Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Meeting of the Public Safety Committee on June 17th, 2026 is about to begin. At this time, I will take roll call. To my left, Alderman Smith-Brown, and I am present, all accounted for. We have approval of minutes from 4-15-26. Oh, sorry. I skipped right over that. At this time I'll take a motion to approve the agenda as written.

So moved.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. This time I'll entertain a motion for approval of minutes from 4-15-26. Move. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favour say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Great. Thank you. On our agenda today, we have general discussions talking about summer crime and safety plans, as well as two presentations one from our internal affairs department and one from our reentry program. The way we're gonna work it is you'll have about 10 minutes for a presentation with some time for questioning and then we'll move on. And I've already heard from my colleagues that there might be questions later after we've had time to absorb the presentations. So just know that those might be coming in. So this time we'd like to invite internal affairs to the front table. And if you could introduce yourself by saying your name and your title, that would be fantastic.

Good evening, my name is Lakeisha Blue and I'm the Director of Internal Affairs for the Annapolis Police Department.

Good evening, my name is Jeanette Ortiz and I'm the Chair of the Anne Arundel County Police Accountability Board.

Good evening, my name is Kenneth Vincent Jr., I'm the Chair of the Administrative Charging Committee.

Thank you. And I'm Acting Chief Amy Migeth with Annapolis Police Department.

Thank you very much for being here today.

So for the sake of time, I'm going to begin and I'm going to just kind of be very brief because we only have 10 minutes and go through this presentation, but you will to review at your leisure the PowerPoint.

Okay.

So internal affairs investigate police misconduct. Police misconduct is defined as a pattern, practice, or conduct by a police officer that includes depriving a person of rights protected by the Constitution, violation of a criminal statute, or violation of a law enforcement agency's policies. A complaint can be filed through various means by a citizen through the public portal. They can also file a complaint online, walk into the district and file a complaint, and also file a complaint through the Public Accountability Board. Once a complaint is filed, the case is documented in our IEPRO database, where it's classified with an allegation, it's assigned a case number, and it's also assigned an investigative detective to the case. Once the detective is assigned the case, they begin to investigate the case by collecting all evidence, reviewing documents, reviewing body-worn camera footage, interviewing witnesses, interviewing the accused officer as well. Once all the facts are gathered, an investigative report is documented with an investigative finding. We have four findings that we come to a conclusion involving these investigations. The findings are sustained, not sustained, exonerated, and unfounded. The definitions for sustained is the evidence shows the allegation did occur. Not sustained, the evidence is insufficient. You cannot prove or disprove it occurred. Exonerated, meaning the incident did occur, but the officer acted lawfully and within policy. Unfounded is the allegation is false or the incident did not occur. Once that is concluded, the report is forwarded to the chain of command for review. Myself, I review the investigative report forwarded through the chain of command, which includes the major as well as the chief. And then that is forwarded to the administrative charging committee for review. And then they'll speak on their process once it gets to that point. Thank you.

Thank you guys for having me. Again, my name is Kenneth Vincent, Jr. I'm the chair of the ACC. I've been on the board now for two years and been chair for a year. As she was just saying, when we receive cases in, we receive them in as they come in. We have a year and a date to review the cases by the date of the occurrence. Our board is a board consisting of five members. We usually review all the body-worn camera footage, review all the evidence that's packaged over to us, and then from there we have our deliberations uh usually once or twice a month or when needed from there we make our decision and then we pass over the information to uh back to the department and uh the chief of the department so so far this year just to kind of give some quick numbers from the annapolis police department we've heard a total of 88 cases um and we've also have about 43 that have been unfounded, 43% unfounded, and we have 31.9% that have been admittedly charged, and then also 24.9% that have been exonerated, yes.

So again, Jeanette Ortiz, chair of the Police Accountability Board. So we're the oversight body for this process. We were established in accordance with the 2021 Police Accountability Act passed by the Maryland General Assembly. And so each county is required in the state and the city of Baltimore required to have a Police Accountability Board and an Administrative Charging Committee. I'm the chair. I'm just starting my second term, so in my fourth year. We were, Anne Arundel, very proud to say, the first PAB that was stood up. We are very efficient. I think our folks are doing really great work The ACC is doing phenomenal work. They're really doing the hard work with the investigations, reviewing, making the recommendations. The PAB oversight and our responsibility is basically to make policy recommendations to the county and the state on police accountability. in the county. And so how we do that is that we are constantly collaborating with county government and the local law enforcement agencies, LEAs as we call them, and community stakeholders. The LEAs, in accordance with state law, are required to present and provide updates on allegations of police misconduct to the PAB. We also schedule community groups and other organizations to come and speak before the PAB. In our first couple years, the PAB held what we called kind of a county tour and met in all of the police districts to hear from... individuals and constituents about their concerns. We were learning as we went along. We've had statewide conferences, and you'll hear that folks do things a little bit differently in other counties, but we have a lot of support here from county and local government. We have nine members. Eight are appointed by the county executive, and one is appointed by the mayor of the city of Annapolis. So Sharon Elliott is the representative for the city of Annapolis. And we meet, we met at least once a month in that first year as we got started, and now we meet eight out of 12 months out of the year. We're moving into quarterly meetings, but certainly we'll meet more as...

And I think the microphone is telling me that I am done.

So that's kind of an overview. So we really do the oversight, we're making the recommendations. I do wanna say we issue an annual report every year in December that provides all the data, breakdown by each LEA, the work that we've done, the meetings that we've had, recommendations. So I definitely recommend that you review that report when you have an opportunity. The most recent one is from 2025 and it's on our website, thank you.

So I know we got started a little bit late, but if we want to move to any questions you have, the guests that we have aren't going to stick around the whole time, but if you come up with questions afterwards, feel free to reach out. We can give you the contact information if you want to contact them directly or if there's any other questions that come up that we can answer as well.

Thank you. My colleagues have any questions?

Do you mind sharing, hey everyone, thank you for being here today. Do you mind sharing the percentage numbers that you said about the cases again? And if it's easier to find it online, you could just share.

