all right good evening ladies and gentlemen this is the north Miami citizens investigative board sitting here in council chambers on Monday February the 26 2024 time is now 6:12 p.m. call to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and please be seated Rose let's have the roll call please with pleasure Vice chair my name is Rose Michelle grandpierre Secretary of the board and we will start with uh the chair who is excused Randy Grace Vice chair Kevin C present RBI Joey Lang present attorney Andre Pierre did we hear from Andre and Miss Mar m we do have to proceed very good thank you very much chair will call for a motion to approve the minutes of our CIB meeting from January 22nd at 6: pm. second all right we have a motion made by Rabbi Lang I second it second by Rose all in favor I second myself there you go all right we've approved the minutes reports our chairperson is absent so I do not have a report on from Randy but Marcia does have a report that she and and Randy attended uh a meeting and I'd like Marcia to please give us that report well we met with speak out of the mic we met with two individuals from the federal government in reference to um a request by the chief to come in and ascertain how we're doing at the police department and um they told us basically what they were going to be doing how they were going to be proceeding and um we were allowed to ask a few questions I had none because they were very succinct in their descriptions as to what was going to be do um they did give us a date as to when the report will be completed but I wasn't prepared I don't remember the date that they said but um they just asked us basically how did we feel personally about our interactions with the police in the city of North Miami I had nothing but positive things to say as I usually do um it was quick painless and I think productive for them in the sense that they got a good sense that our department department is well run and most of the citizens citizenry are happy with our police Bally thank you very much it's a wonderful report all right we have a report from our legal councel there are no open referrals and there have been no new referrals so everything is C all right thank you Dr Harris a report from you please yes so good evening everyone I just want to give you just a update related to House Bill 601 and Senate Bill 576 um as many of you know this these two counterpart bills were filed back in November uh we've been having some fast momentum and movement with that and uh what I want to let you be aware of is last week Wednesday in the Senate um 5676 was passed through a third committee and it was passed by 11 to5 vote um um and they're looking at placing it on this Wednesday's calendar for a special order calendar with the Senate and then from the house it actually passed the front the floor um pass majority um from the house this past Thursday so what does that mean it means that um civilian oversight agencies as of July 1st that are existing that are that are actively moving just like us um will be have to uh pretty much dismantle our operations and that's across 21 jurisdictions across the city and counties across the State of Florida and that concludes my report all right Dr Harris to follow up on that have we drafted proposed city ordinance that would broaden the functions of our CIB we had had some discussion about that I actually have a meeting tomorrow with the city manager so probably next next board meeting next month I can give you all more of an update on where we stand on that all right thank you very much you're welcome what forget that they whatever they're planning or trying to accomplish makes no sense um if they pass this why can't the city vote to maintain this the reason why as a city we could not is because it will become a state law in which the state law and the governor will have the authority to actually sanction our city if we did as a local municipality to continue to move forward with civilian oversight that's why we could not do it and what is the prevailing justification for this decision so again the reason and irrational behind this is that they feel that across meaning the House of Representatives and the Senate um all feel as a majority that there are 21 different agencies that are doing 21 different things um they don't feel like there's a unified system that's in place they feel it should be handled at a a higher level which could be done by by either the state attorney or FDLE will be the individuals handling um as well as our internal police departments police officers have internal um internal investigations that are in place um and they feel that that should be um handled under those opes in their portfolio have the majority of the police departments um agreed with that we haven't received a a joint um Collective uh conversation about that what we did is we we tried to have a coalition of other civilian oversight and tried to bring together um a convening of police Chiefs but we just were not able as a coalition to be able to move fast enough as fast as that they're moving um to kind of bring a convening of bodies together to discuss um that to kind of see their actual position on it and who initiated it was actually filed um by Senator out of um Jacksonville um and then a House of Representative out of spring Hill Florida um I believe the representative from Spring Hill was representative dougen was the representative out of um Hernando County can't recall the name of the senator that was out of Jacksonville though but it was the senator out of Jacksonville are there any further questions for Dr Harris at this time how's your wife doing pretty good it's doing doing better doing better but it's we have our good days and we have our bad days but we did take it you know I just keep it on the Lord's hands that you know we'll you know we'll Prevail that's all I can say at this point God will thank you all right no further questions thank you all right at this time we move to the North Miami Police Department indiv year report uh who will be presenting will it be major cindyana Paul or the chief good evening board Shere SCA chief of police I am just going to introduce major Paul who will be uh providing the end of year report to you um just wanted to introduce her she joined the Miami Police Department's executive staff in January of 2024 came from the city of Miami Police Department with an extensive background in various facets of law enforcement so she will be overseeing the office of professional compliance which encompasses Internal Affairs uh policy development and officer accountability so with that I introduce you to Major Paul thank good evening everyone good evening good evening uh see the attachments for the report I will say um I'm very proud to be part of this agency and under the wing of Chief boss uh great opportunity um some of the highlights for the annual report we go straight to hold on the first section so we have the supervisory control of persons inventory as you can see there were negative changes so the incidents reported total officers involved the physical all of those numbers have gone down from 2022 to 2023 the next section we have is the traffic crashes even though the increase shows to be higher than the year before um the comparison was attributed to necessarily that the officers not not necessarily that the officers were doing something wrong but the anomaly for 2022 versus 2023 but in total the crashes were not significant enough or there were no patterns or anything that were attributed to the accidents in general so there was nothing major for the staff to follow up with bias based policing there were several presentations that were done throughout the schools um by the cops officers within the department the dates in all the schools that um are listed on pages 6 through 7 happy to report officer involved shootings they still remain at zero um deescalation and also additional training that