and they want this work-life balance.

458
00:29:48,410 --> 00:29:51,410
That's also hard to change a whole workforce culture.

459
00:29:54,430 --> 00:29:56,010
Finally, we had another question too.

460
00:29:56,330 --> 00:29:57,090
So the answer to your other one,

461
00:29:57,250 --> 00:29:59,410
we haven't looked into professional help would be

462
00:29:59,410 --> 00:29:59,530
Thank you.

463
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:27,400
Yeah, and I'm just throwing out, I'm just trying to think a little bit off the top of my head, but I think that that, yeah, because you guys are in an incredibly difficult position than like, if we as a city expect any one person or any two people to like figure out one of the hardest challenges we're facing, that's not fair to you all either.

464
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:35,980
So, yeah, I can, I can think through more or maybe do some follow-up there.

465
00:30:36,860 --> 00:30:40,380
The only other, well, just this, I mean, I would be supportive.

466
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:46,080
I don't even know really if that's, if it would ever come to the council, but just to throw it out there.

467
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:53,600
Like, my work has sabbatical and, I don't know, I guess just as a resident,

468
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:58,480
like if we said we're going to take one of our high stress jobs, really, really mentally grinding

469
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:05,120
jobs and just give people time off unrestricted, you hit five years, you get a month and a half off,

470
00:31:05,220 --> 00:31:14,400
two months off paid versus like or maybe there's like a desire about what I heard was this sabbatical

471
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:22,540
was tied to some sort of service project or professional training or etc but just getting

472
00:31:24,420 --> 00:31:29,080
Yeah, like, in the same way that I think of teachers getting the summer off, it's like

473
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:36,680
a huge work of the job and, yeah, just getting good time off to take care of yourself, hang

474
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:38,920
out with friends, do nothing, enjoy yourself.

475
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,620
Yeah, and our suggestion was like two weeks after I think it was two to three weeks,

476
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,060
not even, but it was like two weeks after five years, maybe three weeks after 10,

477
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:47,480
15.

478
00:31:48,660 --> 00:31:57,760
Yeah, so it becomes something that people say, hey, I can get this here, and I can necessarily

479
00:31:57,760 --> 00:31:59,640
get this if I go start someplace else.

480
00:31:59,960 --> 00:32:08,680
It helps them become more dedicated and committed to the area and to the department.

481
00:32:08,980 --> 00:32:09,800
It promotes longevity.

482
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,700
Yeah, so I would definitely, once again, would love to see what you came up with.

483
00:32:14,700 --> 00:32:25,660
And I think we all three of us, all three counselors, we would be in agreement that it's definitely worth taking a look at because part of recruitment is retention as well.

484
00:32:26,060 --> 00:32:30,940
I'd like to go to counselor Barlow who's been waiting very patiently for his question.

485
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:37,320
Thank you. And thank you for this presentation.

486
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:53,620
I can't, I mean, I just want to appreciate the work you're doing and underscore how critically important it is, because you're at the front end of this pipeline that we definitely need to have in order to rebuild the ranks of BPD.

487
00:32:54,980 --> 00:33:03,360
I was struck by your comment. I agree with it that like we can't do the same thing and expect different results.

488
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:08,580
And to that end, it seems like we really have to be,

489
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:10,200
start to get creative.

490
00:33:10,620 --> 00:33:13,080
And, you know, one of the things we put into

491
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,160
this latest budget is recruitment dollars.

492
00:33:16,580 --> 00:33:19,240
And I would maybe be interested

493
00:33:19,730 --> 00:33:21,300
in hearing your comments about,

494
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:23,280
and maybe you already have spoken to it

495
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,040
because Councilor Nubizer had asked a similar question,

496
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:29,440
but we need almost like a marketing effort,

497
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:39,300
a professional marketing effort to sell service in BPD and just to figure out how to do that.

498
00:33:40,410 --> 00:33:41,540
So that's one idea.

499
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:47,200
The other thing, it seems like there's some friction points that we need to overcome.

500
00:33:47,420 --> 00:33:53,900
One that I've always talked about is, you know, we need the people that come to work

501
00:33:53,900 --> 00:34:00,660
for BPD have to feel supported by city government and city officials, and I think we're doing

502
00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:06,740
a better job at that. But that has to be there, because we can have all the incentives in

503
00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:16,780
the world. And if people feel like they're either not appreciated or their service

504
00:34:16,780 --> 00:34:21,860
is more at risk than it might be in another local agency, we're not going to be able

505
00:34:21,860 --> 00:34:26,720
to recruit those people regardless of how much better our compensation is to our

506
00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:30,140
benefit packages or our bonuses and other incentives.

507
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:35,160
But so along that

508
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:40,900
lines I'm wondering about laterals we talk a lot about getting getting new

509
00:34:40,900 --> 00:34:48,800
recruits in and the process it takes to get those folks trained and working in

510
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:52,780
the department and it takes a couple of years sometimes before you have someone who's really

511
00:34:52,780 --> 00:34:57,580
effective and on the job. Of course, laterals is a much quicker path. I understand everybody

512
00:34:57,580 --> 00:35:04,420
is after the same laterals. So I'm interested in hearing about that. But the other thing,

513
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:10,580
the other friction point I think that is the residential academy. And I'm wondering

514
00:35:10,580 --> 00:35:16,360
if you could speak a little bit about if we could come up with a process that didn't

515
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:22,920
require a residential academy and instead would have some sort of day training. It would seem like

516
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:30,180
it would open it to a wider pool of applicants than we can currently get. If you have someone who

517
00:35:30,180 --> 00:35:33,860
wants to serve in the police department, but they have a young family and they can't be

518
00:35:33,860 --> 00:35:38,820
away for the number of weeks that they'd have to be to serve in a residential academy. I mean,

519
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:43,740
have you, has that been discussed? I know that there, I know it's been brought up in the

520
00:35:43,740 --> 00:35:49,320
past and I've heard that there's resistance to it. But can you speak a little bit about that?

521
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,820
Yeah. Which one do you want me to hit on first? Lateral?

522
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:56,480
I guess Residential Academy.

523
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:04,060
So it's a 17-week academy and you have to live there and you're home on weekends and you have

524
00:36:04,060 --> 00:36:08,000
to leave on weekends too. So it's also interesting with our applicants because

525
00:36:08,820 --> 00:36:11,980
some are from Connecticut, one is from New York.

526
00:36:12,300 --> 00:36:15,300
So they're not driving home the five to six hours after,

527
00:36:15,580 --> 00:36:17,720
so they're having to find a place while they're here,

528
00:36:17,820 --> 00:36:19,920
but they're not really living here on weekdays.

529
00:36:20,580 --> 00:36:23,220
So on weekends only, they just need a place.

530
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:25,280
So it puts strain there too.

531
00:36:27,300 --> 00:36:29,320
I think the Academy also has maybe the biggest class

532
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:30,660
they've ever had, almost with 60 officers.

533
00:36:30,820 --> 00:36:32,180
I don't think the building in staffs that.

534
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,640
So I love the idea of the day and going home

535
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:40,880
because it would get people physically here too, in housing, get situated versus being

536
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:45,040
out of the academy and then now finding housing too and becoming a Brandon officer with a lot

537
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:49,620
going on and like you're saying kind of families or moms with young kids or dads.

538
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:58,000
Is our chief on? I don't know because I might know more because it's more like

539
00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:03,780
I don't think we can change the academy standard. I don't know who would change that

540
00:37:03,780 --> 00:37:11,020
And people talk about having one of our a BPD one only and that probably would have worked best because it's some of the best instructors to

541
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:14,900
When we had more officers. I don't know how we'd pull it off now

542
00:37:14,900 --> 00:37:18,120
The only thing I'd always say that I missed about that is it's very small

543
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,320
I think she just sent something to be hundred media officers in the whole state

544
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,080
So you get that networking when you're all at the academy together

545
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:28,160
So my closest friends were from that and I've used them and I've used their resources

546
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:31,920
The other recruiter right now at VSP was in my class 20 years ago

547
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:37,440
who turn it around McKenna. So you get that networking. But I don't think we could. Yeah, chief.

548
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:44,700
Do you get the feedback that people would be interested in becoming police officers, but

549
00:37:45,620 --> 00:37:50,580
that the residential academy is a reason that they can't?

550
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:57,000
I haven't got... Oh, I'm sorry. I was just going to say when I was a police commissioner and this

551
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:04,680
came up. People said that. People said that they walked away from the academy because it took them

552
00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:11,480
away from their family. They had family obligations and they couldn't be there that long. And then

553
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:18,880
there was a there was also a previous discussion about Champlain College doing something. But

554
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:24,100
I'll go back to allow you to finish a corporal earn you were saying. And then we can go to

555
00:38:24,100 --> 00:38:30,040
chief mirad for his feedback on anything that has been more recently discussed thank you so much

556
00:38:30,900 --> 00:38:36,180
yeah I don't know but I mean I've definitely had a few people talk about become you'll be like oh

557
00:38:36,180 --> 00:38:42,440
you know I'm a new mom and I have a baby at home so I've had that but I haven't had as much as you

558
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:46,920
think because I think by the time they talk to me I'm like these are the standards and there

559
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:51,700
is no in between so I have to be like this is so I don't people aren't trying to argue with me

560
00:38:51,700 --> 00:38:56,560
or anything or I mean I've had a few who are like okay or I can't do that now so I'm sure I've

561
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:01,400
lost people because of that but I just I bet it's greater too than what I know because for me I'm

562
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:05,460
like all right this is the academy this is when you're going this is so I'm already kind of more

563
00:39:05,460 --> 00:39:06,720
a little sticking

564
00:39:09,660 --> 00:39:13,180
to the standards of what they have to meet. I understand.

565
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:18,620
I don't know if the

566
00:39:19,860 --> 00:39:26,640
Councilor Grant if you're having the Chief weigh in or yes Chief Murad would you like to weigh

567
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:35,340
again with any recent discussion about the possibility of having the Academy in a different

568
00:39:35,340 --> 00:39:42,400
place or whatever more recent information you can provide for us would be greatly appreciated.

569
00:39:42,740 --> 00:39:43,140
Thank you.

570
00:39:43,820 --> 00:39:44,240
Sure.

571
00:39:44,580 --> 00:39:49,840
So I'm part of a group, a subcommittee of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council called

572
00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:51,720
the Entrance Test Working Group.

573
00:39:51,940 --> 00:39:54,660
We have changed the standards for the entrance exam.

574
00:39:54,660 --> 00:40:00,220
That is both a not both, but it is a a three-part process. There is a written entrance exam

575
00:40:00,220 --> 00:40:04,960
There is a physical PT test exam, and then there's also a

576
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:07,780
psychological inventory essentially a

577
00:40:08,420 --> 00:40:11,760
test a psych test we use the MMPI 3

578
00:40:12,540 --> 00:40:15,700
That came from our review on our subcommittee

579
00:40:15,700 --> 00:40:21,420
We chose a vendor to create a written exam that we've had some difficulty

580
00:40:21,420 --> 00:40:26,280
implementing that, and the academy itself has had a certain amount of turmoil.

581
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:32,420
The academy works, as Corporal Irwin mentioned, it covers all departments throughout the state.

582
00:40:32,500 --> 00:40:35,860
The only way to become a level 3 certified officer in the state of Vermont is through

583
00:40:35,860 --> 00:40:36,880
the Vermont Police Academy.

584
00:40:37,460 --> 00:40:43,460
There are only, however, about 880 officers throughout the state, and so the number

585
00:40:43,460 --> 00:40:47,620
of recruits that are going through at any given time ranges from 30 to 50, which

586
00:40:47,620 --> 00:40:48,120
is high.

587
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:55,180
50 they really can barely process, 30 is low, but the idea of having an entire

588
00:40:55,180 --> 00:40:59,680
academy for four recruits as we currently are going to field in August is

589
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:05,220
completely not feasible. Even the idea of having an academy for let's say 15

590
00:41:05,220 --> 00:41:08,900
recruits which is what the totality of Chittenden County may be sending to

591
00:41:08,900 --> 00:41:14,240
the August Police Academy is a really narrow margin for feasibility. One of

592
00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:18,580
One of the challenges that the academy has had around splitting and trying to do more

593
00:41:18,580 --> 00:41:22,300
than one in more than one location is that economy of scale.

594
00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:27,520
They're already not realizing an economy of scale even with the full state academy splitting

595
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:28,860
it would reduce that further.

596
00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:33,080
There are also concerns that they've had, a lot of concerns they've had around different

597
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:37,560
standards and or different methods of instruction at two different academies.

598
00:41:37,900 --> 00:41:41,600
I am much less concerned about those simply because I believe the Chittenden County

599
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:46,640
Academy, if such a thing were to exist, or Northern Vermont Academy, if such a thing were

600
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,600
to exist, would have good standards of education.

601
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:52,320
I believe we send some of the best instructors down there.

602
00:41:52,940 --> 00:41:58,300
Recently in the last class, one of our instructors was voted the most effective instructor by

603
00:41:58,300 --> 00:41:59,020
the class itself.

604
00:41:59,540 --> 00:42:01,780
We have really good people that go down there and do it.

605
00:42:01,900 --> 00:42:02,980
Could we do it ourselves?

606
00:42:03,260 --> 00:42:03,900
Absolutely not.

607
00:42:04,060 --> 00:42:09,700
Even when we had 105 authorized and 97 officers, we could not have run a police academy

608
00:42:09,700 --> 00:42:10,120
ourselves.

609
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,400
It just, we are not able to dedicate resources to that.

610
00:42:13,780 --> 00:42:19,840
When I was in New York, I was one member of a 35-person company, and that was one of 49

611
00:42:20,250 --> 00:42:24,180
companies in a 1,750-person class.

612
00:42:24,700 --> 00:42:27,540
That is the size of an entity that runs its own academy.

613
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:31,760
New York City runs its own, the State of New York runs its own separately.

614
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,180
Most other agencies do not run their own academies.

615
00:42:35,180 --> 00:42:39,420
they almost always pool with other agencies simply because of economies of scale.

616
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:51,220
As the talk of moving the academy just stopped, I mean when we think about Chittenden County

617
00:42:51,220 --> 00:43:00,160
being the most populous county and having to send people to such a remote area really causes

618
00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:09,540
It is a remote area, but it's also central, and it's remote in a fair way for everybody.

619
00:43:09,980 --> 00:43:16,080
So whether you're coming from Bennington or whether you're coming from Canaan, it's basically

620
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:17,220
the same kind of distance.

621
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:20,560
And it also exists in the old Vermont sanatorium.

622
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:23,900
So they had an existing building that was sufficiently sized.

623
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:25,160
It's got rooms.

624
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:26,900
It's got grounds.

625
00:43:26,900 --> 00:43:32,680
it's got investments in the infrastructure with regard to a shooting range and a place where they

626
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:37,980
can drive and do driving instruction and a gymnasium and a cafeteria to serve, you know,

627
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:43,860
50 people living there during the whole week. All of those things are challenges to try to

628
00:43:43,860 --> 00:43:48,440
erect something new. Give me 75 million bucks and I could build one here in Chittenden County

629
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:53,420
and probably staff it and get it running for us. I would love to do that and actually change

630
00:43:53,420 --> 00:43:58,620
the sort of pedagogy for the profession throughout the state. That would be pretty awesome. We'd

631
00:43:58,620 --> 00:44:03,100
put it right in Williston on the interstate and make it close to everybody with regard

632
00:44:03,100 --> 00:44:07,120
to 89. But I don't think anybody's got 75 million bucks to make that happen.

633
00:44:07,900 --> 00:44:13,560
But maybe we need to be asking. I mean, one of the things I know that I've been talking

634
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:21,120
about is that we as a city council, we constantly see a lot of money come through federally

635
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:29,540
for various infrastructure programs and I've been listening to, periodically I listen to

636
00:44:29,540 --> 00:44:36,680
police podcasts and I've just been hearing some things about how at the federal level

637
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:47,220
it may be just us lobbying our representative and our senators to say, hey, we need money

638
00:44:47,220 --> 00:44:54,900
for this to start that conversation I think I think that we don't ask the

639
00:44:54,900 --> 00:44:59,580
answers always no but we have to start more to think

640
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:13,920
Think out the box, but thank you for that. That's a good, we start with the figure of $75 million and we just see what happens. I think there'd be a great benefit to that.

