The Minutes from the Chief’s Advisory Board of February 17, 2010, can be found at www.takomaparkmd.gov/police/chiefsadvisory.html. They are also below.
Takoma Park Police Department
Chief’s Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
February 17, 2010Present: Captain Edward Coursey, Catherine Plevy, Glenda Kapsalis, Neal Cohen, Chuck Butler, Susanne Lowen, Donna Victoria, Nancy Cohen, Terrill North, Scott Borden and Neal Berch
Absent: Chief Ronald Ricucci, Christy Lopez, Juan Torres, Renay Johnson
Guests: Lt. Richard Cipperly, Criminal Investigations Division, Takoma Park Police Department.
Community Observation: Chuck Thomas
Introductions:The meeting began at 7:35 p.m. Captain Coursey began by asking everyone for a short re- introduction so we can remember names/faces. Scott Borden, who missed the first meeting, is a Fraud Investigator with Freddie Mac. During introductions, it was decided that it would be helpful to have a map of the wards handed out and posted during the meeting so we could have a general idea of which ward everyone is from or the ward we are discussing.
Guest Speaker:Lt. Richard Cipperly introduced himself and gave a general idea of what he and his staff in the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) and Tactical Enforcement Unit (TEU) do at the department.
Lt. Cipperly has been with Takoma Park for 23 years. He began as a dispatcher and then applied to and attended the academy to become a police officer. He spent seven years in patrol, 11 years in criminal investigations, a few years as the commander of CID, a few years as the patrol commander and then found his way back to CID. The majority of his career has been in criminal investigations. CID is made up of one Sergeant who supervises three detectives and TEU is made up of one Sergeant who supervises two detectives. There are also two civilians working in CID – the Victim Witness Coordinator, Diana Dean, and the Crime Analyst position, which we hope to have filled soon. Lt. Cipperly oversees both units. The detectives are separated by beats (there are three) and they are responsible for crimes in their beat. They do help each other out, but they do have the opportunity to get to know their area and the people who belong there. The units investigate all Part I offenses – homicide, rape, burglary, robbery, etc. In 2009, the City was plagued with thefts from auto. These units were instrumental in helping with those crimes and working with surrounding jurisdictions. These crimes hurt our City and the County – it is a nationwide issue.
Every detective is assigned a report that must be reviewed. Not only do they review the reports on the crimes they are responsible for covering, but they review all of the others as well so that everyone knows what is going on. Lt. Cipperly also reviews all reports and cases that he assigns out. The detectives are all required to attend meetings that occur outside the City – DC, Prince George’s County, University of Maryland, etc. They interact with other agencies and share information.
When responding to a crime scene, detectives not only had to take charge, but were responsible for collecting and preserving evidence. Fortunately, the department now has a crime scene unit, which has civilian and sworn personnel in it. This helps free up the detective to concentrate on the investigations. The crime scene technicians are on rotation and on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The detectives work together with the State’s Attorney’s office on cases.
TEU is coined a “street crimes” unit. They work on crimes that affect quality of life, i.e., drugs, robberies, burglaries, etc. They are sometimes in plainclothes and sometimes in uniform. They work with the county a lot. They also supplement the CID unit if they need more manpower for a particular detail. All detectives are on-call on a rotation. They also assist on all major investigations.
We work with closely with the crime lab in Montgomery County. We follow up on all evidence submitted.
We are excited about filling the Crime Analyst position shortly. The prior Analyst was invaluable in that she was able to develop a lot of suspects based on her analyses. She helped close out many cases. All detectives are required to maintain close contact with the crime analyst at all times.
Also, our victim-witness coordinator, Diana Dean, is a valuable asset to the department. She has been here for several years. She also reviews all reports. She sends out letters to every single victim no matter what type of crime it was. She explains who she is, her services, what services are available to the victim, and really goes to bat for the victims. She is also a Spanish interpreter. She assists victims in court, with protective orders and guides them through the system.
Last year, the crime unit had 426 cases assigned to three detectives. The thefts from auto really hiked up that number. Last year, the unit had a 38% closure rate. If you took away the thefts from auto, which is a nationwide problem, the closure rate would have been 49%, which is excellent and above the national average.
It is a very hard working unit.
Questions for Lt. Cipperly:Neal Cohen:Q: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the units?
