Community Police Review Board - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening everybody. It having reached the hour of 5:30 p.m. I am calling the August 20th, 2025 community police review board meeting. I'm a brief announcement before proceeding. I would like to provide the board members some guidance on how to use the technology at the DIS to speak. You'll need to use the mics which are activated by pushing the push or talk button and you will need to wait for the chair to acknowledge the speaker before proceeding to talk. Will the clerk please call the role? Member Beasley Day. Member Bryant. Member Bird present.

Member Christensen present. Member Dell here. Member Grant, member Smith, yes. Member Han here. Chairman Zurio, present.

On to the declaration of conflict of interest. Do any of the board members have any conflicts of interest pertaining to items listed on the agenda? Right. And seeing none, um we'll move on to public comments for in person only. But as noted on the agenda, public comments will be the in person. Zoom will still be available for viewing and words and translation. Does anyone wish to speak on any item under public comment? Please note that there are no public comments from items 5 through 8. This is for items not on the agenda. You have three minutes to speak. Anyone wishing to address the board is asked to follow the rules of the quorum. The rules of the quorum are posted at the entrance of the chambers. Um, I'll actually be reading some of the meeting. Uh, please be respectful of all presenters, board members, staff, and members of the public. Please refrain from clapping other than following the presentation. All speakers are encouraged to state their name and city of residence. All questions must be directed to the chair. Please do not block the view of others by holding signs up during board meetings. Time limit for public comments is three minutes but may be limited at the discretion of the chair to manage the business of the board. Speaking over others or interrupting while others on the floor is not permitted and cell phone should be turned off or shall be set to vibrate during meetings. Is there anyone in the public that would like to speak? Believe I do have one.

We have Steve. Um, I I messed up. I actually am going to be speaking on the agenda. No worries. Hey, is there anyone else out in Mr.

I just have a question. So, is this Could you repeat which what you just said about where on the agenda the comments? Um so if you want to leave a comment for let's say tonight's uh presentation on homelessness, you would wait until that presentation is given and then once it's done then you can come up and speak on it. Um and then you can also speak on the approval of the annual report recommendations under that. But if you would like to speak on anything other than those two items, now will be the time. I would like to be Go ahead and come up to the desk.

Got to get my paper.

Hi, my name is Mary Rogers and I'm a resident of Modesto. I urge the police oversight board to request that the city council remove the maskearing restrictions from ordinance 4-23.02. There are many possible legal challenges which highlight the complexities of balancing public safety concerns with the fundamental rights of individuals to protest and express their views. If the ordinance remains unchanged in this regard, these challenges will be unnecessarily expensive to our city in the long run. Here is what I believe is a very hard fact about Modesto. Modesto is willing to allow mass ICE agents to carry out heinous non peaceful actions against its residents every day. Modesto could legally choose to do otherwise, but it has not. to further deny our own citizens the same right to wear masks at protests in their pursuit of their fundamental right to dissent. That is hypocrisy in government at its worst. Now is the time for change. Allegations of discriminatory police practices have been going here on here in Modesto. The underlying issue of discrimination is not a new police issue in Modesto. I feel the risks involved with mass restrictions at protests far outweigh the benefits. Some of those risks include infringement on the first amendment rights of free speech as well

as the right to dissent and the right to protest anonymously. The ACLU has voiced its opinion on the potential for violating due process and undercutting the legitimate exercise of free speech protected by federal and state laws. Now is the time for change. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else on the public? Steve, um I I think I'm still a little unclear. I thought that that was a actually agenda. Oh, no. If you want to speak on Yeah, that's not going to be agenda item tonight. Nobody can tell me. I'm not had faith though, right?

Huh? Nobody can tell me I don't have any faith.

I had faith. I I thought I had heard that somebody had put that on the on the on the agenda for the night, but I guess I either put for some warmth. It must have been one of those bright clear blue days that put me in a good mood. made me want to believe in the people of this gods in town. So, we're going to talk about it though, right? Um I want to talk about um a cool little legal term I recently learned. So, the Santaas County District Attorney um seems to uh have concluded that there was no evidence of a crime in my case um from the protests on June 14th. Um, so that means uh what what was the term due to lack of corpus? And if we consider all of the creepy stuff that Brandon was saying in his presentation last time in this meeting, it really all starts to make a lot of sense. And I just kind of want to pronounce that a little bit and make sure that we are not like ignoring the obvious and we're not like brainless about the historical moment that we're in. Okay. Um the ACLU um released a statement about arrests that were made in DC when uh our stupid fascist dictator Bible politics decided to like take over a town for shits and giggles. Um people were being arrested for taking pictures and I was like whoa crazy man. They're doing that in my town too. And then all I see is like nonchalants and dismissal. But the Modesto Police Department is not immune. They're they don't get like a free pass because they're local and like our cousin works there. Whatever reason it is that makes people so damned apathetic. So in his presentation, Brandon basically obviously he couched it in

terms that he and probably half you clowns think lets him off the hook, but in the the meaning and the actual content of his presentation. He just rewarded an admission that there there was no expectation that there was even crime happening because he what I I can't remember the phrasing but he there he distinctly said and to me it was like you know kill them all let God sort them out. So he made all these arrests knowing that it was then up to the courts to confirm whether he had an excuse to make these arrests. So when you got that's the same dude that's dictating these damn laws to the city council. That is grievous. That's not a small thing. So if we do end up living under like full-fledged fascist state, don't any of you ever think that you can forget that you played your part in helping us get there? Because these are small local battles that we have to win if we want freedom. Brandon Gillespie is a goddamn bully. The Modes Police Department is a threat to democracy and all we want from you is just to do the job that you're called here to do and not be afraid of the Modesto Police Officers Association or anybody that tells you that you can't simply pursue accountability. Please tell the city council to agendaize a discussion of getting rid of that damn uh MUN code. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Is there anyone else out in the public that like to speak?

Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Alex from series. Uh, I don't have any prepared statement this time, but um I guess I just kind of want to double down on what the past two speakers have just said, and that's basically that you guys when you do put together your recommendation to the city council, it's just to make sure that the municipal code does get just completely repealed, especially the mass ordinance part. But personally, I would repeal the entire thing because I don't believe in restrictions on freedom of speech, on the first amendment, on protesting. That's a fundamental right that we have been given since the basically the founding of this nation. And I I just the way I see it is the ACLU is pretty much the the most prominent organization in protecting our our constitutional rights. And it's it just makes more more sense to listen to what they are recommending in their letter to you and to the city council and just go straight to repealing. I don't even I don't want to see it amended. I want to see it repealed because otherwise we're going to see we're going to see the MPD and other, you know, other law enforcement agencies just continue arresting people for tiny little infractions. Um, so like just the other just the other night I was at the um NAACP meeting and I sat through this this uh presentation talking about bullying and um and the presenter she made she she made this case that bullying starts at home and it's a lot that bullying is not exclusively in schools. It's not just children, it's adults and that that just made me think the whole time what I'm seeing with the MPD is bullying. They're bullying the the public who wishes to speak out, who cares about issues, and then deciding, "Nope, you're you're just going to stop right there. I don't like how you're doing this. I don't." And

it's basically at their discretion whether or not we're allowed to speak up on issues that matter to us. And you know, this this whole issue with ICE, you know, it's it's pretty obvious what's going on. The reader, I haven't started mass up. And um we're not we're not holding them accountable because we can't identify them. And then who knows who else could be masking up and pretending to be ICE and just kidnapping people off the streets. So those people are those are people that are in a position of power that should be held accountable. But those of us who are just protesting, what is there to hold accountable besides us exercising our first amendment rights? So I'm just completely against anything that restricts our first amendment rights. And so I just hope that when you guys review, you know, all the stuff you've researched on this issue and when you do put together your recommendations to council, it's just straight to an appeal. But that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks.

Good evening. My name is Salia Garcia Predes. I am a community member born and raised here in Modesto, California. I'm here to read a letter to you on behalf of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Santa Loss County Social Justice Team esteemed board members. We stand in solidarity with members of the Central Valley Black Indigenous People of Color Coalition, CD BIPO, to support their demands for action by the Modesto City Council. These include one, a full repeal of Modesto City Ordinance 4-2302 section 13 and any ordinances used to criminalize protest and violate our First Amendment rights. Number two, increase accountability and oversight powers for this community police review board so the board can initiate an independent investigation of Medsto Police Department conduct tactics and use of force force, excuse me, at the June 14th anti-deportation protest, as well as feature instances of police misconduct and repression. Three, the social justice team of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Santa Loss County commend the city's decision not to prosecute individuals who were arrested at the June 14th anti-deportation protest. Number four, an end to the targeted political repression of black, brown, immigrant or radical voices in Modeso and across the Central Valley. We are in agreement with assessments of CB Bipok and the ACLU of Northern California that enforcement of Modesto City Ordinance 42302 is problematic on its face and is a potential legal liability to the city and that the disperate treatment for of the anti-masking provision by the MPD at

the June 14th anti-deportation protest lays bare yet additional constitutional problems as characterized by the ACLU. As a religious community, the social justice team of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Santa County holds that freedom of religion and freedom of speech are deeply interwoven. For us, speaking our shared values in public, including through protest, is part of our faith. Therefore, knowing that our allies in CB Bipok and others seeking social justice and freedom are dissuaded from speaking, whether by the chilling effect of a law or the intimidation of a disparate enforcement is unconscionable. Do the right thing and address the demands issued by CB Bipok immediately and in good faith. This is signed by Paul Bansson, chairperson of the social justice team of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sans County, as well as Reverend Darcy Baxter. She is the minister of the Yuyu Church. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Um I have a quick response. Are you able to get that letter sent to Simmyi so she can get that letter sent to the entire board for the S? Okay. Thank you. Um, is there anyone else in the audience that would like to speak?

