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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFH Inclusion and Policing Task Force Minutes_1-03-17CITY OF FALCON HEIGHTS Falcon Heights Inclusion and Policing Task Force City Hall 2077 West Larpenteur Avenue MINUTES January 3, 2016 at 7:15 P.M. 1. CALL TO ORDER: 7:18 p.m. ROLL CALL: ANDREWS X JOHNSON-POWERS X BALLENTINE X LEEHY-CO CHAIR X COLOND X THOMPSON X DEMERATH X WADE X JOHNSON X STAFF PRESENT: MAYOR LINDSTROM X CO-CHAIR/COUNCIL MEMBER GUSTAFSON X CO-FACILITATOR QUICK X CO-FACILITATOR MORRIS ADMINISTRATOR THONGVANH X Announcement about order of items to cover during the meeting. Everyone was in agreement. Meeting minutes from the last meeting were approved with no changes. Reminder about homework: take the IAT, complete readings/videos then take the IAT again. Draft Participation Agreement Clarification was stated about the word "community" in that it does include the media where members are to speak as individuals and not for the task force. Reminder that these meetings are open to the public but participation is restricted to members of the task force. This was followed by a discussion about expectations and tracking progress of the task force. Some suggestions: - Adding a statement to the agreement to track progress - 3-5 goals for the task force - Attaching milestones to the agreement There was agreement that the time was too early to establish goals and that more input was needed from the community. Many avenues would be needed for community members to express themselves. Some are hesitant to attend a community meeting. Emails can be sent to City Hall where they can be compiled. Members will need to be thinking of different ways to engage the public. Two changes will be made to the participation agreement: Milestones to track the group's progress and connections with the community includes the media. Participation agreement will be signed by members at the next meeting if there are no changes. Proposed Work Plan Discussion of the work plan was started with a list of topics including, community values, policing outcomes, policing in other cities, recommendations around a culture of inclusion and policing, community check-ins and on-going check-ins. May 2 is the date to finalize and make recommendations to the council. Recommendations and actions can implemented sooner than May 2. Some actions will go beyond May 2. Members were reminded to gather data and let that take us wherever it leads. Avoid starting data collection with preconceived ideas about the outcomes. Be prepared for a broad spectrum of ideas and ask probing/open-ended questions to obtain more insight from the community. Data gathering will probably be more qualitative than quantitative but the numbers are important and we need to know what is driving the numbers. The community needs to know how to contact the task force. Members will need to decide how available they will be to the community. Other suggestions for community engagement were through a mailing to residents, Roseville Review, or neighborhood liaisons. There was further discussion about feelings within the community and built up tension over the recent shooting. Will the community look to release this pressure in the short-term or will long-term solutions be implemented? Key questions to keep in mind are, "What is the problem that needs to be solved?" and "What needs to change?" Many in the community have expressed the desire to end the contract with St. Anthony Police and this may be the recommendation the group makes but the decision needs to be driven by the community values. There are many varied opinions in the community. If the recommendation is to stay with St. Anthony Police can we trust their accountability process and can we wait for effective changes to be made. St. Anthony is a smaller department which typically can change faster than larger forces. Break was taken and the meeting reconvened at 8:59 PM. Sack presented an update on the Department of Justice program that was approved for St. Anthony. The city's letter to the DOJ expressed the desire to improve trust with community and pursue a long-term strategy for change. Presently the relationship with the task force is unclear. Avoiding overlap between the two groups would be worthwhile. Sack is trying to get the DOJ to look at the Falcon Heights data around residents and those who pass through the city. In other cities, the DOJ has made as few as 40 recommendations and as many as 200. Follow up from the DOJ is also included for a year or two. There will be focus groups, listening sessions and other venues to gather as much information as possible. Members then talked in pairs to discuss the questions, "What is the problem?" and "What needs to be healed?" After this, members were asked to do this same exercise with 3-5 community members, gather common themes and send these to Sack before next Tuesday. Reminder about the listening session from July 27 is online for additional community input. Meeting adjourned at 9:46 PM. Action Items: Email comments from tonight and the community to Sack no later than Monday, January 9.