Good evening and welcome to the Greeley City Council work session this ninth day of April, 2024. I'll call this meeting to order and ask that you stand in agreement, join us for the call.
Present.
All seven members City Council are present this evening.
Item four is reports from Mayoral Council members and reports colleagues.
Councilor Olsen, please.
So that's a North Front Range meeting. We had a really good talk.
I just want to give everybody a heads up.
The U.S. 34 Coalition North Front Range have created a TMO,
Transportation Management Organization that's going to be along U.S. 34.
So, and it's really us starting it. We have a company called steer on board to help us develop the strategies and vision and the mission and they're going to be reaching out.
We're going to need to be funding some things, but a lot of it eventually will be private and it will be nonprofit organization C3.
501C3 is that right? So it'll be that. And they'll be, they've already started doing some
engagement with our folks and our public question department. But I think it's going to be pretty
unique along the US-34 corridor between Curzio, the way to Loveland. There's nine communities,
but we'll probably have to start figuring out if we're going to, how we're going to
fund some of it in the beginning until we get enough business partners.
They're
It's just finding ways to minimize getting people in transit, getting people to walk
by bus and businesses to help support that with their organization.
So it will be a good thing.
It's the first TMO in Northern Colorado, and it was about 22, I think, 22 or 23 in
the state, and it's just a promotion of mobility choice and giving people options.
So I think it's a good thing.
When I get information on it, I'll send it out.
We're just setting up the charter now and all the processes.
But it'll be interesting. We're going to play a big part.
We have to find a representative for the steering committee that's not me.
Will and I sort of had a little texting message a little bit,
and either maybe from our staff or anybody that'd like to.
But we're going to need to have a representative on the steering committee.
And since I'm on the coalition, I think it'll be us initially, and then we'll have to split
it out and find some other folks.
They'll have business folks represented from each city or county, four business folks,
and the DOT will be a non-voting member.
But so it'll be a pretty unique board.
And I'll keep working with Will and Paul to try to figure out, do we want a transportation
Advisory group person to sit on it. Do we want the city staff person to sit on it? Just make sure we fit all the legal criteria about that.
Thank you. Any additional reports? Councilor Butler, please.
This is actually an initiative. That's our camera.
Can we do an initiative when we don't.
Not at a, well, not at a business meeting.
I don't know if it would have been a real problem. I mean, is anything legally.
No, there's no legal prohibition. I think you can just indicate that this relates to an initiative and we do just seek consensus. So go ahead.
So, as we've talked before, about the sergeants ballot initiative to help our police sergeants join the police union that city staff has worked diligently to get some language that it's all the various parties with that agreement.
And I would like to ask that to go to ordinance for the next meeting.
Consensus with regard to Councilor Valker's initiative.
Okay.
There is consensus.
Thank you very much.
Anything else.
I would like to remind our council and our community.
Tomorrow evening's virtual community meeting.
April 10th five o'clock.
regarding the police law enforcement services study that's been going on quite
some time. I'm guessing the link is on our web page. Okay. Anything that I should
add to that comment, Chief Turk?
Okay.
We'll watch it. We'll wait and you can
repeat what I just said, but better. Okay. Next. Any additional comments,
Council. Item five is Greeley Mobility Services Update. Paul, I think Anna Johnson, Michelle Johnson,
Will Jones coming up.
Good evening everybody. Thanks for the rubber bus. I doubt any of us
We'll use this as stress relief.
That goal challenge.
Yeah.
Part of the question.
Thank you and good evening.
Good evening, Mayor.
Council members, thank you for your time tonight.
I'm just going to kick us off.
And it's the team to my right. Will Jones,
Hannah Johnson, Michelle Johnson,
Hannah is our mobility coordinator,
Michelle is our mobility manager.
Well, they're going to do the presentation tonight.
this is a follow-up to Council Member Butler's initiative on sort of transit, sort of update.
Part of that has to do with, I think you guys hear often sort of maybe
comments and concerns about regular meetings from the club members of the public. And so,
we're going to try to address a lot of those issues tonight, so you get a better sense of that.
And I think also you know in your packet that the presentation has a series of index pieces,
just with a little more data on some of the things that we're going to present fairly fairly short. Very thorough. Thank you. Yep. And welcome to that. Okay. Thank you.
Good evening mayor council. Thank you again for your time tonight. Tonight's we're going to provide a little insight as Paul mentioned not only the current state of mobility.
And really the more importantly, the direction for which that is kind of ongoing.
and they shop for feedback as well as public support.
Next slide.
Oops, sorry, I'll take the video back.
Thank you.
During tonight's presentation,
he'll receive an update on really spurs micro-mobility pilot
being in sight as the mobility development plan,
which is really throw a map into the implementation
of the mobility umbrella,
including the adopted real and real transportation
as the plan.
And lastly, a review of projects
that we believe will come out
of the mobility development plan for consideration as it relates to funding.
With that said, I'll now hand it off to Hannah. She is our project manager for the micro-mobility.
Good evening, Council. So, last fall, we were reviewed and passed a new shared micro-mobility
business relating to coordinates that created the framework for kind of the regulatory framework
for how a shared micro-mobility business could operate on our streets here in Greeley.
Since then, our staff has researched the vet and industry practices for regulating shared
microavailability further through that business licensing framework.
We've sat down with care agencies such as Fort Collins, Dwayne Junction, City of Denver,
who have shared microavailability on their streets for several years to take their lessons
learned, try to avoid making them their missteps as we deploy our MDM pilot here and really.
We've also sat down with key local stakeholders to understand really specific goals and concerns.
One of the key takeaways from other communities is that they recommended testing, you know,
what we think is going to be the best fit for our community, with an understanding that
we would need a flexible piloting process and program, and then after we see how
that first pilot goes, adjust the program from there.
So, based off of that research and outreach, we are proposing to do a one-year pilot starting this summer,
providing for one year to accomplish the goals outlined on the slides provided.
We really think that having a piloting period provides transparency to the businesses that would be investing in having shared microability services here,
and really being transparent to the city in terms of potentially making some changes after that piloting period.
area. Next slide, please.
This is the proposed piloting zone. We established a space off of the recommendations from the transportation master plan feedback from key stakeholders and providing access to key destinations.
This pilot area is, if you look at other communities here in Colorado, it's actually significantly smaller than some of those other communities.
But we felt like this was kind of a building long size for the city of really, it's small enough so that we can be nimble in our program management.
But it is large enough so it's, you know, people can actually go go places. We can actually get a good idea of how to manage the program.
It's actually a practical program for the community so people can go from UNC to the downtown area.
We got feedback from UNC that students really wanted to go places like the Centennial Library
and the King Super's Office 20th Street and 30th Avenue.
But due to the relatively small market size for the actual businesses, we are recommending
only one operator during the piloting period.
There is some concern that if we had multiple providers that they would be less invested
in the success of the program because they would be making less money off of their competing
against each other. So we wanted our operator to be really invested in the success of the
program and operating based off of the city's standards. So we just really wanted to see
that the program pilot to be successful. So there are a lot of maybe great details
when it comes to this business license. So we did provide those details in your packet.
I'm absolutely happy to answer any questions you might have, but if you want those details,
like I said, they're in your pocket, everything from a complete read of the region, removal,
parking standards, geofencing, safety plans, consumer standards on batteries, maintenance,
customer service.
That being said, this is one piece of our distributed mobility vision here in mobility
services.
We see this as one piece of the mobility umbrella, and it really complements well with transit, so I'll hold it on to Michelle to discuss really evidence-primed data.
Well, thank you for your time this evening. I'll give you an overview of the current state of Gattith where we're going.
Overall, the ridership is recovering well from the surface destruction caused by COVID-19.
The national statistics on overall ridership recoveries at 77 percent, while really at its
transit ridership is trending higher at 81 percent of where we were pre-COVID.
While this is all great news, ridership trending now, we've also seen an uptick in rider behavior
issues, both from the social aspect as well as the safety risk.