Oh, yes, sir. So right now, year to date for 2026, we've had a total of 88 cases just for the Annapolis Police Department itself. Out of those 88 cases, we've had 42.2% that were unfounded. We've had 31.9% that were administratively charged. And we've had 24.9% that were also exonerated.

Right, thank you. So for the annual reporting, is there any information we can get if it was, let's say, a random month and we just wanted to get information then, what's the best way to get that information? Is it just watching the meetings or getting minutes from those meetings?

Yeah, I mean, certainly you can watch the meeting, but watch the meetings. We have those also available on the county website and the Police Accountability Board site. But certainly feel free to reach out to our office. We're always happy to share information that we have available. The report, as I mentioned, it is very thorough in breaking down the various allegations of police misconduct. through all five LEAs in the county, including the city of Annapolis, breaks it down by types of allegations, et cetera. So it is a very good document, and we've seen all of the reports for all the other PABs in the state, and ours is a really, really solid document. I'm really proud of the work that we're doing with the ACC as well.

I have one more question. That was from, you said 2025 data, or was that year to date?

That's just year to date. For 26? Yes, ma'am.

And do you have data comparing it to 25 or 24?

Unfortunately, I do not, but we can get that to you, though.

Generally, do you think it's going up or going down?

So far, from my observation, just being on the ACC for the last few years, it's actually going down. I also want to give a kudos to Annapolis Police Department. For the first two years while I was on the board, I think I mentioned that we have a year and a date of submission, right? So when I first came on the board Annapolis, when we were receiving things from the Internal Affairs Department, it was almost literally right there, the year and the date. uh time frame which kind of could be kind of hard for our acc board to kind of review all the documentation of all the evidence to come up with determination that number has dropped significantly we are seeing cases turned around very very quickly so there's been a vast improvement with the annapolis police department of that and yes we have been seeing cases drop down um with that so yes good improvement thank you so much yes

And I just want to clarify one thing. So the 88 cases are not 88 cases this year. So it's since the law has been implemented involving members of the public. So those are external complaints involving members of the public. Since July 1st of 2022, they've received 88 cases from Annapolis Police Department.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that clarification. I was like, wow, there's already 88 cases.

Thank you. That makes me feel so much better. Thank you. Are there other questions?

I think we have about five minutes remaining. I don't believe so.

I don't want to hold it.

Okay, so we still have a few minutes. Well, thank you all for coming. I really appreciate that you came out today.

I know that a lot of questions had popped up when we did the review with the police department back in April. And so that was kind of, this was the result of that because some of those numbers were in that report but we didn't have a lot of detail so i do appreciate you coming out tonight and sharing that with us it'll probably be a yearly thing just so you could put it on your calendar for next year but if there's anything else that you have to say or have questions for us otherwise we're good to go thank you

or any recommendations you may have for us as councilpersons legislatively that we could do to support. If you have any thoughts on that, that would be helpful.

Yeah, so I'll definitely forward a copy of our report and highlight some of the key recommendations. I've been having conversations with some of our legislators since it's the five-year anniversary that the bill that the law passed that you know perhaps they should have a briefing and see where things are and maybe some tweaks to the law just to make the law more even more efficient and more effective we've come across some things we've made recommendations they have made some changes related to that so yes happy to share those recommendations and obviously happy to have your support wherever you can as we move forward in speaking with the state legislative body on how they can make the law even more effective.

We have two minutes left. I will ask, what led to you being a part of the PAB and your leadership as chair? And also, if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about that from yourself.

Yeah, thank you for that question. So I'm an attorney, and at the time I was working for Anne Arundel County Public Schools as their legislative and policy counsel. I was there for six years, using work that's being done with the school system. be interested in the work. I do legislative work, so I live and breathe legislation and all things Annapolis during the 90 days of organized chaos during the General Assembly legislative session, so I was definitely following this kind of on my own time and something that just aligns with sort of my values, my beliefs, and I was really excited that Maryland took a bold first step to make changes to how we police in the state. You know, the LEOBR was something that folks are trying to change the previous law and sort of the privileges that were given to law enforcement that caused a lot of distrust within the community for years. And unfortunately, it took the murder of George Floyd to really kind of move that along in this state. And so the General Assembly had work groups all during the interim, we say the interim, the nine months outside of the session. And so I followed that closely and it was just something I was personally passionate about. And I thought just given my background in law and education and regulations and compliance that I could provide a service to the county.

Oh, thank you for stepping up there. You've been the entire time since 2022 you've been?

Yes, so we were appointed, that's exactly right, in 22. So I'm starting my second term and I was appointed chair by the county executive selected me as chair and I was happy to step up and do that.

Thank you.

Thanks.

I think for myself it was a call to action from our governor during this inauguration to get involved with the community. So after hearing that, we also had a situation in our neighborhood, and then there was the PAB and the ACC wound up getting involved with it. So hearing about how they were able to kind of handle that situation with our law enforcement in that community, I thought it was a great opportunity to kind of serve the community that which we lived in. So it's been a great joy. I've learned so much about our law enforcement agencies in the county. My background is not law enforcement. It's been aviation hospitality. So this has just been kind of a very good experience of learning everything that's going on. So, yes.

Fantastic. Thank you for serving. I would be remiss if I didn't say we have some amazing law enforcement agencies in this county. I'm really proud of the work of all five agencies. They work very collaboratively. Obviously, when the law passed, not everybody loved it, and even though I agreed with it, there's some things that I thought could be improved. But regardless, our agencies, our leaders stepped up to fulfill their responsibilities and obligations under the law. They've been working well. Any times there's been differences of opinions on things, you know, we work through them, we collaborate. There's a lot of transparency, and I will say that from the community. What we've heard is that They're happy with how things have been going. They're happy with the information sharing that's available to the community. And so it's like, you know, building, rebuilding that trust with the community, which is so essential to policing, not just for the community safety, but for officer safety as well. And so, you know, it's really, truly a privilege just to be a part of that process.

That's amazing. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us today. Next up we have the reentry program.

can you trust me with this thank you

She's solving technical difficulties. Do you want to introduce yourselves?

Good afternoon. I'm Captain Lamar Howard, Operations Commander.