Good evening. My name is Larana. I am a concerned community member and resident of Modesto. I usually have a prepared statement, but I I don't this time. Um, I'm here to echo what others have shared in terms of asking that the board forward recommendation to the city council to repeal the unconstitutional ordinance. Um, I've been to these meetings many times as well as the city council meetings for the past couple of months and I want to say I'm not here for fun but to waste anyone's time. I live a very busy life. I am sleep deprived. I work two jobs. So, I'm here because I am deeply committed to my community and I care about the safety of my community. And I understand that public safety um is a matter of us being able to care for each other and look out for each other and others. And I also understand that the threat of public safety does not just come from random people in the community. It can also come from law enforcement and it can come from the state and I believe that is why this board was created in the first place. And so I want to emphasize the word community given that um this board's name is community police review board. And so I ask that you really take in all of the community um input and testimonials that have been provided over these past couple of months and that you hear us out now and as well as the ACLU has provided I believe really compelling evidence in terms of why this ordinance is really unconstitutional and the way it can be enforced clearly uh as demonstrated by the June 14th protest um how it can be really uh weaponized and selectively enforced in a discriminatory way against vulnerable people, particularly people

of color, immigrants, uh, housing insecure and unhoused young people. And I think, you know, the law isn't always a perfect reflection of morality. And when there is a law or a policy that is not reflecting the morality and the conscience of the people, then we need to remove it um exponentially. um or expeditiously. And so um yeah, I just want to really emphasize that I do want to acknowledge and appreciate this board for forming the ad hoc committee to review the ordinance. I think that's a good start. In particular, I want to especially appreciate uh board member Wendy Bird for moving forward with your advocacy on our behalf as well. And um yeah, I just really want to emphasize the urgency of repealing this coordinates so that in this moment of time, especially with rising authoritarianism and fascism happening, it is really important that we as people feel safe to protest and to dispress the injustice and oppression that we see and rebuilding this ordinance is key for us to do that. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the audience that would like to come up and speak? And just a reminder, I know some people came in late. Is for is a public comment for things that are not on tonight's agenda.

Uh hello board members. Um just to clarify really quickly, um the uh June 14 uh the um municipal code. Is that on the agenda tonight? No. Okay. All right. So, my um public comment is going to be about the municipal code. Um I just want to reiterate uh the demands of Central Valley BIPO. Um as a member and also a concerned community member of Modesto um we're asking uh please please u repeal this municipal code. Um there's been a lot of um support from our community, from the ACLU, from uh Unitarian Church as well um from the NAACP. would thank you bird for um the advocacy again. Um and I think uh we we've also spoken at city council meetings asking for the repealing of this municipal code. Um and it seems at this point that the uh the city council um doesn't want to uh at least at the last meeting um they didn't really address all the public comments people were making. I think they might be uh waiting on the uh recommendation from uh from this committee uh to go forward with that. So I just want to reiterate um that that recommendation would be really um really needed uh and helpful. Um I know there's an ad hoc committee that was formed. Um so thank you for that. Uh, I just want to reiterate that that recommendation I think would really help uh move in that uh positive direction to get this municipal code um repealed. Um I'm not sure if this is something that's going to be addressed today or in the next meeting. Um it seems that there's a little bit of uh dragging of feet. I'm not sure if that is a bureaucracy um at work, but just reiterate the recommendation would be extremely uh

helpful and um necessary uh for the city council to hear our demands um and not just put us on the back burners. It seems um to be the case at the moment. So yeah, um thank you for your advocacy so far and uh we hope to see this municipal code repealed in full very soon.

Thank you. And u I just want to briefly respond to your comment. We will be reporting tonight on the adop group that was established. And um in regards to the municipal code, is there anyone else out there that would like to speak? Hello. Good afternoon. Um, I'm Jesus and I'm here also with some Mac ordinance. Um, it is outdated, dangerous, and discriminatory. As we all have heard already, the June on June 14th, protesters, primarily people of color, were targeted and arrested for wearing masks. These were community members exercising their constitutional rights. They were not committing violence. They were protecting their health and it's identity from retaliation. Something that every person deserves the right to these arrests as we have seen were an abuse of power committed by the police department um and supported by the institutions. The charges were dropped only because the community organized for justice. But the harm was done. People were intimidated, criminalized, and their trust institutions shattered if they hadn't already. The mask ordinance has no public safety benefit. It exists as a tool for selective enforcement, and it gives police discretion to criminalize speech and protest as it desires to do so, and that's unacceptable. This board may not have legal authority to do many things. Um, but you do have a voice and can do recommendation to the council. Um, and that's powerful when you're able to stand clearly for justice. Every day this ordinance

remains on the books. Um, and being delayed, another day people risk arrest um, for wearing masks in public. We urge you to publicly recommend the full repeal of the mask ordinance at the next meetings, making it clear that this law is incompatible with civil rights and community safety. And if the council ignores you like they've ignored us, let it be on record that this board for West don't wait for more hand. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the public to speak?

Good afternoon. My name is Emia. I'm a CD bike and I was part of I'm part of CIP and I was part of the organizing committee. I was part of the June 14th protest and I just want to um ask you all in the discussion today for the ordinance to recommend to have a discussion to remove the ordinance for Mr. City Council. Once again, that mask or does criminalize black and brown people just wearing masks. those youth who were arrested and detained illegally. Um they were wearing masks in order to protect themselves and others from getting sick. They were sick with the flu. Um and that's why they were wearing mask and once again um hopefully you guys would thank. Is there anyone else I'd like to call and speak?

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for having this meeting and welcome. My name is Marjgerie Stury. live in Oakdale but I am president of the domestic progressive democratic court and I'm one of these projects I have been doing this for a long time and so I was actually part of some of the protests that occurred where this mass was originally put into place I was part of the group that was intimidated and threatened by the cowboys who were wearing masks the reason why this mass in place at the time we didn't think anything of it this was a great idea this is going to be protecting our safety as nonviolent protesters and county protesters to straight. However, obviously the environment has changed. The climate is different now. We have a very out of control administration and I believe that there is some of that that has been has bled down into our local community and possibly and some of course I believe the ordinance is going to be ambiguous and at the very least needs to be rewritten with some directives. Um so I do hope that for the safety of everyone that these elites that you do revenue ordinance is re-evaluated for warning specificity because I think we do have a very serious concern about certain populations including black and brown neighbors that can be very easily targeted. So I do hope that that is the very least what you guys need. Thank you very much for your consideration. I appreciate all your dedication to this.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else on the phone that like to come up and speak?

Good evening. My name is S. So, um I just didn't make it to the last meeting, but I heard uh certain comments and I heard it um that meeting from the police chief that uh a lot of his concern was look at LA, look what's happening in LA. Um we wanted to prevent what's happening there in order that they won't be in trouble here. Um the only thing I would like to highlight regardless of that is according to the LA city controller um about uh half a billion dollars has been paid out in lawsuits in the last couple years from LA and then about half of that is because of police aggression lawsuits. And so I was at both protests and I witnessed police show up in unmarked vehicles. One was a private vehicle had tags on it and people were walking down the sidewalk. They weren't doing anything. There was no criminal activity whatsoever. And so to witness unmarked police vehicles immediately pull up, roll out in concert, grab someone, put them in a car in less than 3 minutes with again no suspicious activity happening. Um it's it's just very concerning for this town. This is there is crime happening. There are problems. But for it to be during a moment when we as a community are showing up in order to express ourselves, which is the first amendment of the constitution, which I know all of you know this, for that to be violated for the sake of preventing something that may happen

because it has happened in other cities is worrisome to ities. I don't know what it exactly accomplishes um beyond some type of message to people who are showing up who express themselves about the way in which our federal government is moving. It wasn't even a protest about this town. And so for there to be such a extreme response to something that was not even being addressed to the people who were responding again was worse. I don't know what it accomplishes. And for arrest to happen under this case, I'm glad it was dropped. And I know the mask ordinance is the big part of it, but for me it's the behavior in general that is the the greatest concern and lawsuits that could happen as a result would be also a very you know big financial burden on this town which I don't think we need in these economic times. So morally and economically I wish that y'all would consider you know addressing this situation but thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any other speakers that would like to come up and speak? All righty. Seeing none, we'll be moving on to consent item A, consider approving the limits from the coming blue board meeting on July 16th, 2025. approved. We have a motion. We have a second from Austin. All those in favor say I. I.

Those none in favor say no. Okay. Um, moving on to new business. Item A, a presentation on homelessness and policing by Lieutenant Michael Hammond. and right on. Okay, I'm going to just do my part from up here. That's okay. I'm just going to give an introduction and uh I wanted it to be with the police because they're going to give you much more detail on what's happening. uh what the Stans homeless alliance was set up uh about seven years ago to kind of be the clearing house for the county on anything related to homelessness. So you meet much like this on the first second Tuesday or second Wednesday here at 5:30 as at

you hear me now? Yes.

Okay. uh second Wednesday it is uh when we meet here and it's an open open forum on anything homeless and uh we have an agenda just like this you can get online and actually see the these are all recorded just like ours is here um it's made up of the purpose of the the homeless alliance again is to be that um clearing house but it's also got a secondary which is uh the membership is made up of a city council member from each city with the exception where there's one from the west side and one from the east side and some supervisor somebody from the h housing authority and I'm on there as from focus on prevention and u I happen to be the chair of it and what we what we're trying to do is figure out how to get some inroads and get some affordable housing by holding the all the cities accountable to that that you know the way housing happens in Modesto is through the Modesto staff and the building department and all that stuff and that's true in all of the other cities and it's been a very very good collaborative effort and uh that that has really proven to be very effective and so Um what what I've seen happen in the last six years is as this homeless alliance has been put together uh one one organization I forgot to mention was a CSOC that's a community system of care which is basically all the folks that care for homeless people get together when we first started there's like maybe eight or nine going to that

meeting and now there's over 50 people at that meeting every month talking about how we're going to work together to to make the help of this homeless issue. And along along with that, I watched uh even when we were in forward together, when we were forming this whole idea of this, I saw um a lot of I remember somebody came up with Cahoots, which is a kind of a group that goes out and meets with homeless people who have clinicians from mental health and all the different types of u help for homeless folks and and that's something we have now. That's the chat team. Uh also the um park rangers is another one that that is that has been instituted just recently by the city of Modesto and they're all under the u the police department. There's been when we went through the training for this, we got to do some simulations and there's a there's a real uh emphasis in the police department department on deescalation and and a lot of training going on with that and uh also addressing the needs of folks who are either mentally having a mental episode or on on a substance abuse disorder. meeting them where they are instead of uh meeting where they are with the right people in play to be able to actually help them. That's what's that's what's happened. Uh that's countywide as well. There's care court that's been instituted. There's a lot of things that have happened in our community regarding homelessness that are very very positive and and I I've watched the MPD be really the forerunners in that uh not only just in our county but in in the state. Um I know that we get calls all the time from other folks and I was talking to

Lieutenant Hammond and he said, you know, we tell them what we're doing. We're not doing everything perfect, but we're working to try and get there. And uh I'm I'm very proud as the pre the chairman of the homeless alliance to to see the progress that's been made. Lieutenant's going to get up and and give a he's going to make all my words. All right. I've always wanted to be in the same presentation with this guy.

