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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, March O1, 2010 Page 12 Discussion included references to the "Dick" case in 1997/98 and how lack of training had significant impacts on that case not being prosecuted; safety implications to officers and others in reduced training; basic train- ing for interviewing, crime scene processing and DNA, as well as further training in leadership skills for supervisors and for continuing education opportunities for officers in their careers to ensure they're trained for real life experiences. Further discussion included shift revisions for additional efficiencies, with more restructuring forthcoming to increase shifts to 12 hours in order to have more officers available and working during the higher crime periods, in addition to assigning a few officers to a high impact team to work with the Records Management team in determining high incident and repetitive crime areas for increased scrutiny and patrolling, modeled from a Univer- sity of MN and City of Maplewood model. Additional discussion included the number of officers that were bilingual; other resources to meet the diverse languages in the community, including a "Language Line," and resources in other departments and agencies through networking; recruitment of officers from other cultural communi- ties to enhance language opportunities through the Reserves; and block captains and/or elders in those diverse cultural groups to provide a differ- ent perception of law enforcement that those cultures are used to expe- riencing, that officers were here to help, not to arrest. Further discussion included the department's rolling stock; current mi- leage; continuing industry standards for fleet turnover at 75,000 miles with no trends being found for higher mile vehicles; impacts to the department in losing funding for the Bike Patrol and Deputy Chief position; and how the department had repurposed positions to have a greater impact to crime upfront. Acting Chief Mathwig advised that he was not supportive of on-line re- porting for minor crime; as that did nothing to enhance the public's per- ception of their safety, nor did it serve the victim when any crime was per- ceived as major to them. Acting Chief Mathwig further advised that there was a movement across the nation to increase fees for false alarms, based on how time-consuming that area was in tying up officers for those false alarms, with over 90% of those intrusion alarms being false. Acting Chief Mathwig advised that Lt. Roland was currently looking into the specifics to recommend charging for any false alarms after the third one in a calendar year.