Due to the safety issues we've experienced for the first time, GATT has had to add
security personnel both on our buses and of our transit centers. The security which was
implemented in February of this year has had a positive impact on the safety of our bus operators
as well as our customers. Our bus operators have expressed to us the gratitude by having
security on our vehicle so they can focus on driving safely and not have to manage behavior.
The customers have expressed feeling safer while riding their buses so that was a positive
addition to get transportation. Another issue that we've started with over the
last several years and continue to struggle with is driver shortage. Less
operator shortage is not only a local issue, but also regional and national
issue. Less operator shortage affect the quality of our service. We've been
very proactive in driver recruitment and we do offer drivers needing to obtain
their commercial driver's license the opportunity to train, pay training to
for the operated for us.
In addition to the positive changes
that came out of the company class study,
we still see struggles with hiring and retaining drivers.
So we've had to look outside our box
and look at other operational opportunities.
One of those opportunities that we're pursuing
is contracting out our ADA paratransit service.
Contracting out ADA and paratransit service
for our community, our sites,
and larger is common practice in the transit industry.
By contracting this service, staff will be able
to maximize resources in other areas,
ensuring quality of service to our customers.
In addition to contracting the service out,
we will be able to open the door
to more on-demand transit service.
As was identified in Greeley on the go,
East Greeley has been identified as a priority area
for my first transit pilot.
We're looking at ways to facilitate a contract to do a microtransit pilot on the east side.
The next slide we can talk about transit funding.
This slide represents the overall transit mobility funding. The total transit budget for 2024 is 8.4 million dollars.
Our Federal Transit Administration grant requires a 50-50 match for transit operations and an 80-20 match for transit capital.
If you can look at the chart, FTA provides 47% of our total revenue and the city of Brieley provides 37% of our revenue.
To give you a better understanding of how transit revenue breaks out, it's presented on the next slide.
In 2023, the actual fare box revenue was 540,000.
Nearly 300,000 of that was cash, fare and bus passes.
In addition, get with the
Get successful in participating in the Colorado Transit Association Ozone Season Grant program.
During the summer of 2023, we provided free fare across all gas services and received $166,000 to replace lost fare revenue.
Other fare revenue is made up with the Ride Free with ID program provided by school districts.
accept, they provide about $69,000 and Ames Community Colleges provides about $7,000.
The local match is made up of our funding partners. The City of Breeden provides $3.1 million
in local funding. The remaining $761,000 is provided by our partners, the City of Evans,
Gardens City, Fort Collins, CSU, the town of Windsor, UNC, and CDOT.
Next slide.
The Greeley-on-the-Go transportation master plan that was approved by council in March
of 2023 identified the transition from traditional fixed-strap and ADA pair transit services
to a comprehensive mobility program.
We are currently working with our consulting team to provide the roadmap, as was suggested,
implemented on the implementation of this plan and made the Greeley on the whole fall
to provide an ample, easy and connected transportation system, providing seamless mobility to enrich
lines and for more economic utility.
As we navigate the best case scenarios for Greeley, mobility and Greeley, these are
the areas that need consideration and funding.
And I'll turn it back to Will and he can talk about some of those needs.
Thank you, Michelle.
Next slide.
On this last slide of the presentation, and if Michelle noted, notated from the mobility development plan, we expect several recommendations to come out of that planning exercise.
As such, staff want to spend some time with you and make you aware of these recommendations that we expect out of that plan and answer any questions you may have.
The first item on the list is a transit dispatch and mobility app program.
This software replacement will replace the antiquated software that we currently have.
It's not only used by the team to utilize for operational purposes, dispatch and such,
but also, more importantly, the public-facing components and mobility.
With the goal of seamless mobility, this mobility app will allow residents to prioritize,
select, and pay for their mobility based off of what's most important to them,
be it what costs the most, be it their greenhouse gases, be it calories burned, whatever the case may be, it would allow them to do that.
The next section on service modifications and expansion, which outlined several components, the first being regional service along Highway 34 to Loveland, for which we receive the grant through the North Far Range MPO.
So, over the next year, we'll be working with our regional partners to finalize local funding share needed to facilitate non-along term operations, but also bus cap, bus purchases.
The second being micro transit, which is notably different than micro mobility will provide mobility operations and areas agree that may not warrant fixed route service, but they're still in need.
And lastly, the security program expansion, which would add additional security to the success of the program that Michelle are denotating.
The last component of the slide is service equity. This item, which is a topic across the country is looking at how we facilitate that equity piece.
right, often times we bear $1.50 is a barrier for folks. Hannah did a fantastic job
bearing some of those pilots that Michelle talked about and actually did surveys
on buses and found that people with that fair free they're able to prioritize or
not have to prioritize. They can do things that you and I often find
didn't have to prioritize because we just get in a car and drive. So if we had a
doctor's appointment I'd be at whatever the case may be. And so this is the
piloted there with funds that folks would be able to utilize,
picture out in a pair of trains that had no cost to them.
And so with that, on the next slide,
let's open up to discussion with questions
from the film council.
Questions, comments for that, yes.
I would like to delve a little bit
into my favorite topic, writer behavior.
Try not to put my other hat on.
At some point it's probably going to happen.
Is it a fair assessment that most of that is school-age students?
It's regardless of age.
And that's, you know, and Michelle can chime in here too, but it's the same for when I was trying to be older, right?
We have that behavior issues with young and old.
And so it's not just students.
I'm sorry we have any behavior issues.
But I'm pleased to know that it's across the gamut, because I course hear other things
and I wanted to hear from those with boots on the ground.
So you think that the security is obviously for the safety of our drivers, which I'm guessing
we all support.
That isn't necessarily occurring just because of the school wage, you know, and I think
I think you said it, but I just want to reinforce that our drivers feel safe.
They do now.
That was a big issue that we had to discuss over the last few months, and they do feel safe.
They're very appreciative of that.
That's important.
It's very important.
It's also a big thing that Charles will be leading to you with driver protection.
Sure.
It's a, you know, for them to feel like you're driving less, you have to interact with people.
Some of the challenging parts are the things that they don't play with.
And the security, even if they're limited to dollars, then we put it in place.
And it's made the drivers feel more comfortable. They feel better.
Great.
So that's why we, that's why you see the expansion.
We think it's spending across all the hours.
It's just when people get on the bus, they feel more comfortable.
And I'll add to it's not just a specific really, right? More Collins has security on buses, RTD does, car springs does.
Okay, so good point.
What else?
Councilor, I'll let them. Councilor, I'll let them.
I have several things here. The first one is what is the, what are you having a hard time filling? What position?
Best operators. What, what was that? Best operators.
I just want to make sure that, because I feel like that's what I call my constituents is a part of the issues of why we're not adding more routes because we can't find bus drivers. So I just want to make sure that's clear on the mobility piece of it.
Is there an age restriction. So 18 they have to be 18 years old. Yes.
And we are also recommending that whoever the provider is has the functionality to turn
on, verify by an ID.
We don't have to turn that on, but having the ability to have that as a functionality.
Because in their terms of use, almost every single provider across the country requires
that you are 18 years of order to rent a scooter or rent an e-bike, lift, line,
And it's been whoever, but sometimes they can have a hard time with compliance. So that's one tool in the toolbox that some communities deploy is having that a scanning function. There's some data sites of that. They have to make sure of it.
They don't have any data breaches or anything like that, but they have figured that out on the technology side too.
So, and that's common with across the country of the ID scanning is only been deployed in a few communities, but it is a tool in the toolbox that we can deploy if we ask for it. Gotcha.
I guess more so just the 18 because I think yes, maybe it's 16 and all that is able to have a driver's license and, you know, it's up late. This is the best to go slow.
The, the common, the terms of use across the country is 18 years or older. That is for liability purposes, what the providers themselves are likely going to require when I sat down with D six.
They, they also really wanted us to have an 18 years or order requirement just for concerns for safety for their students.
So, just so you all know, that's the feedback I got from that state border group.
Is there an upper limit?
Like, you see, there's age?
Hey, wait a minute, what did I do?
I don't think so.
I think it's right at your own risk.
They do have a pretty long time to use.
Just check her.