Robert Horne, Community Outreach Reentry.

My name is David Ball. I'm currently employed by Maryland Reentry Resource Center as Case Manager, Peer Support and Valid Transitional Housing as House Manager. And I'm a returning citizen.

Vanessa Wright, I'm the founder and executive director of Maryland Reentry Resource Center.

Thank you so much. I thought I was, you know, finding us a little time. Welcome to our city manager Yolanda Lewis.

Okay.

Okay, good. All right. So I want to start by just, it's a three minute video, just kind of give you an overview of reentry.

Fantastic. video on the Positive Impact Program, the Annapolis Police Department's structured blueprint for community rehabilitation and reentry. The program's foundation began in 2005, providing critical resources like job placement, education, housing, and substance abuse treatment. In June 2020, the Positive Impact Program, or PIP, officially launched and has since served over 300 citizens through a refined, partnership-driven model. This program offers a structured pathway from incarceration to independence. Step one is the transition from incarceration. Step two is the partnership with the Maryland Department of Corrections and the Department of Parole and Probation. Step three is the PIP ecosystem, connecting clients to resources and training. The final step is sustainable self-sufficiency. The Positive Impact Program is driven by institutional leadership, including former Chief Edward Jackson, Acting Chief Amy Megues, Deputy Chief Stanley Brantford, and Charles Carroll. The Reentry Ecosystem Matrix focuses on two key areas, baseline stability and career acceleration. Baseline stability includes housing assistance, drug and alcohol treatment, and expungements. Career Acceleration provides high-value vocational training in areas like automotive repair and CDL certification. A core goal is equipping citizens with high-demand trade skills. Here, you see Dequan Hicks in the POWUP Automotive Repair Trade Program. Hands-on diagnostic training prepares returned citizens for immediate placement in the automotive workforce. Building the foundation for workforce readiness requires more than technical skills. Intensive classroom training covers resume building, interview etiquette, and workplace networking. As PIP graduate Nicole Clifford noted, this time I've been constantly focused. The program amplifies impact through community partnerships. Connections are made to critical outpatient rehabilitation and baseline health stability services. Established vocational centers are leveraged to provide certified industry standard trade education. Reentry Behind the Walls focuses on true rehabilitation by breaking down adversarial historical barriers. PIP fosters direct, personal mentorships between Annapolis Police Department officers and returned citizens. Milestones of self-sufficiency include the landmark graduation of the first Annapolis Positive Impact Program cohort in March 2021. This success continues with proud members of the second cohort and beyond actively entering the workforce. Join the blueprint for positive impact and help build safer communities by investing in the potential of returned citizens. For more information, please contact Officer PFC Robert Horn at the Annapolis Police Department. His direct telephone is 443-902-5225.

This program is really an additional tool to address some of the social issues and problems, and then building that trust between the community and the police. And we actually target those who are the most vulnerable, that vulnerable population. And it's also a program designed to help anyone who just really wants an opportunity. But the main focus is individuals who are either impacted by the criminal justice system or coming out of incarceration. And the goal is to get them into programs that will allow them to earn livable wages. And without these partnerships, because we have no funding for this, But this program has been going on since my days in Baltimore City. We started this in 2005 when I was with the Baltimore City Police Department and it was a transition here to Annapolis City with former Chief Edward Jackson. He saw the success of the program in Baltimore So I was given the opportunity to bring it here to Annapolis. But the partnerships that we established in the city extended those services to our residents here in Annapolis City, also with our partners here in Annapolis. And so we're partnered with Maryland Reentry, Vanessa Brights, the CEO, Ms. D, who's also present. We're partnered with NCIA Vocational Training Facility. We've graduated about 17 classes from annapolis within the last six years with with without being charged anything um the training is free to our annapolis residents the university of maryland medical center likewise we've graduated about 16 17 classes within six years likewise that's free no charge out of um out of out of our pockets here in the city of annapolis project chesapeake Express Parole Employment Agency, Parole and Probation. We're partnered with Parole and Probation. So once a month, we have report days at the Annapolis Police Department. Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. We're partnered with Judge McCormick. We're partnered with the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. We go inside the correctional institutions. We work hand in hand with the entire population from the men and the women. We do reentry resource sessions with them. We do different kind of soft skills with them to prepare them to transition back into the community, turn around Thursday, turn around Tuesday. the Maryland Department of Labor, Ordinance Road Correctional Institution. So this partnership allows us to be the router to connect them to services, not counting the families we've relocated out of Annapolis City into different jurisdictions, and been able to provide them with those services so that they can take advantage of new opportunities. I want to now turn it over to one of many success stories that we have. About two years ago, I was in Hagerstown Correctional Institution conducting one of our reentry sessions when I met David Ball, who's sitting here now. David was at the session. I shared with the participants all of the resources that we have available. So David came into our program. And so I wanna just turn it over to him now.

As Officer Horne said, my name is David Ball. At the age of 16, I was incarcerated. I did 41 years. I got out September 4th, 2024. But two years ago, I did meet Officer Horne. about his re-entry, and I think it was about a week after I got out, I contacted him, and he got me into a program at the University of Maryland Midtown campus, where I had to volunteer for five weeks. I'm so grateful for Officer Horne, Vanessa Bright, Maryland Re-Entry, and Mr. Ennis for file bid. Once I got out, they moved me to Annapolis, which I didn't want to go. It was a culture shock. But they held my hand. They brought me out to Annapolis. Ms. Anderson gave me housing. Vanessa Bright helped me. Before that, Oz Horn got me the job down at University of Maryland, which I had to volunteer. I went to Maryland Reentry. They helped me get my, today they helped me get my learner's permit, my driver's license, peer support, certification. I'm currently at BCCC. doing GNA, CNA, I plan on getting my paramedics. I do go around to a lot of speaking engagements on public safety bills at the, down the street. I also go in schools. I'm currently going back into the prisons to do resource fairs. So next month I'm getting ready to move into my own place. So I'm currently, Got hired after five weeks volunteering, taking the public transportation from here to Baltimore every day, two and a half hours one way, two and a half hours back. And they seen my dedication, they ended up hiring me. I'm going on one year at the University of Maryland, Midtown campus. Right now I'm training new people coming in. I'm grateful for Vanessa Bright, After I finished the program, she hired me as a peer support. Now she just made me a case manager. Ms. Anderson's back, hired me as a house manager. Now I'm overseeing many houses. But I'm so grateful for Maryland Reentry, Officer Horne, and Ms. Anderson, thank you.