All right. Thank you. Thanks for that, Mr. Han. Uh again, my name is Michael Hammond. I'm a lieutenant with Modesto Police Department. I'm in the area command division. And so, uh today we're talking about uh policing and homelessness. And so, a lot of those units we're talking about alternative response are in the area command division. So, question, do you know how to be I heard I see membership on here. You were I mean I'm a member of the alliance. You are a city council member from the city council supervisor. It's it's basically made up of of electives. Oh, so community members wouldn't be able to become a member.

No. Well, not the way it's set up. Okay. Their purpose is to hold the people that make the policy can be held accountable as part of the policies policies of creating housing and dealing with homes. Okay. No problem. Thank you. All right. So, let's get started.

Okay. So, this is our current chat team. Um, so right now we have both uh chat members. We have two supervisors. Uh, which one is here in the back now, Va Malone. She's a chat supervisor. Um, so chat right now works seven days a week. Uh, their hours are from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Uh, hopefully you guys seen some of their big vans driving around. It says Chad on there and all that stuff. And so, um, we started out with four back in 2020. uh that I I stole some people from the county when we were down at Moe's uh emergency shelter. So now we're up to 12 thanks to the city council and and chief flesh expanding this unit. So we'll go over some stats here in a little bit, but um uh they so basically the three functions that chat focuses on. So they right around they have the mobile data computers just like the police officers have in their vehicles. They can look at all the calls for service. Um, and so they try to look at the calls that maybe doesn't need police response, uh, alternative response. So, not every call needs a badge and a gun. Um, and so Chad's job is to go out, kind of assess the situation, the medical issues, a mental health issue, um, and how to how to address that. And so, uh, they'll look at the calls to, see if they can handle, they'll respond. That way a police officer can go to police officer things and not um have to worry about trying to make phone calls and connect with behavior help and all that stuff. So they do take calls for service and we'll talk about that here in a little bit. The second thing they're designed for is if officers are on a quality life type call where you know it's going to take a little longer and there needs to be transport to a shelter or something like that. Check them out and take over so the officer can go back in service and handle some of the high priority calls. So, uh, they're handling calls, they're assisting officers on calls, and the third part is they're being, uh, proactive in looking, um, for the hotspots. We all know where people hang out at, and so they have a routine where, uh, their selfinitiated

activities, what we call it, and they go look. And so, they're contacting u people, but there's no calling, if they don't need assistance. They're out looking, see if they can help them. Um, a lot of times, uh, you know, we can take somebody to the shelter or day center. um they don't get the help they need and so they end up going back to where we found them. And so it takes time and time again to make contact to build that trust uh and and hopefully one day soon um you know they get the help that they're they need. And so we do have some success stories and I'll talk about a few of those here a little bit too. But that's basically what chatter is designed for is alternative response and uh not every not every call that we get from the public um is a soft call. So let's talk a little bit about how we got here and uh and where we're at. So, uh, in 2018, uh, we had a Martin versus Boise decision from the Ninth Circuit. Basically said that, uh, forcement could not be done on, uh, illegal camping or quality life issues in a public place if there was nowhere for them to go. So based on that decision, the city of Modesto uh city manager and a few police uh Daily Carol at the time designated Earbrook Park which is kind of over there off of Morton Boston Gallow as a designated spot for the homeless people to uh shelter so that enforcement could be done in other parts of the city parks. So that was uh honestly thrown together pretty quick. Um, and so we were trying to build an infrastructure, trying to build processes to help folks. Uh, but Beerbrook was basically just a place designated. So, um, uh, so we can do force in others. Uh, that emerged into the Modesto outdoor emergency shelter, also known as MO. Uh, that was underneath Night Street Bridge. We had like 300 tents donated to us. Uh we also

partnered with uh our county uh partners BHRS teleare turning point and that's where we really tried to build an infrastructure of u established care connection and linkage to either case management that they had or any mental health kind of centralizing population. Um, we did get some uh uh good comments about how uh good downtown looked because they've centralized the most gave the community an opportunity to, you know, right now they go to parks and they drop off foods or boxes of food and clothes. This kind of centralized it for them and there's a lot more community uh engagement with this population because they knew where to find them. Um, and it also gave behavior health opportunity to find their clients to start working with them. So uh after about a year uh and during that time we also created was a part of um creating a community assessment response uh and engagement which is known as care. Um and so care was basically designed as an outreach and engagement team along with case management uh to you know try to get Cleveland uh whole again. Um and so we that's a countywide program and so it be um recognized that we wanted our own outreach engagement and so uh that's what you know with the approval of city council and and city manager and chief Gillespie we created the chat team and like I I said earlier we started out with four now we're 12 um or seven days a week and so uh they what they don't do is they're not clinicians uh they don't do 5150 holds but we do have access to clinicians um through our uh BHRs partners and so they're out in moments of crisis and so uh so and then uh in 2024 Martin versus Boise was overturned basically said that uh there could be enforcement done on quality life issues legal camping of

public property uh and then there was a presidential executive order in July of 2025 that just came out And although there's no requirements or mandates at this time, um uh you know, we we continue to uh monitor what that looks like coming from the federal government. U there's no u uh sorry uh there's no there's no uh mandates that we're supposed to be doing right now. There might be some funding uh involved with it. Uh I checked with the city attorney, make sure that we're in compliance with the executive order. And I think a matter of fact, we're probably ahead of it. We're we're one of the cities that works with the county. Um and we're proactive and uh getting people off the streets uh getting them out of crisis, getting them into uh connecting them with programs to get them help. And then with all that the city of Modesto is doing lately with buying hotels and trying to get um housing to stabilize folks to get further help. I think we're really leading uh leading the industry in uh in this attempt. Okay. So some stats here. U so what you're looking at there is uh generated calls for service uh that chat chat respond to. So what that means is the community is calling dispatch saying hey I I see a problem over here uh and then we decide if it needs a badge or not catch those up and handles the call. So what we did here is uh we did 20 uh year 2024 versus 2025. Orange is the 2024. I know the key is blocked by the uh monitor there, but orange is 2024. Um and so you can see in 2025 there's a big increase in handling calls for service. Um and that's due to be that's due to staffing increasing. So the more staff that we have the more calls that we can

handle. And uh for last year in 2025, chat handled 3% of all dispatch calls. And that's really good. So they're working seven days a week. They work 4 days on, 4 days off, uh rotating schedule, 11 hour shifts, and patrol is a 24-hour% 3%

3% of all. Uh, and so, uh, yeah, so they're out there hustling every day and they, like, and I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but they have body cams, they have a portable radio, so they can call police if something uh, critical's happening or they argue a traffic collision or they see something going on. So, they're directly connected to police officers uh, should they need assistance. Next, please. Uh so this is uh dispatch calls diverted to chat. So in other words um and again same models 2024 and 2025 near the date from January this year to July this year have all the stats yet. Um and as you can see you know the blue line is probably higher than the orange line and again that's really interest. Um really quick question. Do you think is this chart that you're showing now is that including that 3% of the dispatch costs or is it be a little higher because they're very cost?

I'm not entirely sure. I would have to get back to you on that. U but this is just uh that was 2024 stats of course now that I think about it year to date from January to December. So what you're looking at here is chat services provided and so we document um through EZRI um every contact we have and ask such questions like what's your name your birthday where you from we have medical care uh how long you've been homeless are you homeless from the deskto um and stuff like that and so a lot of our information is captured that way but we also capture services provided so if you look at the shelter that's how many people have sheltered uh so far from January to July of this year. A lot of those are going to be repeat people. So you know we didn't shelter thousand people and they got housing. It's cynism. So so far to date we've done um that number there. And then mental health mental health includes uh connecting folks to their mental health maybe the case managers or programs or mental health assessments. a lot of time a mental health assessment uh can help you get score higher to get more housing. So they're possibly trying to connect and lead people services to help them get off the street uh and hopefully in lie of uh incarcerating them for for anything. So all these are meant to help people not go to jail criminal justice system. Um so SUD is substance use disorder uh disorder is kind of the same thing. Uh we will take people to get uh uh assessments uh to help them get a place for housing. Absolutely. Transportation includes maybe to the day center somewhere at Salvation Army or Gospel Mission or um or or even for bed. Um or maybe like they have a place to

stay and they're in town and we'll take them to their bearing faced. Uh we do hand out some food. uh we're part of a food pantry that donates food that's more of like a trust building kind of thing or like a you know hey if you need some water you need some water to go talk to us give us food sometimes we hand out I think we just got a donation from United Way for like 750 socks so sometimes we'll hand out socks and underwear and stuff like that so u food is a big part of engaging uh with this related and then medical services uh we know there's a medical issue we can call an ambulance Sometimes if they don't want an ambulance, we can transport them to the hospital. They can check themselves in or uh a lot of times San um Valley is always at the the Salvation Army uh make no medical checks there. So take people there go check out.

Yes. Um just a quick question. Um, looking at all of the the different shelter, mental health, and everything like that. Um, is employment a part of that measure too that you guys look at like as far as helping somebody in that position, maybe find a job, find some employment, is also a part of the measure that you guys measure performance.