And are we looking at different options
as far as like scooters, bicycle, or what?
Yeah, so when I was doing some public engagement,
I had some different device types.
I will say that scooters were what people want the most,
but people were interested in like sit down scooters
And then electric bikes and people were at least interested in the pedal bikes.
And are they able to like trailer a small part if they were going to try to go to the grocery store and something.
So because usually how they're kind of bulkier devices because they try to prevent theft and they have like more locking functionality and stuff like that.
they don't typically have in kind of trailer but a lot of the e-bikes do
have some kind of basket on the front and I would recommend we have an e-bike
functionality for that purpose of if you want to go to the grocery store
especially like people who don't have cars you know being able to have that
functionality of you can't really I wouldn't recommend riding on a scooter
going like this with two grocery bags that I wouldn't be very safe as a
rider so having an e-bike option with a basket on the front would
provide some of those cargo options but they are expanding those device types all
the time. We were in DC for a conference and there were a bajillion different
device types so as we maybe see the program grow we might see different
device types so people probably start simple. And then my last question is
And where in the end, we're possibly getting around today.
You seem to call it a trip.
So that'll be part of our mobility development plan.
And so outlining that as we look at routes and where they go.
We currently do provide service to UC Health.
We're an on-demand service.
So through general public, anybody
can utilize that, and then our care of transit.
So we actually, in last year,
we provided over 2,400 rides to UC Health campus
This is called Dispatch and Schedule it, and so they can schedule that up to two weeks
in advance or up to the day before we do also offer some same-day service because availability
is available and available to get on the schedule.
This is probably not a question you can answer, but any idea if the hospital communicates
that when they were releasing patients because I know right right next to you see health is a salon
that people rent out and they've locked their doors because of people that were on poles.
Interesting. The hospital that have gone to try to use the phone or kind of find a ride if I don't
know if that's possible. We'll follow up with Marilyn Shocke on that. When they opened up we had
some pretty in-depth conversations with them and making sure that that transportation piece was
that there was a knowledge base with that,
with their staff there, and you will follow up on that.
The payphone suit exists in the staff, they don't.
Yeah, it happens all the time.
And you see how it's part of our stakeholders,
and we're going to have our first meetings with the stakeholders on the 16th.
So hopefully they'll send some folks that will be able to
date to what their needs are, and that they can really understand
what chance it's about here and create it.
Councilor DeButy, please.
Thank you, Mayor. Hannah, I wonder if you've reached out to a couple of the bike
like shots in town that are currently renting e-bikes and scooters and what their reaction
is to this program?
Yeah.
So I did want to note, so the current business license does not, it only affects operators
where they leave the devices on public right of way or between users.
So any of the bike shops where they're renting an e-bike and they end the, the between
users, they're stopping at the bike shop itself, they don't have to get the business license. So
they can continue their business. But I do, if you're referring to Blue Sky Cycles, they do
participate in Greeley Bikes, which is a group that I lead, and they are aware of the piloting
process and stuff like that. And then that concerns about the competition. I'm sure that
they are. Yeah, it
might be work. I don't know. Now you're going to go with one company, but
gee, if we can support the local folks, we hope we could do that. My next question is on the
micro train set. I'm very interested in that, especially east of the highway. Well, and so
that hasn't started yet, but we're going to pilot it in 2025.
We will learn sooner or sooner. So we're actually going to do the benefits and Michelle kind of touched on a little bit with the contract and service for paratransit.
And so working with them to facilitate a pilot there for that.
So the East side is 35 there as well.
So it's just real fast.
And when you're talking micro, you're talking with a thing in not a large city bus.
Correct.
Yeah.
Smaller.
So there's autonomous vehicles out there.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
And do you see doing, you know, particular routes times a day,
or is it just on demand calling.
Like the transit is on demand. That's the beauty of it.
And that can go when they need to go.
It takes away the barriers that we currently have in place with
our ADA service,
but you have to keep that in mind.
call a David Vance for a reservation. Microtransit, you know, and hopefully through our mobile app,
they can just suggest a ride on a mobile app.
Local app, do it online. And then as we work through the contracting abilities, then we'll have, you know, parameters in place so that we have a weight carry it or they can go up. So it's going to really open up transit.
I think for the community. Yeah. And even though the pilot is looking at on the East side, we're really looking at him. I've been writing a lot of grants.
And so hopefully it'll be, you know, on a community like basis. And that just really needs a mobility envelope by getting people up shots.
Thank you.
Councilor Hull, thanks.
Thank you. My question is on the micro.
Mobility, the scooters and stuff and being.
Two weekends ago I was in Denver and noticing all these fun things.
just standing there in the middle of the sidewalks.
Is there some way to deal with that?
I mean, to me, it's a little bit of scooter pollution.
I mean, you gotta walk around them to even walk.
Yeah, in terms of like having good parking compliance
and stuff like that.
So what you see is when you have more dedicated parking
places for scooters,
you see a rise in scooter parking compliance.
So we would like to see as the program grows
There's more dedicated places for those scooters to exist.
The closer you can have that to where the end destination is for that rider, the more
likely they are to do that.
There are in-app functions that we will require from the get-go that will incentivize good
parking behavior.
Users will have to take a quiz that show you're not allowed per code to block the
sidewalk path, right?
You can't block ADA, accessibility, et cetera.
That's already required.
If a device, let's say, there's a number on use device and a GPS.
So if device 1234 is found to be not complying with those parking regulations,
that user can actually get a fine.
I think one of the council members last time talked about how his daughter had an issue.
Actually not trying to park in correctly, but anyways.
So, there's ways to kind of try to encourage that good behavior for parking and anyways,
so having those scooter corrals and having those kinds of ways to encourage good parking
behavior is what we're recommending and requiring for so.
But are they picked up if there's not a use for them in so many hours or a day?
Yeah.
And that's where the fleet redistribution comes in.
So the operator will be required to redistribute devices based off of, you know,
if they haven't been moved in a certain time period or if they're in,
they'll also want to put their devices in a place where they're going to be used.
it's like a good business model to put them in places where they're going to move around.
Part of that, like I said, is trying to get an operator who's invested in the community and
that's why we're wanting to have one operator who may be a little more invested. So, yes,
there is a requirement for redistribution usually from a lot of the other communities here
in Colorado. They do that really early in the morning, usually around like five, six in the
Good morning.
Councilor Halston, please.
Can I get my turn?
Can you give Tommy a shot?
Tommy, I only have three.
Go ahead.
I don't believe it's more of a,
let's build up, Councilor Halston's point.
We have, if we start to see a lot of
scooters just left out in places that are bad.
Is somebody paying a fine for that at a certain point?
Is that, like, go back to the end user?
How does that work?
Yeah, so basically the scooter is parked not complying with the regulations of it's blocking the sidewalk, it's tipped over, and it's found to be a user error.
They're supposed to take a photo at the end of their ride, and if it's found to be their fault, they can get a fee. They can just use that fee if they're like, this actually wasn't my fault.
So they can get a fine directly as the user and then we as a city through our business licensing practice, if the business themselves are not being responsible and not following the business standards, we can revoke their license.
And that's also part of the piloting processes. We're going to see how this goes for the first year. And then if we're like, this operator is horrible. We don't think they're doing a good job.
we don't think this was a good fit for our community. That's kind of why we're saying
let's see how this goes for a year. Is this right for us? Yeah, so I know we can tweak things right
and so that's that's the benefit of the pilot is being able to say we're going to add this language
to the license before make this adjustment or technology changes right so that we can
add those types of enhancements. So just to double check though one thing if
we see a lot of people parking poorly is that just going to be money in the
pocket of the business owner, or is that going to be a fine that we actually take
from it? So we do, we are recommending, and we have like this here in the packet, we
are recommending that there is a performance bond of $20 per vehicle, so
they are not meeting the performance standards, there is a performance bond
per vehicle, but basically they don't have to, sorry, the finest to the user, and we can
adjust this and have language in the licensing process, like if there's a certain percentage
of complaints, let's say we could add that as language into their contract, we haven't
finished that yet, so that's really good feedback to put not on just the user.