641
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:17,140
Any other questions, Councillor Barla?

642
00:45:17,140 --> 00:45:24,220
it. I guess one of the things I am interested in and I mentioned was lateral hires and I know

643
00:45:24,220 --> 00:45:32,460
laterals were pulling from the same small universe of law enforcement professionals but

644
00:45:34,750 --> 00:45:44,720
have we had success in pulling lateral hires with our incentives and

645
00:45:44,720 --> 00:45:46,440
and bonuses?

646
00:45:49,300 --> 00:45:55,880
I would say no for a lateral in Vermont. So I'm not getting other Vermont

647
00:45:55,880 --> 00:46:01,740
officers not leaving their agency to come to ours, which they used to. Everybody would lead

648
00:46:01,740 --> 00:46:05,580
and everybody wanted Burlington or BSQ whether the two largest agencies are considered the

649
00:46:05,580 --> 00:46:10,820
two best. That narrative has changed a bit. We're getting laterals. We have two or had

650
00:46:10,820 --> 00:46:17,880
two most recently I'd say from Texas. We have one from Virginia. We just had one. He was a retired

651
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:29,440
officer out of Texas but with New Hampshire. But I would say our laterals are more by a lifestyle.

652
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:38,660
So somebody else's partner got a job at UVL. Stephen Williamson from Texas. His wife is at

653
00:46:38,660 --> 00:46:45,760
NFI as a CFO. So it's more something bringing them to Vermont and then they're choosing our agency.

654
00:46:46,460 --> 00:46:52,800
Not because of out-of-state recruitment efforts that we have going on through marketing or anything

655
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:58,200
like that. Correct. Okay, thank you. And not because they're attracted to probably Torpedi,

656
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:02,620
I think it's something that brought them here but then they do choose us from either we pay the

657
00:47:02,620 --> 00:47:09,100
modes, maybe our bonus largest municipal agency.

658
00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:16,240
Just for a little point of clarification, I'm sorry, Councillor, just for a point of clarification,

659
00:47:16,420 --> 00:47:20,920
from 2010 through 2019, we averaged 2.1 laterals per year.

660
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:27,620
I'm not counting 2020 and 2021 when we weren't allowed to hire, but from 2022 through 2024,

661
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:30,600
we've averaged 3.2 laterals per year.

662
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:32,440
So we have improved that number.

663
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:37,080
Good, thank you for that.

664
00:47:37,820 --> 00:47:40,780
And then I guess the last thing I mentioned earlier,

665
00:47:40,900 --> 00:47:46,220
maybe a marketing effort with a professional marketing firm

666
00:47:46,220 --> 00:47:51,220
might be something to consider into that end.

667
00:47:51,740 --> 00:47:56,120
Also, do we attend like national trade shows

668
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:57,940
and law enforcement trade shows

669
00:47:57,940 --> 00:48:01,140
and those sorts of things where that kind of networking

670
00:48:01,140 --> 00:48:04,140
that might be useful in recruitment could happen?

671
00:48:05,820 --> 00:48:07,960
I haven't been to a trade show,

672
00:48:08,140 --> 00:48:09,040
just the one on how I mentioned

673
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:11,040
kind of the international chief of police,

674
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:11,920
that networking.

675
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:15,200
And then regarding the marketing,

676
00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:17,840
the chief a little while ago put out an RFP.

677
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:20,160
And I think one of the people,

678
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:22,380
All-Star Talents, who he said no to at the time,

679
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:24,960
really liked this other company two years ago,

680
00:48:25,020 --> 00:48:26,400
but that was like 250,000.

681
00:48:27,780 --> 00:48:34,180
But all-star talent was somebody else who put their proposal in, and I actually have a meeting

682
00:48:34,180 --> 00:48:38,260
with them on August 8th just to see, again, like, what's changed or what can we do?

683
00:48:38,700 --> 00:48:40,560
So Anha, Shannon, and I are supposed to meet with them.

684
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,700
And that's exactly what they're, like, a professional marketing firm who was interested

685
00:48:43,700 --> 00:48:45,280
in working with us a few years ago.

686
00:48:46,460 --> 00:48:51,120
And it seems like there's got to be some kind of, I mean, what we're doing isn't

687
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:51,480
working.

688
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:56,180
So, and in my business, we had a hard time hiring like sales representatives.

689
00:48:56,640 --> 00:49:02,380
And so we, we just keep on running what we call experiments to try to see if something catches.

690
00:49:03,020 --> 00:49:08,580
And, you know, for, for every 10 attempts at something, maybe only one of them works.

691
00:49:08,660 --> 00:49:13,140
But if it works well, and it works for a while, you can sort of increment those numbers more.

692
00:49:13,260 --> 00:49:21,460
So I would encourage running some marketing experiments to try to see what appeals and what kind of, you know, to help build that.

693
00:49:21,460 --> 00:49:28,400
pipeline on the front end of applications that you had mentioned. So it's so much less than it

694
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:42,280
used to be. So thanks. I would also say that one of my concerns was when I was on the police

695
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:45,720
commission there were some things that were being said about oversight and accountability

696
00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:52,460
and kind of the politics of what was going on in the city, and oversight being blamed,

697
00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:57,700
or saying people didn't want to be here because of those discussions.

698
00:49:58,600 --> 00:49:59,840
And I'm like, really?

699
00:50:00,240 --> 00:50:07,600
And I, so the correction that you recently made with regards to the department's listing,

700
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:13,340
that was out of date on the Vermont criminal justice counsel site,

701
00:50:13,340 --> 00:50:17,120
That was not the only place where I found our salary wrong.

702
00:50:17,620 --> 00:50:21,980
And I did bring that up when we got it fixed in other places, but for whatever, I couldn't

703
00:50:21,980 --> 00:50:25,120
– glad we finally got it to you to have that done.

704
00:50:25,460 --> 00:50:30,860
But I went and I said, if I'm a lateral someplace else and I'm searching and I would do searching,

705
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:36,020
I would literally be searching for Burlington Police Department and other agencies would

706
00:50:36,020 --> 00:50:36,520
come up.

707
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:41,880
So that kind of told me that other agencies were using digital advertising and maybe

708
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:46,360
we don't need a full-on marketing, but we definitely at the bare minimum need digital

709
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:53,300
advertising. And I did talk to HR about it when now we have our HR director recently left.

710
00:50:54,240 --> 00:50:58,140
That was something that they said they were talking about. So I'm definitely going to bring

711
00:50:58,140 --> 00:51:03,500
that up with the the mayor again, because I feel that that is a tool that is now standard.

712
00:51:03,500 --> 00:51:13,740
And when we talk about social media, it is just very clear that we need to be using social

713
00:51:13,740 --> 00:51:17,080
media for multiple things, number one, to increase support of the department.

714
00:51:17,940 --> 00:51:23,620
Number two, that can help with recruitment as well, and I think we need a plan for

715
00:51:23,620 --> 00:51:23,860
that.

716
00:51:23,980 --> 00:51:25,800
I think we'll discuss that a little bit later.

717
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:34,080
I want to say thank you for both attending tonight.

718
00:51:34,260 --> 00:51:41,740
This has been very, very interesting, very thought-provoking, and hope to follow up with

719
00:51:41,740 --> 00:51:46,580
you soon, maybe have you back, but I think definitely the three of us will be interested

720
00:51:46,580 --> 00:51:51,060
in following up with you, maybe, you know, off schedule of the meetings, just to have

721
00:51:51,060 --> 00:51:59,320
some internal conversations, maybe we need a subcommittee to brainstorm for

722
00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:02,640
recruitment because we are in different times and we do have to think in

723
00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:08,220
different ways and once again I can't I can't tell you how much I appreciate that

724
00:52:08,220 --> 00:52:11,500
and being on the commission I learned a lot I've learned even more today and

725
00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:17,440
I that's really great and it's just great to see you it's great to see the

726
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:25,040
faces of the department which doesn't have it as much as I like to see and I

727
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:28,720
think other people like to see so glad to have you on this meeting and I'll

728
00:52:28,720 --> 00:52:31,340
definitely I think three of us we're gonna come up the plan and we're gonna

729
00:52:31,340 --> 00:52:35,980
promote this meeting and we're gonna really ask people to look at it and I

730
00:52:35,980 --> 00:52:38,880
think it'll be an interesting experience because it's about saying

731
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:41,820
okay we're gonna put this out there but we're gonna be intentional about it

732
00:52:41,820 --> 00:52:46,400
we're gonna put it on this platform this platform this platform we can see

733
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:52,060
who's viewing it, who's interacting with it, pushing views.

734
00:52:53,220 --> 00:53:00,280
We can make that work so we can see how effective it is because social media allows that.

735
00:53:01,220 --> 00:53:06,080
And Courtney Lambden, I see you, hint, hint.

736
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:14,520
I think this would be a great discussion to do an article on, especially the challenges,

737
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:18,420
you know going in more detail with that. So I thank you both very much for your

738
00:53:18,420 --> 00:53:22,020
time. Is there anything else you'd like to quickly add?

739
00:53:25,220 --> 00:53:26,620
Just very quickly. I think

740
00:53:26,620 --> 00:53:30,940
Anhaan too is working, she's again like the promoting NAPR and I think working

741
00:53:30,940 --> 00:53:34,300
with Digital right now and creating something with the local news department

742
00:53:34,300 --> 00:53:39,780
too but you guys can talk about that too at a different time for time. Yeah

743
00:53:39,780 --> 00:53:44,400
like maybe I would love to see working with like the Media Factory or Town

744
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:55,120
meeting TV. They have resources, production resources that are significantly less expensive

745
00:53:55,920 --> 00:54:02,820
than other agencies in their high quality. And I just feel like we should be able to

746
00:54:03,580 --> 00:54:10,200
also get some pro bono work. I would really, it's something I talked to Shannon and I'm

747
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:12,300
I'm gonna deep dive that more next week

748
00:54:12,300 --> 00:54:16,380
and we'll let, you know, maybe I'll start like a thread

749
00:54:17,040 --> 00:54:17,520
on that.

750
00:54:19,740 --> 00:54:22,860
Well, thank you very, very much.

751
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:26,740
Again, we really appreciate you being here.

752
00:54:26,900 --> 00:54:30,440
Your time is valuable and we understand that.

753
00:54:31,780 --> 00:54:32,860
Really appreciate it.

754
00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:34,320
Thank you, thank you for having us.

755
00:54:34,780 --> 00:54:35,340
Thank you.

756
00:54:35,340 --> 00:54:35,820
Yeah, thank you both.

757
00:54:36,760 --> 00:54:39,780
And I think I see Lacey

758
00:54:39,780 --> 00:54:44,740
And I think I, did I see BC, McCromby, but under Lacy's name?

759
00:54:44,740 --> 00:54:50,120
Yeah, I shared the link to the webinar and it was pre-named.

760
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,940
So unfortunately for Marcia, she's also named Lacy tonight.

761
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:55,920
And we can't change it.

762
00:54:56,140 --> 00:54:56,560
I was dry.

763
00:54:56,720 --> 00:54:58,520
I was like, is there, no, no.

764
00:54:58,740 --> 00:55:00,020
So here we are.

765
00:55:00,240 --> 00:55:03,080
Well, thank you very much for your patience.

766
00:55:03,620 --> 00:55:06,240
While the last presentation went a little bit longer,

767
00:55:06,240 --> 00:55:13,300
but it was, it was very, as you heard, very interesting and very important. So we have

768
00:55:14,240 --> 00:55:18,900
BC that's short for battalion commander, some people were correct?

769
00:55:19,580 --> 00:55:25,400
Almost, battalion chief of EMA. Battalion chief, thank you very much because the,

770
00:55:25,820 --> 00:55:32,000
the, the ranks are a little bit different for the fire department versus the police department.

771
00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:39,780
And if you could just give us first, just a little bit introduction about you and when

772
00:55:39,780 --> 00:55:45,500
you joined the Burlington Fire Department, because I am to understand you are our first

773
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:49,500
female commander at the level.

774
00:55:49,980 --> 00:55:50,820
So that's fantastic.

775
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:52,320
Yes.

776
00:55:52,980 --> 00:55:58,020
I don't know if this is normal policy in your meetings, but just so you know, my presentation

777
00:55:58,020 --> 00:56:02,140
patient is a little long in case anyone wants to take a little break before we get started

778
00:56:02,140 --> 00:56:03,640
just to use the restroom or something.

779
00:56:04,580 --> 00:56:07,700
But yeah, so I've been there a year now.

780
00:56:08,060 --> 00:56:09,040
I'm the first female.

781
00:56:09,540 --> 00:56:15,420
I think what's another important part to bring forward is that I'm also the first chief

782
00:56:15,420 --> 00:56:20,480
ever of EMS and we've never had one person that was solely in charge of EMS.

783
00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:26,600
So it's really been a unique experience and blessed to have been given the opportunity

784
00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:30,900
community to come in with, based on my experience, even though I had a lot, there's people have

785
00:56:30,900 --> 00:56:31,520
more, you know.

786
00:56:32,100 --> 00:56:36,120
And so, yeah, it's just great to be back in my home city.

787
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:39,080
Thank you for that.

788
00:56:39,300 --> 00:56:44,140
And I know that, I think we all know how busy the fire department has been.

789
00:56:44,420 --> 00:56:49,660
I know when I first, I had been on the police commission, and when I joined the Public

790
00:56:49,660 --> 00:56:54,820
Safety Committee, one of the things I wanted to do was immediately reach out to Chief

791
00:56:54,820 --> 00:56:55,280
LeChance.

792
00:56:55,280 --> 00:57:00,040
I'm like, tell me about the fire department because I see you out here all the time with

793
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:07,320
regards to dealing with other medical emergencies, but primarily very visible to people with

794
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:12,980
regards to the overdoses or the reports of overdoses or the wellness checks, et cetera.

795
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:19,640
And then we have the CRT team that was recently brought up, and you're here today along

796
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:29,660
with Lacey to talk about another project that I know the last time we were talking in email

797
00:57:29,660 --> 00:57:35,400
there were still things that were being worked on, but I will just let you take it away to

798
00:57:36,260 --> 00:57:42,440
give an introduction and then show your presentation. Is it okay for me to share my screen?

799
00:57:44,600 --> 00:57:52,300
Before I do that, I just want to say that the Burlington Fire Department has been working

800
00:57:52,300 --> 00:57:53,560
on two different initiatives.

801
00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:59,720
And today I'm going to dig deep into the prevent initiative, and that's where we'll start

802
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:00,060
off.

803
00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:04,860
And then the portion where Lacey and I and other people within the city have been working,

804
00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:10,240
which later you'll find out was called CityLink, that is something that was in

805
00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:16,480
emails, you know, very much still in the works, but they're both interconnected. But for the sake

806
00:58:16,480 --> 00:58:23,400
of trying to present what we're doing first, we're just going to focus on pre-hospital buprenorphine,

807
00:58:23,460 --> 00:58:29,160
which is really suboxone that we're giving. And so let me pull, I'll share my screen first

808
00:58:31,080 --> 00:58:35,360
and then get over here to the slides.

809
00:58:39,850 --> 00:58:41,790
I do have notes that I'm also referring

810
00:58:41,790 --> 00:58:47,410
to while I'm talking to you just because there's so much that I want to keep that as organized as

811
00:58:47,410 --> 00:58:54,810
possible for you. So this is the prevent initiative. It initially started at the level of the Vermont

812
00:58:54,810 --> 00:59:03,190
Department of Health and also UVM Medical Center, Dr. Daniel Wilson as you probably know. He has

813
00:59:03,190 --> 00:59:10,390
created this prevent initiative as pre-hospital buprenorphine out in the field for EMS and

814
00:59:10,390 --> 00:59:19,490
fire. As you know, I'm battalion chief of EMS. Some of the stuff that I'm going to go over in the

815
00:59:19,490 --> 00:59:26,150
beginning is really just like an overview of why addressing overdoses are so critical, our goals

816
00:59:26,150 --> 00:59:31,490
and objectives with this initiative. And I expect that there's a lot of this that you might already

817
00:59:31,490 --> 00:59:39,830
know based on, you know, these are conversations you have all the time. So forgive me, it's

818
00:59:39,830 --> 00:59:41,010
someone is not familiar with it,

819
00:59:41,110 --> 00:59:43,450
they have a little bit of idea why it's so important.