It's definitely a tool in the toolbox. I think one of the biggest things we use and I'm going to talk about here in a minute of the success story is a downtown streets team. Uh, and I hope everybody knows, I don't want to get into detail, uh, Downtown Street team, but they're great. Uh, they've been a big help. I support 100%. They have done a great job. And so, uh, again, with this success stories, I'll talk about how downtown team is let one of our homeless members work for actually. So, I'll talk about that. Uh, uh, success story. We have only picked two. I'll be honest, we probably don't do a good enough job uh um sharing our success stories only because once somebody gets housed, we're on to the next one. We're on to the next one. So, uh I'm thankful for the opportunity that I get to share uh these two. This one's pretty recent. Uh in July 2024, Chap was conducted contacted by the uncle of Steven regarding his homelessness and lack of support. After meeting Stephen and learning his goals, housing, employment, and reunification with his daughter, Chad connected him to resources including a gospel mission gate rescue salvation arm and base program through ongoing followup and referrals to the downtown streets team and other organizations. Steven secured his own department in July this last month. He had all been in great school uh and continues working towards uh being a client with his daughter. He credits chat and his partner agencies for helping him transition from home in this. Uh at the age of 15, Robert found himself homeless due to unh unforeseen circumstances for over 20 years. He faced immense challenges of living on the streets and struggled with addiction. During this time, Robert met and fell in love with his partner. Together, they spent countless hours seeking a way out of their situation, not just for themselves, but for each other. They sent resources uh they sought resources and support from chat

and other committee organizations which provided them with all the necessities and it sense of stability. Today Robert and his wife have been sober for over two years. Robert started with the downtown streets team and now Robert works part-time for the Modesto police department of bait and team. We also advocate for homeless individuals offering support and a friendly hand up to those in need. He expresses his gratitude to chat and the Modesto Police Department for their support. And I think what's important about this story is the ripple effect of success. So we got to talk to Robert, we got to stabilize him, stabilize the spouse. Uh I do know that they have a recently had a kid um together. And not only that, but now they're starting to give back uh to try to help out maybe their friends that they used to hang out with, be a role model. So by helping folks uh you never really know what a ripple effect you're going to get of success from that. So just wanted to share that. Next, please. Uh we're going to talk about park rangers real quick. Again, this is another alternative response that was created about two years ago. Uh the the main um function of park rangers is to educate people in the park. It's not directly to deal with homelessness or or harass them or anything. It's about general awareness in the parks. And so there's a lot of there's a lot of municipal codes, you know, to be in possession of shopping cart to have a milk crate. They have smoke in a park. Uh no alcohol in a park unless you have a permit. And so those kind of things. So really park rangers are designed to keep our parks clean and to uh have families and children enjoy the park without being uh scared of the purpose. So as we look at the uh same kind of format, these are uh community members calling in the dispatch uh having concerns or complaints about the parks. And so u let me let me go in a little bit of park rangers. Uh we're slated for 12 uh positions. I think right now we have six um and one uh will work with a

supervisor in there. Um and so they work seven days a week. Uh they uh they their hours are anywhere from 6:00 a.m. to midnight. So we have pretty good coverage for the park rangers. Uh and they work hand in hand with patrol. They work hand in hand with chat. Um and then the heart officer here I'll talk in a moment. Um, and so we're working on um, so these are more like uh, college age kids maybe trying to figure out if they want to be in law enforcement or not. Um, so I think that's kind of why we have some turnover uh, once they get into law enforcement culture. Yeah, I want to be a P. So, uh, it's hard to keep that position. Um, and again, so you look at 2024 versus 2025, you know, they're responding to a lot of calls. [Music] So selfinitiated activity again if there's not Paul's holding uh for them to respond to or officers are on something and they can take over uh their job is to go to the parks mostly our busy ones uh and just stay proactive and maintaining a fleet park. Uh some of our major parks as we all know area insulin gateway uh trip park uh and so they're constantly driving around being proactive looking for violations or education moments. Um but so as you can see like with 2025 they're going through quite a bit of parks uh from here to date with over 900 some thousand a month. I think we only have 76 parks in this in the um city and so they're awesome if you just drag it through. That's what collective needs to talk about our homeless engagement and response team. I say team, but it's really only one officer. U and then there's a sergeant assigned to that. Uh

he works uh Tuesday through Friday uh 7 to 5. Um and he addresses uh bankrupty issues by building partnerships and collaborations between the criminal justice system and social medical services. Uh the officer is accountable is the accountability component to alternative response and supports chat and the park rangers when necessary and we're looking to uh build that. Also uh not a part of area command but operations is our mobile price emergency response team also known as insert. It's where we have two mental health clinicians pair of police officers and a co-response model. So what that looks like is you have an officer you have a clinician and they're looking for those maybe higher level calls something that chat can't handle but uh maybe the person's in crisis and being a little more violent. uh maybe run around with a stick or something that might need a police presence maybe to calm the situation to stabilize it and then the clinician can be an evaluation whether this person uh needs 72 hours or something. So it's a great program. Uh they the clinicians work with officers Monday to Friday. I think it's like 9 9:30 to 7.

All right, that's it. And with that, I'll take some questions. just had a question about the the MSERT. Um just just roughly do you do we only have two clinicians for MSERT or is that just we only pair two with an office?

Uh we only have two assigns in the masterp [Music] hospital emergency room. Do you have any stats that you can give us on how that's changed since this all started? anecdotally I live in doctor syndrome and I don't see can't remember the last time I saw somebody with their hospital gown on the IV walking down and that honestly that happened a lot because that was the only place that had to go and now with these alternate responses and kind of taking where they are you've seen that reduce the number of [Music] Yeah, I think that's someone we do a comparison the other year.

That's something to say. Lieutenant Hammond, number one, I've been monitoring the homeless situation in town for a number of years and starting from the very my first interest in it back in like 2016. Um, your name is held with great admiration. You have done phenomenal work and every time I I I find someone it's it's just another person that's had an interaction with you and appreciated leadership and your engagement with the homes. I remember going down to Beard Brook and I believe that's when I I first met you and I um it was my impression that there were a lot of calls um a lot of dispatch calls prior to Beerbrook that happened uh throughout the community uh every park, every downtown alley, everywhere. Um, so when I hear that chat only is only reflects 3% of the calls. Can you take me through that? It seemed like there was a the homeless uh situation that generated many more calls prior to beard broke. They dropped significantly broken. um in and if if you can tell me why that 3% doesn't seem like the same number that preceded those two events and what you think has interceded has come in between and kept that number relatively low. I think 3% is

well I don't think it's low when you look at the calls and I'm going to use round numbers here. I'm not a numbers guy, so forgive me. But I think the police department averages somewhere around 250,000 calls a year. And so if they're handling, you know, 3% of that, I mean, that's still a lot of calls that they're handling. Sure.

Yeah. So, uh, that's how I look at it. Um, and we didn't have chat. Uh, you know, the fire department gets calls, analysts gets calls, gets calls. So, chat really does a lot to save or help first responders um not have to respond to that and link them to where they need to go. Okay. And so then um one of the things that happened with Mo and Beerbrook is the parks themselves, the the other 70 parks in in their community, um ended up having far fewer incidents. Now we have rangers and it appears there's quite a few incidents that are they're making contact with people and we have chat out there. Are the parks um I mean it sounds it feels like maybe you're saying that the parks are now uh populated again with with issues that they didn't have during MO and you say the question again that wasn't really question you just went for that when we look at the 3% number. I think one thing that's important to keep in mind too is that the the types of calls the types of responses that Chad is giving are very time intensive as well. So whereas the past where you had a call of a person who was unhoused in part say now they're actually going to longterm plan but that takes a lot of time. So a single trap call may take several hours but that call also might prevent five 10 calls one month if that makes sense. I I understand because I I agree with you about face value as well but it's these are very time in right

I have a couple questions um you mentioned if I remember correctly that the insert folks are available from 9:30 a.m. until 7 pm. Is that correct? Yes. Um, and do they have someone that's on call after that so that if an officer experiences a problem with someone having a mental health crisis, can you reach out to them or can dispatch reach out to them and provide him some assistance? He he or her assistance through this program? Yes. So, BHRS has a 24-hour line uh insert that we can call. Uh they've actually come to the police department briefings and done training and so officers know who to call uh should they leave out systems. And and how timely is that response?

Uh I don't have that for anything. Okay. And then the other question I have along these lines is um you mentioned briefly that the the fire department uh often responds to calls involving individuals that are experiencing homelessness or are having some sort of medical issue or whatever. Um, do is there a I guess I the way I would put this, are they able to communicate with chat? Is is there a direct link there for they can contact chat and say, "Hey, we're on this call. We think maybe you folks could give some assistance to this."

Yes, absolutely. And that's probably because you do dispatch. However, we're currently working on a grant right now where we have a fire paramedic EMS person uh uh go with us and we're sort of trying to figure out logistics of that, but we actually want to incorporate Modesto fire good chat. So, we're working on that right now. So, it' be like a community paramedic. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. T um I think I know the answer to this question, but I think it would be helpful in general. with two MERS. How are they chosen to be out where in town? We have area commands now, but I believe they flow with officers that are more floaty back.

Yeah. So, the officers they're assigned to are assigned to patrol, which is regular patrol officers, but they're considered a citywide car. So, they're not just stuck in one beat or one side of town. Uh that way it gives them the availability to respond to calls that needed or if a hot call right now uh and they're getting so many crisis they can go from the northeast to the southwest and not affect and could you say it one more time how many rangers are there today believe there's seven and we're looking we're in the process we just did interview

yes Um just wanted just wanted to ask this question. Um how is chat funded? Uh through uh CCP which is uh California corrections academy but it's through uh probation basically. There's a big board that uh monitors the money and that's how Okay. Is this mostly through a grant? I'm only asking because um I remember when chat kind of first started. I remember when you guys came to talk to my church. you guys only have four people and now you guys have 12.

And so I just want to ask that question because if it's grant funded, is this a possibility that this program can be cut in the future if you guys envision that? I just wanted to kind of ask that question because it is a good program. But however, if it's funded through a grant administration changes, legislative changes, anything could get this program cut. So I was just asking is there like a you know if it's a grant funded program or if it's something that you guys paved or just that's why I asked that. Great question. I don't have any answers this when uh remember when they uh took a bunch of state prisoners and sent them to the county because of overcrowding. Yes.

The promise from the governor was unsaid money to help with that. That's what this is there in 109. Yeah. that board uh is made up of of everybody in law enforcement, DA. They came up with this budget. Yeah. And they get there's no end to that. There's no sunset on that. That's that's exactly why I asked. Exactly. But the cool thing about it is it's one of the times that we got a funded magnet. Okay.