Well, that's just, yeah, I'm wondering if that actually works to the end user just paying a fine every time somebody parks poorly. That's just that that doesn't fix our problem. That just enriches the microbook.
That's how we can build them.
They're actually incentivize certain point to have people park.
Just like in our care transit service contracts, we have look-a-day damages and so when we have
Michael, it adds how we manage contracts that we can add those in if that's going to be a
benefit to the community.
So to add on to that here, when I was in D.C., a lot of business owners, I'd watch them
walk out and move that scooter after the user got up to the front of the business
owner, put it where it was supposed to be and now you're going to find the user
that parked it in the right spot and then all of a sudden you get fine because you moved it.
You can pick those up. I think that's where the picture was right where, you know what I mean.
It's just hard to take a picture every time you get off a scooter. I mean, you're in a hurry.
Hey, hold on, let me take a picture of my scooter. It's just difficult. So just think through
that a little bit. Have we had any interest from companies to want to build with our pilot
program so we have yeah well we RFP that or we so we're gonna put an RFP out
we got interest so and it's in coordination with UNC so UNC's been a
big big hit up probably once we got something so yeah so that Hannah's and
Michelle's got a really good job of coordinating with UNC on that so it'll be a
big part of that yeah big user positive it'll be a big user just in
that little area my daughter used to do the razor schoonter when she was
called a student group going through school.
So she'd love to grab all the water-lake electric ones.
Tech out.
So the North Front Range has developed that app that they
have.
Are we going to be tying into that at all with our micro
mobility on demand and some of those other things that are
yet in our computer express?
Because I think it needs to be sort of a global
perspective with them.
Yeah, and we'll just be with things really, right?
And it may be a different app.
or maybe some of those sets of things with that connection, right? So that'll make it
You know how to communicate? Hey, you got to get on here. You can click on this website
to get a Greeley on demand.
There's just some functionality that I think the apps we're looking at, like you tie
an Uber, you tie a, you know, so you pull up an app and it's got all, it's got the
scooters, it's got, hey, there's an Uber that's three blocks away, there's the
line, you know, or whatever it is, right? And so it's all in one. And then you
You can actually, like I mentioned, prioritize it, right?
So for me, I probably need to lose some weight
so I can mark down, like I want less calories
or more calories and it'll prioritize your trip
based on that or greenhouse gas is important.
Yes, I should.
Just checking.
Because I should too, I don't want to prioritize that.
So something that's really helpful
with the dispatch software is that would help us
make sure that our GTFS is updated.
If we have a micro-mobility zone or a microtransit zone, it makes sure that those things are updated, which actually directly ties into that application at the NFRMPO. That's how they actually, that's what they do.
That's awesome. So Paul and I have talked about this before, and I think I've mentioned it, public-private partnerships are on demand.
So instead of us having vehicles and having drivers that we partner with Uber or Lyft or somebody and pay them the fee that we would pay to pick up our residents out of fee and affair that goes.
I mean, I think because then it's really on demand, right? And then they we have these Uber public private partnership driving around because it's hard to get an Uber in this town.
You know, I've had to walk because the Uber was like,
oh, 30 minutes out, I can walk in 10.
So it's not really good from walking home from Friday Fest.
So it's a hike for me.
You can take it for 30 plus and then walk.
That would be dangerous even then,
because the rule will say that.
But I think the contractor is a private company.
for on-demand? Yeah and I think something like partnering with Uber or Lyft, I mean
getting more Uber or Lyft people and saying hey from this time to this
time we're going to use you. I just think we need to look at that because we need
to increase our Uber or Lyft potential in the city too. It's part of that means
sort of what I think I talked about is incentivized. Yeah so the city comes in
that helps build that base of Uber Lyft and other types of things. You know so
Because we like to say we want to keep it agnostic, we want them all.
Like we talked about 60 bus, we want to put them in.
Because they all offer, they offer services that we can't do ourselves.
So the more that we get that group together, people see the way and options for them to achieve to actually connect with across the city better.
I think us paying their ride.
Yes.
And now buying a bus is going to save us a ton more money at the long run for them to
pay a small nominal fee to get, two bucks to get where they want to go and we cover
the rest in our area.
It should do with the difference in the services, right?
They have most service.
They're from all transit service.
You know, transit doesn't work well for one mile.
First is my mile?
Okay.
So they serve a different role.
So microtransit, microtransit, microtransit, microtransit, microtransit, microtransit, microtransit, microtransit, microtransit.
So that's what we're trying to do is the more we lay out these options, what you're going to do.
People are going to have better traffic.
And two, we're going to, we're giving them a better call.
I'm thinking about these folks that live in northeast Greeley that don't have a grocery store.
And they could call an Uber and they only pay a dollar to get there.
They won't be taking the carts and they'll be finding ways to get to shopping and we'll be helping their disproportionate impacted community even more. So those are the things I'm really thinking.
But they can get to the right store that gives them the price for the needs that they have. So those are the things that this equity or even get home. It was actually CRB. This is a great story.
But it adds and highlights that right even be able to buy ice cream and like
Right now if you live on the you know live far away from grocery store taking fixed route by time to get home
You're not gonna have ice cream
Right be milk. Yeah, and so where with micro transit or uber partnership, right?
You're able to and there was actually a story of that where somebody was able to actually for the first time in
Years have ice cream and brought so that's my tag on because I know
We're not the only community thinking about this
Not a lot of communities do it. I think we'd be like in the top one percent if we put something in place like this, but there has been pilot programs around this and we have we reached out and started thinking about how that works.
Awesome. We want to connect. This should be seen. So if we can active and turn into the city.
and I'll start to connect to the next job, right?
Taking that.
I schedule my whole round to grab a solid mobility
over things like that.
Right, so you want to start in terms of it.
Good.
And then personally on one-year free pilot,
I personally think the state of Colorado, legislation.
Legislature should get in a room
and make all transit from all residents of Colorado
for free.
It's about $160 million and they can fund this and then all of our citizens can write for free. Personally, I think that's something that needs to be done.
You're good with it at this level.
You're good with it at this level. I'd have to see the numbers.
That's it. Thank you, ma'am.
I then just curious about the liability city attorney are we so if we partner with these organizations, private drivers, Uber drivers, and we have city logos on the side or on the app. I mean, what is our exposure?
I'm sorry.
Okay, I'm just thinking about our exposure when we enter into contract with micro transits and so we wouldn't clarify all that in the contract time so we would have indemnitation provisions just like we do in other contracts and we would shift that liability to those companies that we contract with, which we can.
In regard to like the scooters and things, we would also shift that liability, and then we would shift control over what the riders do on the scooters to the, to the, okay.
If I, the thing I was looking up is kind of back to councilmember Butler's question.
Parking in here or riding in here, we can also take it to loser, but you would have to be able to see.
So if an officer or a bus driver or a co-compliance officer saw a rider riding in the sidewalk dangerously
or parking not incorrectly, we would ticket that user and then they would be responsible.
All of our contracts, when we contract for our ADA service provider, they have to meet
all the federal regulations as well.
So all of those assurances will come from what we apply to FTA as well as our contractors
have to meet all those rules and regulations, and we have to monitor it very carefully.
Yeah, but if you're in a contract with Uber or Lyft, then they're not.
Some of that is by choice, right? And so that's the way that they work through that is because if we have multiple people they can choose from, then as a user, I'm making that choice.
I'm the one as user making that choice, which helps facilitate some of the FDA things that Michelle talked about, drug and alcohol, all those types of things, as well as automatically.
And just, just because we're paying for it wouldn't mean we're taking on that by the user or the rider would have the same relationship with Uber as you do.
Yeah, yeah. Right now. So basically what you're saying it would be a user site subsidy kind of thing. Correct. So we would have, we would subsidize the user. The user would choose the provider.
Okay, correct, yeah.
Councilor McDonald.
This on demand transit, is it just limited to the city specifically or is there an option for our veterans to show them to the VA.
So that that's all up for discussion. I think initially we're focusing we mentioned kind of on the east side right and then looking at the city part of microtransit can be providing connections right and so different on the situation.
