Salem Commission on Disabilities July 2012 Minutes
July 17th, 2012
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Present: David Tracht, John Jodoin, Joan Lovely, Jennifer Barz-Snell, Jim Nowlan, Andrew J. LaPointe, Teazie Riley-Goggin, David Moisan, Debra Lobsitz, Don Arnell, and Paul Tucker, Salem Chief of Police.
SPECIAL GUEST: CHIEF PAUL TUCKER, SALEM POLICE DEPARTMENT
David Tracht: Paul, I have a proposition for you right away: We want to pay for a police detail for two hours a week or a month to patrol HP parking spaces, just to patrol and ticket. If someone was out there just to do that, it would be a great risk-reward.
Paul Tucker: It sounds like a great idea for part of the fines to come back to the commission. I discussed it with Dave before the meeting. There are two parts to this: Enforcement is done because an officer only has that responsibility. Education comes into it, because the Commission can get the word out. IF Salem gets a reputation for being a strict HP parking city, the word will get out. We can look at the expenses going out—it could be a win-win.
JeffDougan, Massachusetts Office on Disability: I would suggest a four-hour block. Not sure of your fines, but four-hours of detail work would be a greater incentive for the officers. We know how hard the budgets are hit; it’s not for lack of will, but lack of resources. Two hours is just a start; four hours will cover more area, especially in a heavy pedestrian area. It does not have to be either on-street or in parking facilities exclusively. Review it monthly.
Paul Tucker: Great suggestion. I suggest that our officers can compile a list of what the top ten “hotspots” are for enforcement.
David Tracht: What is the fine?
Paul: Not sure. I will check when I get back.
David Tracht: Many communities are $200 or even $300. I told the Mayor I thought our fine was on the low end compared to communities around the state.
Jeff: $300 is the maximum.
David T.: What if we increased it by $100 and $50 of that would go to the Commission and $50 to the city?
Paul: We’ve had great cooperation from the Council. We’ve increased fines around Halloween.
Andy: We had the discussion a few years back to raise it, I think to $300, but I believe it is $100.
Jeff: Only other comment. The patrol person won’t only check parking spots to consider, but also violators are using the old placards so that has to be checked.
Paul: We’ve been very diligent in checking placards. There was an attorney in Boston using an old expired placard illegally.
Jeff: It’s a serious offense up to and including license revocation and loss of the placard to the person it was issued to.
David Tracht: On apps, I know nothing about iPods or iPads—tell us about your app.
Paul Tucker: We have a police app from MyPD that will work on an iPhone, iPad or Android phone. You can use it to give us a tip, or commend an officer or ask questions. What it is not, is for instant response—you still need to call 911 in an emergency.
We also are on Facebook and now on Twitter. It’s great for us to keep in touch with the community and for the community to keep in touch with us. But we need to remind people it does not replace 911! We’ve been doing a good job of building up our personnel, and also on our technology. The mayor approved our request to hire a technology person; we had an officer do the job, but there are some things that police do very well, and some that civilians do better, and that is IT.
We need to know of the next thing coming down the pike. Boston has a text tip line that we want to adopt. I can assure you that that is completely confidential.
It’s my 30th year working in Salem. The biggest change I’ve seen in that time is technology.
David Tracht: Last year you talked about scams. Do you want to update that?
Paul Tucker: We’ve had two. A variation we’ve seen. One is a “driveway sealant” scam; they’ll find an elderly person alone and offer to do their driveway. It’ll either be inferior and wash off, or the scammers will be very aggressive and actually make homeowners drive to the bank to withdraw money.
Second, people have gotten phone calls saying that a relative is in the emergency room and needs money. These come in email too. It’s hard for us to do anything because they are beyond state lines and the FBI won’t look at crimes below $75,000. The scammers know this very well.
Andy: Another one, the home alarm system. They were calling people in my neighborhood.
Paul Tucker: A case in a North Shore town: Someone claimed to be from the water department. They ransacked the house.
David Tracht: We have gotten calls complaining about people soliciting calls being “from the police”.
Paul Tucker: We never solicit for fund-raisers. Never.
UPDATES
K-9 Program
Don Arnell: Salem once had a K-9 program years ago. Due to Prop 2-1/2, Salem had to disband their unit. We are starting a fundraiser, with the Moose Club, to fund two K-9 dogs for Salem.
They’re so useful for us. They are amazing dogs.
David Tracht: Cost is $30,000?