And we're doing it we're using a really smart hit, I think, to do that. And it was across it was a county the money came to the county was across jurisdictions too. So everybody you know worked together to come up with the best money. Sounds good. And then my last question um do you guys have a per year employment uh goal that you guys have for chat? Like you know how many like we want to add four more people this year. We want to add five more next year. Well I think if Chief Gillespie had his way we'd have chat 24 hours a day. Uh but I don't think we're there yet. So, but that's a goal. Is is it that you're not there because of the money?

Yes. And and the MSERT MSER program there are two clinicians. Is there a does that provide enough um hours of assistance or would it be preferable if there were more money that we could hire more clinicians? Yeah, I definitely think that would be beneficial if we had clinicians available on at a moment's notice 24 hours a day. [Music]

I have a question. Um thank you. Len, how many homeless people do you get calls for uh or provide services to that are youth below 21 years? I I don't have that stat right now, but I did that, too. I I would guess it's low.

Okay. Um I have a couple questions for you as well. Um I want to say thank you for those charts. I thought they were great. Um just for I guess data transparency maybe add in like a case flow snapshot um you know from the time you guys let's say Chad gives a notice for homelessness to you know offer of let us help you acceptance of you know accept the help that Chad is providing to whatever program you guys place them in and then you know possible follow-ups that you guys do with them as you guys create your your charts which personally best handle these as well.

Yeah, I I understand that. Uh and just uh it takes a long time to get a success story. It could take anywhere from a year and a half to three years. And so it would be these success stories aren't instantaneous. Uh it takes time for they have help first and foremost, right? They're not always ready to be there when the time.

Yeah. And I think it would be great to just show, you know, the community, hey, you know, we reached out to x amount of people. We thought that this this many amount of people help, you know, this many people accepted it, other officers stand just to give us some numbers um to provide more of like this is the work that you guys are doing because we we do appreciate it. Um, I had another question about the u executive order, you know, that Trump signed this year in regards to like homelessness. And I know that there can be some grant shiftings um when he could, you know, Austin kind of talked about a little bit, but if there's any talks with the city in regards to like measure H funding to possibly pick up anything that might be taken away. Um because I know they're looking at, you know, harm reduction funding and possibly trying to end some of those kind of things that we have in place already. Um so I don't know if you guys are kind of looking at that, seeing where you guys can try to get more fun.

We're waiting we're waiting for some more direction uh to see where we go. Okay. Um and then I also just wanted to ask about I know that park rangers in chat, you know, they make contact with people. Um, one of my questions was, do they ever receive like complaints on how they approach people? And um, what is your guys's process if not the same as a police officer complaint? To be honest, I've never had a complaint about a park ranger chat. That's that's amazing. I just wanted that to be reiterated out.

And then I don't know how the encampment operations kind of work with MPD. kind of give a quick snapshot if there are any encampment operations that you guys do. Um, you know, my job I work in Stockton is where like my route is at. And sometimes, you know, driving down Hammer Lane, I'll see Stockton patrol officers and fire departments blocking off a lane and they're literally just clearing encampments and they're throwing their personal items away. And, you know, to me, I'm kind of like, whoa, what are we doing back home? um in that instance and so

yeah so I think we're fortunate we've been doing this long enough that we don't have major encampments like that have one off screen tent here tent there typically we'll make contact let them know we can't do that personally we'll do some two hours to pick up and clean up and so usually that's when we'll go back and if it's abandoned that's when we're throwing stuff away or we'll wait for them to package stuff up and so usually that's how it is Thank you. Um, is there anyone else from the board that has any questions before it opens up to the public?

I just came down to clarify uh that's a partnership with the HRS to be legal health services and the police department on our part. We we're a 247 organization. So, uh, if they had more clinicians, we would certainly welcome them. I hear that it's difficult to hire and retain clinicians in this county and so that's why there's only two at one given time but if there was opportunity for more we would certainly allow them to to run into their officers and do that. Then as far as chat funding uh it's it's it's a tremendous uh program. It's been a model now for other uh agencies and regions and so we are fully committed uh to keeping chat regardless of where the funding sources come and if that means we have to at some point take you know general fund money to to supplement chat we're definitely in position to do that response response um with the program the clinicians excuse me the clinicians come experienced and have the knowledge already correct or no Yes, there are trade coalitions through the county.

There's a reason why I asked. So, the reason why I asked it is because I'm the medical reserve coordinator for the count. It's a volunteer program. And so, we have plenty of people that work with mental health and and etc. So, I was just asking that question because if MSERT, you know, if people came over and you guys provided some type of training that would open up the door for medical reserve per volunteers, so then you guys don't have to pay for extra clinicians or anything of that nature. You guys can utilize what we have in the county currently already. And that's why I asked that question. Yeah, we can follow follow them to HRS which kind of sets the guidelines. I always see a problem that volunteers well. All right.

Thank you. Um we will be opening this up to the public. So I'm going to ask any members of the public to please come forward if you have any questions regarding this presentation. Um there are any members please step forward. Good afternoon. Not a question, but more of a comment. I just want to say that training the police to learn how to deescalate situations is not the correct way to support the homeless community in Modesto. We need to redefine the way public safety looks like in Modesto. The police do not solve or prevent crime or even help the homeless. They often escalate situations where the homeless are experiencing moments of mental distress. What we need is to redirect those funds funds from the already completed MPD budget to social services that address the root cause of homelessness such as affordable housing, mental health support, and substance abuse treatment. We do not need six or even 12 park rangers that create a pipeline to state thugs that think it's okay to point 12 gauge shotguns to unarmed youth. Nor do we need a homeless engagement and response team that sucks even more money out of our city budget. We are not able to address the real issues of homelessness because our money is being redirected to more police positions. At CVA Bipok, we have fed, given clothes, and given Narcan to hundreds of homeless individuals without cooperation of MPD. We do not wait when people are ready. We give them whatever they need in that moment. If there are any people here who are wanting to support the homeless community without working with the police, then you can join our mutual aid committee. Thank you. [Music] Hi, my name's Leah and thanks for the presentation. Reallyformational and um I was just wanting to say that I

don't think the issue of homelessness exists in a vacuum and I'm sure we all know that. What I mean is that I'm thinking about, you know, as things change in terms of affordability, like housing specifically, but also just inflation, food prices are up, all sorts of prices are up. Things are being reduced because of executive orders in terms of support services and all sorts of services for all humans in the in the US. I'm just thinking about like and my question I guess is what does chat and other organizations that it is networking with anticipate when you know when people do get on their feet and they're looking for housing or they're looking for jobs or they're looking for an affordable lifestyle off of the streets. I'm just wondering, you know, I guess what the chat people think about that or what they're Yeah, that just seems like a problem. That just like seems like a big uh question that's looming above all of these in um actions that are already being taken for homeless people. Is that is my question clear at all? So, uh, Chad is designed as the first, um, touch or point of contact with these folks. So, what we do is, uh, once they we get them to say yes or they're ready for help, uh, we link them to our partners at the city and county like EHRs, teleare turning point, and we do what we call a warm handoff to that organization. They have case managers that are then designed to help that person give shelter, housing, medical assistance, financial assistance. And so once we do that handoff, uh we don't track exactly where they're going unless they end up coming back to the streets and then we start the process over again. I often tell my chat team if

people fall down seven times, we'll be there eight times and pick them up. And so uh that's how that works. So I hope that answers your question. Thank you, Steve. I can think of um a handful of situations involving mental health crisis and Modesto Police Department's involvement that didn't go well. Um when they murdered Paul Ry Jr. for no reason, they weren't like, "Oh, let me get help you back up." Right? what this is. See, if you guys watch a TV show that's a longstanding show, right? Like you you've watched however many years of Frraasier, however many years of Seinfeld or whatever, right? You're more apt to get the jokes, right? Or you're more have to understand the nuances. Well, I've been watching this this whole story since MPD murdered Trevor Siver and and and several others, but at that time it was Trevor. Um, this is all this is all law enforcement's way of just subsuming like the providing for people's real needs. Okay. So, I see through all that. I think it's kind of obvious. Basically, what I'm saying is that the cops want control of everything that the cops can have their hands on. So, I can't I can't control that because, you know, obviously I don't have say, I don't have power. But anytime we can keep violent killers away from people in need, I'm for that. I think chat is flawed in one way, just to make sure I was clear in what I just said. It's a commercial for the cops. Okay? I'm not saying that's 100% all they do. In fact, I'm sure that the individuals that work out there on the streets have have excellent intentions and really do care. Okay? But let's not pretend like these things

occur in faculty. Okay? I witnessed a disgusting event at the transit center recently. And mind you, this was uh the sheriff's deputy, right? Um not one of our uh you know, local killers, but there was this mentally uh a man showing pretty clear signs of having mental serious mental illness. Uh was like basically having a verbal argument with the clouds cuz I saw him like flipping off. I was like, "Oh, okay. There's nothing there." So, I'm like, "Okay, this guy's, you know, experiencing some problems." Um, a deputy came up to him. There was a verbal exchange. Everything was fine. He either ordered the guy to leave or allowed the guy to leave because he was turning around to walk away. And I was watching the whole thing and the deputy just stood there and everything was fine and very casual. And then there was one last little verbal exchange like the guy looked back. You know, you could tell he was bothered. And and the deputy was kind of instigating a little bit. It wasn't the worst thing I've seen. But then all of the sudden his demeanor changed the deputies and he got very angry and then ran after the guy and arrested her. So what I'm wondering is like how many of those and then a few days after that I'm taking the bus and I saw MPD rolled up on some person that you know like from outward appearances didn't look like they had done laundry that week and had him sitting on the curb. And I I just want to say like we need to expand chat in the sense of like how many like chat cops we allow to be out there and this should not be allowed to just be a lowcost commercial. So what unfolds in the next coming years, I just hope that we'll keep an eye on that. And if if I have to give like partial, you know, approval, personal approval to something that might keep these violent killers away from people in need, but let's let's not lie to ourselves. If you go

outside and go around town, you still see it all the time, you know? And so I think that the the emphasis really needs to be on keeping people who like taste blood and are like the way I've seen some of these guys look at me personally. What if I had a bad day? I promise you there'd be like a dozen cops just like no I want to kill them. I want to kill them. That's how they talk. I've seen I've seen plenty of cases. We need to increase chat and stop giving the cops praise for doing like the simplest things. These are this is all just we're broadly talking about providing for people's needs and I'm not impressed because we kill a little bit less.