You could pick someone up on the east side, drop them off at the mobility hub on center
place or a regional bus, right?
And it's all coordinated again to the app we kind of talked about, right?
And paid at once.
And then they can make it over to Loveland and then it's scheduled back.
We know what time the bus, because again, that's the GTSS with the real-time data.
We know what time that bus is going to be there.
So now the microtrader is telling back, picking them up and then taking them
all the way home.
So, it may not be the same bus taking them there, but through that technology, right, it's a seamless approach to get them pointed at safety.
So, after this pilot, we would be expanding those quarters of.
That's something we'd be evaluating and looking at, I guess.
Well, and then if you're talking to get to the VA hospital over at Levin, is that what you're.
I was thinking.
Yeah, the regional community is looking at service was not coming to green, it's going to four columns, but we can get them to four columns.
because we have our regional service.
We're going to provide service to NULS 34,
and we're going to provide it to Uncruel Express.
So I think you all recall that I would prefer
to not see scooters in our community.
That being said, they're good for our community.
You've done a nice job with this.
You had to endure my Coors Field story.
I have a much fresher from Sunday.
I came out of Coors Field on the North side
And it was a lime green scooter convention that people I was with thought I was a crazy
man.
I stopped and countered.
And there was 38 of them there.
And I know that that's not commonplace.
38 people rode their green scooters to Coorsfield and dumped them on the sidewalk and went
to the game.
And they probably came out and retrieved them.
And I realized that if I went by their, well, I don't know if they're home, but
And if I went by there at a non-Rocky's game, probably wouldn't see 38 scooters through there.
But what I saw Sunday was far worse than what I saw before, a federal fact.
Can I go back to a question?
Can I go back to transit for a minute?
You might guess that my couple of questions come from a transportation agitator who spends
my year pretty frequently.
What's our approximate ridership between 3 and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday?
It's a good question, I don't know that I have that.
I don't need it.
Yeah, yeah.
Can you ballpark it?
More than 10 less than a thousand.
There we go.
Yeah, I didn't mean to ask.
Keep service.
I get that question.
I didn't mean to ask you another.
I'll get my point.
Go ahead.
That is a very high user time, and it is because it's the school rush time.
Yes.
And part of the reason, and we'll just be frank, you're part of the reason is because we have a driver shortage. If we were able to, we would put more service out there and that would help alleviate it.
And I think that's why the, the ability to contact out or for a transit service or a service is really going to help us provide quality service on a fixed route.
So yes, it is high ridership during that time frame, and we, we really do need to add more service in that area.
So that it just requests Michelle. Okay, that's there's ways for us as we get we can show some drivers to this
We can double-send right so we can have multiple pick up like with that five
So said transportation agitator
assessment is that it's commonplace for
seniors and or handicap writers
To not be able to get on get because they're full of students
So, and, and I want to, if, if so, I want to use my other hatch to try to fix that if, if it can be debunked, that's great too.
But that, that got my attention.
No, definitely. It's something that we pay close attention to staff actually track the number of folks by bus stop right on a, on a regular basis.
And that's that's a performance measure that we track and I can Michelle correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not an accurate state.
Good.
You know, we have cameras on our buses, too. So when we get to those points, then, you know, if we look at the writers on the bus, we can see who's on the bus and we didn't get a time.
Yeah. And, you know, I think that that's just another tool in our pull down to be more efficient.
Great. It's been very helpful for the next time said agitator fans my ear.
Because I'm not in the trenches, so I don't know the answer.
We're putting up snow roofs and making sure the snow is removed in front of those.
So you're not right. Right.
And I think there's always, there's always room for improvement. Right. But I think.
And going forward, we're going to get the contract. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
2025. Yeah.
So that's a part of that.
That's how that functioning is to it.
Are there additional questions or comments relative to our mobility transit services?
Great presentation. Good job. Thanks.
And thank you to the get employees who are in the audience. Good job guys.
When the moral support thing,
you know, if I'm going to get free rides to that. Yeah, totally.
Chief Turk, we are ready for you, really public safety pincher for 2023.
Good evening.
Where are your friends?
Apparently I do not have any.
Thank you for having me.
Do you want the fire chief to just be with you?
We were actually just talking about that.
Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here and I just share an overview of Greeley's
public safety picture. I'll be sharing an overview of 2023 and forecasting public safety
priorities for 2024. Before I begin, I'd like to provide a reminder about a community
meeting scheduled for tomorrow night. The Greeley Tree Spermant has engaged with the
consulting firm AP Triton since fall of 2023 to undergo an organizational
assessment. As part of the project, AP Triton has prepared a community survey
which will be posted on the Greeley Police Department website and other social
media outlets. The survey will ask residents about their feelings on a
variety of topics including their perceptions of community safety, trust
in the Greeley Police Department, along with their opinion of the
Department's communication and outreach efforts.
Prior to the survey being posted,
AP Trig will host a virtual community meeting tomorrow,
April 10th, 2024 at five o'clock p.m.
to discuss the organizational assessment
and community survey.
Myself and Department of Commencement
will be participating in the meeting
to address residents' questions and concerns.
And we are well into this assessment.
As I stated, beginning back in the fall of 2023,
They've completed their site visit and done focus groups with internal and external stakeholders
to include certain council members, community leaders, community members, and other staff.
So I'll move on with that, but I'll look forward to tomorrow night.
Thank you, Chief.
Next slide, please.
The agenda for this presentation is police key functions and responsibilities in overview
of 2023, future priorities and initiatives, and the purpose of this presentation is information.
Next slide.
The key functions of the police department and our responsibilities include the following
on the slide.
This is consistent with our goals and our mission statement, which is proudly working
with the citizens to protect our community.
Next slide.
I'm going to move into the 2023 overview.
We're working on our annual report, which we do a couple months into the year or the
previous year, and those are all posted on our website.
Our website is www.releady.com, and it's a tremendous resource for all of our citizens.
Some of the examples of the resources that we provide are strategic plan, annual reports, hiring,
apply now for laterals and cadets.
All of our policies, complaints, how to file a complaint, a records request, commendicop, crime maps, anonymous crime tips, media releases, and much more.
Next slide, please.
So our goals for 2023 remain the same for 2024.
We continuously evaluate data, calls for service, trends, and case law as we set these goals
for all of the employees in the organization.
The number one complaint received in the Chief's Office, I've said this a few times to
you, are quality of life complaints specifically related to traffic complaints and safety.
Public safety responsibility to address violent crime and the small percentage of people who
commit a majority of the crime and really continue to work with North Range behavior
or health, housing and homeless, the downtown development authority, federal, state and
local partners, and our nonprofits to constantly work on public safety, to provide excellent
police service to customer service, response times, and staffing, and to focus on our
staff and that's both sworn and non-sworn.
Next slide.
For traffic safety, we're always evaluating the data constantly from enforcement accidents to deploy our resources in high-accent locations.
We receive, monitor, and respond to all of our citizens regarding traffic complaints.
Bi-weekly, our traffic sergeant sends out complaint areas for enforcement to all of our employees.
And enforcement is not just tickets, it's also context dynamics.
Next slide.
This is our 2023 number of enforcement actions, and traffic stops, citations, and EOIRS all increased from 2022 to 2023.
Next slide.
This is our total number of traffic accidents in 2023.
Fatalities increased this year from 4 to 10 from the previous year.
And this changes year to year over the last few years I've seen it anywhere from 2 to 12.
And these patterns are harder to address just through data.
Enforcement through stops and citations increased in 2023 and injury access overall decreased.
And over the years, it's hard to find these patterns to tie to the traffic fatalities.
And our strategy in traffic enforcement along with crime is lead-ex or data-driven approaches
to address – approaches to address crime and traffic safety.
So in addition to those bi-weekly updates sent out by our traffic sergeant to all
of our officers, we also deploy our traffic unit to these locations that where we receive
the most complaints, and we have the most assets.
Next slide.
This is a key map of our 2023 traffic asset distribution.