820
00:59:44,970 --> 00:59:49,070
So to start off with our number one reason

821
00:59:49,070 --> 00:59:53,370
why it's so important is that we have seen a major increase

822
00:59:53,370 --> 00:59:58,370
in responding to overdoses since the year of 2017.

823
00:59:59,050 --> 00:59:59,790
As you can see,

824
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:08,840
Everyone can see the slides at this point? Can just one person say yes? Yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you for doing that.

825
01:00:09,240 --> 01:00:19,380
So if you look at the bottom of this chart, it will show you that blue is one year ago. We have our OD totals, the OD transported and the OD not transported.

826
01:00:19,380 --> 01:00:30,380
From 2017 all the way up to now, we've seen 100 or to 2023, we've seen 188% increases of overdoses.

827
01:00:33,180 --> 01:00:38,440
So some of the other reasons why it's so important to address overdoses.

828
01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:41,340
And the first one is going to be the public health impact.

829
01:00:42,300 --> 01:00:48,740
So, you know, overdoses lead to severe health outcomes, including death and long-term disabilities.

830
01:00:48,740 --> 01:00:56,560
There's an increasing number of overdoses strained within the emergency services and in the hospital services.

831
01:00:58,860 --> 01:01:06,860
Mortality rates, it's impacting the community health, reducing the life or the average life expectancy.

832
01:01:07,680 --> 01:01:16,960
When it comes to economic and social costs, just significant economic costs due to emergency medical response, hospitalizations and rehab.

833
01:01:17,640 --> 01:01:21,740
social impact. You know the families and communities suffer from the loss of a

834
01:01:21,740 --> 01:01:25,660
loved one. There's increased crime rates and homelessness are often

835
01:01:25,660 --> 01:01:32,560
associated with high opiate abuse rates. We have our role of the first

836
01:01:32,560 --> 01:01:38,000
responder and they're really that frontline person that's out there in

837
01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:43,020
defense combating this opiate crisis. Obviously in our city we have a lot of

838
01:01:43,020 --> 01:01:51,200
social services that we're very fortunate to have. And we need to really have this need for

839
01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:58,640
supporting first responders. I do apologize. Let me just shut this one door real quick.

840
01:02:05,100 --> 01:02:10,540
I have a wind chime that is very loud and I had it all tied up, but you can still hear it.

841
01:02:11,080 --> 01:02:15,420
So I apologize. So we really need to support our first responders with adequate training

842
01:02:15,420 --> 01:02:22,500
resources, just increase, like to help handle the increase in numbers. And then the importance

843
01:02:22,500 --> 01:02:27,800
for immediate action, you know, addressing the issue now can prevent further increases.

844
01:02:28,520 --> 01:02:33,280
You know, we can ensure that the health and safety of the community by reducing overdose

845
01:02:33,280 --> 01:02:36,700
incidences and overall improving public health.

846
01:02:39,650 --> 01:02:44,570
All right. So before I start going into

847
01:02:44,570 --> 01:02:51,750
my story. I want you to know that it's going to sound pretty dramatic and I feel very comfortable

848
01:02:52,430 --> 01:03:00,630
sharing this story with you out of the respect of certain family members still within the city of

849
01:03:00,630 --> 01:03:05,950
Burlington. I won't go into too much detail seeing that this is recording but feel free to ever

850
01:03:05,950 --> 01:03:11,330
ask me more and no matter what I do my voice always gets a little shaky when I do share

851
01:03:11,330 --> 01:03:16,670
the story. So it's odd that that happens despite how many times I tell it. So just

852
01:03:16,670 --> 01:03:17,470
give me one second.

853
01:03:20,960 --> 01:03:25,760
These are my parents. This is my mom and my dad. They're no

854
01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:32,980
longer with us. My parents met in a halfway house. My mom was in the army and

855
01:03:32,980 --> 01:03:38,280
then she was reported to have been raped and had a mental breakdown. My dad was

856
01:03:38,280 --> 01:03:45,400
a mechanical engineer, very well liked student of BHS, used to help teach summer school classes

857
01:03:46,380 --> 01:03:54,380
after graduating college, he developed schizophrenia. I'm going to fast forward a little bit through

858
01:03:55,240 --> 01:04:02,660
everything relating to them, but just know that my mother ultimately died of COPD and my father

859
01:04:02,660 --> 01:04:10,200
So I had a hypothermia by jumping in Lake Champlain at the Boat House back in 1996, thinking

860
01:04:10,200 --> 01:04:12,060
that he was going to be reborn.

861
01:04:14,300 --> 01:04:21,440
So when I was conceived, it was always known that I was not going to be living with my

862
01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:23,620
parents given that they met in a halfway house.

863
01:04:24,320 --> 01:04:26,920
My dad was a patient of the Howard Center also.

864
01:04:26,920 --> 01:04:31,340
So I end up staying with my mom's mom.

865
01:04:31,860 --> 01:04:34,260
The courts, even though my sides of the family

866
01:04:34,260 --> 01:04:36,440
went to court to figure out who would have me,

867
01:04:37,260 --> 01:04:39,260
the courts wanted me to be with my mom's mom

868
01:04:39,260 --> 01:04:43,780
who low income was on government assistance

869
01:04:43,780 --> 01:04:46,800
and I had a half brother and a half sister there.

870
01:04:47,420 --> 01:04:50,120
And so the other side of my family

871
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:52,860
was a little more well to do in another part of Vermont.

872
01:04:52,860 --> 01:04:59,240
And I really had this privilege of this unique upbringing of seeing the best of both worlds.

873
01:04:59,740 --> 01:05:03,320
I've also seen the worst of both worlds I feel like at times too.

874
01:05:03,860 --> 01:05:12,280
And, you know, and my primary residence was on Riverside Avenue and there was a lot of substance abuse.

875
01:05:12,520 --> 01:05:16,820
There was a lot of drug and just violence, whether physical or emotional.

876
01:05:18,040 --> 01:05:22,180
and you know I protected that side of the family despite other people getting

877
01:05:22,180 --> 01:05:27,580
involved and basically what I just want to say out of this is that yes life

878
01:05:27,580 --> 01:05:32,380
could have looked different and I think that what we're about to start doing out

879
01:05:32,380 --> 01:05:37,660
here in the city of Burlington is very helpful and it's gonna really make a

880
01:05:37,660 --> 01:05:41,680
change it could it could have made my life look a little different. When that

881
01:05:41,680 --> 01:05:46,120
said just know that I very much appreciate the experiences I had

882
01:05:46,120 --> 01:05:52,400
because if I didn't have them I wouldn't be who I am today. So now that you know a little bit more

883
01:05:52,400 --> 01:05:58,480
about me you know why I have such a passion for what I do you know I really want to help people.

884
01:05:58,620 --> 01:06:03,180
I want to help our community. I used to you know living on Riverside I used to go to

885
01:06:03,780 --> 01:06:09,580
the Bob and Mill almost every other day if not daily walking from one place to the other

886
01:06:09,580 --> 01:06:13,840
because my best friend lived there and for years like I would just walk around the city and I

887
01:06:13,840 --> 01:06:15,780
I mean, even when I was at Edmunds,

888
01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:17,100
I used to walk to school

889
01:06:17,100 --> 01:06:20,560
and because we didn't have a car, you know,

890
01:06:20,820 --> 01:06:23,360
and I would stay for after school activities.

891
01:06:23,740 --> 01:06:25,480
And I just was a very safe place.

892
01:06:25,700 --> 01:06:27,440
So it's been sad coming back here,

893
01:06:27,480 --> 01:06:29,720
but I do believe I have a lot of hope

894
01:06:29,720 --> 01:06:32,740
that we can move in a positive direction.

895
01:06:33,940 --> 01:06:36,740
So does anyone have any questions for me on that

896
01:06:36,740 --> 01:06:38,180
before I can start moving on?

897
01:06:43,010 --> 01:06:43,550
Nope, okay.

898
01:06:44,190 --> 01:06:46,550
So let's go into the prevent initiative.

899
01:06:49,050 --> 01:06:54,950
Just switch over my notes, we're going to talk about our goals and objectives, our key partners.

900
01:06:57,050 --> 01:07:02,850
Our primary focus is just really providing immediate access to medications for opioid use disorder.

901
01:07:09,270 --> 01:07:13,690
All right, so we are going to, and I do apologize for this one more time.

902
01:07:15,410 --> 01:07:15,970
Sorry

903
01:07:28,220 --> 01:07:29,040
about that.

904
01:07:30,220 --> 01:07:36,520
All right. So, our goals are to reduce the opioid overdose incidents. We're going to

905
01:07:36,520 --> 01:07:41,440
decrease the number of opioid overdose incidents, or, yeah, that's what we're striving to do.

906
01:07:43,580 --> 01:07:49,060
Implement preventative measures and rapid response protocols to address overdose effectively.

907
01:07:49,980 --> 01:07:55,360
Ensure immediate access to the medications, as we talked about, which are to use for

908
01:07:55,360 --> 01:08:02,660
people that are experiencing withdrawal symptoms from opiate use.

909
01:08:03,520 --> 01:08:05,780
I'll go into that a little bit more because I think I just misspoke.

910
01:08:08,940 --> 01:08:12,260
We want to improve just our continuity of care.

911
01:08:12,940 --> 01:08:15,260
We want to develop partnerships with local health services.

912
01:08:15,500 --> 01:08:22,520
We want to strengthen our community partnerships by working with various departments such

913
01:08:22,520 --> 01:08:27,400
as the Department of Health, local health organizations, community support centers.

914
01:08:31,870 --> 01:08:34,830
The objectives of the prevent, so those were our goals.

915
01:08:35,110 --> 01:08:37,530
The objectives are we're going to train first responders.

916
01:08:37,890 --> 01:08:41,490
A lot of this we've already accomplished and I'll get into next.

917
01:08:42,050 --> 01:08:44,510
We're going to develop and implement protocols.

918
01:08:44,930 --> 01:08:49,830
We're going to establish a referral system and we're going to monitor and evaluate progress.

919
01:08:57,850 --> 01:09:01,170
It's also very important that we raise public awareness.

920
01:09:01,170 --> 01:09:02,050
I

921
01:09:08,390 --> 01:09:10,390
am going to go ahead and switch out of this.

922
01:09:10,530 --> 01:09:12,790
I'm going to go to a different screen of mine.

923
01:09:13,950 --> 01:09:16,550
So now this is the actual prevent initiative.

924
01:09:16,990 --> 01:09:18,430
So this is a draft form.

925
01:09:18,910 --> 01:09:25,160
It's been updated and it's pretty much ready to go,

926
01:09:25,220 --> 01:09:27,740
but this is going to come from the Vermont Department of Health.

927
01:09:30,640 --> 01:09:32,920
I feel so unprofessional right now.

928
01:09:33,220 --> 01:09:37,240
I have a golden retriever lab puppy that just will not leave me alone.

929
01:09:37,240 --> 01:09:42,940
So give me just a second, and we can't hear you or tell, so you're all right.

930
01:09:43,060 --> 01:09:45,160
I can hear the wind chimes either.

931
01:09:45,760 --> 01:09:46,440
He's jumping on me with his toy.

932
01:09:47,240 --> 01:09:54,140
He's jumping on me with his toy, and I just, I thought we were good, but he must be getting bored.

933
01:09:59,440 --> 01:10:03,880
Well, and just FYI too, I think we're still seeing the slide show.

934
01:10:04,300 --> 01:10:05,300
Oh, okay, thank you.

935
01:10:06,540 --> 01:10:07,280
Or maybe the screen.

936
01:10:07,280 --> 01:10:10,500
All right, so let me go back to that and I'll fix it.

937
01:10:10,900 --> 01:10:11,340
So

938
01:10:23,950 --> 01:10:25,470
this is page one.

939
01:10:27,880 --> 01:10:34,520
Before I start kind of going walking through it, I just want to let you know that we're

940
01:10:34,520 --> 01:10:38,820
the second out of the State Department to start doing this pilot program.

941
01:10:40,040 --> 01:10:42,140
The first one has been Bennington Rescue.

942
01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:44,200
So

943
01:11:08,930 --> 01:11:14,750
the first one has been Bennington Rescue, and so we're up next to start launching

944
01:11:14,750 --> 01:11:21,950
this program. And after that, three more will go in the state. And if all goes well with

945
01:11:21,950 --> 01:11:27,570
this pilot program, the state will actually incorporate this protocol into the state protocols.

946
01:11:35,810 --> 01:11:43,530
So starting off, when we come across a patient who has had Narcan administered or we end

947
01:11:43,530 --> 01:11:50,890
up giving Narcan, we can end up going to this protocol and we can start utilizing

948
01:11:55,720 --> 01:12:03,160
So we have some inclusion or indications which it's acute withdrawal symptoms after reversal of opiate overdose with naloxone.

949
01:12:03,820 --> 01:12:16,670
Boncher indications, for the sake of this presentation, I would be happy to share this with the council and the committee just for the sake that you can get a better look at this with your own eyes afterwards.

950
01:12:17,670 --> 01:12:21,070
But please just know that it is a draft copy.

951
01:12:21,070 --> 01:12:22,030
We're

952
01:12:25,800 --> 01:12:32,500
going to utilize a clinical opioid withdrawal scale to determine if someone meets the criteria

953
01:12:32,500 --> 01:12:35,160
to be able to continue on with this protocol.

954
01:12:35,620 --> 01:12:37,060
It's called the COWS.

955
01:12:37,700 --> 01:12:41,040
You need to have a number of seven or more to continue on with it.

956
01:12:41,640 --> 01:12:49,260
Right now, this protocol is written for once you get from the E to the A level and you

957
01:12:49,260 --> 01:12:54,060
determine that they do meet the score, you then call for a paramedic if they're

958
01:12:54,060 --> 01:12:57,120
are not already on scene to be able to help administer this.

959
01:12:58,780 --> 01:13:02,400
We have put in a variance with the state of Vermont

960
01:13:02,400 --> 01:13:06,580
to request that our AEMTs also be able to give this.

961
01:13:06,800 --> 01:13:09,580
There's about a 10-minute window for people

962
01:13:09,580 --> 01:13:13,440
to start treatment before they just walk away completely

963
01:13:13,440 --> 01:13:14,000
with us.

964
01:13:14,840 --> 01:13:15,920
So they meet the criteria.

965
01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:17,340
I'm just going to keep scrolling up and down,

966
01:13:17,360 --> 01:13:20,200
so we can go back to it and just emphasize what we're

967
01:13:20,200 --> 01:13:20,360
doing.

968
01:13:20,480 --> 01:13:22,260
So we come across someone who's

969
01:13:22,260 --> 01:13:28,260
had on naloxone or we give it, we go to this protocol knowing that they're probably going

970
01:13:28,260 --> 01:13:32,700
to start improving. They're going to be capable of making a decision whether they want to start

971
01:13:32,700 --> 01:13:39,020
this treatment. We're going to use the cow scale to be able to determine if they meet

972
01:13:39,020 --> 01:13:45,000
the qualifications. I can't remember the high number of this cow score, but I want

973
01:13:45,000 --> 01:13:50,900
to say it's either 28 or 48. So, 7 on that list is really not all that much to be

974
01:13:50,900 --> 01:13:53,620
to continue on with this.

975
01:13:54,580 --> 01:13:57,240
So we're going to provide counseling and assess the patient.

976
01:13:57,560 --> 01:14:02,300
We're going to ask if they're interested in buprenorphine and the treatment.

977
01:14:03,800 --> 01:14:08,380
As we talked about, you know, if a paramedic is not unseen at this point until the variance

978
01:14:08,380 --> 01:14:13,000
is either approved or denied, we're going to ask for a paramedic to come.

979
01:14:13,440 --> 01:14:17,180
We're also going to get right on the phone with medical direction as soon as we know

980
01:14:17,180 --> 01:14:19,520
that this person meets criteria.

981
01:14:21,040 --> 01:14:26,580
If they refuse, we're going to do our regular harm reduction protocol, which is offering

982
01:14:26,580 --> 01:14:31,540
them a naloxone-lead-behind kit, and then we're also going to connect them with any services

983
01:14:31,540 --> 01:14:34,660
if we know any that would be beneficial to them.