Thank you, Stephen. Is there anyone else out in the public that would like to speak?

Evening. I have a clarifying question regarding the presentation. Uh there was discussion about how in 2018 under Martin Voice uh versus Boise there wasn't criminalization of people when they didn't have a house. It wasn't a crime unhoused. Now it seems like the tables have turned and in 2024 that specific um case was overturned and then with Trump and the new presidential order sounds like there's more enforcement um able to be taken against people for simply not having shelter. So my question is what is the city currently doing in terms of enforcement measures for people who are unhoused? Is it just the 72 hours then we take your tent and your stuff is thrown out or what else is happening? Like how are these um these new powers to then implement this criminalization of being unhoused um taken into effect in this county in this city?

Thank you. So, uh, yes, that's one of the ways that we deal with it. You know, we do recognize that homelessness itself is not a crime, but there's crimes associated with homelessness. And so, sometimes, uh, we have to hold uh uh hold them accountable. And that's what we hear from our community when we do our community forums is they want accountability. Um, and so we off offer them uh help and assistance first. That's the first thing we offer. However, um if they continue to uh you know um break the law or be part of the problem or not part of the solution, then we do the county.

Oh, good question. When do you guys hold the community meetings? Uh we right now we've had three so far. We we call them community forums. Um we've had one over at Kim Kennedy Center. We had one I can't think the other one called. We just had one at Best Shalom. Um, so we do once a quarter and we promote that as a department. So we put that on and uh everybody's invited to come. Yeah. Yeah. I recognize that because I feel like you guys kind of started that last year around August time. So um just wanted to kind of just know when the next one is so community members that attend this meeting.

So the one the last one for quarter 4 I don't think is booked yet, but it's probably going to be in October. We're just looking for a location. Um, and it'll be in the northwest part of town. Um, so we'll put that out when we Thank you. Is there anyone else in the public that would like to speak on this agenda item?

Yeah. Um, I just want to say a couple things about chat and certain conversation as the president says with uh Brandon Gillespie for Chief Gillespie for years about all these programs, keeping up uh like Frank said earlier that you know been advocating for more programs, more clinicians, more more involvement more trainings um cultural awareness trainings Um, and uh, if there's anything that you guys can recommend in regard to these programs, as a clinician myself, I would like to recommend that at some point in time to increase the clinician participation, which we've been talking about, um, is to, uh, put more money into clinicians, 100%. Um, the the pay for clinicians in our county is abysmal, and they are highly educated individuals who are very professional and know what they're doing. I have every faith in their abilities and I think it's extremely important that we pay them adequately um to do a very difficult job especially if we're going to start asking them to work overnight which as most of us know a lot of mental health crisis happen at night mostly full moon so that is uh I think something that if you guys have any recommendations that that be a very serious recommendation you take um in in helping grow these programs. Um, it's just like was said before, you know, getting a BHRS clinician is hard because they are always short staffed. Why? Because they don't have the money to pay them adequately. Benefits are great, but pay is awful for somebody who has that much education.

Thank you. We'll we'll we'll bring it back to the board here after some

I just want to add a little more to that last question that was asked uh regards to the Martin versus William Hill return being overturned. Uh if you look at our presentation today it's not hasn't changed uh at all uh for the past few years because we've come up with with a uh plan that uh has tested it's been tested by time and it's and it's uh been working for us. I don't know what other you know regions or jurisdictions have done because of the overturn but we do the same we approach with services and education and trying to connect people and at some point we do understand which is like accountability piece and that's the whole family act but uh we we haven't changed our procedures or practices because of this uh overturned versus Martin case hasn't changed our practices.

Thank you. Uh yeah, just a local community person. Um I work with other people in collaboration with uh doing mutual aid efforts in our community. Mutual aid was based out of like natural disasters, earthquakes and things like that where the community comes together naturally and takes responsibility anything from Katrina to earthquakes and we function very well as a little horizontal group of people um that care about our citizens and and nine times out of 10 when we come across people that are homeless and whatnot. They're in they're in distress because they've been displaced. As Newsome has popped up again, the displacement of people just like the officer said over here were the gentleman over here said they have 72 hours and they need to get out. They're doing a really good job of keeping them moving around and like there is no encampments because that's what they're doing. And so that's problematic when we I work with a harm reduction group every Friday at a church and we get we I work at the with the most at risk people that from even a gunshot wound to because they don't want to go to the ER or um because they get treated like trash when they're there if they're a drug user or whatnot. So, I guess I don't really have a solution to all this. We're going to kind of keep doing what we're doing, but the the atmosphere in the country and

the climate right now is horrendous. We are all feeling it. We all feel this. And we're here, but we want to try and do something, but we feel like the bureaucracy just kind of moves everybody around. and in the homelessness it's just there's no end in sight. It doesn't seem like anything is like end in sight. And uh I think what we're doing is the solution. Um well, it's it's harm reduction. So it's it's reducing. It's not harm uh um um harm uh what's the word? Probably elimination.

Elimination. It's not harm elimination. And I wish it was, but um until we come with some like what the gentleman back here said about just basically um more, you know, funding and more housing and things like that, we're um yeah, I don't know where I'm going with this. I just I wish I wish there was just more I could say we are we're voiceless in sense. So, we're just trying to do our best what we can. Thank you. Once I saw some public comments. Yeah, we'll bring it back to the board from that.

Good evening, board um chair. I'm Teresa Gamboa. I chair Woodland West community in Northwest Modesto and I have lived in Modesto for 34 years. And all the time that I've lived in Modesto, there have been homeless people and there have been problems with homeless people. I noticed things turning around under the leadership of Gayen Carol, Brandon Gillespie, and especially with the leadership of Lieutenant Michael Hammond. And I first met him when he was an officer on patrol. And he would help people. And I remember one time as a community leader, I tried to know who the homeless people are in my neighborhood. I engage with them. I carry a little ice chest in my car. It has water. It has juice. Sometimes I have snap because you can save a life with a bottle of water or a bottle of juice. And I learned that a long long time ago. And so my relationship with Michael Hammond has has taught me that he is a direct access to some of these people to get off the streets. He's developed the chat, the heart, the care, and and the other programs with Brad that are helping to lift people up. And I can tell you that in my neighborhood, it's making a difference because some of the homeless people that I know that used to be on drugs, used to be stealing, used to be panhandling, are now saying, "I want to get on that list to get housing. I want to be part of the downtown streets team. I I want to get on the list to be at Jenny's place and and Lieutenant Hammond is a direct link

in with Chad and I remember a a couple a young married couple 15 years ago stopped me. Did I know Sergeant Hammond? Well, yes. Well, can we have his phone number? No, but I can give him yours. He contacted these people. The next time I saw them, they couldn't wait to to track me down and say that Lieutenant Hammond helped them get housing. So, we are making a difference. It's working. What we're doing is working. And I would like to encourage people to go to the community forum meetings and listen to what people in those communities are saying about this same issue. Thank you. Do we have anyone else in the boat that like to come up and speak on this item?

Okay, seeing none, I'll be bringing it back to the board. Um Brad, I know you have Okay, Wendy. Um this question is for you. Is it possible to get it to read um copy of the city budget as well as the police budget so that we can see exactly how the funds are being spent?

Yeah, we could follow up with staff on that. I I I don't know how easy it could be to read sometimes. As you can imagine, it's a pretty detailed and very um comprehensive budget. However, I think that there's an opportunity here for us to use some sort of presentation on that um maybe as a potential future topic if if the board thinks that that would be I'd like to see if it's just one board to see.

Yeah, we'll we'll follow up and um we'll make sure that we connect with you also offline. you have any other questions from the board member? Um, I did have a followup. I was curious on um I know yesterday I talked about the list of people that want to get on the list to wait for help. Um, off the top of your head, do you know like how long that waiting list is? Um, how many people are looking to get help for your guys' programs? Any kind of information with that? I'm definitely not an expert on the process, but I know between some of the mental health assessments and uh substance use disorder assessments, um people uh get ranked uh in a coordinated entry system. And so when you get in on that coordinated entry system, which is a meeting, I believe it is um run by BHRs or somebody affiliated with them. Uh they're supposed to be next on the list or housing. Uh as far as what does that waiting list look like? I don't know if it's six months or more. Uh I'm not really familiar with the process since about 11.

Okay. And then is BHRs is it are they just county or do they have like a affiliated like contract with the city to where maybe they might have more information permission for us? They so BHRs uh is the whole county but then they have people that they oversee like telling or some of those other Okay. So then they might be able to provide us with more information on those. Yeah. As as a tracking system. Yes. Okay. he come to.

Um, so in listening to Lieutenant Hammond's um presentation tonight, it's important to recognize that the police are are asked to fix this often and there's a lot of ailments that come up and housed. There's not one answer and they all take time, all of them. So when you ask about the list for housing, it's important to know that housing units are being opened up to support this and it's not just through one program. Hannah's house open, Jenny's house open, the gardens just opened at Gospel Mission. They're all entities coming together to be a part of the solution. So, this is one of the big valuable ones because they encounter this first very often. I've seen chat in action. Some take a lot of time. I've seen them for hours at times in my part. So, it's just a it's a piece of the puzzle, but it all makes a difference, but it all takes time for that clarification. And I if I can actually since I'm here I sort of brag venue I haven't known Lieutenant Hammond personally very long but I also sit on the voice of girls club of sauce county board and he recently joined that out of interest to do more to capture the gap of youth that sometimes are impacted by this and the club's focus is serving the west side and alai aspire so he's eager to come in there help make a press.

Thank you. Okay. So, I just want to double check with everyone if there's any other further comments regarding this item.