No surprise, you can see the majority, we're looking at the two borders, 10th Street
to the north there and Highway 34 to the south, and then our major artery avenues
on the ones that you're seeing.
be the light green or small numbers of accidents moving into the yellow of more
and then into the red which is the highest concentrated accidents. We're
continuing to work with public works to evaluate the structure to a good
sense. Next slide. Pursuing ground offenders or strategy for success, again
this goes back to our policing approach of DDEX.
We've identified two specific areas in the city that had the largest increases in part
one crimes in 2021 and 2022. Statistically, best practices say this is where you should
put your police resources. We did outreach in all of those areas with the residents.
We constantly evaluated data, and this strategy is high visibility and contacts some enforcement
but not all enforced. After evaluating the data in these two areas, we had a decrease
and part one crimes in both of the areas.
And we also utilize percentage policing
and focus on those we need and vendors
who are responsible for the majority of crime freely.
Next slide.
Total number of part one crimes in 2023,
we had an 11% decrease in total part one crimes
compared to 2022.
And part one crimes include aggravated assault,
arson and auto theft, burglary, homicide,
rate, robbery, theft, and I want to just put a ball of fire in there that we are
nearly completing with our Nibers data into the end-game database for 2023,
but we feel confident and comfortable enough to report the 11% decrease.
We do not believe that's like a change. Next slide. So these are total
apartment crimes by type that you're looking at. Our largest decreases were
for an aggravated assault, arson and auto theft.
And going back to 2021 and 2022
or two largest increases
where an auto theft aggravated assault.
So that's a good sign.
And that I'm just using the high number
that this is a natural trend.
And we are working with the commercial crime collaborative
to focus on retail theft
and to be more efficient with our businesses.
And I'd also like to note
that a lot of the decrease that you'll see in the auto theft are sent in the property crimes
is due to all the hard work of our officers and detectives and you'll see in the next
couple of slides about that.
So number of part one crimes per capita comparison. These are part
one crimes waiting for 1,000 population. Really in the Colorado cities listed are all
reflective of 2023 data. The other cities outside of Colorado are benchmark cities and their data
is from 2022 as their 2023 data is not available. Next slide. This is a heat map of our 2023
Part 1 violent crime distribution.
This does look similar to traffic acts to heat map,
but they are separate and these areas represent pretty much our high density locations
And they also give us the 2D dashed areas that I was talking about.
Next slide.
This is our property crime distribution.
Our high crime locations in this map, you can see the reds are mainly due to deaths, which is our highest number, quantifiable overall.
And that's with retail that in our shopping areas, and I can see that's pretty consistent with where our shopping areas are.
Next slide. This is our 2023 Part 1 crime clearance rates by Titan.
We're comparing it to 2022 benchmark data as the 2023 data has not yet available.
And we're above the national average and benchmark cities in most offenses.
And this data has been pretty consistent for as far as I can remember.
Next slide.
Total number of arrests for 2023.
Physical arrests increased by 787 from 2022 to 2023.
As we continue to move away from COVID, we have fewer jail arrest standards.
But I need to note that not all physical arrests result in a ride to jail.
These are actual arrests that we take, we call it physical custody, but it could in a site release where we don't, we believe there's a likely expectation that the suspect will go to court without having to go to jail.
So although that total number are all physical arrests that we count, not all of that results in incarceration.
And again, I believe I'm so proud of our women to work for the police department because they've been working so hard to address our part one crimes and kudos to them for all the work that they did last year.
Next slide.
Working with our external partners and this is extremely important.
We're going to continue to work with the city manager's office and Julianne has found the
issue of an outreach team to divert those calls that do not require police officer.
And right now, speaking with fire chief and Julianne's team, we have a lot of resources
going to calls.
It's going to take some time.
The goal is really to reduce those calls that do not need to be served to respond.
Let's set the appropriate resource rather than all the resources, but see if people
will never be compromised.
So, if there is a CD concern, and we don't have the right resources to go, please also still respond.
And then a co-responding to 2023 also make the reason to respond to mental health calls as compared to 2022.
Next slide.
Providing extra police service strategies for success.
Obviously, this goes year to year and to actively engage a community to build trust with Boston collaboration.
You'll see some of the statistics later on on how we're giving that.
Maintain open and transparent notification with our staff and the community.
And then obviously to be aware of our response times and the needs of our victims and our witnesses.
Next slide.
In 2018, when I was deputy chief, the police department invested in the customer service engagement software tool. It's called spider.
We found some money that we weren't utilizing the service anymore, and we were sitting around.
We get a lot of sales and demonstration calls.
And we found this tool that allows us to actively engage with, get responses from surveys of people that we interact with.
If we send out a blanket survey, we may be getting results from someone who'll never meet a police officer or need police services, and really.
So we really want to find a way to survey the citizens that we come into contact with.
Every person who calls dispatch and they have the ability to receive text messages, receives
a follow-up communication from the police department.
This notification may also be a delayed response since it's a lower priority call and we're
busy and we don't have an officer to send right away that will receive a text message
is notifying them that there's a late response.
When the call is completed, we then send them
as to the case number and the officer's name
so they have a reference in addition
to possibly a business card, and then they also
receive a survey with a set of questions.
Every morning, the watch commanders
in the police department receive a printout
of the survey from the previous day with comments
so that they can address potential follow-up red flags or patterns of behavior.
I'm really pleased with our satisfaction rating and there are some variables that go with it.
Obviously not everyone is happy when they call the police department with the responses they get
and I'll just use civil calls, parenting calls, child custody.
There are some things that are criminal that we don't have an answer to. So we can send you to what we believe is the right resource, but we're not there.
And we can enforce a lot of these civil orders. So I see we see those patterns on these responses. So that's one of the variables.
And then we also received quarterly reports of reevaluating.
Next slide.
This is our call to service trend.
This is a total number of calls for service that we respond to.
These are only reactive, not proactive.
So they don't include traffic stops, citizen contacts or anything proactive in terms of follow-up.
In 2020, we saw a large decrease which we attributed to COVID.
And then over the past few years, we've seen an increase in the increase.
You know, we've added a lot of efficiencies, such as online reporting, practice.
And then lastly, you can see our response to the reactant column of services 76,283 calls.
Next slide.
Response times.
I would focus your attention on the dispatch response times on the right side of the screen.
The department goal is to respond under six minutes for a priority one call and under ten minutes for a priority two phone and these are based on industry standards.
And I know that the real time information center will assist us when we get eyes on a problem quicker than actually having the police officer respond.
They may still respond when we look at those eyes on quicker.
On the left side, those open total response times is the time the dispatcher answers the
phone to the timer officer checking on scene.
The times on the right are the dispatcher response, which is the time an officer is notified by
dispatcher to respond to the time they get on scene.
And this is something that we need to watch as it is evaluated in really gross geographically
and in density.
Next slide.
This is a pretty good list, but not an all-inclusive list of all of our community engagement 2023.
It's pretty impressive.
Again, attributed to all the work from our Poison's Police Department.
And then I want to focus on the on the right side of our presentation to track all of
our community presentations that we did to 186 up in last year.
Which I think is pretty impressive.
Next slide.
Recruiting and retaining the very best, right, it's difficult over the last few years and
now it's more of a disaster to stay in age, and it's common on command staff at being
to focus on recruitment and retention.
We need to constantly evaluate our salaries and benefits.
In 2023, we did a retention strategy by utilizing an coaching program for a select
that group of employees where they are meeting up with law enforcement professionals outside
of the police department to where they can be with them, talk about job satisfaction,
promote work life at once. We're going to continue to recognize those staff and
accommodations for the ward ceremonies. Constantly evaluate our women to ensure that our
officers have the best and are safe and have all the tools that they need. Focus on mental
of wellness and mental health.
This has been a priority of mine
and I've made a sample in the last two years.
Next slide.
This is the Loryozation Cochart, current as of today.
And this is also available
in our pretty easy reference to the community.
We update it as we make changes
and it lists all of our current lab
and specialist assignments.
So I really know who is responsible
to do within the organization.
Next slide.