984
01:14:36,440 --> 01:14:44,160
The patient has to be willing to consent for treatment and a referral for a medication

985
01:14:44,160 --> 01:14:50,860
will be used as an order provider. So, for instance, what that means is we're going to

986
01:14:50,860 --> 01:14:59,640
refer one person to, like, Howard Center of Chittenden Clinic. However, due to Howard

987
01:14:59,640 --> 01:14:59,960
chid-

988
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:05,880
Public hearing and clinic being on Dorset Street, I believe. A lot of people aren't going to be

989
01:15:05,880 --> 01:15:11,740
able to walk there, so instead, we're going to have a be at the health center safely. Street,

990
01:15:11,920 --> 01:15:18,080
which is a 45 Clark Street in Burlington. So, as you can see, we're going to administer

991
01:15:18,640 --> 01:15:23,560
buprenorphine. They're sublingual strips. The way that this medication works and why

992
01:15:23,560 --> 01:15:28,600
it's not truly like when people just say buprenorphine, it's actually suboxone, which

993
01:15:28,600 --> 01:15:32,080
which is mixed with Narcan, which is naloxone.

994
01:15:32,620 --> 01:15:40,080
And if someone is given the medication sublingually, it'll work as it's supposed to.

995
01:15:40,200 --> 01:15:46,680
However, if they were to melt the medication down to inject it, the naloxone would then

996
01:15:46,680 --> 01:15:49,440
become activated and it would stop the buprenorphine.

997
01:15:50,420 --> 01:15:53,280
Buprenorphine, naloxone, it is a controlled substance.

998
01:15:54,360 --> 01:16:06,340
There's been a lot of legalities when it comes to adding this medication out onto our streets, and then also in particular with AEMTs being able to do that.

999
01:16:09,330 --> 01:16:14,710
So when we give the patient, they agree for everything in the scenario.

1000
01:16:15,550 --> 01:16:18,830
And so we give them the medication, they're starting to feel better pretty quickly.

1001
01:16:19,850 --> 01:16:25,870
And so, we're going to follow up with having them, we're going to refer them to Turning

1002
01:16:25,870 --> 01:16:27,050
Point Center of Chittenden Clinic.

1003
01:16:27,610 --> 01:16:32,370
And within 24 to 48 hours, someone from Turning Point is going to call them and they're just

1004
01:16:32,370 --> 01:16:34,250
going to really be that resource for them.

1005
01:16:34,430 --> 01:16:37,810
They're all of their providers, as you know, or the people that work there.

1006
01:16:37,950 --> 01:16:41,070
They've all been in recovery themselves and so they can relate to them.

1007
01:16:41,950 --> 01:16:46,430
Now, on the other hand, we're going to give them a little card that says, you

1008
01:16:46,430 --> 01:16:50,430
You know, tomorrow at 1 p.m., please go to the Howard Center's safe recovery location.

1009
01:16:50,570 --> 01:16:53,450
You're going to get your follow-up appointment and so forth.

1010
01:16:54,390 --> 01:16:58,730
Out of all of this, we're really trying to get this patient to go to the hospital no matter

1011
01:16:58,730 --> 01:17:01,810
what by BFD via ambulance.

1012
01:17:02,190 --> 01:17:04,170
That is the goal of all of our treatment.

1013
01:17:04,390 --> 01:17:09,590
We just know from experience that a lot of these patients that should be patients like

1014
01:17:09,590 --> 01:17:12,750
walk off or run off even before we can make contact with them.

1015
01:17:12,750 --> 01:17:15,330
You know, we'll get a call in for someone who's overdose.

1016
01:17:15,730 --> 01:17:17,350
And next thing you know, they've already

1017
01:17:17,350 --> 01:17:20,030
had eight milligrams of Narcan, and they're running off.

1018
01:17:20,090 --> 01:17:21,630
And we never get to have that contact

1019
01:17:21,630 --> 01:17:23,310
because there's no way to chase them down

1020
01:17:23,310 --> 01:17:23,970
or something like that.

1021
01:17:24,050 --> 01:17:28,190
So we know that we want to transport all these patients

1022
01:17:28,190 --> 01:17:31,650
because there still is the STARS program up at the hospital

1023
01:17:31,650 --> 01:17:34,290
that can also just get them right into their services,

1024
01:17:34,510 --> 01:17:35,490
get them in the right places.

1025
01:17:35,910 --> 01:17:39,210
But should they not want to go to the hospital,

1026
01:17:39,210 --> 01:17:44,890
then they need to assign patient refusal form that's part of our state protocol as well.

1027
01:17:49,130 --> 01:17:55,960
This is just a little bit more background information, like our protocols are pretty

1028
01:17:55,960 --> 01:18:01,740
well written, so that way, like, say, should you forget the signs and symptoms, you know,

1029
01:18:01,820 --> 01:18:04,660
of what that would look like, you know, they give you examples of that,

1030
01:18:05,000 --> 01:18:12,780
a little algorithm of what we're doing. And then that's that. I will share that with you,

1031
01:18:12,780 --> 01:18:16,900
So as I said, as long as it's just going to stay within the committee.

1032
01:18:18,280 --> 01:18:21,320
And let me go back to this other slide.

1033
01:18:23,440 --> 01:18:30,980
Just to clarify, anything that you would want to share, but just to the committee for confidentiality

1034
01:18:30,980 --> 01:18:34,320
reasons, you would want to email to us offline.

1035
01:18:35,690 --> 01:18:37,120
This meeting is public.

1036
01:18:37,820 --> 01:18:38,280
Oh, yeah.

1037
01:18:38,560 --> 01:18:38,720
Okay.

1038
01:18:38,860 --> 01:18:39,400
Yeah.

1039
01:18:40,000 --> 01:18:40,240
Yeah.

1040
01:18:40,240 --> 01:18:45,420
I will do that. And it's not to say that it's not, it is, it's very much

1041
01:18:45,960 --> 01:18:49,480
Bennington right now, they already have this program up and running. I think

1042
01:18:49,480 --> 01:18:54,620
they were running for about two months now. They unfortunately didn't see, not

1043
01:18:54,620 --> 01:18:58,340
unfortunately, it's a good thing, but they didn't end up having any patients

1044
01:18:58,340 --> 01:19:02,800
that met the criteria the first month. In the city of Burlington, while it

1045
01:19:02,800 --> 01:19:05,760
might be a slow start, I really do think that we'll get some really good

1046
01:19:05,760 --> 01:19:09,200
data out of this and be able to see the effectiveness of this program.

1047
01:19:10,160 --> 01:19:14,040
But so if you were to look up Bennington Rescue, it's basically the same thing.

1048
01:19:14,500 --> 01:19:20,060
Dr. Wolfson worked with their department when they were getting started, and then he just

1049
01:19:20,060 --> 01:19:23,340
made this other document that's a little more appealing to the eye.

1050
01:19:26,170 --> 01:19:29,450
Let me just go back to the slides, nice and big.

1051
01:19:35,630 --> 01:19:39,990
All right, so our task list, get my other notes.

1052
01:19:39,990 --> 01:19:41,050
All

1053
01:19:46,590 --> 01:19:51,050
right, so, you know, the Vermont Department of Health has created this protocol.

1054
01:19:52,150 --> 01:19:57,970
As I said, the BFD has a pending variance request for AEMCs to be able to administer suboxone.

1055
01:19:59,190 --> 01:20:01,770
Training has been provided to all BFD members.

1056
01:20:02,690 --> 01:20:07,790
That training consisted of three different shifts that were very long days.

1057
01:20:08,210 --> 01:20:09,550
We had six sessions.

1058
01:20:10,750 --> 01:20:26,790
The first hour was a medicine and evidence-based research presentation by Dr. Wilson himself, along with a Q&A session for the employees to really ask what they wanted to directly to him.

1059
01:20:27,450 --> 01:20:31,130
Turning Point Center of Chilling County did an introduction to motivational

1060
01:20:31,130 --> 01:20:36,830
interviewing and then operations was myself where we just talked about like

1061
01:20:36,830 --> 01:20:40,670
what does that look like internally when it comes to the protocol and like our

1062
01:20:40,670 --> 01:20:47,190
own policies and procedures and then Lacey's team over at the CATE programs

1063
01:20:47,190 --> 01:20:53,570
they came in and we opened up this discussion about city length and which

1064
01:20:53,570 --> 01:20:55,770
we'll touch briefly on in a little bit.

1065
01:20:56,410 --> 01:20:57,270
And just really like,

1066
01:20:58,130 --> 01:20:59,910
I don't wanna bring you into the weeds,

1067
01:21:00,030 --> 01:21:02,370
but just know already it's very common

1068
01:21:02,370 --> 01:21:04,550
for street outreach from Howard Center

1069
01:21:04,550 --> 01:21:07,630
and also the CSLs from the CAIT team

1070
01:21:07,630 --> 01:21:12,230
to be able to come on scene and help us

1071
01:21:12,230 --> 01:21:14,770
with some of this referral stuff

1072
01:21:14,770 --> 01:21:17,710
that maybe we're not as familiar with

1073
01:21:17,710 --> 01:21:20,950
and or the patients sometimes just really do better

1074
01:21:20,950 --> 01:21:22,610
with people that already know them.

1075
01:21:22,610 --> 01:21:32,950
So they are already responding to some of our calls, sometimes they call us to respond to their scenes, and so we've already started this partnership a long time ago.

1076
01:21:33,850 --> 01:21:49,870
So the upcoming milestones, UVM Medical Center Pharmacy by the 18th will have a drug box that is completely separate from the current paramedic controlled substance box that we have.

1077
01:21:49,870 --> 01:22:01,930
And they are going to, they have a paper and a log, the same way they document with the paramedic control notices right now, they're going to have one separate that mimics it for suboxone.

1078
01:22:02,790 --> 01:22:06,070
We've been working with legal, making sure we cover everything on that.

1079
01:22:07,610 --> 01:22:13,770
We anticipate that the variance request looks good for our AEMTs.

1080
01:22:13,770 --> 01:22:20,090
we have purchased added NOx med vaults in a smaller size that the AEMTs would

1081
01:22:20,090 --> 01:22:26,370
only have access to and so we will install those in all of our ambulances

1082
01:22:26,370 --> 01:22:30,450
or one of our we have a new ambulance so we're gonna have a reserve ambulance

1083
01:22:30,450 --> 01:22:34,630
and then also we do have a reserve ambulance we're gonna have two reserve

1084
01:22:34,630 --> 01:22:38,630
ambulances and then also our community response team. Should they use the

1085
01:22:38,630 --> 01:22:42,970
box ideally you know a paramedic would go right up to the hospital and

1086
01:22:42,970 --> 01:22:49,450
get a new one for them, but that's still to be determined how that will look overnight

1087
01:22:49,450 --> 01:22:49,910
and stuff.

1088
01:22:50,770 --> 01:22:58,110
So data recording, the state has, currently the state uses a program called Image Trend

1089
01:22:58,110 --> 01:23:02,310
where it's free to all agencies if they want to use it.

1090
01:23:02,710 --> 01:23:03,830
It's a great program.

1091
01:23:04,730 --> 01:23:11,610
We all use the same like universal base of it, and then if you want you can add

1092
01:23:11,610 --> 01:23:17,110
supplemental questions into it or you can pay for added packages. But the point is that the state

1093
01:23:17,110 --> 01:23:23,970
for the Burlington Fire Department, the only agency they've done this for, they have created a copy

1094
01:23:23,970 --> 01:23:30,930
of the form that has all these added buttons that, you know, really lay out the data that they're

1095
01:23:30,930 --> 01:23:38,730
looking to collect. The state is also working on trying to come up with some MOUs with some

1096
01:23:38,730 --> 01:23:43,770
of our partners, particularly Howard Center, to be able to collect some of that data and

1097
01:23:43,770 --> 01:23:48,070
it would be de-identified, but just, you know, who's going to these referrals afterwards,

1098
01:23:48,310 --> 01:23:48,990
that kind of thing.

1099
01:23:49,810 --> 01:23:51,750
So, yeah, we're very close.

1100
01:23:52,410 --> 01:23:56,690
It's more about being in legal's hand at this point and working with the various,

1101
01:23:57,850 --> 01:23:59,850
you know, turning point and Howard Center.

1102
01:24:00,790 --> 01:24:05,730
And we've accomplished a lot in a very short period of time for such a complex program.

1103
01:24:08,390 --> 01:24:16,100
we're going to move on to why this is so important to make sure that we have a

1104
01:24:16,100 --> 01:24:22,200
proper like QA system and basically you know the opioid crisis is constantly

1105
01:24:22,200 --> 01:24:25,300
changing. I'm not sure if you've heard about this but there is a new

1106
01:24:25,300 --> 01:24:29,640
medication that's out there. I have yet to learn how to pronounce it. It starts

1107
01:24:29,640 --> 01:24:36,780
with an M and it's hit major cities and other areas and Dr. Wilson has told

1108
01:24:36,780 --> 01:24:43,560
me recently, he has not seen it in the ER, however, they are expecting to see it. It is very scary in

1109
01:24:43,560 --> 01:24:51,340
that sense because that medication, it's an animal tranquilizer, acts differently on the body than,

1110
01:24:51,900 --> 01:24:59,460
you know, say xylezine. And so, you know, we need to be able to keep, if by doing a proper QA

1111
01:24:59,460 --> 01:25:03,860
system and making sure that we're always improving what we're doing, this is going to help us

1112
01:25:03,860 --> 01:25:06,740
stay ahead of these trends that we're seeing in other parts.

1113
01:25:08,040 --> 01:25:12,820
We can evaluate the impact by doing this and refine the protocols as we see

1114
01:25:12,820 --> 01:25:16,440
necessary. We can meet the community needs by

1115
01:25:17,140 --> 01:25:19,140
engaging with the community and gathering feedback.

1116
01:25:19,840 --> 01:25:25,780
We can build stronger partnerships. We can utilize new tools when it comes

1117
01:25:25,780 --> 01:25:26,680
to technology,

1118
01:25:29,910 --> 01:25:31,410
improve communication,

1119
01:25:34,390 --> 01:25:40,590
By doing a proper QA program or continuous improvement program, it really helps us ensure

1120
01:25:40,590 --> 01:25:44,110
that the initiative remains sustainable and effective over the long term.

1121
01:25:44,990 --> 01:25:51,030
It keeps it aligned with funding landscapes, it's embedding a culture of learning and

1122
01:25:51,030 --> 01:25:56,330
adaption within the organization, and it prepares our team for future challenges.

1123
01:25:56,330 --> 01:26:04,990
And, you know, by looking at case studies from other places, because there are many other states,

1124
01:26:06,290 --> 01:26:13,490
this pre-hospital treatment with buprenorphine or suboxone, as you will, it really has started

1125
01:26:13,490 --> 01:26:19,190
to take off in other places, and people are seeing a lot of positive responses from it.

1126
01:26:20,690 --> 01:26:25,550
All right, now that was a mouthful. I'll definitely open this all up to questions

1127
01:26:25,550 --> 01:26:33,630
and answer, you know, a Q&A session afterwards, but when I mentioned that Howard Center and

1128
01:26:33,630 --> 01:26:38,750
the CSLs are already coming on to scene with us now at this point, the CARES team as well,

1129
01:26:38,910 --> 01:26:44,630
now that Janelle's out there, what happens is sometimes we'll be on scene and we'll

1130
01:26:44,630 --> 01:26:49,330
actually call dispatch and say, can you please send street outreach, can you please

1131
01:26:49,330 --> 01:26:53,630
send the CSLs, they have their algorithm of who they try to choose, if one's

1132
01:26:53,630 --> 01:26:54,910
not available, they'll choose the other.

1133
01:26:55,470 --> 01:26:59,750
But sometimes when they show up on scene, even though they know the person very well,

1134
01:26:59,810 --> 01:27:04,930
they know that the other organization or department is already really well known with or like

1135
01:27:04,930 --> 01:27:07,650
has a close relationship with that person.

1136
01:27:08,170 --> 01:27:11,510
So they come on scene, they're just so great.

1137
01:27:11,790 --> 01:27:15,670
And if they're on scene with us, we're allowed to refer that patient to them, right?

1138
01:27:16,110 --> 01:27:19,290
Like, you know, the patients right there, you know, they're consenting to talking

1139
01:27:19,290 --> 01:27:19,810
to them.

1140
01:27:19,930 --> 01:27:21,430
So they're going to get that name and date of birth.

