Law Enforcement Committee - Regular Meeting

How many There it went missy. Yeah. How many different programs do we have that I see real rehabilitation for something over here? uh and another certain program for to it's all a part of rehabilitation but uh there are different different programs you send them to different places for different reasons to take advantage of a certain program that somebody else offers. Does that make any kind of sense what I'm trying to say? There's different programs all over the state. Okay. Um there may be programs for alcohol and drug treatment. There may be programs for sober living. They've already completed alcohol and drug, but they're doing sober living, mental health.

Yeah. Treatment. There's just different programs all over. The most common is alcohol and drug treatment. Okay. So, what's the closest one we have for that? Chattanooga, which is Kadis or Buffalo Valley.

Um Jakoa in West Tennessee does really, really good work. and they accept a lot of our clients and um there's several places in Nashville. There's several different locations of Buffalo Valley. They've got the Hoen Wall location and there's one on the other side of Nashville. Um we have people that's in English mountain which is in East Tennessee Severville. So just wherever we can get them with a grant because a lot of the folks don't have um insurance and they don't have money to pay for it. So we look for a lot of grants. Okay.

I got two quick questions for you, Chief Deputy Watkins. Um we have an update on our traffic motorcycles. Chad gave it to us. Yes, we do. So, they actually went today to deliver some more equipment to them um due to the fact that they were the end ofear motorcycle models. Um um Bumpus Harley had to um um order some specific parts and they didn't quite fit. So, they are having to manipulate them to make them fit.

So, they're basically Oh, yeah. They're coming along. Like I said, they uh they delivered actually the radars up there today. Um and then some of the communications package. So hopefully here pretty soon. I was hoping they would be done before the Christmas parades to be the unveiling, but yeah, didn't make it. So we will we will get them out shortly hopefully. Well, that's good. So, but yeah, and I I just have a a question. I've I'll get to this in a minute about the judicial commissioners, but I called checking on some other stuff with some surrounding counties today and they were talking about the ankle monitors. Does our sheriff's department do that? Yes, we do. Like for domestic violence or does that handled under probation?

No, that's under us. That's by state law. Anybody who's aggravated domestic violence or others. There are some other u charges that the judicial commissioner or judge can put down. I think stalking u some others like that that kind of relate to that that they they have the ability to do that. So, we house those devices at the sheriff's office and um the current vendor A2I is the one that goes through that's been approved. Um so when somebody makes bond a condition of their bond is that they have to have an ankle monitor and that they are responsible for the payment.

Well, that I was just curious. They were discussing that and I I didn't have the answer to that. I knew that it had been discussed in the past about the ankle monitors and I was curious of how it worked at our shares. We do. We do them um our staff will put them on

to kind of help expedite their release. Um puts them on, gets them activated, and then they have they have I forgot how many hours to contact um A2I to get everything set up as far as uh for payment and everything like that. But they they set up a lot of that on the front end before their bond. And they they're not really supposed to I say they don't really they don't make bond. they don't get released until all that is set up because if they can't make an agreement with that company then they don't get out. I mean it's that's a condition of their bond condition. Well, thank you. That's good to know. Yes, sir. Did we specify both minutes?

Number two, approve our special minutes. Do you have two sets of minutes? Yeah, the special. I just have the one set of minutes. And yeah, here it is. No, we did not. If you all want to I guess we need to Yeah, let's backtrack on that a second. I need a if we can go back and I need somebody to make a motion to approve the special called minutes. I'll make a motion to approve it. I'll second. Everybody in favor say I. I.

Thank you. Yeah. I didn't uh It was mixed in with my No, it's it's not your fault. I was busy trying to get our thing to work over there because it was saying it was working, but sorry about the technical difficulties. Okay. Any more questions for Frank? Roger. Miss Baker, can we have your probation report, please?