This is our 2023 personnel information, we're currently authorizing 150 sworn officers, total
employees 228, we're currently at 154 bill, but six of those are in the police academy
and nine of them are almost near the end of their field training officer program so
they're getting ready to be out on the road.
So essentially 15 of the 150 more are not yet solo effective assistance.
As I stated, retention and responsibility of police, you've been commands that.
So when I talked about equipment and tools, you're well aware that you've had a vehicle issue with the supply chain of getting vehicles.
and we have about 25 and 30 here and they're sitting down at the shop waiting to be up and in the planes, radios, decals.
Of course, there's some supply chain issues and some employee issues outside the police department that are causing the delay.
And that's some of that, that's why we're seeing our new gate, which will allow that to be done.
The deputy chief teller and I are actively involved in the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police Legislative Committee, so that we can be the voice representing really, you know, the Colorado legislation that comes out.
Next slide.
So demographic slide.
The reason you see 159 to the right is because at one point this year, we actually overhired her on paper, not solo-inducted one person.
But you're working at female and non-white percentages of our SWAT officers.
Next slide.
Moving towards 2024 and beyond.
You know, our priority shift, according to the needs of the community, based on council
priorities and the strategic plan, we'll work and roll out of the real-time information
center based on the second reading of the appropriation recently, and we're pretty excited
to move forward with that.
We're evaluating our body-worn camera program that's also our taser program through AXON.
We're in the process of operating on campus from the body cam 3 or the body cam 4, which
is increased storage, better resolution, better battery life.
And so we're going to have our contracts, there's also a new taser that's out that we're
interested in.
It's called the Taser 10 and it basically increases the distance that you can deploy
25, 8, and 40 feet, which is safer for everyone involved, our officers and for suspects.
And then the quality and life side of things.
We're excited to move forward with the voter radar implementation in 2024.
That'll be coming up for second reading on April 16th.
are recently...
Passed product, public news disorder, giving the police department tools to tie and address
neighborhood issues, and ongoing meeting leader meetings with the Latif coalition, and the
legislative committee leaders, so we can continue our outreach on the internet.
That
is the end of my presentation, and I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.
Questions, comments for Chief Turk? Councilor Olson?
Councilor Olson.
One of the things that I noticed, there's a few things I noticed, but one thing I noticed first, before I start, I want to say I'm very proud of our police force in Greeley.
You guys do an outstanding job.
So my comments and my questions tonight aren't about your job. It's just trying to figure out some of the statistics.
2023 number of enforcement enforcement actions and traffic accidents. We're up and all well with those right so one I'm assuming the enforcement actions are up because you're you're hitting some higher areas and you're doing more patrols in those areas.
Or it's just bad drivers.
Are you talking about accidents?
No, we're almost done with accidents.
It's a 2023 number of enforcement actions.
We're up in traffic stops, citations, and DUIs.
We're up in all those categories where you guys, your actions.
Is there a reason for that?
I mean, what is the reasoning behind it?
Just curious.
Yeah, a couple of reasons.
our staffing was better in 2023 compared to 2022. As we set the goals and our watch commanders and our
sergeants hold the officers accountable for that that ends up being that amount of productive time,
traffic safety is a priority. Everyone in the uniform, the really police department,
is responsible for traffic enforcement. So I think what you saw was a little better staffing,
a little better supervision and an emphasis placed on that goal because my phone rings all the
I know, they're getting the same emails as you.
Then on top of that, 2023 number of traffic accidents.
Our accidents have increased substantially, I think, I mean, just in our area, hit and
run, pit and runs, DUIs, but traffic accidents and injury accidents are down, but there's
a lot of increase in the risk.
Do we have a, is there a national statistic on why?
I don't.
I think a lot of it's based on infrastructure, traffic congestion.
I think as we see the community grow, the number of cars, probably bad drivers.
I don't have a cause for the increase, but I can hear it on the radio every day.
I can see it.
I mean, you just see it driving around too.
Can I continue?
Yes.
Yeah traffic your your your incidents for part one violation crime distribution heat map and you know a lot of it since a lot of that red is right downtown since we've added the security downtown have we seen that decrease at all in that area.
Yeah, I think this map is a little deceptive because it looks like it's downtown.
downtown, it's not. And I will tell you,
unequivocally, I review all of the reports we get monthly from our security
contract services downtown. It hasn't proved. And I don't want to speak to the
city manager or other city staff, but the number of calls and emails I get
has decreased. So I know it's helping. We also provide overtime officers
downtown on Friday and Saturday nights during the busy bar nights.
So I just know the visible deterrent helps also.
So I've seen the synthesis and the data, and I believe it's better.
When we're talking about just downtown, when you look at that, the heat map,
it's a dense area of people where they live.
Okay.
And then my last question is, as I look at your hiring,
2016, 152 officers, 20,000 more people, bigger area, 159.
What is your over hire like so if you're if you're if you're to 150 for what can you over hire to can you go to 200?
So we've done staff and studies and we have a number in mind and I have the authority to over hire without sacrificing quality.
We're not going to just go get one.
But the amount of departments we had, 2015 to 2019, we had seven and nine departures of sworn officers a year in 2020 that number went to 18 in 2021 that number went to 20 and then last year it was 18 again.
And I can give you my experience and my knowledge here.
COVID, social justice led in the market that those are nation-wide trends that we've seen.
Keeping up with that has been difficult for an apartment of 158 sworn authorized.
It's difficult to train and replace that many.
So to answer your question, the other thing that you look at when you look at total authorized,
We reallocated a lot of our swarm positions from areas within the organization to be more efficient, i.e., the judge hired to bail us outside of the police department, and we brought that person back into operations.
So though the number of swarm police officers is a little deceiving on there because we brought them back into our operations to better utilize those swarm police officers where they should be.
Another example would be the regional crime, we didn't need three sworn officers out there doing digital media, DNA, computer, for instance, because you're required into a lot of training to keep your posts and bringing them out of the lab to do that training when they work as a daily job out of rest of the people.
It didn't make much business sense.
So as those positions turned over,
we reclassified a lot of those to civilian
and that brought the sworn employees back into our operations.
So that's your question.
And to the other party question I know you're asking,
is there a limit to the over hire?
No, there's not.
If we're able to fund it,
because we have, since you have the vacancies
and these vacancies last up a period of time.
Vacancy savings.
You have that.
And, and I repertoire to continue to overfill. I hope not to the chief. I hope he comes to me one day and tell me, Hey, Brandon, I'm over budget for staffing because a lot of instance, I'll dress the department. No, but police, that's the type of issue I want to be able to have and be able to try to address.
And we would address it because we have fund balances and things like that, that we can address that issue, but that has not become an issue for us.
And it's something that we monitor every time he has a class coming through to see where we are in that difference from salary savings.
that's why we're able, when we started getting those complaints about downtown, we're able to move
off-duty personnel to go in and do that instead of paying extra with our security firm because of
the additional money that we have in savings. So it's not an issue from a money standpoint
from the overfill. Hopefully we do get to that point, but I don't see that in the next couple
years of that being a problem for the organization. Because you're doing a staffing
report. You're looking at a staffing report today in future needs, so we could be, I just,
to me personally, just as a not an officer of law or somebody that manages this, 152 in
2016 and 159 in 2023 doesn't really jive in my head with the increase of area in the
increase of people that we've had over that time frame.
Yeah, I agree with you. And that's what I talked about, the allocating some of those
sworn, we might have non-spawned Sicilians to bring some of those sworn back in, so we
deployed them differently. I look forward to the driving on top, to be able to tell Ramblin
that the QD budget problem, they could look for a hard idea. That's the day I look forward
to.
I think I'm not speaking for everybody, but I think you have all our support to say,
find the money, let's do it.
And that's what we do. And I think the organizational assessment is going to help us with that.
What are we looking at as a city? What are we looking at in five years, 10 years, or we need to be nowhere behind today? Where do we need to be in five minutes?
Thank you.
Councilor McDonald with the people that that are leaving. What is the biggest reason? Are they.
What are some of the reasons that they're, what's your biggest reason for going to, like, they leave completely?