1141
01:27:21,430 --> 01:27:31,970
But what's unique to the fire department and like medical side of things is that you know, we have HIPAA laws that we have to follow.

1142
01:27:32,470 --> 01:27:35,750
And so if they're on scene, it's okay that they're talking to them.

1143
01:27:36,010 --> 01:27:46,810
But outside of that overnight hours when people aren't around, maybe a powered seminar comes on scene one day,

1144
01:27:46,850 --> 01:27:48,570
but they really want to tell the person the next.

1145
01:27:48,570 --> 01:27:57,590
We can't just go to them and say, hey, just so you know, we had this person with us the other day and they got suboxone and we really, you know, we talked to them.

1146
01:27:57,690 --> 01:28:04,370
They gave us consent that we could refer to you without having proper MOUs and consent and referral forms.

1147
01:28:04,590 --> 01:28:14,790
And we know right now one of our main problems within the city is that tree outreach and the Cape programs are amazingly helpful on scene.

1148
01:28:15,290 --> 01:28:34,590
However, when we have these overnight shifts, we often don't have anyone to turn to or we don't really have anything we can give to these patients to help them right then and there, but by allowing us to get consent from the patient and these MOUs established, this will allow us to ensure that the next day we follow up with contacting them.

1149
01:28:35,450 --> 01:28:43,290
When I talked about the state data management, the guy's name is Connor who's new to the state for doing data.

1150
01:28:43,290 --> 01:28:53,490
And he is somehow, this is beyond my knowledge, but sending it the patient's patient run form,

1151
01:28:53,830 --> 01:29:01,630
it'll be electronically delivered to Howard Center and to Turning Point with just the information that,

1152
01:29:01,670 --> 01:29:06,230
you know, is agreed upon such as a name and date of birth kind of thing, which is nice.

1153
01:29:06,410 --> 01:29:07,390
It kind of takes out a step.

1154
01:29:07,390 --> 01:29:21,410
By allowing us to also have this relationship, it would be really nice for the Burlington Fire Department to be able to contact our own departments such as the CATE programs to be able to do that same community outreach.

1155
01:29:23,970 --> 01:29:31,570
As CityLink develops and what that means for us, without trying to bring it too far into the weeds,

1156
01:29:31,750 --> 01:29:38,650
just know that it is growing and it's growing at a fast pace and everyone is really excited.

1157
01:29:38,850 --> 01:29:43,450
So it really starts with, you know, the City of Burlington is taking on this prevent initiative,

1158
01:29:44,210 --> 01:29:48,070
which was started by the Vermont Department of Health and the UVM Medical Center.

1159
01:29:48,070 --> 01:29:56,470
And we're taking that, and CEDO is coming in, and Scott over there, he's helping a lot

1160
01:29:56,470 --> 01:29:59,310
of the administrative parts and the data collection.

1161
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:08,780
Really good positive or just really good questions that he's bringing to the table and, you know, he'll work closely with you and the mayor's office.

1162
01:30:10,220 --> 01:30:26,340
The BFD is obviously responding to these calls and we do have the community response team vehicle still. And, you know, while the future of that is unknown, we're still very much out there and they're a part of the city link group.

1163
01:30:26,340 --> 01:30:32,140
They'll focus on our repeat patients for this time being and how they can really get them

1164
01:30:32,140 --> 01:30:33,340
to the services they need.

1165
01:30:34,120 --> 01:30:38,400
Still for right now we're talking about people that have been given this prevent initiative

1166
01:30:38,400 --> 01:30:42,140
but we do see a future with CityLink going outside of this initiative.

1167
01:30:42,900 --> 01:30:48,740
You know, the CAPE teams, the CARES, the CSLs over under the BPD, Turning Point Center

1168
01:30:48,740 --> 01:30:53,720
of Chittenden County being the peer services, peer counseling services.

1169
01:30:53,720 --> 01:30:58,140
because Howard Center is just termed Howard Center because they have so many umbrellas,

1170
01:30:58,440 --> 01:31:02,260
or it's one big umbrella, and they have so many programs, but we're working with Safe

1171
01:31:02,260 --> 01:31:05,800
Recovery, Chittenden Clinic, and Street Outreach.

1172
01:31:06,540 --> 01:31:11,280
There is one more partner that we're actively talking to, and that is Community Health

1173
01:31:11,280 --> 01:31:12,620
Center Safe Harbor.

1174
01:31:12,860 --> 01:31:18,320
They have a location right down, drawing a blank of the name of the street, but

1175
01:31:18,320 --> 01:31:22,660
over at the end of Church Street, near King Street, and it's right across from

1176
01:31:22,660 --> 01:31:28,960
turning point. And they have primary care services there and they also have walk-in appointments

1177
01:31:28,960 --> 01:31:34,440
and all this stuff. So even though they're not specifically linked to the Prevent Initiative,

1178
01:31:34,640 --> 01:31:38,220
they're very much a big part of this resource referral service.

1179
01:31:40,910 --> 01:31:42,390
Conclusion, we are coming

1180
01:31:42,390 --> 01:31:47,310
together for a healthy Burlington. That was the slogan that went along with CityLink,

1181
01:31:47,310 --> 01:31:54,450
always open for, you know, suggestions on that. But all right, that was a lot. I'm

1182
01:31:54,450 --> 01:31:58,110
gonna escape out of this because I like to see people's faces if that's okay.

1183
01:32:00,810 --> 01:32:08,630
Thank you that it was a lot but it's very exciting. It's very exciting. One of the

1184
01:32:08,630 --> 01:32:20,650
The topics in the mayor's committee of community safety advisors was discussing how we have

1185
01:32:20,650 --> 01:32:28,130
all these great organizations but at times a little bit too siloed and couldn't always

1186
01:32:28,130 --> 01:32:31,470
share information with each other due to the privacies.

1187
01:32:31,470 --> 01:32:38,630
So, the fact that there would be these MOUs or Memorandums of Understanding for the public,

1188
01:32:38,630 --> 01:32:45,070
where you're going to be defining the relationships with regards to being able to share information

1189
01:32:45,710 --> 01:32:50,430
with the agencies if you have permissions from the patients, it's really great to hear

1190
01:32:50,430 --> 01:32:58,430
because it sounds like we're actively addressing that issue of trying to reduce this.

1191
01:32:58,430 --> 01:33:07,270
The word silos kept coming up, but reducing these barriers between these agencies to be

1192
01:33:07,270 --> 01:33:13,130
more effective for the people that we are trying to help and trying to help them in

1193
01:33:13,130 --> 01:33:14,570
a faster way.

1194
01:33:14,810 --> 01:33:19,950
So if they don't want that transport to the hospital, where they do this automatically,

1195
01:33:20,270 --> 01:33:27,130
if you get transport to the hospital, this is part of the protocols is to offer medically

1196
01:33:27,130 --> 01:33:32,550
assisted treatment with these drugs that do help people. There is still a stigma. There

1197
01:33:32,550 --> 01:33:38,430
shouldn't be. I mean, if someone needs insulin for their diabetes or needs to take medication

1198
01:33:38,430 --> 01:33:43,050
for high blood pressure, and that's what they need to remain healthy, that we don't have that

1199
01:33:43,050 --> 01:33:50,470
stigma and we still as a society need to understand that these drugs really help people

1200
01:33:51,030 --> 01:33:58,810
you get into recovery and stay into recovery. So, yeah, great presentation. A lot of information.

1201
01:33:59,150 --> 01:34:05,990
Really happy to be updated. Before we go for any questions, Lacey, do you have anything that you

1202
01:34:05,990 --> 01:34:06,670
wanted to add?

1203
01:34:11,090 --> 01:34:15,890
No, this is really Marcia's baby. I just kind of came around along for the ride

1204
01:34:15,890 --> 01:34:22,730
in the sense of knowing that, you know, system change within the public safety system is

1205
01:34:22,730 --> 01:34:26,370
and inherently just something that should be happening

1206
01:34:26,370 --> 01:34:27,990
at the police department.

1207
01:34:28,350 --> 01:34:32,510
It is really about public safety as a whole system.

1208
01:34:33,010 --> 01:34:37,630
And so, and I know the CSLs and CARES and like us

1209
01:34:37,630 --> 01:34:42,890
as a CAPE, we see ourselves as working along

1210
01:34:43,790 --> 01:34:46,230
as being a part of the public safety system.

1211
01:34:46,410 --> 01:34:49,310
So it was really important to us to have

1212
01:34:49,310 --> 01:34:51,470
a good working relationship with FIRE

1213
01:34:51,470 --> 01:34:57,930
and to make sure Fire knows that we want them to utilize us and that they can call and ask

1214
01:34:57,930 --> 01:34:59,170
for us to come to live scenes.

1215
01:34:59,450 --> 01:35:07,450
So this just really felt pretty natural, I think, and from us, from us and Cape, we

1216
01:35:07,450 --> 01:35:10,870
were really, was what we were hoping for.

1217
01:35:11,430 --> 01:35:13,410
And this just formalizes that.

1218
01:35:13,570 --> 01:35:18,350
And it really also kind of makes it succinct in that, like, dispatch note is when Marsha

1219
01:35:18,350 --> 01:35:21,910
says when if she were to call and just say send us from someone from sitting

1220
01:35:21,910 --> 01:35:26,710
link internally we go through like a triaging of like who's dispatch knows

1221
01:35:26,710 --> 01:35:31,250
who's available and and again like where we're gonna start and kind of triage

1222
01:35:31,250 --> 01:35:36,130
down from and then if we get on the scene and we know this person has a

1223
01:35:36,130 --> 01:35:38,930
relationship with someone else we already do that like it's just kind of

1224
01:35:38,930 --> 01:35:44,870
transferred through osmosis but it's really you know no matter what so the

1225
01:35:44,870 --> 01:35:48,850
continuity of care and it's really about showing up for people in the same in the

1226
01:35:48,850 --> 01:35:53,210
sense of like you know whether they get the matte treatment or they don't

1227
01:35:53,210 --> 01:35:56,970
city link you know and fire knows that we can always come out but this just

1228
01:35:56,970 --> 01:36:01,350
what allows a different avenue for a different conversation and for a

1229
01:36:01,350 --> 01:36:05,850
different type of connection and then we can come on scene to really help let

1230
01:36:05,850 --> 01:36:09,610
fire do fire so they can focus on getting someone the treatment that

1231
01:36:09,610 --> 01:36:13,150
they're interested in and then we can take them you know really be

1232
01:36:13,150 --> 01:36:16,850
working on the connections after the fact and then let fire get back and

1233
01:36:16,850 --> 01:36:20,810
available to what fire does and then we can kind of take the person and lead

1234
01:36:20,810 --> 01:36:28,030
from there so yeah we're excited about it. Before anyone says anything I just have

1235
01:36:28,030 --> 01:36:33,690
to say that I talked to Lacey and the group and I said whenever we start

1236
01:36:33,690 --> 01:36:38,030
presenting to everyone you do not say this is Marcia's baby that this is

1237
01:36:38,030 --> 01:36:42,230
literally a group effort because while I get to reap the benefit of all

1238
01:36:42,230 --> 01:36:48,370
these organizations, departments, just because I came up with a little operational plan, right?

1239
01:36:48,850 --> 01:36:53,250
But like, these are the people that have been doing this for years on top of it,

1240
01:36:53,270 --> 01:36:58,930
the people that helped my dad a long time ago. We were just missing this link of how we can,

1241
01:36:59,250 --> 01:37:04,670
with the staffing at the police department, and trying to figure out how we can make

1242
01:37:04,670 --> 01:37:09,050
our communication better, how we can make our city more connected. And like a lot of this,

1243
01:37:09,050 --> 01:37:12,050
Like Scott Pavek had already had ideas of this.

1244
01:37:12,110 --> 01:37:13,190
Maybe it was in a different way,

1245
01:37:13,270 --> 01:37:15,270
but different administrators at the time, who knows?

1246
01:37:15,550 --> 01:37:18,170
But like this wasn't like just all of a sudden I came in

1247
01:37:18,170 --> 01:37:20,010
and like it's like my thing.

1248
01:37:20,110 --> 01:37:21,750
Okay, we're all grouped together.

1249
01:37:24,280 --> 01:37:24,940
Thank you.

1250
01:37:25,040 --> 01:37:26,300
You do a lot of the work though.

1251
01:37:26,440 --> 01:37:28,260
That's really what I mean by your baby.

1252
01:37:28,560 --> 01:37:30,520
You're the one taking care of the baby

1253
01:37:30,520 --> 01:37:33,220
and you're helping to feed and grow the baby.

1254
01:37:33,620 --> 01:37:34,340
I love it.

1255
01:37:34,580 --> 01:37:35,320
I love it.

1256
01:37:35,320 --> 01:37:42,220
Well, I heard Janelle's name in conjunction with Ayres.

1257
01:37:43,640 --> 01:37:44,320
Yes.

1258
01:37:45,320 --> 01:37:47,260
So I was not aware.

1259
01:37:47,820 --> 01:37:54,480
Can we have a quick introduction and confirmation of when you go?

1260
01:37:55,660 --> 01:37:57,060
Absolutely, counselor Grant.

1261
01:37:57,340 --> 01:38:01,400
So my name is Janelle Dumas and I am the CARES team clinical supervisor.

1262
01:38:01,400 --> 01:38:04,640
I moved into this position the end of March.

1263
01:38:05,300 --> 01:38:07,100
I do have a clinical background.

1264
01:38:07,340 --> 01:38:08,940
I did come from Howard Center.

1265
01:38:09,180 --> 01:38:11,480
Most recently I was a clinician at treatment court.

1266
01:38:11,840 --> 01:38:19,000
So there's a number of individuals in which we connect with within this program that already have a preexisting relationship with.

1267
01:38:19,180 --> 01:38:20,940
So that's served me very well in this role.

1268
01:38:22,040 --> 01:38:28,360
And prior to that, I was a program manager in developmental services at Howard Center

1269
01:38:28,360 --> 01:38:33,960
as a part with a part-time position as a clinician at outpatient.

1270
01:38:34,540 --> 01:38:40,680
And so I've worked collaboratively with Turning Point, among other agencies that are part

1271
01:38:40,680 --> 01:38:41,460
of our city link.

1272
01:38:41,820 --> 01:38:46,000
It's been wonderful working with Marcia and Lacey on this project, as well as my

1273
01:38:46,000 --> 01:38:48,700
colleagues, the CSLs that we work with.

1274
01:38:48,700 --> 01:38:55,520
So it's been really great to see this and I look forward to it coming into fruition and what it looks like and where it leads us.

1275
01:38:56,760 --> 01:39:05,220
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Do my fellow counselors have any questions about this program?

1276
01:39:06,940 --> 01:39:08,740
Great. Well, thank you. Oh, go ahead, Mark.

1277
01:39:08,740 --> 01:39:16,080
were you going to meet? Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation. It's exciting

1278
01:39:16,080 --> 01:39:25,820
and I look forward to hearing more as it gets you on, so thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. I really

1279
01:39:25,820 --> 01:39:33,180
agree and I appreciate you taking the time to put together the presentation. If you could send us

1280
01:39:33,180 --> 01:39:37,880
a copy that would be great and a public-facing copy as well. So if there's something you feel

1281
01:39:37,880 --> 01:39:43,520
really shouldn't be in there yet, you know, please feel free to take it out. And we're definitely,

1282
01:39:43,780 --> 01:39:48,880
I'm definitely going to be forwarding the meeting once we have the recorded copy to our fellow

1283
01:39:48,880 --> 01:39:52,940
counselors, because I think we've had a, I think we've overall had a lot of information tonight

1284
01:39:52,940 --> 01:39:57,320
that it'd be important for everybody on the council, as well as members of the,

1285
01:39:58,580 --> 01:40:02,200
the public to be caught up on. And I really appreciate the work

1286
01:40:02,200 --> 01:40:11,960
work that everyone's doing. We're still need deep. But I think with some of these solutions

1287
01:40:12,520 --> 01:40:18,740
that we are creating locally and statewide. So it's great to hear that Bennington is doing

1288
01:40:18,740 --> 01:40:27,000
this as well and that the state is looking at this. We haven't always felt really supported

1289
01:40:27,000 --> 01:40:33,420
by the state at times when it comes to dealing with a lot of issues around the drug crisis.