Thank you so much.

So just hearing this story, right? And all the good work that Rob does, right? So this program is a force multiplier to our efforts every day to keep Annapolis safe. This program gives returning citizens a true trajectory to change their life, which directly impacts the crime in Annapolis. So I'll say this, food for thought. Anne Arundel County just opened a transition center a couple of weeks ago. If it's possible that Annapolis can replicate those efforts in Anne Arundel County, I think we'll see Annapolis continue to see the current trends that we have now showing that Annapolis is a safer city going forward. I think it would be huge to continue to help individuals like Mr. Ball returning to a civilized society. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Again, I'm Vanessa Bright. I'm the founder and executive director of Maryland Reentry Resource Center. I started the organization really back when Rob was starting the impact program. We've been working together closely on reentry, but in addition to that, we've also assisted the city with people that they needed to place who were in danger when the courts could not place them. I'm really here today for one reason. We've done a lot of work in the city of Annapolis for several years. We've gotten really little funding from the city to support those efforts. And then I recently found out that we got no money under this last one. And I really wanna, answer as to why the city does not support the work that we've done you heard from david ball you heard from rob horn and captain howard so that is why i'm here today i'd hope the whole council would be here for me to ask that question but it's really disheartening to me i don't know the answer to that question and we'll have to take a look at it okay we'll get back to you

I'm gonna take just Chairman Liberty for a second. We'll definitely get back to you on that Ms. Bright. I'm not sure where in the budget is normally fallen and I have to take a look at that. But I was prepared to say the program is amazing. I've known Officer Horn for the past five years and there's been a couple of people that I've reached out to him directly and sent to him directly. There was one gentleman that had seven children that I know that you helped and I think he's now HVAC certified, which is amazing. And it was a simple phone call to say, this person needs help. And I think that that's one of the things that we need to really is that it was a person that needed help. It wasn't a formerly incarcerated. It wasn't somebody who had given their time as a person and everybody's a person. So thank you for what you do. And we will get back to you on your question. Mr. Rubin, Smith-Brown?

Sure, thank you, Chair, Madam Chair. That was a bold question, and I appreciate you even bringing that up here today. I will do everything I can to support moving forward, especially as we're in these seats. I think that I can speak for all of us on that matter. My first question was about, first off, congratulations. Actually, that is a blessing that you were able to be where you are today. Yeah, I think this is huge. It's just amazing. Thank you for the work that y'all are doing to help our people in the city and across the state. Now, let's say there's someone who they didn't just come out of prison or, you know, they were not just locked up. Maybe they've been out for a year, out for two years, and they're still struggling. They haven't received these resources or this help. How do we get those people the support that they need, and is it still open for them to be a part of this program?

Yes, and my number is right on the screen and you can just have them get in touch with me or just have them come to the Annapolis Police Department. I mean, we have people that show up there just to get signed up for the program. We're actually recruiting for our, we're about to graduate our 18th class in August. We're now, we have about six Annapolis guys that signed up. took them monday to get them registered they have orientation in two weeks august is their first day of training for the for the next um hvac cdl class b and automotive training so um we have some slots available um so you can just have them get in touch with me And there's some other things we want to work on as far as websites and things of this nature. But yeah, they can just reach out to us. And the program is for any and everybody. We don't turn anybody around. We get people that call us from Eastern Shore and all over the state. And we don't turn anyone around. And what we do too is because we have extended partnerships throughout the state, we're able to connect them to the jurisdiction that they're in if they can't make the commute to where we are. So anybody, it doesn't matter whether you've been incarcerated or you haven't been incarcerated, this program is for any and everybody.

I'll have a name for you actually this week.

Okay, get it to me soon because the slots are filling up.

Okay, thank you for that. That's my question for now.

When you guys have the graduation, can you send it to us?

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We will definitely be back in touch with you. Deputy Chief Brantford.

I was going to say if you wanted to take someone else's summer safety plan, you could. We're going to go ahead and continue with police.

Okay, sounds good.