So, you'll keep in mind this is for a threemon time period. Did this September, October and November of this year. This is our activi activity history report. So on average over that three month period, we had on average 802 active clients that were on probation. We had two that are on bond conditions. And what that means is they have not pled to their case. They've not been found guilty, but we are drug screening them on a regular basis. And so, um, they are coming in for us to do those regular drug screens for that. That fluctuates from time to time. Overall, we had 221 new cases. And keep in mind, cases does not equal clients because some clients have two cases or three cases. So we had 221 new cases and we closed out 223 for this threemonth period. We had 2583 appointments were scheduled. Out of that 336 were cancelled by clients. 269 of those appointments were a no-show no call. And that's even after they get a text message the day before their appointment at 12 noon reminding them the very next day they have an appointment. Um we completed 137 intakes. These are firsttime appointments. These are the most lengthy appointments. That's when we go over their rules of probation. Um their court requirements. We had 1,517 followup appointments and we um have did a little bit of Zoom on and off over the last maybe year. But um starting this past November, that is

something on a regular basis that we're going to try to start doing more of the that Zoom. If that person is an out ofstate client and they have that capability to do that, we're going to start doing more of those. Um we have 709 non-scheduled contacts with clients. These were not scheduled. Some of these were in person. Some of them were on the phone. We had 160 contacts with therapist, case workers. I'll just let you know that that contact is a lot higher that than 160, but we document the ones that we feel that needs documentation for obvious reasons, but it is definitely a lot higher than that. Um, over this course of time, there were 245 messages left with clients prior to us filling out a violation warrant. And what that meant is we called them. We said, "Hey, you missed your appointment. Hey, come in to see us." We mailed out 104 letters. Um, a policy for us. It's not a law. It's a policy in our office. Everybody gets one pending violation letter throughout their course. Um, we send more than one. We make more than one phone call. We do lots of things before we fill out that violation warrant. We're just not automatically sitting up there filling out violations. You really got to do a lot to get violated. We filled out 160 violation of probation warrants and we had 209 violation warrants resolved during this time period. So what that meant is some of those violations may have been on the last time frame, but there were 29 of those resolved. Instead of me going over every single under the probation court requirements. You can see what each one of those are.

Those are services that we get set up for clients and you can see each of those different things. One of the things that um is new now is a cognitive behavioral therapy class and that was a law that was passed earlier in the year. And so a lot of clients according to what um you play out to you have to do an online cognitive behavioral therapy class. This is not affiliated with probation in any way, form or fashion. Um, this was um advocated for by our lawmakers and this is what they're doing. And the client goes online and the average class is $95 a class. And so they do eight hours of cognitive behavioral therapy online. So that is something that just recently started. So some of those um those clients will be doing that. our drug screens for the the um threemonth period. There were 201 drug screens that were given during this threemonth period. 128 people passed those drug screens. 29 failed for marijuana only. Seven failed for alcohol only and then 39 drug screens were for other things, meth, opiates, benzo, different things like that. In October, we had an all day training. Citterstone provided training on traumainformed care and deescalation skills.

Linda, could I ask you a question? Out of these drug drug screens, do they know when they're going to be tested? Okay.

They don't, but they know that every single time that they come into the office that they um are at liberty to have that drug screen. and also people that we supervise out of state. Um if we're talking to them on the phone, we alert them upfront the first day of their probation at any time you may be required to have a drug screen. So just because you live out of state doesn't mean you're not going to get a drug screen. It means you need to be finding a place that you're going to get a drug screen on because when we call you in for a pop drug screen, if we call you over the phone to come into the office or if it's your scheduled visit by phone and you live out of state, you have a 2hour window to get a drug screen. So, if I call somebody at 1:00, they've got to be in my office by 3:00 for their drug screen. And we we do pop drug screens. We do drug screens when they're coming into the office for their scheduled appointment, but we don't tell them in advance,

but they know since they're coming in, it's a potential. It's a potential. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yep.

Um Daniel Ray um did a on this same day. We had three special guest speakers back in October. And this was at the time that the PD's conference and the DA's conference was going on. We don't have a conference. Probation does not have a conference that we can go to and learn new information. So, we depend on like when there's new laws and things passed, we depend on the PD's office. The DA's office is excellent about alerting us to that. Um, so we kind of do our own conference and we bring in special guest speakers to to teach us different things. So Daniel Ray came in and focused on um shooter safety within our offices and in the courthouse. And then um we had the Tennessee Suicide Network train us on su suicide among first responders. And so we try to do different kinds of trainings throughout the year and that's what we did in in October. We had a recovery event on November the 14th and um what we did is we had special guest speakers from other agencies to come in and talk about recovery in general and their journey through recovery. And we got to invite people off of our case load to come to that event. And so each probation officer picked like two people to come to that event and that was their visit for the month. And each person walked away with um pizza and um drinks and they had door prizes and none of that was out of county money. That was nothing come out of county budget money that was donated by someone. And so we try to do events like that ever so often within probation within our clients. We've had a women's self-esteem group in the past, but this was a recovery event.