A: While homicide robberies are time-consuming, detectives are very good about investigating each and every case. If the more serious crimes take precedence and others have to wait a little longer, they are still taken care of. There is an excellent closure rate with 30-50% of cases being closed. The robbery details are very helpful. Burglaries can be challenging with property, serial numbers, etc. Capt. Coursey indicated that we are organized differently in Takoma Park. The investigators know their sectors/beats and it’s a good way to be up close and personal to investigate crimes. It leads to the high success rate of closures. Our resources are good. We could always use more, but we have a great relationship with Montgomery County for bodies, supplies, etc.; they are very considerate and helpful. We do have our own evidence bay with new equipment – it’s a nice asset.
Donna Victoria:Q. How do we work with the Park Police? If it’s a crime on park property, is it investigated by Park Police or Takoma Park? What if it’s not clear who has jurisdiction?
A. Generally, we try to let Park Police handle their own cases. If it’s major, we will take over as primary investigators, but will still coordinate with Park Police hand-in-hand. Capt. Coursey indicated that we are currently working on a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with them.
Q. What about gangs?
A. One of the detectives in CID is a gang liaison officer. He works closely with the gang units in various jurisdictions. Together, they identify gang issues, incidents, gather intel, identify the gang members, etc.
There was a question about how many officers are on the force: There are 41 sworn officers and nine are in CID.
Scott Borden:Q. What about tips and feedback from the community?
A. Lt. Cipperly indicated that it depends on the crime. Most citizens/residents are very helpful and give out good information. Sometimes, it can be too vague. It really just depends on the crime.
Chuck Thomas:Q. When officers are out in the street and come across someone with a certain amount of marijuana in their possession, are there other factors taken into account before arresting them for just possession?
A. Lt. Cipperly indicated that they get arrested. He said there are no exceptions. If it is seen on them and there is enough probable cause to arrest, they are arrested. Capt. Coursey indicated that the primary focus is not on marijuana but street crimes as a total. Narcotics operations can have a negative impact on other street crimes in other areas. By far, most of our work has been looking at robbery trends, auto thefts, thefts from auto and burglaries and robberies. Occasionally, we will work drug cases if someone is in possession of narcotics and we may take it further with warrants, etc. However, not a whole lot is controlled with “buy and warrants.” Capt. Coursey gave an example about the “crack” house on Cole Avenue some years back. They developed good leads and made good arrests.
Terrill North:Q. What is TEU’s relationship with service providers for youthful offenders?
A. Smaller communities don’t have a lot of opportunity to engage in programs like that.
Q. What is CSAFE?
A. Collaborative Supervision and Focused Enforcement. It is a state-wide grant program. It used to be the Hot Spots Program. The premise is that 10% of offenders are responsible for 90% of the crime. If you can focus your efforts on the 10 %, then you can make a bigger impact on crime. Try to get them to change their ways to live a life without crime, to focus resources available in the community to the offenders to make them ex-offenders.
Chuck Thomas:Q. Are there no exceptions for possession of marijuana?
A. Officers tend to be better focused on making criminal arrests.
Susanne Lowen:Q. Has increased lighting led to any changes in trends observed that you can quantify?
A. Capt. Coursey indicated that we do not have a study on that. There are side benefits to having adequate lighting and also to not having it. Sometimes it’s more of a personal community decision than to take law enforcement’s recommendations to improve lighting. Some people are bothered by the high-power lighting. Others are not. It’s a complex issue. Selection of lights should be carefully considered for all residents to be happy.
Terrill North:Q. Are there current trends noticed by officers now?
A. Crime was down during the blizzard. In the January UCR – there were 29 thefts, but 10 thefts from auto. It’s down. Thefts from auto have been the biggest issue for several months now. All others are sporadic with no set pattern. It has decreased city-wide. Ward 1-dramatic improvement. Ward 6-good.
Neal Cohen:Q. What about the License Plate Reader? How is it doing?
A. Have not put in service yet. It is in our possession, but training still needs to be done. Plates from the NCIC terminal need to be uploaded into the scanner computer so that when there is a match it will hit using its own computer – not having to go through the NCIC database.
Chuck Thomas:Q. If the committee wanted access to the full data from UCR, is it possible for whatever is submitted each month to be given at these meetings each month?