We don't have a PowerPoint for this, just so you know. I did email or there should be a document that you have access to that is our Summer Safety Improvement and Crime Plan. This overviews our main objectives for this summer. So we consider summer from the beginning of May to the end of August. It's mainly the time that a lot of the schools are closed. It's when the warmer weather starts and when we start seeing seasonal increases in crimes occurring in the city. So our first goal is, most importantly, gun violence reduction. So we have a number of strategies that we follow to do that. This document is releasable to the public. It doesn't give our full plan and staffing strategies and where people are deployed and exactly what's going on. But we're certainly happy to talk about what we are focused on, which is looking for violent offenders. So people who are wanted when something does occur, making sure that we're investigating it thoroughly, following up. working with different agencies like the FBI, the ATF. We've had some real successes recently when we have had some gun crime with being able to forensically tie evidence recovered at scenes to weapons that we have then recovered with offenders. We also work with Anne Arundel County's Real-Time Intelligence Center They operate almost 24 hours a day at this point and are a resource for us. And then when we have violent crime, making sure that we have officers in those areas during the times when those crimes have been occurring for deterrence. So our goal for gun violence reduction is to have fewer crimes, crime incidents than we did last summer. We are seeing an overall downward trend in crime numbers citywide in the first part of the year, so we expect that trend to continue with our efforts continuing. The second thing we have on our goal is to reduce violent crime in general, so not just gun violence, but robberies, aggravated assaults. So we have officers deployed in communities and areas where we have higher rates of violent crime that we can look at throughout the years, especially bicycle and foot patrols. And a lot of that work is focused on talking with community members, establishing and building on our relationships in those communities so that we can get information about these crimes maybe before they occur, but then also afterwards trying to get information for the investigations That includes downtown where we've seen some, you know, crime as bars are closing and in bars related to alcohol consumption. So we've been focused on being down there as well and working with the fire department, with the fire marshal's office. So again, our goal is that we are below last year's numbers during the same period. Thirdly, reduction of property crime and theft, so auto theft, burglary, shoplifting, and other theft-related offenses. That's really related to business checks, checking in with the businesses that have a lot of the shoplifting problems, making sure that we're being proactive with them, some strategies to try and reduce the number of thefts that are occurring, patrolling in the areas where those thefts are occurring more, We try to identify any times or locations where thefts have been occurring more frequently. And again, that goal is that it's less than it was last year. And finally, community engagement and safety, number four, which includes all our community outreach events. So in the summer, we switch from mainly a lot of school-based programs, right? Where we're visiting schools, talking to people at the schools and the community meetings that we go to. In the summer, we focus on camps. So, and that can be, the many camps that are held in Annapolis and visiting the camps, talking with the kids, but it's also holding some camps ourself. So we have a couple fishing camps, we have a crabbing camp, We are forming an alliance with multiple organizations to do a teen enrichment camp this year, which is kind of new for us, but we're really relying on our partnerships with a lot of the nonprofit organizations to develop that one. summer Bible camps. A lot of the churches will invite us to come visit. It's a great opportunity for us to interact with the kids, but also talk about crime prevention. The crossing guards are part of this plan too. So the crossing guards move into downtown deployment in the summer to help with pedestrian safety. So again, our goal is to increase, this is an increase in the number of events, but a decrease in any pedestrian related crashes, especially downtown. So last summer we had three total for the summer downtown. So feel free to look over the document. And again, if we have questions and you want to do follow up at another time, we can. I just wanted to talk about a little bit more specifically. So during the summer, we changed schedules around a little bit to focus on the times and the days where we have historically seen the most crime. Everything in the police department can be moved when we see different trends emerging. So we keep these plans fluid. But mainly in the evening hours, that's when you're going to see more officers out. The officers are being directed to spend the first part, the earlier part of the evening, to do the community engagement. That's when more people are out. They're having cookouts. They're out with their kids. So the officer is going to be doing foot patrol, bike patrol, talking with community members. Then it transitions a little bit because we want to also focus on traffic safety. We know that there's a number of areas in the city where we see serious crashes. The Forest Drive corridor is one of the most dangerous in the whole county, and West Street from Legion down to Route 2. So those two areas are targeted for strategic traffic enforcement. That doesn't mean that we're telling officers they have to get a certain number of traffic stops or citations or any of that, but we want to focus on the behaviors that we see causing crashes. So speeding, not stopping at stop signs, running red lights, those things are the things officers can be focused on looking for. and making stops and educating people about the dangers of that kind of driving. And then the third part of the deployment is that later night time, right? So a lot of that is gonna be at the areas that people are out being active, downtown and other areas where officers are gonna just do visible patrols, again, talking with people, but trying to identify any problems before they start. So those are the main focus right now. But as I said, you know depending on crime trends and and what we see we we always make changes when we need to um i've just heard about you know there's this time of year there's upticks in in all kinds of different things like dirt by illegal dirt bikes riding uh you know and so that can be a focus of our traffic safety part of the evening um you know we don't pursue dirt bikes but what we try to do is track down where they're headed see where they get left try and figure out who's riding the bike if there's violations and things like that so we try to keep it in a safe way where we're not causing accidents, we're not chasing people and making a bigger problem. But if we can curtail the behavior that is dangerous, and we've seen injuries from it, we've seen deaths in the city of Annapolis of some of the dirt bike riders, and we definitely want to discourage the illegal riding of them on our streets. Dr. Brantford, would you like to talk about this?

So when the Chief asks us to put together a crime plan, there's a lot of intelligence that go into it, so we just don't sit down and come up with these goals. We have an analyst that's on board, and she provides historical data, and we make those crime plans based on those trends that we see over a number of years. So that's important to us when we put together these crime plans. Myself and the chief, we just had a meeting where we talked about the successes we had so far this year. And one of the things we make sure that the commanders do is go take this information back to the troops, whatever they're doing, continue to do. And we're gonna keep the focus so we can make all of Annapolis safe.

So if you look at the crime plan and you look at our current numbers, we're definitely trending in the right direction. But we're not naive to believe there's no more work to do. We understand that there's a lot of summer left and there's a lot of areas where we can improve. So the key is to keep the focus in the direction that we're going and maintain the downward trends as we continue to go throughout the summer. And as we exit the summer, shortly we'll be transitioning into tis the season which would be the winter crime plan. So again we know that there's a lot of summer left and we're not complacent with the success that we've seen thus far.

That was great. Exactly what we needed to hear. I had a lot of residents that were asking because in the past we have had a presentation, I believe it was at a council meeting, of the summer crime plan. So I had some people asking, you know, what changes are coming about? What can they expect? Can they expect to see more officers, boots on ground kind of thing? So appreciate that. It sounds like you're doing all the things that our residents are asking us for. Questions for my colleagues?

Sure, I'll ask one question right now. It says here crossing guards and in parentheses downtown. Is there a reason that it just says downtown?

There's only two areas where we put crossing guards during the summer and it's Main Street and Green Street and Dock and Randall.

That's for just, what's the purpose of that?

There's a large number of people that come downtown in the summer and traffic gets very congested and people keep crossing. So it's kind of to keep the pedestrians back at times to let traffic flow and then at other times to make sure the traffic is stopping and the pedestrians are going safely. Between the congestion of the cars and the pedestrians, it's a big volume of people.

It's Green Street and Randall Street, okay.

Yeah, neither of those have like a activated sign or a traffic light or anything like that.

As regards to staffing numbers, do you mind giving us a little update on that, where we are currently with our employment and where we are still striving to be?