And right now we are down one position, one probation officer. Um we've been down that position since July. We had someone to um resign in July and um then we hired someone and they worked a week and we haven't got that position replaced yet. I've had um we're we've posted the job yet again and now I have had one applicant and I've had a phone call that may be submitting um a resume. So that's where we are. Is that job on the county website? It is. Okay. I I didn't think I had seen it. I was just curious. Yep. It was posted December 1st.

Any questions for Miss Baker? I already asked. Any more questions? You want to go first? Yeah. I got a question. Go ahead. The the no-shows, the 269 people that no showed, is a big percentage of them Hispanic. No. Well, I mean, it's all It's not just Hispanic. It's all any and all. And the Hispanics, do you send out a text in Spanish or a message in Spanish? So,

so it's it's in it's in English and we don't send it out. Our management company which is Quest. They interface with Twilio and then Twilio sends that out and it goes out. So it goes out in Spanish? No, it goes out in English. So you assume that they understand the English?

No, I don't assume anything. But I will tell you the majority of our Spanish speakaking clients understand a lot of English. But I don't assume anything. But I don't have the ability to do it any other way. But the largest majority of our clients that know show are not Hispanics. Matter of fact, our Hispanic population, if their appointments at 3:00, they're there at two. I mean, they they're there. It's not a lot. it it's not a lot of no-shows among our Hispanic, but it there are no shows among all populations

because the I don't know if you remember the the I don't know if he is from Guatemala that I brought up there. He had no clue. I mean, he couldn't speak or understand nothing, but the probation offers officer told me the same thing. Well, they understand, but he didn't because he was I think often. Do you remember that? Well, there there's a difference between maybe being a little challenged

mentally versus challenged English speakaking versus Spanish speaking. There that's totally two different things. Totally two different things. But all of our Spanish rules or our rules of probation are in Spanish and English. We have a rule of probate, our rules of probation are in English and they're in Spanish. Our drug testing policy is in English and it's in Spanish. But there's a difference between not being able to speak and low functioning. That that's totally two different things. You're just saying the reminders don't go out in Spanish. The reminders don't go out in Spanish. I don't

But they have an original They have an original in Spanish that Spanish. They have a card and a lot of times our Spanish speaking clients will bring English- speakaking friends with them and then they'll also have their phone that to help translate and then if they don't have an English- speakaking person in front of them then they have the phone on and they're talking to someone at home and they're communicating back and forth. I just know some don't understand. You're right.

They they ain't got a clue that you tell them to come back just say December the 30th. They ain't got a clue what you said. So I just wondering how you get that across to them because they shake their head. Yes. Like they understand, but they don't.

Well, if they shake their head that they understand, we have no way of knowing that they don't understand. So, we assume that they understand. We do the best we can do with what we have. And part of that is bringing an English-speaking friend or they have the translation on their phone and we speak very slowly. We'll speak, we give them a chance for it to go through their phone, then they'll shake their head, then we speak again. We probably spend more time um making sure that our Spanish speaking population understands. We take we take great strides in that. I don't know if there's any other agency that has converted their stuff to Spanish, but we have and it's been converted for a while. Our signin office is in Spanish. Um when they sign in, there's a in there that's in Spanish that says, "Hey, if there if our administrative assistant is not at her desk, ring the bell." We've taken lots of steps. Lots of steps.

What about these other people's from other countries like these Haitians and all? I mean, so if they can't speak Spanish, there's a language line that the county provides and we can use the language line.

Okay. What happens in the case of ICE?

We have only had one incident that happened in our office. one and they were there in the office to pick up someone. Now, we will get plea sheets when they plea and go on probation and we know there's an icehold and if there's an icehold and we verify with the jail that ICE picked them up on December 10th at 3:34, then we close that case out because we've been told that ICE picked them up. Well, I'm assuming you might have had a client and got picked up somewhere else. How do you find out they're not available anymore?