1290
01:40:34,240 --> 01:40:40,640
With regards to this program, to see that there's some support at that level is great,

1291
01:40:40,900 --> 01:40:45,340
and then continuing to work with, I think you mentioned Dr. Wolfson, so for people who didn't

1292
01:40:45,340 --> 01:40:52,700
know, he provides up at the hospital in the emergency room where a lot of people who have

1293
01:40:52,700 --> 01:40:54,120
of overdose end up.

1294
01:40:54,860 --> 01:40:58,560
And so when they're in the emergency room, they get offered.

1295
01:40:59,340 --> 01:41:01,180
These protocols are worked through with them

1296
01:41:01,180 --> 01:41:03,880
and they get offered on medically assisted treatment.

1297
01:41:04,260 --> 01:41:06,940
And what's very important about this program,

1298
01:41:07,020 --> 01:41:10,320
once again, is accessing people in the street,

1299
01:41:10,600 --> 01:41:11,440
people who are refusing,

1300
01:41:11,600 --> 01:41:12,740
because we have more and more people

1301
01:41:12,740 --> 01:41:14,460
who are refusing to be transported.

1302
01:41:15,260 --> 01:41:17,760
So how do we still take the opportunity

1303
01:41:18,300 --> 01:41:20,220
to offer the same level of help?

1304
01:41:20,220 --> 01:41:26,360
that's where we're trying to get. Any additional comments that you may have?

1305
01:41:29,390 --> 01:41:33,250
Sounds great. Well, I want to thank you so much. We love your dog.

1306
01:41:34,430 --> 01:41:38,710
If you're now free, just spend some time with him.

1307
01:41:39,190 --> 01:41:45,990
Can I just say that, well, one, I will be taking him for a walk, and I just feel mortified that,

1308
01:41:46,010 --> 01:41:49,550
you know, Chief of the Chance wasn't able to be here. And what he's going to hear is that,

1309
01:41:50,310 --> 01:41:54,330
You know, my dog was interrupting and all that, and I just apologize about it.

1310
01:41:54,390 --> 01:41:58,450
My husband and kids are camping right now and it's just me, like, it's all there.

1311
01:41:59,150 --> 01:42:00,430
He's not going to hear that at all.

1312
01:42:00,550 --> 01:42:05,710
What he's going to hear is that you gave a really amazing presentation and that we are

1313
01:42:05,710 --> 01:42:07,310
really excited about the work.

1314
01:42:07,510 --> 01:42:08,690
That is what he's going to hear.

1315
01:42:10,550 --> 01:42:11,150
Thank you.

1316
01:42:11,690 --> 01:42:12,650
Thank you so much.

1317
01:42:13,330 --> 01:42:14,390
I really appreciate your time.

1318
01:42:16,910 --> 01:42:17,690
Thank you, counselors.

1319
01:42:18,690 --> 01:42:19,310
Have a good night.

1320
01:42:19,910 --> 01:42:20,310
Thank you.

1321
01:42:20,310 --> 01:42:30,290
take care. Thank you. Have a good evening. So we always try to aim for 730, but we're

1322
01:42:30,290 --> 01:42:36,490
going to be a little bit past that, but I want to see what we can do to get

1323
01:42:36,490 --> 01:42:40,750
through. A quick question for Chief Murad.

1324
01:42:47,080 --> 01:42:48,440
So you might not have seen the

1325
01:42:48,440 --> 01:42:54,860
email, I sent you an email actually during the presentation that you gave

1326
01:42:54,860 --> 01:43:03,180
today, just at your earliest convenience, if you could send over your July report and we will

1327
01:43:03,180 --> 01:43:14,140
have it added to the meeting, have it added to the link to the meeting's agenda. If you want to do

1328
01:43:14,140 --> 01:43:19,000
just a couple of minutes of the highlights, people are always interested in terms of where

1329
01:43:19,000 --> 01:43:26,840
were at with the number of officers. Your recruitment team mentioned earlier that there were four

1330
01:43:27,320 --> 01:43:33,720
going into the academy in August. So if you wanted to just summarize that briefly.

1331
01:43:35,740 --> 01:43:43,940
Sure. Thank you. We are currently at 66. We are onboarding four on Monday. We are also losing

1332
01:43:43,940 --> 01:43:50,800
a sergeant on Monday, so that will bring us to 69 as of Monday, the end of business on Monday.

1333
01:43:51,420 --> 01:43:57,380
That's exactly where we started 2024 after the best hiring year in our history in 2023,

1334
01:43:58,080 --> 01:44:05,940
or at least our modern recorded history. So that is both exciting, but also we wish we were

1335
01:44:05,940 --> 01:44:16,260
further along. Incidents are up approximately 3% versus last year and I think 5% versus 2019,

1336
01:44:16,960 --> 01:44:22,720
which is the last year it was this high, close to this high. I think we're even up a little

1337
01:44:22,720 --> 01:44:27,600
bit over 2018, although I don't track back that far. I track in five year increments.

1338
01:44:28,680 --> 01:44:37,220
We are looking at, you know, as I mentioned before, our lateral higher, we've improved

1339
01:44:37,220 --> 01:44:43,520
on our history of lateral hires and are doing well there, but we do have more work to do.

1340
01:44:47,680 --> 01:44:48,200
Thank you.

1341
01:44:48,640 --> 01:44:49,480
Appreciate it.

1342
01:44:49,680 --> 01:44:53,880
And once again, we'll have your full July report available.

1343
01:44:54,900 --> 01:44:59,980
If we have any additional questions about it, we can discuss it at next month.

1344
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:06,900
Months meeting. So I appreciate you being here and we'll appreciate receiving the document

1345
01:45:06,900 --> 01:45:18,320
to review. Sarah George is on vacation, so I don't have the July statistics from the court.

1346
01:45:18,780 --> 01:45:27,520
I will say that it has been consistently either a little bit over or a little bit under 3,000

1347
01:45:27,520 --> 01:45:35,680
cases for the Chittenden County essay. I will say, because it does continue to come up, people

1348
01:45:35,680 --> 01:45:42,880
who are interested in the status of cases that they feel should be made, right? Because sometimes

1349
01:45:42,880 --> 01:45:48,380
there may not be enough evidence to make a case. Sometimes a case could still be with

1350
01:45:48,380 --> 01:45:54,320
BPD and not with Sarah George. It's all about the incident numbers. People need to have an

1351
01:45:54,320 --> 01:46:00,980
incident number, so that request can be made to check the status in order to

1352
01:46:00,980 --> 01:46:06,140
determine if it's made it to the SA. What's supposed to happen if something

1353
01:46:06,140 --> 01:46:11,800
makes it to the SA's office and they are proceeding with working on that case.

1354
01:46:12,680 --> 01:46:18,120
When that case gets assigned to when the assistant

1355
01:46:19,500 --> 01:46:24,500
state's attorneys, or deputy state's attorneys, they are supposed to be reaching out to the

1356
01:46:24,500 --> 01:46:24,760
victim.

1357
01:46:25,200 --> 01:46:31,060
The victim is supposed to be knowing that the case is with the state's attorney's office

1358
01:46:31,060 --> 01:46:38,920
is going to be either prosecuted or resolved in some kind of fashion and they're going

1359
01:46:38,920 --> 01:46:40,300
to be kept informed.

1360
01:46:40,760 --> 01:46:46,320
So if a case doesn't go to trial, but there's some sort of restorative justice, someone

1361
01:46:46,320 --> 01:46:52,720
is supposed to be walking the victim of the crime through that process. So if we have any other

1362
01:46:52,720 --> 01:47:00,920
questions on that, I am hoping to, I'd asked her, George, before if she was able to join us,

1363
01:47:01,080 --> 01:47:07,400
and I'm going to try and have that happen again so maybe we can gather some more specific,

1364
01:47:07,640 --> 01:47:13,280
not happen again, but ask her again in order to have her do a presentation on kind of like a

1365
01:47:13,280 --> 01:47:18,020
a little history of a, remember Schoolhouse Rock?

1366
01:47:19,200 --> 01:47:22,860
Maybe not my head of counsel knew I was winning,

1367
01:47:23,340 --> 01:47:26,080
but Schoolhouse Rock, and they have this thing,

1368
01:47:26,320 --> 01:47:28,640
how to have a bill, like what happens to the bill,

1369
01:47:28,800 --> 01:47:31,040
the Congress, like I feel like what happens to a case?

1370
01:47:31,240 --> 01:47:34,200
Let's talk about a case from start to finish,

1371
01:47:34,200 --> 01:47:37,640
because there's so many questions about those.

1372
01:47:38,400 --> 01:47:43,280
I'm going to kind of skip some things.

1373
01:47:46,320 --> 01:47:54,720
I would like to just say regarding the fire department and Chief LeChance looks at numbers

1374
01:47:54,720 --> 01:48:00,440
once a week, and he did provide his most recent report for this week, which is attached

1375
01:48:00,440 --> 01:48:02,380
to the agenda in Civic Clerk.

1376
01:48:02,620 --> 01:48:05,680
So quick lesson again for the public about Civic Clerk.

1377
01:48:05,680 --> 01:48:11,880
you go to the City of Burlington's website, you click on calendar and you're literally able to

1378
01:48:11,880 --> 01:48:19,360
search for meetings that are being held, be it city council meeting, be it commissions and

1379
01:48:19,360 --> 01:48:23,440
other committees, and you just click on the meeting that you're interested in and you're

1380
01:48:23,440 --> 01:48:29,120
going to see the agenda, you're going to see the meetings and in most cases we're not

1381
01:48:29,120 --> 01:48:34,500
Not a hundred percent yet, but we have more and more of these meetings are connected under

1382
01:48:34,500 --> 01:48:36,060
meeting media.

1383
01:48:36,460 --> 01:48:40,720
So in one place, without having to go to YouTube and search for something, although TownMeetingTV

1384
01:48:40,720 --> 01:48:46,600
is awesome for posting most of them, not all the committees and commissions are on TownMeetingTV.

1385
01:48:47,140 --> 01:48:51,480
So this way you can look at meeting media just to give that information.

1386
01:48:51,480 --> 01:49:02,700
With regards to their responses, a year ago, they were at like 55, 22, and so far in 2024,

1387
01:49:03,280 --> 01:49:06,880
they're at 53, 72, which is a slight increase.

1388
01:49:09,340 --> 01:49:16,520
We continue to see, we just had the presentation about people offering treatment to people

1389
01:49:16,520 --> 01:49:24,920
who refuse to be transported. And we do see that number continue to go up. Average overdose

1390
01:49:24,920 --> 01:49:34,400
responses. And then he has maps that kind of show how we dipped the beginning of the year

1391
01:49:34,400 --> 01:49:43,640
and in March and now we are skyrocketing up, which people kind of expected. We kind of expected

1392
01:49:43,640 --> 01:49:54,040
as the weather got warmer that we might have more problems. Calls that are about people

1393
01:49:54,400 --> 01:50:03,420
who are unresponsive or what they refer to as person down, sometimes people are overdose,

1394
01:50:04,200 --> 01:50:13,100
sometimes they're not, or sometimes they're what he refers to as experiencing the desired

1395
01:50:13,100 --> 01:50:21,620
effect of their substance or have another non-emergent need. So those calls are

1396
01:50:21,620 --> 01:50:32,140
actually down updated through 714. There were 236 last year, there are 164. The

1397
01:50:32,140 --> 01:50:36,920
trend continues. We're looking at 305. I

1398
01:50:39,510 --> 01:50:44,070
think I will leave it there. He does

1399
01:50:44,070 --> 01:50:51,410
provide information on the CRT team as well in terms of what their responses

1400
01:50:51,410 --> 01:50:56,170
continue to be and we see some good numbers there. So that is

1401
01:50:56,170 --> 01:51:00,790
just for time's sake because we have the longer presentations today. Once

1402
01:51:00,790 --> 01:51:05,490
again the full reports are available for our counselors and our public to look

1403
01:51:09,690 --> 01:51:15,990
I am going to consider item eight, which is a retention update done, because I feel in

1404
01:51:15,990 --> 01:51:22,650
our earlier conversation with the recruitment team, we touched on issues around retention,

1405
01:51:23,290 --> 01:51:28,270
and I don't think we need to, unless there's any other questions or something you think

1406
01:51:28,270 --> 01:51:30,310
we need to feel good about that.

1407
01:51:30,310 --> 01:51:41,170
And then, Nye, I want to thank Sarah Tim, who is our public information and community engagement

1408
01:51:41,170 --> 01:51:41,930
officer.

1409
01:51:42,110 --> 01:51:43,150
It's a mouthful.

1410
01:51:43,370 --> 01:51:49,330
Thank you for being with us and being through those presentations.

1411
01:51:50,050 --> 01:51:55,570
I kind of want to do items 9 and 10 together, which is a community engagement report and

1412
01:51:55,570 --> 01:52:03,230
And then also kind of a social media access update, if Sarah, you would be available to

1413
01:52:03,230 --> 01:52:04,930
talk about that right now.

1414
01:52:05,970 --> 01:52:06,530
Absolutely.

1415
01:52:06,530 --> 01:52:11,950
And then Chief Murad, if you have any, as we discussed this, if there's anything that

1416
01:52:11,950 --> 01:52:13,950
you want to add?

1417
01:52:17,040 --> 01:52:17,600
Absolutely.

1418
01:52:18,900 --> 01:52:23,700
As of right now, our main community engagement update for this month, and I believe Council

1419
01:52:23,700 --> 01:52:28,660
grant I emailed you this as well is this summer BPD is participating in the

1420
01:52:28,660 --> 01:52:33,840
creamy from a cup program run by the Vermont Agency of Aged Culture. The

1421
01:52:33,840 --> 01:52:37,700
program supports community connections with local police departments and the

1422
01:52:37,700 --> 01:52:42,360
Vermont dairy farmers and earlier this month specifically during our BTV

1423
01:52:42,360 --> 01:52:47,340
Independence Day celebration on July 3rd officers started distributing the

1424
01:52:47,340 --> 01:52:53,920
public safety coupons, which is for a free small creamy. So earlier this summer

1425
01:52:53,920 --> 01:53:01,960
myself and executive manager Trammell and I worked with finding some

1426
01:53:01,960 --> 01:53:09,220
participating vendors to sponsor and be recipients for those creamy coupons. So

1427
01:53:09,220 --> 01:53:14,040
that'll be continuing through the months of summer. And as for the social

1428
01:53:14,040 --> 01:53:20,320
media update, it seems that we are in the process of starting a new Instagram page

1429
01:53:20,320 --> 01:53:26,260
because I believe that command staff and IT are still troubleshooting the lack of

1430
01:53:26,260 --> 01:53:33,220
access that the Instagram page was that the BPD had previously. So right now I

1431
01:53:33,220 --> 01:53:38,440
think to just expedite things we may be meeting later this month to see when we

1432
01:53:38,440 --> 01:53:40,260
can re-engage on a new one.

1433
01:53:42,400 --> 01:53:47,760
Okay, thank you. Quick question about the Creamy from

1434
01:53:47,760 --> 01:53:55,400
a Cop program. So for these vendors that are accepting the coupons, are

1435
01:53:55,400 --> 01:54:02,220
they Burlington vendors, I assume? Yes, we have two participating vendors. One is

1436
01:54:02,220 --> 01:54:07,240
the Bagel Cafe in Delhi on North Avenue and the other one is Burlington Bay on

1437
01:54:07,240 --> 01:54:12,960
battery streets. That's great, that's great. And then let me ask you, I'm going to throw this out here,

1438
01:54:13,000 --> 01:54:18,280
you do not need to answer now because I understand you may need to check with people. The ramble

1439
01:54:18,280 --> 01:54:27,160
is coming up in the Old North End and I believe the ramble is on, I want to say the 27th.

1440
01:54:31,180 --> 01:54:33,860
I want to say the 27th.

