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a report from Councillor Craig Kelley, Chair of the Public Safety Committee, for a public hearing held on June 6, 2018 to discuss the role and duties of the Police Officer assigned to City Hall

From Donna P. Lopez, City Clerk·Council meeting Jun 18, 2018·11 pages·📄 Original PDF (city portal)

⚠ This document is a scan; its text was recovered by optical character recognition and may contain errors. The original PDF is authoritative.

ATTACHMENTA 6 June, 2018 Previous Committee meeting April 16, 2014 Public Safety in City Hall
City Hall MAYOR: DAVID P. MAHER City Hall Police Officer? What are the duties of CPD's
Hours of attendance
3889 (smoking? marijuana?) Is the exterior included
Ingects School Community CASHIER the duty officer? Where should one expect to see
MEN concern Bathrooms are a special
to keep things orderly People at a public meeting may require special attention (by CPD?)
free - Greeter? - Stay in 'office?' • Interaction with public - Assigned or bid position - (i.e. 40 hour mental health) • Special training & Union Issues Issues tor Discussion _ "Presence?" - Want to ensure public debate remains
etc.? - Does the officer roam? • Expectations of City Hall Workers Issues for Discussion situations like unruly public speakers? - How is the officer summoned when needed? - Small evening meetings could be very expensive • What criteria do we think appropriate for summoning options for CPD responses to non-emergency • Backup officers for vacation days, after hours, • Do we want to run training to better understand
ATTACHMENT B WE THE UNDERSIGNED EMPLOYEES SUPPORT THE DECISION TO HAVE A UNFORMED POLICE OFFICER STATIONED IN CITY HALL Nuno Rainha amanda Deangelo Denadette D. - brena Maschella Valentes Christa fu Temart I. Won ungela Brathurite Irene Gramopaulos satant! Lucklace John Garyaro Katherine Ramos stave hurtins Handlem Pralla CHumbus Heste Base sophie Silane ill Berg Jus cigarello
ATTACHMENTC Mrs. Donna Lopez, City Clerk City Hall Cambridge, MA 02139 Dear Mrs. Lopez: Unfortunately, l am unable to attend today's Public Safety meeting to discuss the role and duties of the police officer assigned to City Hall and, therefore, would like this communication to be made part of the official record. As I stated previously when this issue was before this committee, I feel that the presence of a police officer is very much needed and appreciated, especially with the range of situations employees encounter and particularly during these challenging times. Employees need to feel safe in their work environments. City Hall is a municipal building that serves people all day long. We, the employees, deal with servicing these individuals daily. It was suggested that citizens may feel tension seeing a uniformed police officer here at City Hall, when they come in to pay a bill, seek employment/benefit information, obtain licenses, etc. Most of the time, this will only take, 15-30 minutes. Employees are here all day. In my past experience as the Executive Assistant to the City Council, and closely working with the Mayor's Office over a period of many, many years, I have witnessed firsthand the benefits of having a uniformed police officer present. There have been numerous times when citizens have come to the Mayor's and the Council Office's irate, upset, angry, demanding justice or simply to be heard, because they did not like the outcome of an issue, whether it was a council vote, an employment/housing issue, DW issue, bike and ticket issues, etc. and having the officer in the building, not only made us feel secure, but it also deescalated the situation quickly. I am aware that the issues that have been stated are not witnessed by everyone mainly because his/her schedule does not require them to be at City Hall every day, 5 days of week, so I can understand their concerns regarding "public observation" but, it's the employees that see and hear the citizens' frustration and have to deal with these situations when they arise. If it is the wish of the committee to review the role and the duties of the officer assigned to City Hall from time to time fine, but to move in the direction that a uniformed officer is not needed in City Hall, I would strongly disagree. Our police department has been trained to deescalate situations rather than escalate situations. Sincerely, parts Alber