A. Captain Coursey indicated that if the Board were interested, we could approach the Chief and find out if he’s interested in doing that.
Terrill North:Q. What about CompStat?
A. Lt. Cipperly reminded him that we need to have a crime analyst to get back on track with CompStat. Neal Berch and Neal Cohen are both interested in attending, as other Board members indicated they were as well, or had indicated they believed the one we had open to the public was very helpful. There was a consensus on how helpful Kyleen’s (former Crime Analyst) maps used to be in the public CompStat meetings. Was great to have a visual. CompStat deals with crime trends and locations as opposed to UCR, which is full arrest data but is not analyzed in the same manner as CompStat.
Susanne Lowen:Q. How can this Board help CID?
A. Lt. Cipperly said they could touch base with their neighbors. Relay information that they deem suspicious. There is a lot of information going between neighbors, but sometimes it’s not given to the police. When you hear stories that you think the police should know, relay them. Make sure your neighbors call in suspicious people, vehicles, etc. We will check it out. It may be a lead to other crimes that have occurred.
Nancy Cohen:Q. How safe is walking on Maple Avenue? My neighbor has concerns about walking on Maple Avenue. Is there drug dealing?
A. There are a variety of ways the police department has addressed the drug dealing issues. Sometimes it’s through surveillance. Sometimes it is undercover buys. It’s also addressed by just having constant patrol visibility. Police address the quality of life issues. The officers have a pretty good idea of who belongs in the beats they are patrolling. They know which kids should not be hanging there and will post them for trespassing. The culprits are usually teens or young adults. Some live here and some don’t. Officers get to know these people. Capt. Coursey indicated that this Board is a perfect avenue for spreading the word that walking on Maple Avenue is not bad. There was a time back in the 90’s when he may not have said that. But, he feels differently now.
Round table:Nancy Cohen:Q. Ms. Cohen received an e-mail (that she will be forwarding to Cathy Plevy and Capt. Coursey) regarding the sexual assault that occurred at the college. Her neighbor was upset that there was no notification of whether they should be on lockdown at home, or basically what was happening. She wanted to know if there was a way of notifying or sending out emergency texts in that area of what happened. How would they have known something was going on? Has there been an increase in crime at the college?
A. Capt. Coursey indicated firstly that the sexual assault was a cross-jurisdictional issue as it was a Montgomery County case. It was not appropriate for the PIO in Takoma Park to release information about a crime that is being investigated by another department. Public information is handled differently that way. We are free about our information in Takoma Park compared to other jurisdictions. Getting information out can take hours to get it right. It will not come out minutes after a crime. It is on-going. The crime is being investigated. We don’t step on other jurisdiction’s toes. Cathy Plevy puts out Montgomery County releases and information when she is given the green light by them to do so. The college should have a text alert program. If you live next to the college, you should subscribe. Captain would not guarantee it will be used in any certain incident. (Nancy Cohen asked Cathy Plevy to find that text alert system, which will be done and sent out to the Board).
Q. When will the City begin giving citations on unshoveled sidewalk snow?
A. The city policy was put out on this through the Status & Information (S&I) report put out by the City Manager’s Office and posted to the city web site. The policy is to waive all enforcement until February 19th. There is also discussion as to whether it will occur after that too. There are pros and cons to both. Code Enforcement – Housing & Development handles citations on that. It was decided by City government. (Cathy Plevy will send out the quote on the city policy to the Board).
Q. A neighbor was upset that we don’t have a crossing guard at Holly & Philadelphia as it’s very dangerous. Nancy Cohen will send Cathy Plevy that e-mail.
A. We have not heard of a crossing guard being pulled from that intersection. We will look into that.
There was discussion that it was difficult to get to the third floor at 7:30 pm because the elevators are locked. Cathy Plevy indicated that the remainder of the meetings through December would be held in the Hydrangea Room which is on the second floor and accessible to the public.
There was also a discussion, and a consensus by the Board, that it would be helpful if the Board were to e-mail their questions and/or concerns for themselves and/or their neighbors ahead of the meeting so that we could have an idea of the agenda for the meeting.
The meeting concluded at 9:16 pm.
*The questions and answers are not verbatim as the meeting is not transcribed by a certified stenographer.*