Yeah, so we're currently at 118 sworn officers. We're allowed 125 currently. So we are in the midst of entry-level hiring, and also we have some lateral applicants that are in the process. So we hope to add to those numbers soon. We are anticipating a resignation at the end of the month, but we actually have someone who left who wants to come back. So we may be able to... to be a net zero there. But we're seeing better numbers than we have in the past. We were hovering around 114 on the regular, and now we're a little bit above that. We're seeing an increase in the number of applications as well. So I really encourage any city resident to apply if they're interested. We have a number of cadets that work for us. Those are young people who aren't yet old enough to be police officers. We have some cadet positions that are open. I know we've been in a cycle recently, so I don't know if it's currently open or if they're in the process of hiring more cadets. But we just got that increase to the cadet pay that'll go into effect for FY27. So thank you very much. That helps us to remain competitive. And we have a good group of cadets, you know, and I'd love to see more Annapolis residents come and want to serve the city.

Another question? No question. They've made it easy for you guys tonight. Well, thank you very much. Thank you very much for coming out. Really appreciate the efforts that you put into the report and all the information. So thank you. Next up we have Annapolis Fire Department. Welcome.

Good evening, Madam Chair and committee members. Matthew Lopez, Deputy Fire Chief of Supervisory Administrative Services, representing Chief Doug Romali, Fire Chief of Annapolis Fire Department. So to answer the question of what we're doing for the summer, While many people associate summer with vacations, boating, festivals, and outdoor activities, it also brings an increase in emergency services demands throughout the city. Key factors driving our summer operational posture include increased tourism and visitation, higher levels of waterfront and boating activity, public gatherings, special events, extreme heat and water-related emergencies, and increased EMS call volume. As Maryland's capital city and home to the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis experiences unique seasonal demands that require a coordinated public safety strategy. Our goal for our summer safety initiative is simple. Prevent emergencies whenever possible, prepare for emergencies before they occur, and ensure the department remains ready to provide exceptional service throughout the summer season. Our summer safety efforts focus on four primary areas listed above. Marine rescue and waterfront response, special event preparedness, responder health and safety, and community risk reduction education. I'm gonna go through each one of those. Annapolis is one of the premier boating destinations on the Chesapeake Bay and the summer months bring a significant increase in recreational boating activity. To support this activity, the department maintains Fireboat 36 and our dive team with our partner agency in Arundel County Fire. Our focus includes water rescue preparedness, boating safety education, personal flotation device awareness, coordination with the US Coast Guard, and coordination with the Maryland Natural Resources Police. We continue to emphasize that life jackets save lives and encourage boaters to wear them rather than simply carry them. For special event preparedness, throughout the summer, Annapolis hosts numerous special events requiring enhanced public safety planning, including commissioning week, Independence Day celebrations, waterfront festivals, concerts, and other community events. For these, we conduct pre-event planning, develop incident action plans, coordinate with our partnering agencies, and we position EMS and command resources strategically around the city. For responder health and safety, we operate in extreme heat challenges for firefighters and EMS providers. We emphasize for our personnel hydration, rehabilitation, heat stress monitoring, and accountability practices. We protect our personnel and ensure that they remain available to protect the community. And for community risk reduction, we recognize that the best emergency is the one that never occurs. Throughout the summer, our personnel participate in youth camps, community events, CPR training, fire safety education, and heat safety outreach. These efforts allow us to engage residents and visitors before the emergency occurs. So who's leading these efforts? The Summer Safety Initiative is department-wide. However, overall responsibility rests with the Fire Chief, coordinated through myself, Deputy Chief of Admin, and our Deputy Chief of Operations, John Ortley. The initiative involves nearly every functional area of the department, including Emergency Operations, EMS Division, Fire Prevention Bureau, Community Risk Reduction, marine operations and special operations summer safety is not the responsibility of any single unit or division it requires a coordinated effort across the entire organization we also rely heavily on our partnerships with the annapolis police department u.s coast guard as previously stated the maryland natural resource police annapolis harbor master anne arundel county fire department and the annapolis office of emergency management these These partnerships allow us to deliver a unified public safety approach. how does the summer differ from other times of the year well the summer presents operational challenges that are unlike any other season we have increased population increased marine activity special large special events and environmental challenges increased population whether the attending the festivals visiting downtown voting on the chesapeake bay or attending the naval academy events more people naturally create greater demand for emergency services For the marine activity, we see higher numbers of recreational boaters, kayakers, paddle boarders, and personal watercraft operators. Each of these activities increases, so does the likelihood of marine emergencies. Special events include commissioning week, as I mentioned, July 4th celebrations, festivals, concerts, and waterfront gatherings. Again, each of those requires planning, staffing, and operational coordination. Our environmental challenges include heat-related illnesses, dehydration, severe thunderstorms, lightning, and waterfront weather hazards. These factors require us to maintain a very heightened state of readiness throughout the season. So what has changed from previous years? While the department's core mission remains unchanged, we continually evaluate our operations and make adjustments based upon experience, data, and community needs. So for community engagement, we have expanded opportunities to engage residents and visitors through community events, educational programs, youth outreach, and public safety demonstrations. For our data-driven deployment, we are constantly analyzing our call volumes, seasonal demand patterns, special event attendance, and historical incident activity. And then finally for enhanced responder wellness, we focus on heat injury prevention, improved hydration practices, rehabilitation procedures, and monitoring personnel during prolonged operations. In conclusion, the Summer Safety Initiative represents the department's commitment to protecting the community through prevention, preparedness, education, and professional emergency response. Our efforts are focused on reducing preventable emergencies, maintaining operational readiness, supporting safe community events, protecting residents and visitors, and enhancing provider safety. Success requires collaboration among all city departments, public safety partners, community organizations, and the public. Thank you.

That was fantastic. Thank you.

I appreciate it.

And well under your 10-minute time limit.

I try.

Thank you and I appreciate the fact that you talk about not any one unit is responsible for summer safety. I think that's important for people to understand because a lot of times we do think of just the boating or you know just the heat stroke people. So it's every unit out there. Appreciate that. Do you have questions for my colleagues? No questions. It was so thorough that there are no questions. Either that or they're hungry. They're all ready for dinner.

Thank you very much.