the officers received was explained as well throughout the year to have a positive impact on that the internal affairs complaints as well from five I'm sorry from a total of eight from the year before to now three and if I'm correct the three Internal Affairs investigations um were internal so it was not necessarily something that came from complaints from citizens to my understanding from what the sergeant explained as well for the year and then we have our action review system is when the officers uh certain actions or policy and discrepancies fall within the category for the year for 2022 we had one and for 2023 we have no officers that fell within that category thank you very much any questions I'm confused I don't know what that means the action review system the action review system uh okay so there is certain policies so under on page 10 right um there are categories that we that we take a look at so supervisory control contr of person reports vehicle Chase packages crash reports and also if I'm correct there is another uh use of force preventable crash and also Internal Affairs investigation so if there is categories where the officer violates a policy or is found to have violated a policy and they fall within those categories within the year time span they get automatically attributed to the action review system so then they're provided additional training or additional uh you can say overseeing by the supervisor to make sure that there are preventative measures that are taking place so they don't repeat the same behaviors so we kind of help them to additional training monitoring uh coaching from their supervisor to have them not infract or not have policy violations within that time span so they kind of fall off while they continue to improve in their performance everyone should be very proud of this report he said everyone everyone should be proud of this report yeah yes job we have any other questions if I may add something which is a comment yes it is to congratulate not only the chief but the entire cor for the great job that they are doing within the community I've been following the chief and not Miami not Miami Police as well on social media I can testify what you are doing please keep doing it we feel definitely safer around here absolutely thank you thank [Applause] you I will follow that up and say that although I don't have consistent contact with police officers in the city the contact that I have is always positive they're always very professional I I think the city seems to have very high standards for training officers and a good sense of AE of core and I look forward to hearing good things to be at next year's officer of the Year Awards as I was this year uh Chief question please how many vacancies do we now have well as of last week we now have one vacancy we did have a police officer to leave the department uh in order to go to another local agency which happens and you were speaking about police officers I'm I just assumed police officers yes so we do have one vacancy at this time and we have five individuals in the police academy right now so we're looking forward to them graduating successfully so that they can join the department and hopefully they won't be grabbed off by somebody else yeah but it happens you know and so um just like most agencies Across the Nation retention and recruitment are an issue so um it's not just exclusive to us but you know departments Across the Nation are experiencing the same effect are those officers we've sponsored or are they paying for their own Academy we are sponsoring them yeah we are sponsoring them so we'll go and get them if they leave don't worry so that's an interesting question if we sponsor them through the academy is there an automatic contractual obligation to so there is a contractual obligation and that obligation is for you to remain with the department for two years in the event that you don't and we had a recent case um we do recoup try our best to recoup um the cost of the academy which is a little over $6,000 uh so we just recently had an experience like that I actually got some guidance from another police chief that was experiencing the same thing and what he explained was that when they attach to another agency is when we can actually you know demand send a demand letter for the tuition fees um so when that individual maybe a couple of months after he resigned went to join a local Department I did so and we are now in um we are in negotiations and have made a contract and he will be paying some of the money that we've already received so far so I don't want to understand why the department that he went to wouldn't be paying I mean that's the only proper respectful thing well he is not an employee of the department yet he is seeking employment with that department so I made contact with that police chief and you know informed him and send over the documents and so um as long as we are going to recoup the tuition I'm I'm good with that who pays yeah because in in most cases you know you lose the employee and you lose the ability to recoup the funds and it's good for us because then we can send someone else to the academy well that officer made a mistake yes yes this is a good place to be absolutely well thank you very much for that you thank you may I please you may Rose I am taking this opportunity to uh invite all the residents to the great training on artificial intelligence yes that the office I me the the the police officers are offering I went I saw and I can testify as well that it is a good training if every single one listening to this uh meeting uh can go and see for themselves what is it about it will be recommended sure so um and I can just elaborate a little bit is there is a program called clear view um that helps and AIDS us with investigations through artificial intelligence and facial recognition and so before we procure the the software fully we want to make sure that the community understands what it is we're doing um understands the policy that we're going to have that's going to be associated with and understand that there will be rules and regulations as far as how we utilize that technology so we just want to be open and transparent about what it is that we're going to do and yes thank you for attending the meeting uh we are able to demonstrate how it has been beneficial in some investigative cases that we've had well before the state rules us out of business perhaps we could have the department schedule an agenda item to make those explanations form before the CIB could we can do that could that be done we can all right let's go ahead and put that in play since we're obviously carried on the local cable tap Network this would be a good opportunity to put this out to a broader range of citizenry that happen to watch these programs sure uh and Dr Harris if you could arrange with the chief to schedule an appropriate time before we are uh rendered passay by our illustrious in ever seeeing big brother up in Tallahassee and I shall refrain from further commentary on that but uh I think uh getting the presentations made on the record here would be a positive thing we can definitely arrange it that's very good thank you Chief we appreciate your courtesy thank you major it's very nice to have you with us wish you every success in this department and hope you'll be with us for many many many many many many years thank you thank you for coming here my fan mail is going to dry up if we cease to exist all right uh do we have any unfinished business no all right do we have any public comment and I I don't see any public is is there any uh Communications from the public to we right into the record none no all right good of the order do we have any pertinent issues any members sick or in distress none very none in which case the chair will call for motion to adjourn motion to ajour all right motion made by Rose seconded by Rabbi Lang thank you all in favor all we are Reed that's a