1441
01:54:33,900 --> 01:54:42,100
I will email you for sure, but I'm pretty sure it's the 27th, and the Ramble is an event

1442
01:54:42,100 --> 01:54:47,620
to kind of celebrate the Old North End, and there's all kinds of activities throughout the

1443
01:54:47,620 --> 01:54:56,780
Old North End, and I would love if it's possible to have one officer or representative

1444
01:54:59,160 --> 01:55:05,220
from the police department available to give out some of these coupons at the

1445
01:55:05,220 --> 01:55:10,480
ramble. You know maybe they because with the ramble you can they can do a walk

1446
01:55:10,480 --> 01:55:16,300
around whenever they want or we can have it as a scheduled event so there's a

1447
01:55:16,300 --> 01:55:20,920
program that's done for the ramble and we can say hey go to this location the

1448
01:55:20,920 --> 01:55:26,040
Old North Inn and you can get a coupon from a creamy sponsored by the

1449
01:55:26,040 --> 01:55:30,160
the Burlington Police Department and Burlington Bay and Bagel Cafe.

1450
01:55:31,100 --> 01:55:32,120
Something like that.

1451
01:55:32,280 --> 01:55:36,940
And just to see if someone from the department would be interested in doing that, I think

1452
01:55:36,940 --> 01:55:38,580
that would be great.

1453
01:55:39,300 --> 01:55:46,680
I'm trying to do kind of a counselor's table as well at the Ramble, working on finalizing

1454
01:55:46,680 --> 01:55:51,540
that, those details so they could be at the same table, or they could just simply

1455
01:55:51,540 --> 01:55:56,360
be walking around at the different events to do that.

1456
01:55:56,720 --> 01:56:01,420
Thank you for putting that on my radar. I am already marking it down. I'll see if I can

1457
01:56:01,420 --> 01:56:05,560
get an officer or two to come with me. But if anything, hopefully I can at least attend

1458
01:56:05,560 --> 01:56:13,100
and represent BPD. And full disclosure, we do only have a limited budget that was allotted

1459
01:56:13,100 --> 01:56:18,800
to us from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. So we are limited with a number of coupons.

1460
01:56:18,800 --> 01:56:24,500
but I do have been spacing them out, giving them to our lieutenants and sergeants for our team.

1461
01:56:24,780 --> 01:56:31,440
So I will definitely keep an allotment set aside for the ramble if that's possible from our end.

1462
01:56:32,180 --> 01:56:39,760
That will be great. And I have in front porch form some ramble details. So I will just forward

1463
01:56:39,760 --> 01:56:45,480
you one of the front porch form emails that has the full details. And I think what would be

1464
01:56:45,480 --> 01:56:48,400
Great, so kind of going back to the social media thing,

1465
01:56:48,460 --> 01:56:50,360
that would be a great social media opportunity,

1466
01:56:50,920 --> 01:56:54,740
like to have like buddy up with you,

1467
01:56:55,200 --> 01:56:59,040
take some pictures of distributing creamy coupons

1468
01:56:59,040 --> 01:57:02,080
to people, and that can be a post.

1469
01:57:02,880 --> 01:57:05,120
I think what would be important at this time

1470
01:57:05,120 --> 01:57:07,680
to just like just let's create,

1471
01:57:08,140 --> 01:57:09,800
you know, it was one North Avenue,

1472
01:57:09,940 --> 01:57:12,720
and maybe it'll be the number one North Avenue to,

1473
01:57:12,720 --> 01:57:20,920
and then tag the other account and maybe work with some of our staff that's been

1474
01:57:20,920 --> 01:57:25,820
doing some social media for us in terms of community engagement for what the

1475
01:57:25,820 --> 01:57:30,900
council's been working on. I think we can be really effective in a way that we

1476
01:57:30,900 --> 01:57:37,100
haven't been able to. I appreciated Chief Murad listening to me earlier

1477
01:57:37,100 --> 01:57:49,060
today because I do feel very strongly that we can improve the support in the

1478
01:57:49,060 --> 01:57:53,500
city like when we when we talk about how officers feel supported or not

1479
01:57:53,500 --> 01:57:57,180
supported because of strange relationships in certain communities

1480
01:57:57,180 --> 01:58:02,970
that won't improve unless we start to take some intentional steps and we

1481
01:58:02,970 --> 01:58:10,010
been doing that and they don't have to be huge steps, but if we're doing like small steps and we're

1482
01:58:12,410 --> 01:58:17,590
we're having these conversations and we're letting people see our officers,

1483
01:58:20,720 --> 01:58:25,640
I just think that's really important and I have a lot of ideas around that and I would just love

1484
01:58:26,270 --> 01:58:32,880
an opportunity to really flesh some of them out in a real sincere way so that we can track

1485
01:58:32,880 --> 01:58:39,480
results, right? Results are very trackable when it comes to social media. I was on

1486
01:58:40,740 --> 01:58:46,420
Instagram just looking at things but not really and got more involved when I

1487
01:58:46,420 --> 01:58:50,380
decided I wanted to run for city council and then my whole life kind of

1488
01:58:50,380 --> 01:58:56,960
changed because I was like oh I see the power of it if used correctly and I

1489
01:58:56,960 --> 01:59:03,820
I think when it comes to recruitment and as Councilor Barlow brought up the other time,

1490
01:59:03,940 --> 01:59:13,760
when we talk about lateral transfers and we do digital advertising, social media is part

1491
01:59:13,760 --> 01:59:14,060
of that.

1492
01:59:14,160 --> 01:59:19,540
And I hear that over and over again on some of these police podcasts that I listen

1493
01:59:19,540 --> 01:59:25,860
to where I'm specifically looking for podcasts that are talking about recruitment and retention

1494
01:59:25,860 --> 01:59:34,640
And social media comes up all the time. And as we know, social media is one of the pillars of 21st century policing.

1495
01:59:35,060 --> 01:59:41,600
I'm going to leave it at that because I see Councillor Varlo would like to say something or has a question. Please go right in.

1496
01:59:41,640 --> 01:59:48,000
I have a question. Thank you. I just wanted to know in the, in the old days of creamy with a cop.

1497
01:59:48,000 --> 01:59:55,660
Um, police officers would come to like the bagel cafe, which I know is underlist again this year.

1498
01:59:55,800 --> 01:59:59,300
Is there are there any events planned where there actually will be.

1499
02:00:00,270 --> 02:00:05,810
Days when the public can come and have a creamy with a cop at the Mayo cafe.

1500
02:00:06,730 --> 02:00:22,390
Yes, thank you for that question, counselor. Yes, so my understanding is that historically creamy with a cop was an actual event where you did have, like you said, an event where officers were stationed at an area and individuals were invited to get that.

1501
02:00:23,090 --> 02:00:28,550
However, the correspondence that I got this year from, I believe, Scott Waterman over at

1502
02:00:29,350 --> 02:00:33,650
the Vermont Agency of Agriculture is that this is the first year that they've really

1503
02:00:33,650 --> 02:00:36,870
revived the program since, like, pre-pandemic.

1504
02:00:37,270 --> 02:00:40,950
And so instead of creamy with a cup, it is now creamy from a cup.

1505
02:00:41,230 --> 02:00:47,730
And so what the agency is doing is they're only allowing a certain amount of coupons

1506
02:00:47,730 --> 02:00:50,190
for a select amount of agencies.

1507
02:00:50,190 --> 02:00:55,610
So we're given a certain dollar amount that we are allowed to partner with with agencies.

1508
02:00:55,930 --> 02:01:02,350
So right now the coupon distributing is still that from our officers, but it's more so

1509
02:01:02,350 --> 02:01:03,910
just organically out in the community.

1510
02:01:04,330 --> 02:01:09,650
And one of the little fun things on the coupon itself is the public safety treat is in

1511
02:01:09,650 --> 02:01:13,650
recognition in recognition for making safe choices and being awesome.

1512
02:01:13,650 --> 02:01:18,030
So really officers are out and about in the community engaging with others, which

1513
02:01:18,030 --> 02:01:23,150
Which is why I think the launch date for that on the July 3rd was perfect because there were

1514
02:01:23,150 --> 02:01:25,550
family, friends, community members out and about.

1515
02:01:26,070 --> 02:01:31,610
But in summary, no, we will not be having a specific event where officers will be at a

1516
02:01:31,610 --> 02:01:32,530
specific location.

1517
02:01:33,130 --> 02:01:33,650
Okay.

1518
02:01:34,010 --> 02:01:35,810
Well, I would just put it out there to you.

1519
02:01:36,170 --> 02:01:40,610
If you're interested in doing an event like that, because I think there's great value

1520
02:01:41,310 --> 02:01:45,810
in something like that, I'd be happy to work with you to try to sponsor that

1521
02:01:45,810 --> 02:01:51,350
something like that at like the bagel cafe. So if that's something that you're

1522
02:01:51,350 --> 02:01:57,070
interested in trying to coordinate I also understand and appreciate the time

1523
02:01:57,070 --> 02:02:02,150
pressures on officers right now and they may not have time to do an event like

1524
02:02:02,150 --> 02:02:06,030
that but if there is an appetite for it no pun intended let me know.

1525
02:02:07,990 --> 02:02:12,490
Absolutely thank you and just some foresight hopefully in the future we are

1526
02:02:12,490 --> 02:02:18,450
hoping to also re-engage our annual barbecue maybe sometime in the future too, that's something

1527
02:02:18,450 --> 02:02:23,510
I know that was done historically along with creamy with the cup before my time here.

1528
02:02:23,730 --> 02:02:28,510
So it's been fun to listen to what has been done in the past and now that I'm a year

1529
02:02:28,510 --> 02:02:32,890
in now with the BPD and my position that's not only new for myself but new for the

1530
02:02:32,890 --> 02:02:37,490
departments, I feel like I'm finally starting to get my feet wet and getting these great

1531
02:02:37,490 --> 02:02:40,210
support and ideas for what we can do moving forward.

1532
02:02:41,550 --> 02:02:42,990
Well, thank you for all you're doing.

1533
02:02:44,450 --> 02:02:45,410
That's great too.

1534
02:02:45,570 --> 02:02:50,750
And I think to Mark's point about getting sponsorships, I mean, I would definitely help with that

1535
02:02:50,750 --> 02:02:51,390
as well.

1536
02:02:52,290 --> 02:03:00,070
And I think we need to have – we're in this – it's rocking a hard place where

1537
02:03:00,070 --> 02:03:05,750
we need to do this engagement, but officers' time is really precious.

1538
02:03:05,750 --> 02:03:15,550
so if we can maximize an officer volunteering to be at an event and we

1539
02:03:15,550 --> 02:03:20,670
maximize the time at that event so that there's maximum engagement with the

1540
02:03:20,670 --> 02:03:30,530
public and then we are also grabbing pictures, video, audio then we can use it

1541
02:03:30,530 --> 02:03:40,050
for multiple things. So just, again, being strategic about saying, okay, we had this event,

1542
02:03:40,150 --> 02:03:48,170
but the event can be shown and be searchable. Like, we need to

1543
02:03:50,890 --> 02:03:54,070
counteract all the negative

1544
02:03:55,510 --> 02:04:00,670
postings, especially what would happen with the Yes program, because that really

1545
02:04:00,670 --> 02:04:10,910
went viral. I believe we can do that. So that's why I'd like to, I would like to see the department

1546
02:04:10,910 --> 02:04:16,890
resolve the issue with the Instagram. I talk a lot about Instagram because right now Instagram

1547
02:04:16,890 --> 02:04:23,210
is kind of the main social media platform. There are people that still use Facebook,

1548
02:04:23,410 --> 02:04:24,110
not as many.

1549
02:04:26,670 --> 02:04:29,910
There's literally platforms where you add in all your social media

1550
02:04:29,910 --> 02:04:35,930
And you can post, you can do a single post across everything as opposed to having to do individual work.

1551
02:04:36,710 --> 02:04:44,790
Maybe we do a TikTok account, you know, different people at different ages use different social media.

1552
02:04:45,230 --> 02:04:49,370
We know younger people use TikTok and Instagram.

1553
02:04:49,550 --> 02:04:54,190
And Instagram is actually becoming really popular with people my age as well.

1554
02:04:55,030 --> 02:04:58,130
But we know if we want to be talking about recruitment,

1555
02:04:58,130 --> 02:05:01,210
meant we have to be on social media.

1556
02:05:01,590 --> 02:05:03,590
It's, we have to be doing more.

1557
02:05:04,270 --> 02:05:07,790
And I would like to see more posts on Front Porch Forum

1558
02:05:08,230 --> 02:05:09,950
and I have some ideas about that.

1559
02:05:10,090 --> 02:05:15,170
And I think it would be great to develop a schedule.

1560
02:05:15,510 --> 02:05:17,750
I would like the department to think about that.

1561
02:05:17,870 --> 02:05:19,130
These are things you can mull over

1562
02:05:19,770 --> 02:05:21,370
and we can talk about it again.

1563
02:05:21,430 --> 02:05:24,470
But if you have a goal for X amount of posts each week,

1564
02:05:26,770 --> 02:05:35,630
X amount of information you're giving to, say, the MPAs, maybe get ready for presentation

1565
02:05:35,630 --> 02:05:36,450
in the fall.

1566
02:05:37,950 --> 02:05:44,910
Or the MPAs also, they have Ward 5, I think, is doing a summer picnic event on Saturday.

1567
02:05:47,030 --> 02:05:52,490
Things like that, like knowing what's going on and being very intentional about being

1568
02:05:52,490 --> 02:05:59,250
and more spaces than we have been. I think that can make a difference and I think if we do it in a

1569
02:05:59,250 --> 02:06:06,690
very sincere way to give it an opportunity, we can measure the results. We can measure the results

1570
02:06:06,690 --> 02:06:13,250
like if we have that great recruitment video but how are we pushing people to view it?

1571
02:06:13,850 --> 02:06:19,550
How are we getting it out there so more people see it and we can see the numbers of times it's

1572
02:06:19,550 --> 02:06:27,870
being viewed. It is a great piece to put in digital advertising to have that. What was

1573
02:06:27,870 --> 02:06:33,730
it? The Australians or people from New Zealand who did that, the video, the police force went

1574
02:06:33,730 --> 02:06:41,350
there and it went viral. I will have to find that. That gets talked a lot about in these

1575
02:06:41,350 --> 02:06:46,250
podcasts about the effectiveness of social media. I mean, obviously, what they did

1576
02:06:46,250 --> 02:06:47,250
It was extremely unique.

1577
02:06:47,450 --> 02:06:51,150
It was very fun, but it was effective for them,

1578
02:06:51,210 --> 02:06:52,530
and it showed other departments,

1579
02:06:52,610 --> 02:06:55,690
wow, you can do something and be really effective.

1580
02:06:55,830 --> 02:06:57,910
And I think the video that was produced locally

1581
02:06:57,910 --> 02:06:59,010
can definitely be used.

1582
02:06:59,170 --> 02:07:03,990
We just need to be intentional about pushing it out there.

1583
02:07:04,950 --> 02:07:05,390
Absolutely.

1584
02:07:06,090 --> 02:07:08,870
Yeah, let's get that Instagram account coming up.

1585
02:07:08,910 --> 02:07:10,310
Please, it would mean a lot.

1586
02:07:10,530 --> 02:07:15,080
And I think I've just had the opportunity

1587
02:07:15,080 --> 02:07:19,140
to like one month, one month, let's do some stuff

1588
02:07:19,140 --> 02:07:20,500
and then look at the effectiveness.

1589
02:07:21,080 --> 02:07:23,600
And if nothing happens, y'all can tell me shut up

1590
02:07:23,600 --> 02:07:24,500
and I'll leave you alone.

1591
02:07:25,500 --> 02:07:27,020
Well, I'd be happy to highlight,

1592
02:07:29,120 --> 02:07:30,800
yes, I completely agree.

1593
02:07:30,940 --> 02:07:33,580
Moving forward, our Instagram will definitely be

1594
02:07:34,340 --> 02:07:36,040
collaboration with both my team

1595
02:07:36,040 --> 02:07:38,420
and that of recruitment and retention.

1596
02:07:38,740 --> 02:07:40,480
That's what I call them, recruitment and retention

1597
02:07:40,480 --> 02:07:42,400
because I agree it's, they're both.

1598
02:07:43,000 --> 02:07:50,160
But yes, they are our recruitment team and Odd Hot and Caroline host me and I have them in my office quite often.

1599
02:07:50,240 --> 02:07:55,180
I was in their office quite a bit today, but yes, that'll be a natural collaboration.

1600
02:07:55,500 --> 02:08:03,140
I was very happy that my team and I were able to have our most recent informational video series episode be that on recruitment.

1601
02:08:04,060 --> 02:08:10,420
A lot of that content that we gathered was organically from exactly what you were saying.