I just wanted to comment that the SAS homeless alliance and the system of care are working on report to the community. Probably it's going to be first of next year before we do that. But so a lot of people said we spend millions and millions of dollars on directing towards homelessness but what are the results and that's what this is about is to try and give us know this part of it other part hopefully we can well I know we're going to be able to show awesome thank you thank you for the presentation thank Thank you all for your public comments. Um, please pause

just real quick. Um, can you just make sure when you guys have the quarterly meeting that you guys put a flyer in front of uh, you know where the agenda goes just so people from this meeting have an understanding of where that meeting's going to be. Not everyone checks online and social media. So some of these people come here, maybe they want to attend the meeting. So just just wanted to kind of keep that open and just ask if that's possible.

Thank you. Thank you. Right, we'll be moving on to item B. Consider approval of the CPRB annual report January 2024 through December 2024 recommendations. In the last meeting, we went over the recommendations. Um and there were we got a lot of feedback um regarding those recommendations. So tonight will be an update on the changes that we made and um what we want to bring forward to the board tonight approval of these recommendations so we can um input it into the annual report. Then we can also get that to be um presented to the city council. Um Nancy, by chance, did you want to read a few of these and I read a few of these or do you want me to read them?

Okay, I can I can start off. Um so, you know, number one, as you guys see up there last month, it read provide monthly updates on critical incidents on which the board is briefed and on cases of particular interest to the community. Example, belong to arbitration. Such updates could be brief and include basic non-confidential information as to the status of such cases. We have updated it and the new one reads monthly critical incident updates. Provide a brief public update each month on every critical incident the CPRB is monitoring. Example on de arbitration and on any other case the chief deans as high community interest with the goal of keeping the board informed during review process for key events that can extend for several months. Updates may be short and must be and must exclude confidential details but should provide available information about key milestones during the lengthy investigations and reviews. do have any uh any comments on this particular recommendation anyone on the board and we will review all of these recommendations and then we'll open up to the public for any questions. Okay. Um I'll be moving on to number two. Number two is publish racial, ethnic and geographical data on traffic stops and geographical data on the use of force incidents and arrest in a manner that is accessible to the public. Um the new recommendation reads, "Public data and RIPA insights publish racial, ethnic, and geographical level data for traffic stops and geographical and geographic data for arrest and use of force incidences in a manner accessible to the public while continuing to seek insights about enforcement practices from RIPA stock data it collects under

state law. Uh number three, evaluate the cost and benefit of pre-text stops. In this regard, we join with the recommendation of OIR. Um, the new recommendation reads, "Preex stops cost benefits study continue to evaluate the benefits and potential disadvantages of pre-text stops with regards to public safety and community trust in alignment with recent OIR group IPA recommendations and present findings to the CPRB at a future meeting. The fourth uh revised recommendations there was a lot of discussion if you remember um at the last last meeting and so this has just been it was changed somewhat and and restated a little differently. Um, now the recommendation is to strive to interview officers who are involved in a deadly horse incident as soon as possible and preferably within 24 to 48 hours to promote investigative integrity and public confidence in the process. Um number five um our previous recommendation read commit to specific timelines and measurable and smart goals for implementing CD for implementing department policy changes and training enhancements. that's now been separated into two uh two different statements policy.

I do apologize. Let me just make a quick correction here. So um she just read number five, but number five actually reflects reflects the number seven on the lead recommendation. And so the one she's reading for 5 A and 5B is number six, which let me just read it for you real quick. um provide deescalation, body camera and communication expectations in the police department policy manual in a way that promotes clear enforcable standards. Go on to 5 A recommendation.

So I just read number six. I'm going to read the line. That's all. Yeah. So number five is actually now number seven. So I apologize for the mistake. And number six is number five. And then and then seven is number six. I apologize for that confusion.

Okay. Okay. So Nico just read the previous recommendation seven. It's now broken into 5 A and 5B which indicates that with the uh I think that's correct. Yeah.

So I'm gonna let you So we're currently on the new recommendation number five new wording which up there. You'll see it's under number six for the July recommendations. Okay, so 5A reads policy manual clarity on deescalation and body cams. Integrate deescalation techniques and mandatory body cam activation rules into the policy manual using clear shall language that can be trained and enforced. And 5B is now plain language public communication. Adopt a public-f facing communication standard that looks for ways to ensure clarity and understanding with particular attention to the language that explains use of force concepts and enforcement priorities when applicable.

Say those two are in response to last month's steps. Yes.

Again, sorry for the confusion. Um, on to number six, which is last month's number seven. Um, structured community and CPRV input on policy change. Engage the CPRV and at least two community based organizations when developing policy changes, especially those related to use of force, and keep the board informed of policy updates in a clear and timely manner. And then number seven, which was number five, the smart goals is now number seven because it kind of coincides with all of the previous recommendations as in creating smart implementation schedules or recommendationdriven or high impact policies. When a policy or training change stems from an independent police auditor findings, a CPRB recommendation or otherwise has a direct impact on public transparency or civil rights. Example, use of force, body cam activation, stop data reporting. MPD should publish a smart implementation schedule, a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timebound, uh, showing target dates for drafting, approval, training, and compliance audit. By limiting smart timelines to recommendations driven and high impact policies, the board and the community can track progress where it matters most without burdening routine administrative updates. So those are the the new um that's the new language for the seven recommendations. So if there's any questions among the board, we can ask Yes.

Okay. So, I we can come back to the board. I will open it up to the public for any public comments regarding these rely also about the complaint issue. And then I' I'd just like to call the board's attention to the one substantive change in the body of the report which you're going to get. Oh, you're going to get when uh yeah, just you got to move a little closer. You're going to get the the whole revised packet

prior to

well well before I the next meeting so that you can review it all then. But the real difference are the the rewriting although not substantively really changing those recommendations except to the extent that we discussed last time. And then there was one change that we made to uh page six which I don't know that anybody's got that front of them but there was a suggestion from um board member Fryan that we make a note in the board report and then so there's just two sentences I just want to call this one substantive thing uh apart the recommendations to your attention. The CPRB functions as an advisory board and a liaison between the MPD and the community. CPRB does not have the authority or power to investigate citizen complaints or to compel either the Modesto Police Department or the city of Modesto to take any particular action. So that was just something that we wanted to reiterate in our bottom to add them to our Okay.

And then also in our bylaws, we also are enable body to receive complaints from the community. And so what we didn't initially input into our annual report is the complaints we have received as a board. And so we're going to add in just a small section of the amount of complaints we received, which to date is zero. Um, but we are able body to receive complaints and so we're just going to reiterate that and call that out within our annual report.

So then um just real quick, is there any questions regarding these recommendations before I open it up to the public? I think what's said is fine. I think we move the train on how somebody can talk to a board. Yeah, it it'll go from from the complaintant to the to a board member which will then you know turn that to the city manager. Yeah, just push that. Yeah, that's um is it okay if like like honestly I just want to pick up on what you said. It would just be good if we get briefed all day.

We just have like Our guys will be to drive like we understand I agree. I think that is coming up in the future. What would be Wendy?

Uh so if someone turns in a complaint a written complaint they get the complaint from the police department first and we never see it. It goes straight to the city managers. So what they're talking about is citizens have the opportunity to reach out to you if you and share it's what you are to do with that that was so if that happens then I'm supposed to contact

we will we will turn around well we're going to be trained on the exact process but it is to go from us to the city man like we'll Yeah, somebody can turn on. Thank you.

Um I think also along those same lines, um if if we're going to adopt a practice to receive complaints from a member of the community, uh I think we should standardize that. So maybe we have a form that's available to all of us that we can fill out. So we make sure we check all the boxes for the information that's necessary to forward a complaint to the to the proper whether it's city manager, police chief, whoever it has to be. Okay. I agree with that because sometimes word of mouth things get twisted and so this should

I I wait for the training to include into we already have um all right so I'm going to turn this over now to the public are there any public comments regarding the recommendations listed above and if you can step If you study um like pretty much every single case of uh police violence, police misconduct where someone's life is taken under questionable circumstances. um ev every case that that the information is available, you know, and there's always some. It's not obviously. Um one thing we see throughout every situation is uh the use of narrative control tactics. Uh we see it everywhere, every single department. If you follow it in the news, you're going to see a little glimpse of it. If it if you live your life in a town with a problem with police terror, you're going to see it. If you go to these meetings over and over again for a while, you see it. I've seen it. Okay. Um, the sooner a cop takes a life, has to give an account for why he took a life, the better. Um, and and one thing I wouldn't mind having addressed is I I I don't know if I have it all straight, but I do remember at one point in this drawn out like lane commercial for Brandon Gillespie, uh, we they he was talking about cases where like they'd interview the um officer in a certain time window. Um, but that meeting cannot

be used in court. So if I can have that reviewed and then also how does that pertain to you know like how do those jive together if we want to balance between accountability and supposedly Brandon claims that there are reasons why these officers shouldn't be questioned right away. how to resolve that so that we're we're essentially not just helping a corrupt department like get even better at coming up with stories after they take one of our community managers lives and do illegal random right? Um illegal entry into people's homes and harassment, all kinds of Um pretext stops, you guys, just even hearing that discuss is disgusting. Disgust is disgusting. In fact, I say clearly there there's absolutely no excuse for any law enforcement agency to be conducting themselves on a pretext. And if that's not really what it is, if it's not a pretext, someone should have come up with a better word. Why are we even entertaining that? Um, and then lastly, I would love if this member if this committee could look at ways to advocate for community members. So, I don't want to see you guys trying to weave out the complaints that they don't want to hear cuz cops are already doing it. I've made complaints to Minnesota Police Department and to the county sheriff and they go out of their way to keep you from like they they gave me five conflicting answers recently when I tried to report a complaint about this deputy. So, what we need is not you guys helping sh like basically doing a support role for MPD. we need you. Like, go with community members. Hold their hand. Be willing to go down there. It's scary. I was treated like by every individual I talked to. And I know you guys are like formulating these judgments. Yeah, I'm a sassy guy and I

don't mind speaking my mind, but I don't go in there like shooting off from the start. They're I asked them over and over again, what what do I do to file a complaint? And I was literally given five different answers. And I have experienced the same thing, although to be honest, not as bad with MPD. That that was the the sheriff. But you guys need to be looking at ways, creative ways to say, I'm a community member that sits on a on a committee. How can I help other community members feel safe if they need to complain about the cops? And and just to remember that you can perform that as an advocacy role. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else like to speak on the recommendations?

