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Rosevillc Human Rights Commission Meeting Minutes — August 12, 2008 Page 3 of 4 1 Police Department Policies 2 Chair Delmore reiterated concerns with the City Police Departmcnt's High Speed Chases and 3 lise af Force policies and asked City Manager Malinen for comment. 4 5 City Manager Malinen noted thai the HRC's interest and potential discussion had previously 6 been hampered based on the City Attomey's advice that discussions be non-specific in terms of 7 applicability of those policies in order to avoid putting police officers in compromising positions S if those policies were made public. 9 10 11 12 13 14 Chair Delmore noted that other City Police Departments indicated that their palicies were public. City'_Vlanager Malinen said he could seek information about how those cornmunities provide policies for discussion in a public forum. 15 Discussian included documented incidents; request by the HRC to the Police Department to 16 review their existing policies; and HRC concerns with unsupervised officers in the field where 17 individual officers are required to make judgment calls in the absence of a clear cui policy. 18 19 20 21 22 ?3 l4 25 26 27 28 29 City �Vlanager Malinen was asked to find out if there was a separate policy for the School Liaison Officer since that officer would be dealing with mir�ors. Chair Delmore said there wasa need for a Citizen's Rcview Board and suggested a discussion for such a Board be included at a futi.are meeting. Commissioner Singleton volunteered to provide information from the City of St. Paul ar�d their procedure for citizen rcview. He noted that officer misjudgments were not intentional and were often created by the nature of their jobs and complaints were often generated by citizens upset with governmcnt in general. 30 Ovcrview of Police Department Citizens Academy 31 Comtta.issioner Venters reported on his participant in the Police Citizens Academy. He said it 32 allowed him to see things from an officer's perspective. Commissioner Venters noted that it was 33 obvious that the Police Officers were aware their number one jab to protect the community and 34 its citizens. 35 36 Commissioner Venters discussed the speakers from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Drug 37 Task Force, Ramsey County Sheriff and others, not necessarily from the Roseville Police 38 Department. Corruiussioner Venters noted that, from the officer perspective, their choice of 39 weapons was a stick or gun, but through tasers they have another option which prevents use of 40 guns and poteniial death. Commissioner Venters noted that there could be inappropriate use of 41 tasers, but more clearly understood the advantage for officers. 42 43 Commissioner Venters reviewed examples of his ride along with an officer and his perspective 44 during thai night patrol; noting that the officer was less interested in writing tickets than to 45 provide a presence in the community and interact with drivers who were stopped ta better 46 determine if DUI's were evident or vchicle stops indicated other issues.