But thank you very much for coming and please tell Chief O'Malley that we said hello.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Dave Mandel with Office of Emergency Management. And before he gets started, I'm going to give Dave a huge shout out because you are a hero in Emerald Heights and West Annapolis after the weekend. Responsiveness was amazing. And the two phone numbers that I had sent you because of... BG&E, if you don't know, on Goodrich Road, BG&E kept marking Goodrich Road as restored power, but there were two houses who had their electrical wires ripped off their house by the tree, so there's no chance of restoring power. So there might have been power in the wires, but there was not power to the house. So they are well on their way to getting that fixed, so thank you.

that was just a little shout out before your presentation thank you so much and thank you for your collaboration and your information during that whole you know process which is still continuing for some as you mentioned has been just invaluable so it's it's a it's a team effort all the way across the board exactly partnership all the way around exactly So I guess if that's my cue, Dave Mandel, Deputy Director of the Office of Emergency Management here in Annapolis. Thank you again, Public Safety Committee. On behalf of Director Simmons, I'm happy to talk today about our initiatives for the summer, and I apologize. I think the formatting did not convert well when this was converted from a Google presentation to PDF, and I think this is open in PDF, so my apologies for that. It looked normal when I created it. So the first thing is cooling centers. This is cooling center season. We've already been open four times, and tomorrow's going to make five times. Cooling centers, as you probably well know, are temporary spaces with air conditioning that we set up here in the city just to keep folks out of the heat, to give them that offer. There are plenty of places that folks can go a little bit more in the summer than the winter, as you probably can imagine. Libraries are popular, senior centers are popular, malls, shopping malls are popular, but we always feel it's imperative to give folks that option. Maybe their AC's on the fritz, maybe they might have nowhere else to go. We always try to make sure once the thresholds are triggered that we make a space available in the city of Annapolis or from a partner to make sure they have a place to go to get some relief from the heat. You can see our activation criteria right here. Heat index, if it's 105, we're gonna open in coordination with our partners. If there is an air quality alert in combination with a heat index of 95 or more, a code orange or a code red, along with a heat index of 95 were likely to open, along with the discretion of the emergency management director. As I mentioned, cooling center has been open four times. It's going to be five for tomorrow. We have notifications that we do via email and the public, as I'm sure many of you have seen. We have city-operated facilities, and we have city-supported facilities. The city-operated facilities are Pip Moyer Recreation Center, Recreation Parks Facility, which we know well. That's our primary facility, which we operate, obviously, in conjunction with Rec and Parks Department. Secondary city-operated location is the Annapolis Walk Community Center. In terms of city-supported, We're looking at the Annapolis Senior Activity Center, the Bush Library on West Street, and the American Legion Post 141 on Forest Drive. Tomorrow, Pittmoyer will be open along with all three city-supported locations. Activation times and locations may vary depending on the activities at each facility on a given day, but that's what we're looking at in general. I don't need to read this entire slide in terms of requirements and reminders, but it's a very basic operation. We try to make sure folks have access to water, working AC, place to cool off. We make sure the fire marshal is kept up in the loop in terms of being able to provide the inspections and support that they provide so we can legally open. It's not a medical facility. Service animals are allowed and adults must be there with minors. Now, another thing I'd like to highlight, and our Alderwoman O'Neill has been a part of this so far, is our summer outreach to older Anapolitans. As a matter of fact, Our outreach person, Karina Rosenbaum, was at Morris Blum again today with another presentation for the folks in that building. So we're going around the city here and trying to do a special outreach initiative to older Anapolitans. This is one of our focuses this summer. We presented Morris Blum today, and I think a couple months back, in addition to Bowman Place in the last few weeks. We're talking about personal safety, home safety, emergency preparedness, heat safety, and the special assistance roster, which I'll talk about in just a moment. So we're continuing to get out there, talking about issues that matter to folks in Annapolis, to Anapolitans of all ages. So if any older person would like us to come visit a location in your community, let us know. We'll schedule it and come visit your area. I mentioned the special assistance roster. And this is something we talk about with regularity. And this is a list that we maintain with folks that might need extra assistance. They might have mobility challenges. They might be on oxygen. They might be in a more difficult place should power go out or there be some kind of problem due to a storm than someone else might be. So we recruit folks to join the list if they want to be contacted before, during, and after an emergency. Do you have what you need? Do you have your oxygen? Do you have a battery backup? Do you have a place to go if the power goes out? Those types of things. Just try to give extra attention to folks who might benefit from that. So you can just call our main line to register and if you have any constituents or anyone who might be interested in the service. And it's something we're proud of and we think makes a difference for folks during challenging times when disruptions happen. One more thing, actually one thing I wanted to highlight as well is the new city of Annapolis heat related illness plan. This is for personnel. This isn't for the public because there is a new city policy that complies with a new state regulation to make sure staff working events in the heat have everything they need, a shaded place to rest, cold water every so often breaks. And this initiative is not being led by OEM, but it's being led by risk management in central services. But we're really on board with this. And now that it's, this is the first summer with this policy in place. And Juneteenth's coming up this weekend. I hope everybody goes to that. We're rolling out, special uh preparations on the oem side to make sure we comply with this plan and just just something good to know uh as city council members that this is out there that this this gives us a little bit extra preparation to make for the sake of safety for our personnel extra water extra breaks and so forth extra really really attention to the heat index as well so you can contact risk management with questions uh on on that policy A reminder as well to stay informed. We'd love to put this up to make sure folks get the information to stay, basically to have the latest they need as things have happened. It seems like things have been happening a lot lately. Today, over the weekend with this storm, and sometimes you don't see it coming. So this has been a, these resources, specifically Prepare Me Annapolis is our free mobile app. And we put out a ton of information at critical times, especially over the weekend. We're pushing information on how to contact VGE, how to notify us with damage, what the latest road closures are, everything that we know, all the outages. In addition, there's Alert Annapolis, which is our community notification system. You can text to receive emergency alerts or for specific events such as Juneteenth this weekend. Also a reminder to check on friends and neighbors. Preparedness is important obviously for ourselves and our families, but we all know folks that might need us to check on them. Folks that might be folks like those who would be on the special assistance roster or what have you. So make sure your friends and neighbors are in a place where they are prepared as much as we are prepared ourselves. I think that was way under 10 minutes. I don't know, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Right, thank you very much. I was going to have a question about pets because I hear people say I'm not leaving my dog. Are there any cooling centers or warming centers in the area that do accept pets that you know of?