1602
02:08:10,420 --> 02:08:15,840
My team and I, and that is, I am joined by our digital media redaction specialist,

1603
02:08:16,000 --> 02:08:16,480
Shawn Chen.

1604
02:08:16,760 --> 02:08:22,560
She's our amazing basically videographer, editor, unofficial photographer for the BPD.

1605
02:08:22,840 --> 02:08:27,900
So her and I go out into the events and such to gather that information.

1606
02:08:28,200 --> 02:08:31,180
And then that's how we put together those episodes.

1607
02:08:31,540 --> 02:08:37,500
So again, for those who may not be aware of it, but the BPD does have a YouTube

1608
02:08:37,500 --> 02:08:42,420
channel that we put that informational video series and the purpose of that video series

1609
02:08:42,420 --> 02:08:47,500
is to educate the public on different teams and aspects within the BPD to better understand

1610
02:08:47,500 --> 02:08:50,400
the work and importance each have here at the departments.

1611
02:08:50,820 --> 02:08:54,920
So as mentioned, the most recent episode was recruitment, we've done one on our community

1612
02:08:54,920 --> 02:09:00,360
service officers, one on our community support liaisons and one with our emergency response

1613
02:09:00,360 --> 02:09:00,840
units.

1614
02:09:01,300 --> 02:09:06,500
And right now we currently have in production one on our emergency communications specialist

1615
02:09:06,500 --> 02:09:08,780
also known as dispatchers.

1616
02:09:09,160 --> 02:09:12,140
So that one will hopefully be in the pipeline soon.

1617
02:09:12,860 --> 02:09:17,060
And then for where I'm focusing on right now

1618
02:09:17,060 --> 02:09:19,100
with what BPD has currently,

1619
02:09:19,280 --> 02:09:20,580
when I stepped into this role

1620
02:09:20,580 --> 02:09:22,240
is we do have our Facebook page

1621
02:09:22,240 --> 02:09:24,460
where you can see some of those lovely photos

1622
02:09:24,460 --> 02:09:27,920
and captures of already current creamy

1623
02:09:27,920 --> 02:09:29,700
from the cops recipients.

1624
02:09:30,240 --> 02:09:32,700
So a lot of our photos of our officers at that event

1625
02:09:32,700 --> 02:09:37,400
as well as highlights from different recruitment posts

1626
02:09:38,200 --> 02:09:40,560
that Anhad and Carolyn creates.

1627
02:09:40,720 --> 02:09:44,460
And I help highlight from the HR office

1628
02:09:44,460 --> 02:09:45,560
of the city of Burlington.

1629
02:09:46,100 --> 02:09:47,760
And then yes, front porch forum.

1630
02:09:48,180 --> 02:09:50,120
While we are limited to post,

1631
02:09:50,300 --> 02:09:52,100
I always kind of sit on that last one

1632
02:09:52,100 --> 02:09:54,320
to make sure if anything does come up last minute,

1633
02:09:54,360 --> 02:09:55,520
we have that capability,

1634
02:09:55,980 --> 02:09:58,220
but front porch forum we like to be active on

1635
02:09:58,220 --> 02:10:00,880
as well as the ring neighborhoods public safety.

1636
02:10:00,880 --> 02:10:09,480
I'll also do safety tips and street closures and event notices to that as well just to give individuals heads up for parking and such.

1637
02:10:10,780 --> 02:10:17,440
Okay, that's great. With how many posts do they limit you to?

1638
02:10:18,520 --> 02:10:22,820
From porch form I believe it's two for the municipal account that we have.

1639
02:10:25,340 --> 02:10:26,580
Two a month.

1640
02:10:27,260 --> 02:10:30,240
Two a month. Okay, I will email you about that.

1641
02:10:30,240 --> 02:10:38,180
we get four and it seems to be and it's also a little bit different because you

1642
02:10:38,180 --> 02:10:42,760
can do an announcement but if you do an event an event doesn't count as part of

1643
02:10:42,760 --> 02:10:49,080
your four as I've been trying to learn. Yes two announcements throughout like all

1644
02:10:49,080 --> 02:10:52,360
of the I believe all of the different jurisdictions and neighborhoods.

1645
02:10:54,740 --> 02:10:55,900
Okay let

1646
02:10:55,900 --> 02:11:02,540
Let me, I'm going to email you because I'm going to see if we can get you more, especially

1647
02:11:02,540 --> 02:11:05,740
as the public safety municipal account.

1648
02:11:09,980 --> 02:11:14,360
Yeah, I'll help you communicate with front porch form on that just to have an understanding

1649
02:11:15,140 --> 02:11:23,100
of how much you can actually do and it may need to be, because of the announcement and

1650
02:11:23,100 --> 02:11:25,100
the event, there's different things with the events.

1651
02:11:25,100 --> 02:11:29,980
You can do things under the events and it doesn't count against your announcement.

1652
02:11:32,880 --> 02:11:36,940
So I'll leave it there for now, but I'll definitely get some more information.

1653
02:11:37,200 --> 02:11:42,360
I appreciate those updates and your willingness to collaborate.

1654
02:11:43,280 --> 02:11:48,300
Do my fellow counselors have any additional questions or does Chief Murrat have anything

1655
02:11:48,300 --> 02:11:49,400
that he would like to add?

1656
02:11:54,540 --> 02:11:55,180
Okay, great.

1657
02:11:56,500 --> 02:11:59,060
So we just really quick here.

1658
02:11:59,980 --> 02:12:00,420
Oh, I'm sorry.

1659
02:12:00,980 --> 02:12:01,900
No, no, I'm sorry.

1660
02:12:01,980 --> 02:12:02,620
I was fine in the button.

1661
02:12:03,040 --> 02:12:05,560
I was just going to say, Sarah, thank you for your work.

1662
02:12:05,660 --> 02:12:10,880
And if there's ever, I know Shannon had reached out about doing some

1663
02:12:10,880 --> 02:12:12,320
community engagement with the MPAs.

1664
02:12:14,340 --> 02:12:18,300
But yeah, if there's ever anything in my neck of the woods that can be

1665
02:12:18,300 --> 02:12:24,500
helpful with either promoting it or just brainstorming different

1666
02:12:24,500 --> 02:12:28,540
community events that are happening with one. I think it's, yeah, I agree with

1667
02:12:28,540 --> 02:12:34,280
Councilor Grant the more that folks are connecting with officers in the

1668
02:12:34,280 --> 02:12:38,740
department in positive ways. I think the more trust we can build, so I

1669
02:12:38,740 --> 02:12:44,000
appreciate that work. Absolutely, and I just realized my video was not

1670
02:12:44,000 --> 02:12:52,460
active, so my apologies. It's nice to see all your faces. That's okay. So we, we

1671
02:12:52,460 --> 02:12:55,800
We had a very full meeting, even though we did not have Officer Miller, so I'll find

1672
02:12:55,800 --> 02:12:56,340
out what happened.

1673
02:12:56,460 --> 02:12:57,500
Maybe he didn't get the link.

1674
02:12:58,960 --> 02:13:00,220
I will find out.

1675
02:13:00,300 --> 02:13:09,060
The bare minimum, he really got me thinking about a lot of this, is he was over at the

1676
02:13:09,060 --> 02:13:14,920
Ward 6 NPA because people had questions specifically about traffic enforcement because

1677
02:13:14,920 --> 02:13:16,960
they were having some serious issues in that area.

1678
02:13:16,960 --> 02:13:23,900
I think we can all relate to the fact that there's various types of traffic issues, especially

1679
02:13:23,900 --> 02:13:25,580
with speeding through our neighborhoods.

1680
02:13:26,960 --> 02:13:34,980
And I saw that, I saw part of that, and I was like, that guy is public engagement gold.

1681
02:13:36,060 --> 02:13:39,720
And I had no idea that he was out there doing this.

1682
02:13:42,480 --> 02:13:50,480
I think that what he is doing counteracts some of the negative things that people have.

1683
02:13:50,600 --> 02:13:54,060
I think the people that were in the room that were watching it were really appreciating.

1684
02:13:54,180 --> 02:13:56,300
He was answering questions and things like that.

1685
02:13:57,480 --> 02:14:01,580
I will forward my two fellow counselors the link to it.

1686
02:14:01,660 --> 02:14:06,720
And maybe what we'll do is we'll have the link added to this meeting so at the

1687
02:14:06,720 --> 02:14:08,640
bare minimum people can watch that meeting.

1688
02:14:08,640 --> 02:14:15,780
but he's great. I mean you could even like do some snippets of him and you could

1689
02:14:15,780 --> 02:14:22,980
maybe say you know traffic enforcement with Sergeant Millis you know one through

1690
02:14:22,980 --> 02:14:30,560
four and and just use that video and then people see an officer that they

1691
02:14:30,560 --> 02:14:36,740
are they can become familiar with. I feel that people don't know what our

1692
02:14:36,740 --> 02:14:45,980
officers look like and I still feel that we could do you know at roll call at

1693
02:14:45,980 --> 02:14:51,840
roll call maybe you could get two officers before or after roll call to do

1694
02:14:51,840 --> 02:14:57,900
like the five questions you know how long have you been what made you want to

1695
02:14:57,900 --> 02:14:59,680
be a police officer how long you've been an officer

1696
02:15:00,000 --> 02:15:05,040
Where do you live? What's the, you know, the best thing that's ever happened to you on

1697
02:15:05,040 --> 02:15:09,460
the job? What's the worst thing? And what's the one thing you want all Burlingtonians to

1698
02:15:09,460 --> 02:15:15,980
know about public safety? And they can answer those five questions in less than five minutes.

1699
02:15:16,920 --> 02:15:22,520
And you have a post. You have a post that you could have fun with. And you could have.

1700
02:15:22,660 --> 02:15:25,600
And I also understand that some officers may not want to be on the camera, especially

1701
02:15:25,600 --> 02:15:31,780
those who work with a drug unit. But those that are, it's like giving visibility and creating

1702
02:15:31,780 --> 02:15:37,720
an opportunity for support because I really do believe it can be improved on. And I am in an

1703
02:15:37,720 --> 02:15:46,000
area that there's a lot of issues around a lack of support. And I know it can be improved.

1704
02:15:55,020 --> 02:15:55,580
I

1705
02:15:55,580 --> 02:15:59,940
I was very happy that Sergeant Mellis was able to join for the NPA.

1706
02:16:00,220 --> 02:16:05,920
I believe that last year was when I first met Councilor and Advisor before he was a

1707
02:16:05,920 --> 02:16:06,640
City Councilor.

1708
02:16:07,040 --> 02:16:11,960
I heard about the NPAs, I started researching Burlington before I relocated here to New

1709
02:16:11,960 --> 02:16:12,320
England.

1710
02:16:12,500 --> 02:16:17,620
I'm originally a Midwesterner, born and raised in Wisconsin, but I was living in

1711
02:16:17,620 --> 02:16:21,580
Europe the last four years, wanted to come back to the States and always found

1712
02:16:21,580 --> 02:16:22,560
this area fascinating.

1713
02:16:22,560 --> 02:16:35,560
But I learned about the MPAs, and that was one of the first things I started doing my first year was I wasn't able to justify going to every single one every month, but I made a point to go to all eight wards seasonally.

1714
02:16:36,420 --> 02:16:48,780
So I was able to go in spring again in fall and in winter. And this year I've been really trying to be able to have an officer join me specifically for that.

1715
02:16:48,780 --> 02:16:56,320
so it was great to get Sergeant Mellis too. I believe it was Ward 6, I believe.

1716
02:16:56,540 --> 02:16:59,940
Yeah, it was. It was Ward. Yeah, it was Ward. Thanks, and I would...

1717
02:16:59,940 --> 02:17:00,680
That's an... Yes.

1718
02:17:01,120 --> 02:17:03,380
Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Please continue.

1719
02:17:03,540 --> 02:17:08,160
No, that's essentially something that I would love to continue and whatever

1720
02:17:08,160 --> 02:17:12,640
facet that, again, our officers have that availability. I know that's a lot and

1721
02:17:12,640 --> 02:17:16,480
it's really nice to hear the empathy and understanding of that from the community

1722
02:17:16,480 --> 02:17:20,460
because as much as I always say that they're always organically community

1723
02:17:20,460 --> 02:17:26,500
engaging throughout but there's a time and place where an MPA is a specific

1724
02:17:26,500 --> 02:17:32,220
format and it is with each of the different areas of the city so again

1725
02:17:32,220 --> 02:17:36,400
something I would like to build on and if you go on our Facebook page Sargent

1726
02:17:36,400 --> 02:17:40,500
Melis is definitely one of our top contenders of photos that we have of

1727
02:17:40,500 --> 02:17:45,100
him and hopefully we'll be doing an episode on specific gun patrol and

1728
02:17:45,100 --> 02:17:51,920
And again, expand those informational video episodes into maybe shorter reels and videos

1729
02:17:51,920 --> 02:17:55,280
that are more short and digestible.

1730
02:17:55,740 --> 02:18:01,180
And it's a great reminder about that YouTube page because I haven't been on there, you

1731
02:18:01,780 --> 02:18:03,320
know, since I watched the recruitment video.

1732
02:18:03,820 --> 02:18:10,240
So when we're talking about getting those videos out, that is like Instagram is all

1733
02:18:10,240 --> 02:18:11,180
about that.

1734
02:18:11,740 --> 02:18:18,580
then you can use those videos to make smaller reels because the reels were

1735
02:18:18,580 --> 02:18:24,220
like people told me this and then I'm like okay and I did it and and certain

1736
02:18:24,220 --> 02:18:29,720
stuff blew up and I was like whoa this is this is real the reels are real so

1737
02:18:29,720 --> 02:18:36,240
they're like really effective I know I would love to get an officer in in the

1738
02:18:36,240 --> 02:18:45,500
We haven't had BPD at our MPA in an extremely long time.

1739
02:18:46,500 --> 02:18:49,240
And maybe that's something we could work on for the fall.

1740
02:18:50,300 --> 02:18:53,920
And maybe Chief, you might be able to come back.

1741
02:18:54,080 --> 02:18:55,940
But I think that that would be really important

1742
02:18:55,940 --> 02:19:02,360
into the Old North Inn to have showing up.

1743
02:19:02,460 --> 02:19:04,440
And we're also in the Old North Inn

1744
02:19:04,440 --> 02:19:13,940
with the redistricting, we are trying to deal with the fact that all of a sudden we went from being Ward 2 and 3 to our MPA being mostly Ward 2,

1745
02:19:14,100 --> 02:19:22,600
because so many people were moved over from Ward 3 to 2, and then Ward 3 is expanded out to the King Maple area,

1746
02:19:22,600 --> 02:19:29,700
and we are realizing that we really don't have any participation there, so that's one of the projects we're looking at.

1747
02:19:30,260 --> 02:19:37,620
how do we get people over to the Old North End Community Center or maybe we need

1748
02:19:37,620 --> 02:19:45,240
to be doing our NPA at a different location that's closer to King Maple to

1749
02:19:45,240 --> 02:19:49,640
accommodate that but that's kind of off topic at the moment. Sarah I thank you

1750
02:19:49,640 --> 02:19:54,920
very much for your time and the updates. Any questions from my fellow

1751
02:19:54,920 --> 02:19:55,760
Councilors.

1752
02:19:59,770 --> 02:20:07,690
Well, that is awesome. Upcoming meetings sticking to the third Thursday would be

1753
02:20:08,130 --> 02:20:14,740
August 15th and September 19th. Does that sound okay?

1754
02:20:17,780 --> 02:20:24,860
Wonderful and shout out to our new city attorney Jessica Brown.

1755
02:20:28,900 --> 02:20:30,880
Thanks for attending tonight

1756
02:20:33,310 --> 02:20:37,170
And we will close the meeting at 7.56.

1757
02:20:37,710 --> 02:20:42,030
And as a reminder, this has been recorded and will be,

1758
02:20:42,730 --> 02:20:47,690
our staff person is usually very good about adding it very quickly to Civic Clerk.

1759
02:20:47,930 --> 02:20:50,650
I will let you all know when it's live.

1760
02:20:52,210 --> 02:20:53,930
Thank you and have a great night.

1761
02:20:55,250 --> 02:20:56,190
Thank you, Councillor Grant.

1762
02:20:56,190 --> 02:20:56,790
Thanks, counselor.