Hello again board. Um I just wanted to ask is this um available the recommendations are they available online? Uh no because these are this is just a draft. So until we bring it back to the board for final approval then that will be

okay perfect. Yeah. um just because verbally sometimes I don't retain everything. So, it's nice to be able to to read it all. Um and I think this has been brought up before and I know you reiterated that um you don't have uh power to commit your own um your own independent investigations and to like be able to actually um hold them accountable. You can just the MPD just make the recommendations. Um, that's something I would like to continue to advocate for is um for the CPRB to um actually have a little bit more teeth um and have the power to uh have uh independent investigations of the MPD um because you can make recommendations um as many as you'd like, but if the uh MPD is not willing to uh actually follow through the uh recommendations um then that is a problem and the advocacy of uh of of your uh committee and listening to the community members, then it doesn't go anywhere. There's no material uh um realization of their recommendation. So, um I'll just continue to to advocate for a better um better ways to hold uh NPD uh I guess accountable um for their actions. As we've seen, there's been a lot of instances of uh violence from NPD against community members. um people have have lost their lives at the hands of members of the MPD. Um so we just for the sake of our community um we want to ensure that uh MPD is um being held accountable for those actions um so that we don't have to lose any other um innocent lives because of um poor discretion from our NP. So thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the public like to speak on this item? Okay, seeing none, we're going to be bringing it back to the board. Any further comments? Anyone on the board? I think they're good. Okay, I think we'll be looking for a motion to approve this. to create motion. Can I ask for a motion for approval of the recommendations?

We have a first. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All those in not in favor say no. No. Okay. Um, you want to do a roll call? Sure. Member Beasley Dave. Member Bryant. No. Member Bird. Yes. Member Christensen. Yes. Member Jim Ralph. Yes. Member Grant. Yes. Member Smith. Yes. Member Han. Yes.

Chairman Laurio. Yes. And I believe that means the motion passes.

Thank you. Okay, on to item five, staff comments and reports. We have an update from the independent police auditor, Stephen. Good evening, Chair Solorio and members of the board. Stephen Hunley of O group and police auditors office. Uh I this is actually just my kind of regular monthly uh position on the agenda. I don't have a a detailed special presentation for you tonight. Uh but I did want to mention a couple things. I actually happened to be a town person today. Uh it's obviously a a different experience to to participate one person and all the city about accommodating us with the remote access. It's it's good to be here. I also came into town uh because I had the opportunity to attend a meeting at uh MPD earlier this afternoon. If as I know you're all aware uh earlier this month on August 8th, there was an officer involved a nonfatal officer involved shooting uh that occurred. And when that happens, as as folks have become pretty well verssed at this point, there are a lot of different processes that that um are initiated. Uh some of those as as one of your recommendations really tracked tonight, some of those really can take several months uh to be completed that the criminal investigation into the incident, the formal administrative investigation into the incident, but the department has initiated a new protocol uh within the last couple of years uh in which it uh brings people together and obviously within a couple of weeks of of the incident itself, subject matter experts within the agency see and and just kind

of does a detailed assessment of the the whole thing from beginning to end and and looking for learning opportunities or doing some issue spotting for things that they want to make sure get followed up on a stream investigation as part of the protocol that the city created with the Independent Police Auditor's office. I have the opportunity to attend those meetings and and participate in them. And so I was notified of the shooting at at 3:00 in the morning when it when it happened and and as soon as this was scheduled, uh they they let me know when it was going to uh that it was going to occur. And so I came up and had the opportunity to sit in on it just as I did in last year's report uh talking about a couple of the completed cases and provide some more details about the the major incident review process regarding those incidents. I will certainly be tracking this one as well. And um I am in between um phases of of my of IPA audit cycle. But within a couple months, I'll start talking to the department again about about the next u selection of cases for the for the next audit process. And obviously in the meantime, I have been paying close attention to things that are going on in the city and the work of your board. Congratulations on getting your report uh so close to the finish line. I know a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to to get that ready. So, thank you and certainly if you have any questions.

Thank you. Uh any board members?

Steve, how how are the um cases selected that you choose to investigate? So in terms of the uh initial agreement with the city when this independent police auditor's office was established they actually set some numbers ex all investigations of this type all investigations of this type for example any case alleging racial bias any plan case involving bias is automatically going to be review as part of the process and then for all the other cases it's a percentage of them and I I don't have those numbers off the top of my head but it's a percentage of use of force cases and a percentage of of complaint investigations. And so what I will do is just kind of randomly select those just based on the case list and and then the department produces whichever ones I've asked for on the bill. So if the board wanted to request um you to look at a particular case, is that out of

that would be that that's a great it's something that we could talk about with the city for sure, but it isn't part of the initial uh setup.

Yeah, if I could just add this on. Okay. Thank you. I believe it's one in addition to the the bias cases like you said and the officer involved shooting cases. It's I believe one and a quarter of use of horse cases a month if I remember correctly. And what happens is is each of those are numbered. So Mr. Conly gives us a random list of numbers of those that are left over and also yes I don't know if you mentioned that all supervis any case involving a supervisor as the subject of the allegation because obviously there's a special issue related to that. So my question is we there's a particular case that we would like to know about. Do we have the um privilege or whatever to request the certain cases be?

So you're you're really talking about a couple different things. One is could could a particular case that you were interested in become part of that random sampling or that that chosen sampling? And that's a question that I will follow up with the city about. As I said, it is not a part of the initial scope of work and framework of it. The second thing that you're asking is if you have a specific incident that you want to have more information about in terms of talking about specific cases, individual cases that uh there would be limitations on the confidential details that could be shared with that. The point of the audit is really process driven to talk about the about the state, which is one of the reasons why we don't review every single case. It's really about trying to get a a a representative sample size and be able to weigh in on the legitimacy of the department's process. Any other comments, questions?

Thank you, S. Thank you. All right, on to staff comments and reports. Scott. Yes, thank you. I'd just like to make a brief report that board members and board member Smith have been registered for the April conference. So, we appreciate uh you both going and we're all registered, ready to go. Awesome. Thank you guys. You guys are going to enjoy it. It's a great time. Be ready to take a lot of notes. some warm clothes.

Thank you, study. Um, all right. So, we'll be moving on to board comments and reports. Um, item A, policy goal number eight, review use of force policy to minimize likelihood of death resulting from use of force. We have an update. No, nothing to report. Thank you. Policy law number one, improve relations between the community and the department. One of my committee members has been working on annual report. So, I've just been waiting for it to get completed and we will schedule those visits done. Thank you.

Um policy goal number three, reduce youth arrest, particularly among Latino youth. An update on that. I recently went to a Latino leadership um initiative graduation and there was some presentations there where actually two presenters were looking in on like a mentorship program specifically towards um like the youth and kind of like gang related. They're kind of getting into that because of the area they're into. and this gentleman wanted to and is currently still working with um mentoring the youth in that area. So, I'm going to be meeting with him to see how we can try to help him with that, what we can do to further his goals with that that process. And there was another gentleman um he actually works for, but he is looking to expand their program. So, maybe if there's a way for us to connect with him on working specifically in the desk of with the youth there. Um so those are two things that that I'll be voting on um for that policy. And then um Mark D ad hoc ordinance 4-23.02 committee update me. Um, over the past several weeks, our committee has met consistently to conduct a detailed review of the Modesto Municipal Code 4-23.02 with a specific focus on subdivision section 13. As part of this review, we have carefully examined the ACLU and First Amendment Coalition letters dated

July 18th and July 21st of 2025 to better understand the constitutional and civil rights concerns that were raised. To build community trust and strengthen community relations, we are developing a robust engagement strategy to ensure residents have the opportunity to provide input that will directly inform our research and recommendations. One component of this strategy is a community engagement survey in both English and Spanish. We will be reaching out to other jurisdictions that have adopted similar ordinances. Our goal is to learn how their provisions are interpreted and enforced and what lessons we can learn. We will continue to meet, gather information, and engage stakeholders over the coming weeks as we anticipate drafting our report soon. We do look forward to sharing our findings and recommendations with the board and the community in the near future. Near-term deliverables, a draft, we're drafting a draft a special recommendation towards the city manager regarding options for repeal or substantial amendments of the Modesto uh ordinance for 4-23.02 um to have a concise finding memo summarizing what we have heard from stakeholders and other cities. a proposed timeline for city manager review and public discussion. That's our report.

Thank you, Patricia.

And are there any other board comments or reports at this time? Any board member may give a brief announcement or report briefly on his or her activities? Seeing none, we'll move on to the future agenda items. Um uh for next month we will be having the final presentation for the CPRB annual report and we'll have that up for discussion for any last minute changes anything like that. Um and then I know we also are looking at possibly adding another item onto that but we're still in talks. So that is something that we're still working out. But is there any other items or anything that we need to discuss right now? [Music]

Kind of thinking ahead. Is Nicole going to be at the same time?

The 26th, right? The 26th. Yes, it's the following week.

Do we have any board member comments regarding the agenda items? Any staff comments? Yeah, I was just going to say I mean I mean we could and we'll work obviously with the chair um on when to schedule the next um you know discussion so that you all can have an opportunity to take a look at additional topics. I know that there have been a lot of um timely topics lately um that kind of have caused a necessity to kind of rearrange some of them. Um but I I would imagine that would be coming in the near future. Discussion on the budget.

Well, like I said before, we'll be reaching out to you um Bird so that we can get a little bit more clarity. will work with the chair and then we'll um put that on as one of the suggested topics that you all can take a look at. Meanwhile, we we'll take a look at um what staff can put something together so that we can start working on [Music] also um staff possibly update uh the topics list online um because I believe it only goes up to

Yeah, we we will do that. Thank you. One more one more piece. Uh I did get a community request to um add the names on the agenda who are on our committees. No, I wasn't able to Yeah, on the agenda that we could indicate who we need.

Oh, okay. I've made a note. I can do that moving forward. Thank you for that, Wendy. All right. Um, on to adjournment. The next meeting will be September 17th here in the chambers, believe. Yeah, here in the chambers at 5:30 p.m. Thank you all and we'll see you next time.