So the City of Annapolis accepts service animals but not other types of pets. so we don't have anything in the city there there is a we do have a shout you know once we get into a sheltering operation there are plans for pets but in terms of the routine there's not we encourage folks to to take advantage of public facilities excuse me open to the public that may accept pets but pitt moyer for example does not so that that is something that we aren't able to accommodate at this point thank you very much do you have questions ottoman smith

I know we thank you for everything, especially during a lot of the natural disasters that we face in the city. Do you have maybe just to put on record for anyone who's out there still wondering where we are in the process for restoring power, families who may have been misplaced, or any questions that may be out there, maybe an update you can provide to us?

Sure. So my understanding is that there are no more outages in Annapolis. Everyone in Annapolis has power right now. Now, as the Alderman mentioned, there are people still restoring their homes. There are folks with internet outages, and they're working with Verizon and Comcast and such to update that. There are a lot of folks with damage to, uh their their decks their you know outside type they're very little bit of structural damage to their homes we did have a couple of cases with a tree on a home and that's being worked through several trees on vehicles but in terms of recovery the fact that we only had i think two families displaced and full power restored within a few days just died oh look at that okay that was weird I consider this in terms of a response a response effort I think it went very well there's always things where we can improve on we're going to look at that we have some thoughts on that myself but we had some great strengths in this one and most importantly we tried to be really responsive as the older woman mentioned to the public and made sure the emergency needs are taken care of and as of today with full power restored while everyone's still cleaning up we're not done recovering from a storm as director simmons likes likes to say until the last person has recovered we said that about after the tornado right um and the same thing applies here but we're grateful that and thankful that there are no power outages and just a couple of displacements that are being worked through as we speak

All right. Well, thank you so much. I know that the presentations that you've been giving at Morris Blum and Bowman Place and some of the other places have been really well accepted by the residents. It's a checklist of emergency preparedness boxes, which is really amazing because several residents have said, oh, I don't have that. I don't have that. Eventually I'd like to see us have an emergency preparedness kit making day to see if we could get some kits to some people that maybe weren't able to do it for themselves. But I think that's coming down the line.

I like that. I like that. Let's do it.

Great. Thank you so much. There's no other questions. I appreciate you coming out today.

Next time.

Oh, did you have another question?

Go ahead. It's not really much. It was just, you know, we could always come up with questions to ask. So for people who are impacted financially or maybe even through food, for example, what supports do we provide or provide to them directly or resources during those instances?

Very good question. And if there are any situations like that where you know of where people have food insecurity due to a storm or such, I definitely encourage them to call our office at 410-216-9167. or the call center line at 410-260-2211. But let me answer your question, which is that, first of all, we have a Great Food Friday program, which I know Alderman O'Neill is a big part of. That's something that OEM is involved with pretty, in death every week and there are plenty of other services that we connect folks to. The Red Cross is always ready to go. The Office of Community Services helps connect folks to resources as well. The Salvation Army, I was speaking to them today about another issue. They're always ready to support. So we have a network of community partners. is the answer so in there the county has food there's other food pantries as well local churches county um so there are there are a range of options for folks and if you're in a you know of of someone in a place where they're they're struck by you know a disruption like the storm we had and and might need some extra help we'd love to hear from them we can help coordinate those those needs

In the Office of Community Services, I reached out to them last week because I had a constituent who had a window air conditioning unit that died and didn't have the funds or ability to purchase a new one. So I reached out to the Office of Community Services and they've connected them with resources to get a new air conditioner.

There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes that we can, it's not always visible, right? We're not running on fire trucks and police cars, but on the frontline in the community, working with residents to try to solve their problems on their worst days, we're right there for them.

And it's a lot of partnerships between the three. Annapolis Police, Fire, and OEM. I think I often see them together, so that's fantastic.

Right, including this weekend and Juneteenth, encourage everyone to come out.

Right, thank you. All right.

Yeah, I think that, because we only have about 50 seconds left. Well, okay, I'll ask the last question. Okay. What, if at all, could we have done for more preparedness, if this was even something to prepare for? Were we in the know of the result or the outcome of this storm? It wasn't something that we felt we knew was going to come. I'm just asking for that. And if not, what can we do in our city to be more ready for those types of instances?

If we're talking as a city, not the public. This storm was a tricky one because it came through quickly. We knew there might be thunderstorms. We did not expect 60 or 70 mile per hour winds. So I'd love to say, hey, let's reinforce our infrastructure and cut our trees back and make sure that we're all ready for something like this. But anytime you get a storm with 70 mile per hour winds, it's going to bring trees and power lines down. There's just no way around it. So I think everyone did a great job on this one in terms of what the city's level of preparedness is. I think the coordination works really well in general across the board. But in terms of preparation, I wish I had a better answer for you. We just have to do this one thing. But with a storm like that, most of the damage was wind damage, trees coming down on power lines. And if you get a 70 mile per hour windstorm, trees are going to come down on power lines, even if they're trimmed back like they should be and all this. We had, if you saw some of the diameter of these trees, these are trees that have been standing for 50 years. that all of a sudden they're coming down on houses. The trees were probably there before some of the houses were even built. So I don't have a lot to point in that direction in terms of what the city could have done ahead of time. What I can tell you is as soon as it happened, I got my first call at 9.20 PM. I'm sitting at home on a Friday night and we're all over it to make sure that everyone had what they needed. So everyone really responded really quickly with great coordination across the board.

You know what comes to mind is tracking the trees that fell and whether the city takes it upon ourselves to replant those trees that fell because obviously we're talking about our trees dying. no longer there anymore so we just let that be or do we actually do something about it and so that's maybe not your answer but great i was gonna ask because that was a nice okay i would defer on that one to um yeah we can do our urban forester and our sustainability folks right but maybe you all track them at all um through your process when you go out and you support and you know what happens so okay thank you thank you very much all right thank you have a good evening

I have the rest of my agenda.

He's just going to end it.

Seeing no more items on the agenda, I will entertain a motion for adjourn.

Move to adjourn.

Second? Second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Meeting adjourned.