Don Arnell: Overall, yes. The dogs themselves are $6,000 each. We are getting advice from the state police K-9 people. The heavens seemed to be lined up just right for us. 16 officers expressed interest. We will have Boston and Quincy K-9 handlers come in to evaluate officers for the program.
David Tracht: Is there a deadline?
Paul Tucker: We want to get this in time for the September academy start. We have also been talking with Homeland Security about bomb dogs. These will be more of a regional resource, but Salem does host a lot of high-profile events.
SAFETY NET LO-JAK (PROJECT LIFESAVER)
Andy: The K-9 program will enhance Project Lifesaver (now Lo-Jack Safety Net).
John Jodoin: A 79-year old man with Alzheimer’s was missing in Marshfield. He was missing for 15 minutes before 911 was called. The man was wearing a Lo-Jack bracelet.
He was found unhurt a short distance from his home very soon after the search.
It’s a tremendous asset for the city. We have not needed it, but then again we do not buy fire insurance after we need it. Andy has done a lot of work to make this happen.
David Tracht: If someone from the police department could put together a list of their needs, I can send it to Lisa Camaratta.
Don Arnell: This is a project that’s far more important than the Salem Dog Walk.
Andy: It’s cheaper to train a police dog than a seeing eye dog. The dog itself gets six months of training after it leaves its foster parents. That’s about a year and a half from fostering to completions. Fidelco dogs, by comparison, come to the owners, and it takes about a year after that for the owner and the dog to really know each other.
Teasie Riley-Goggin: Have you thought about hiring a civilian criminologist?
Paul Tucker: Some departments do. We have officers and consult with the state police. But I think if we do that we would be better off doing it regionally. In the classes I teach at Salem State, a lot of people want to be in forensics. We call it the CSI effect—we are waiting to see “CSI Salem” any day now!
John Jodoin: You and your department did a great job running the Fourth of July celebration, especially considering the weather at the end.
Paul Tucker: We vowed never to let last year’s trouble happen again. We had a great rapport with the neighborhood people in the Point.
Bob St. Pierre did a great job making it easy for me to continue. But I set a high standard of conduct.
Co-Chairmanship
David Tracht: Next month is my last month as Co-chair. Debra Lobsitz will take over my position in October. If there’s no one else who wants the job, I am nominating Andy LaPointe. He has been here longer than anyone else and he is great for the job.
We will ha
Spaulding Adaptive Sports Program
David Tracht: Mike Taylor passed out their adaptive sports flyer, so you can all have one.
MBTA
David Moisan: I attended the MBTA Salem Depot Design Meeting. Public comments are being accepted through July 20th. Email is gdoherty@mbta.com.
I was hoping others from the Commission would be there. I was doing the TV coverage. To be fair, I am totally burned out on that; I want someone to film future meeting.
There is going to be one more design meeting in September. This will be the final design meeting, though there will be other progress meetings. July 20th was the deadline for suggestions.
Unless there is another delay, the permits will be let out in January of 2013, and construction will start in the spring. As far as people with disabilities, there was discussion of that. The full high platforms are definitely set, that wiil happen. Now they are working to connect Bridge St., the garage and the platform so that people can move freely. They are working on North Salem access-there isn’t much they can do but they will do something. They will redo the vehicle entrance at Bridge St.
Mike asked me a few months ago about the trains and their stopping points. They stop very far north—you can see Carlton School from the handicapped ramp. The trains will stop much closer to the garage and Bridge St. There will be an enclosed ramp from Bridge St. There may be full-length canopies on the platform. I really wish David Martel was here because I need his expertise. I’ve been very discouraged about the project.
As some of you saw, the state did give additional funds to put another level on the garage. I really have to depend on others to help me get the information. There’ll be one more meeting. It looks good on paper for the Commission and people with disabilities but I really need people to be more involved and ask questions.
JeffDougan: Does the city have an ombudsman?
Joan Lovely: The planning department is in charge.
JeffDougan: Once the plans are drafted the Commission should review them for suitability. There’s been a lot of thought put in already. But ask the Planning Department to get you plans.
David Moisan: The problem is, is that it is a state project. Jack Harris tried to do the same for the state courthouse project and they brushed him off.
Joan Lovely: That would be the Planning Department. The Commission should get involved as soon as possible. The process is fairly far along and Lynn Duncan has been very good.
JeffDougan: As chairman of the commission of Scituate, the Old Colony railroad line went through our town and if we didn’t get involved, the state would have a segregated access to the disabled that would not be good. Stay on top of them. Also, during construction, the Commission needs to also keep an eye on them. With that said, I would be willing to work with the Commission on that.
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