We when they when they quit, they just don't show up. Right. We send a pending violation letter to the last address that we have on file. Yeah. And we give them time to respond, which is usually a twoe period. Most of the time we don't violate right at that two weeks. Yeah. It's usually two weeks after the two weeks, but I mean, they may have been picked up. At some point, you're gonna have to assume they're gone.

The jail is actually really good. We will send an email to the jail to one of the reps at the jail and we'll say, "Hey, is this person still in custody?" And they'll respond back and they'll say, "No, they were picked up by ICE on such and such date at such and such time." Well, I was just assuming maybe they're not in custody. We have no way of knowing that. I don't have access. Yeah, I don't have access. They could just get picked up and you wouldn't know. I don't have access to um NCIC. So, they don't let anybody else know they pick somebody up. No, they're I don't think ICE is going to worry about calling probation and letting us know.

The sheriff's office or anybody else? Well, the sheriff's office will if we respiced up or were they released, they'll send us an email back and they will tell us this person got picked up by ICE on this day. When we get that email back that says that they got picked up, we close that case. It's not an active It's not an active case because ISIS picked them up. Now, if they resurface back around and we still have authority on that case, we open it back up, but ICE is not going to alert us that they have released them out of their custody. They're they're not going to do that.

They're not going to call the sheriff's department either. Well, that's what I was going to ask is, you know, if they get picked up at Walmart or whatever in a uh net, whatever they get several people, they don't contact the sheriff's office either, do they? I don't I don't know, Frank. What's that? Ice. if they pick up uh an illegal uh that may have already be in probation uh if they just happen to pick them up somewhere else. And it hadn't got anything to do with y'all, they don't let you know, do they? Oh, no. That's what I thought. I would say the only way. No. If they get them out somewhere else, the only time we know is when they come directly and pick them up from us.

Yeah, that's what I think. Um, you know, um, I think there might have been one occasion that they picked up somebody at the courthouse one time and they did call us and say, "Hey, we're going to be up there. Pick one up." Okay. We notified our court officers, let them know. So they because they'd be coming in. That's the only time they would I know of that they've ever offered to tell us because if they're out somewhere else and they just happen to run across them for some reason. Yeah. They're not going to call us and say, "Hey, we've gotten so and so and they're not going to tell us that."

And unless something's changed, they have to specifically be ran through ICE through NCIC, right? Not just they're not just going to come back if you run a wanted. They used to be have to No. Um, typically it hits on the fingerprint run uh that they're arrested. Yeah. Either either by us calling um whenever they've been booked in and they've responded that they are foreign born

and they get run to make sure they're fine andor it get comes across as a hit when they get fingerprinted. Um, a lot of times it's off the fingerprints after we've booked them that typically it runs faster. The fingerprint hit will come back, especially if they're a prior deport because they're already in the system. Their fingerprints are already in the system. Linda, when another entity runs some anybody through uh the court system to get moved to Coffee County or whatever, then you end up with them, don't you? I'm not sure what you're asking.

Talking about when they transfer probation, I think is what he's talking about. No. So, if someone please say in Rutherford County and they move here, we do not supervise that case because most other agencies are not going to pay for someone else to supervise them and we are not going to supervise them for free.

Okay? So, and that's the same thing if we have a client living out of state. There's not another Coffee County probation. So, we are not going to pay another misdemeanor company or agency or county government to pay. We're not going to pay them to supervise that person. I mean, I don't have it in my budget to pay to supervise that person. And they're not voluntarily going to do it for free. Now, every now and then we will have people that are on probation in Rutherford County and they want to do um a drug screen with us. If the clerk's office will accept that money and receipt that money and take that money, we will we will do the drug screen. But that puts a burden on the clerk's office because they're not an open client in our system and they haven't been they haven't plead guilty in our courts. So, the clerks just can't take money without there being some kind of formal agreement or something. Um, and it's very hard. I mean, because the clerks have got they've got to follow that paper trail and receipt that money. So, they just can't say, "Oh, well, this person's on probation in Rutherford County and Coffee County is going to do a drug screen for them." We don't do that unless it is just extenduating circumstances that I mean I've been here 16 years and I could probably count on one hand how many we've done like that.