I will tell you that we
will, we have not been or nor can we offer a remote working
partner.
We can't.
And I can't give you that.
We need people in cars responding to officer service so I can tell you unequivocally that
And a lot of our officers are educated, intelligent, and they have other options to make the same
money to do different kind of work and have a better work-life balance.
No weekends, nights, and holidays, work-life balance, officers are frustrated with legislation,
things that have happened the last few years in Colorado and across the nation.
And they're tired.
And that's it.
And my biggest disappointment is watching these really strong 10-year, 10- to 20-year officers
not go, could not finish a career of 20 years plus because they have other officers.
And that's disappointing.
And we've seen it across the board.
You've seen officers go to other agencies.
You've seen officers go to the private sector.
You've just seen it across the board.
There's not one leading trend to say that, hey, all officers are leaving due to they want less work or a different type of work environment of the community.
It does exist. We have experienced some of that, but there's not a trend line to show, oh, that's the leading cause of what's happening.
I think officers are making lifestyle changes, though, from the standpoint of the type of
work they want to do as it relates to the type of communities that they want to serve
in and do those work.
Being an officer in really Colorado is totally different than being an officer in Windsor,
Colorado.
And those are some of the dilemmas that we have to look at as we look at retention
and recruitment.
How do we position ourselves to be that employer of choice as it relates to our police officers and those are things that we're constantly evaluating as a city and as a police chief and leadership team saying what are those advantages that we have that we can really start retaining and recruiting.
I mean, can I piggyback a little bit on that?
Yeah, I have some to go ahead.
So I've talked to a few officers,
I have friends that don't work at the city,
and maybe, maybe not, but work all over the state.
And several of them have told me personally,
Johnny, I am tired of arresting the same person
for the same crime, getting out with no bell bond,
and then I go back out and arrest them a day later
for the same damn crime, and they're back on the street.
There's no accountability to the law,
and we're tired of it.
And I don't know, I hear that from people that have left,
not people that are on, that have worked for you, but.
You'll hear it from her, but it's also,
that you're just as frustrated with legislation
and laws and bonds, you know, we don't,
we don't have control over bonds and the judges
who already have been contractors.
We're state law.
We haven't, we're going to give in, but I'm going to
offer an answer.
Here's another component to that that,
that she probably won't say that I will.
Well, we've lost a number of officers, good officers, to a neighboring agency where they
can make the same amount of money they make here with a take-home car, and I'm not suggesting
in their lazy none of them are, but they don't have to work near as hard as they do
in Greeley-Collron.
A take-home car.
That's part of it, but I will tell you that case load is heavy for our officers,
And if I can go to an agency and I'm a young buck and make the same amount of money and not work quite as hard
I'm gonna and we lost a number to that agency and it's frustrating, but it is what it is
That's what I was alluding to. I know you guys they and there's a work-like balance, right?
The officer that's hiring today is a bit different ten year looking for different things
I came here from a different agency because I wanted to be in a busier department have more opportunities for advanced bed
And that changes over time
Chief, I want to take you back to auto thefts for a minute.
Thirty-two percent reduction from twenty-two to twenty-three is outstanding.
But regardless what that number is, I know that you all track a percentage of those that
are either hovers, warming up their cars, or they go in to say, where are the post
offices?
They'll just be gone a minute, or not quite as drastic.
They leave their keys in the car with the car on lock. The only thing absent is in the outside. That's just please steal me. What percent of our all of us fit into that category.
I don't know the exact total. I know it's a high number and I feel like about a community presentation right now. So put another plug in.
We would help our number out a lot if we actually locked our cars to leave the keys in them.
The reason for the rule, you can't fix stupid.
Chief, once upon a time, that was about 75%.
I think it's a little higher.
I mean, I know we had a.
We haven't had a problem.
I did that numbers pretty much the same.
I didn't get it.
You know, there's been.
There's been national statistics.
It's about a couple of cars that are easy to steal.
I get that.
But if of 875 car thefts.
If what should say conservatively 70% of them.
We're either warming them up or left their keys in them, that a buttery.
It's that number. And I just, I know it's a number that all law enforcement agencies face.
And when you look at the increase, we're part of a regional group that works with partner agencies and grants, and we move operations around.
We've got several really over the last year where they target those note of vendors.
And I give a ton of credit to our property detectives and those officers who have worked those operations because that's working.
What else, friends? Councilor DeButy?
Thank you, Mayor. I just want to ask about homicide, aggravated assault and rape,
which to me are the biggest personal serious crimes.
How many are conducted stranger to stranger?
Are these people who are in some sort of relationship with each other?
So it's a really good question and I'm going to give you some some wisdom from someone that's been around.
First, subscribers. So crime committed against another person.
When they happen, about 85 to 90% of them come to us with a name suspect.
Profit crimes. You can flip that number, very low percentage with a name suspect.
So I know that the number of strangers to your question is very low.
I can give you some numbers for homicide and sexual assault, but I don't have aggravated assault.
So in 2023 of our five homicides, one was where the accuser was a stranger.
in 2022 for homicides of the 11-3 of the accusers of stranger for sexual assaults in 2023 of
the 51 cases, nine of the accused were strangers, and in 2022 of the 46, five of the accused
were strangers. So lower percentages. I don't have the number for aggravated assault,
And that kind of feeds into the public perception of safety, I think, and if we can talk about
what this violence actually is, is relationship, drugs, whatever, you know, it can be more
proactive in talking about this is, I think that'll help our public feel much safer.
as long as you're not a gang member or prostitute or dealing drugs.
Or nothing good happens after two o'clock in the morning.
What did you say?
Nothing good happens after two o'clock in the morning.
It used to be midnight.
Yeah, that's what happened.
It was after 9 p.m.
It's a very good morning.
Totally night.
That's outreach and engagement and telling the story.
Yeah. Thank you. I want to talk about the traffic accident distribution heat and apples.
And, yeah, we see it on 34. And I just want to add 23rd Avenue.
Looks like a highway 34 a very high percentage of accidents happening there. And that's not included in our.
We're looking at 47th Avenue and 35th Avenue and 23rd Avenue is a mess as well.
So I wish we could, you know, work with our public third spokes and what we're pulling
for money to improve the highway.
Yeah, those accidents are actual 23rd Avenue on the underpass.
Oh.
Not on the underpass.
Okay.
And I can gladly get in with public works and go through the actual data as to where they're at, but you're not looking to overpass there for access. She's looking at the other.
Okay.
That's a lot.
Kind of all those signals and they've tried to work on that for you. I've been here for 32 years and it's just gotten better, but it's never gotten good bottlenecks.
Yeah.
Councilor MacDonald.
She thanks for with running the excellent department. I appreciate you and appreciate your leadership. And I'm going to give the police department another fog at attending citizens police academy.
It is just, it's really opened up my eyes and put a person behind the badge.
Instead of when you're going down the one way and you're like, oh, it's the cops and slam on your brakes
Like there's an actual person in there that has a family and I love that we do the
Those awards so I attended the the last awards and it's something just really hit me
And I think we don't think of it
because most of us have a 95 job, but one of the officers
Said to me my kids know when Christmas is because I tell one it is
Because they can't celebrate the actual day because they're working.
So it just puts things in perspective on the sacrifices they make to make our community safer. So.
I think all the council should go to it, but that's just how I do it.
Thank you.
Any final thoughts.
So, so that was for you. The kudos was for you.
If you're the one that's the answer.
Thank you, chief. Great presentation. Thank you. Thank you much.
Great team, too. Thanks for everything I did.
I have seven. Mr. Lee, any additional meetings or other events to discuss this time?
No, Your Honor. Thank you.
I think eight is an executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel reporting to City Council.
Could I get a motion, please?
We will go into the executive session to discuss the following matters divided under CRE, section 246, 422 for the draft.
Agreeing municipal code section 2.15186 to discuss personnel reporting to the city.
Second.
Councilor Payton on the motion. Councilor Butler on the second.
Roll call vote 3.
Please.
Hi.
I carried seven zero.
will adjourn to an exact recession will not return to this forum. It is 7 and 36 p.m.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.