So there's no tri transfer process. No. So you could move the funds and everything else? No. And okay,

we don't always get like if somebody comes in and makes a $50 payment on a court cost, they pay $50 toward their court cost. That doesn't mean that we are going to get 40 of that. Our probation fees are $40 a month. We can go up to 45. That does not mean we're getting $40 that month for supervising that client. What that means is they've paid $40 on their court cost and our probation fees fall somewhere the lower part of it. What trumps that is restitution to a victim. If there's a victim, they're going to get that $50. And then state, there's state guidelines, state taxes, state fees. So if there's no restitution, whatever the state gets owed is up at the top. My probation fees are at the very bottom. So we can see somebody for 11 months and 29 days, and we might not see any probation fees until the last two months. And we don't have any control over that.

And that two months won't cover the other months. Right. Those two months will not cover the other 10 months. No. Well, that's way to learn. Yes. I did not know. So, whether they could or not. No. Restitution is is the the Trump that's at the very top because there's a victim. And then right below that is state taxes and it just goes down through there. Any more questions?

Thank you, Miss Baker. You always do a wonderful job. We will move on to 7C, judicial commissioners. Um, I would like to tell y'all I made contact with the only surrounding county I did not was not able to get a hold of was Franklin County today, but I talked to Bedford County, Warren County, and Warren County, which Warren County seems to be the most um as far as traffic wise and people kind of close to our population, I feel like, and I talked to him very extensively the way their judicial commissioners work, But all the counties that I talked to, Bedford, Moore, and Warren County, they all have supervisors, they are all under they all fall under the judges. Now, the I talked to the actual supervisor at Warren County. They um they have four full-time. Actually, they have three full-time and two part-time, but the two part-time work the weekends. They work like Monday through Friday. Then their part-time people cover the weekends. But he said his super the judges are over them. But the supervisor takes care of all the problems. If there's any issues, they take care of all the training. They keep up with all the training, keep up with everything that's going on. Make sure they get to their JCAT classes. Um,

and they get paid more. They get paid a little bit more, but believe it or not, Coffee County Judicial Commissioners gets paid more than any of these other counties that I spoke with. But he said like if there's a problem with another judicial commissioner or anything, a warrant, he'll try to take care of it first and then if it's something that he can't take care of it, he goes in front of policies and procedures. But ultimately, the judges, I think they kind of try to stay out of it and let the supervisor handle it. Like Mor County, their judges actually do the hiring and firing, but they Warren County is kind of under their policies and procedures. Their law enforcement committee, like ours, is more like a jail committee, just over their jail. It's laid out a little bit different than our law enforcement. But all of them have they they can't understand why we don't have a supervisor. So that's a

well that's what I was going to discuss that HR is still looking at what I presented to y'all last time around for us to consider and she hasn't got back with me but she was looking into the details of it and that's great to have that information to add to that and we we may need to get with the mayor later on and most of them are under the general sessions judges that I talked So, we may need to see if they will if they want that office. I mean, good question.

That's something that we need to and I I think the sheriff has brought that up before that we may need to talk to the judges. Somebody needs to talk to the judges. Maybe the mayor, the sheriff, maybe all of us. Not sure who would handle that, but somebody needs to be over the judicial commissioners. I mean, we're making a progress by recognizing the problem. Exactly. And there and I feel like there needs to be a supervisor in that office. I do that was the recommendation. You know, you got your packet on because we were all in question. And do you want to make a recommendation tonight like to move forward with getting Dennis to check on or the mayor to check on

appointing a supervisor? Yes. And a super making a supervisor for that office. Yes. Yes. I would like to make a recommendation for that. Okay. Can you put that in the form of a motion? I'd like to make a motion for the mayor to look at appointing someone as a supervisor in the judicial commissioner office.

Have a second on that motion. Everybody in favor say I. Discussion. Okay. Any discussion? I'm sorry. I talked to the mayor just before we came in here and he indicated to me the way I understood it, it's up to us. He's not wanting to be the person who does any of this. Well, I know and the mayor's he's aware that there needs to be a supervisor. I think somebody needs to be a supervisor. Yeah. I just don't know at this point who's supposed to appoint.

I still think it needs to go to him for us to open up the dialogue between him and us and he might can look into the general sessions piece judges piece of scenario. Well, maybe you can change the motion that we need to look into how we Are you on policy and procedures or either one of y'all? Would that be something that would need to come in front of policy and procedures? I never know. It's not a policy that I know of. Well, why don't we just make a motion that we recommend this two that we that we recommend a

How about if we just make a recommendation that there will be someone appointed and find out who that somebody Why don't you put that in a motion? Let Roger change it. Okay. You want to retract your motion? I'll motion. Okay. I I'll just make the motion that this committee thinks we need someone to s be a supervisor for the uh judicial commissioners, but we're not real sure who that person is at this point, but we'll try to find out. It's still the same recommendation that we think,

right? Maybe we can just get some motion moving on it and find out who if it's our committee or if it's the mayor. I I would think that it would be somebody already in that office and that job would need to be posted, but there would also need to be a pay and that's something that might need to go in front of budget and finance. If they're going to be a supervisor, they need a pay increase.

What what I'm getting at is the reason I made my motion is I'm not mistaken the wording of the polic The way it stands now is that we need to go through the mayor's office. Isn't he the person with questions is where I'm getting. I mean, I think from where it's at in the past, past mayors had put himself over that department, but um I think Dennis has checked into it and the mayor doesn't have anything to do with that department. So, we're kind of what he indicated to me. Okay. That's why

So, maybe just thought maybe we ought not to name him, right? Since he's not going to do it, right? Well, that's why we were looking into the new job description with the new policy to be written, right? And and that's where what's in HR's office now to look at it to make sure that we're on the right path. Does that need to be in place before we look at the supervisor piece of it? I would think because Heather was still looking into that. She thought she already had some of that on file that Bobby Tro had created when he was supervisor.

So I think if we can go ahead and put this at least in motion to find out where we need to go from here to make a supervisor in that office, it's not going to hurt. And then we always I mean and then that can be put into place once that was created because I'll need is what you had did it have supervisor on there a supervisor position yes it's requesting a supervisor's position along with updating the policy and updating the job description the packet

okay so I'll I'll try to confirm with Heather tomorrow and see if that because she was supposed to look and see if she still had that but I I think this motion we can go ahead put it into play, right? I'm just trying to figure out where and before anybody would if this goes into play before anybody can be hired, that absolutely needs to be put into place, the job description or it's posted. So, if you all want to move forward with this then So, you want to move forward with your motion? Okay. Did you get Roger's motion? I got Roger's name. motion to say who second it.

I guess my only question now is the money. It's going to have to go through budget finance before we can get anything approved and then the full commission. So that'll give us time maybe to figure out who's going to appoint this person whether it's the general sessions changes. and see right now I guess the general sessions is not since they're not over the commissioners that that's something that we need to work on but at least we can put this into play and hopefully get that moving okay in my opinion but I'll leave that up to you all a motion second

okay any more any more discussion everybody in favor say Okay. Next, you all know we have a judicial commissioner opening and we had interviews last week. Some of us was able to attend all, some of us was just able to attend a few of them. Um, we took took the top four applicants. One of them was no longer interested. One of them uh that was a very good applicant could couldn't work shift work. So that narrowed it down to two. So do we want to make a recommendation tonight or do we want to close this session and have a private

session and discuss time and date for next meeting and discuss it? Well, it's up it's up to you. I'll let you make that I'll let y'all make that. So we we do have two left. We have two. The mayor wasn't aware that we had lost one. He wasn't because of the scheduling. He wasn't. I didn't know that. He told me a while ago. He said come in here and ask.

I'll do whatever y'all wish. I can make a recommendation because I said in all three interviews and I've gotten feedback from all the scenarios or the candidates and I do have a recommendation. I'd kind of like to discuss it. We can discuss it better after closing it since we're talking about personnel issues. So would you like to have a closed session to to speak about personnel issues, Dwight? Yeah. We just go ahead and set the next date and finish this. Yeah, do it tonight. Yeah, we can do it.

We can turn off the recording or whatever. I don't know how you're going to do the 20 minute or whatever it takes in between. It's going to be dead time. Nobody's going to want to watch it. Well, we'll have to go into close session to discuss personnel issues because there's some private u information on there that I'm sure doesn't need to be discussed publicly. So, I'm going to cut the video off to go into close session and then if you all want to make a recommendation tonight, we'll start the video back up and make a recommendation before we adjourn the meeting.

Has that You agree with that, Jackie?