okay I see that we're live streaming now all right great well welcome thank you everyone for being here to the uh February 14 2024 Public Safety Committee meeting um we have a couple people who aren't here just yet to give reports so we're going to go to our second agenda item which will be uh actually we're going to go to our um first agenda item office of emergency management update with committee Miss DeLuca uh it's gonna be Mr weary oh it's gonna be Mr weary great that's right yesk so we hello chief we had a training for OEM today where we logged into the county system and went through a we have to do a quarterly where we go through their system and request assets and open up an emergency Operation Center so I did that today with Detective delas and it went without a hitch which is good um so uh yeah that's the only uh the only report for now other than you know typical meetings and oh I guess one other thing of note is that we did declare an emergency for the snowstorm so the mayor and I declared an emergency officially yesterday morning just after the uh County declared their emergency and we were sended it uh this morning so that paperwork was all complete and fortunately we had no uh real need to use the emergency which is always good thing that's great so no one needed the warming centers or any of that no perfect well thank you very much for keeping up on top of that my apologies for trying to pass it off to Vic because he has done that it's now yours yes thank you all right and now I don't actually have a report I had not received one from Mr Con in regards to the fire report I don't know if you received one Mr Dela um well we got that as part of code but I have the report from the fire chief and so you mind sharing that thank you yeah let me I I don't have it I have it physical but I'll give you some uh some just some numbers some uh in in 2023 we uh the South Essex fire department responded to 4,800 incidents and um that includes everything from obviously fires to uh uh citizen complaints to smoke detector problems false alarms what have you so um clearly by far 34% of the calls actually closer to 40% of the calls are medical related in Maplewood we provide the South Essex fire department provides Emergency Medical Services in Maplewood not in South Orange but that by far is the most um Medicals the most responded to incident if you take that out I'll give you the top five things that we respond to uh the top thing that we respond top incident we respond to with 5% of calls is a lockout someone who gets locked out of their house or their car or what have you so that's the top response the second is a smoke detector activation where there's no fire it's an unintentional and second after that I mean third after that is a uh alarm activation that's unintentional so there's no fire there then the fourth uh highest incident that we respond to is a gas leak and this occurs when people smell gas or lots of times at construction sites uh somebody will be using uh either you know manual labor or some kind of Machinery that hits a gas pipe so one once that occurs the fire department has to appear on the scene and they cannot leave until uh pscg comes and then the fifth uh highest incident is uh good intent calls so those are things like going to block parties and and um schools and things like that uh luckily what's low on the list building fires it's only 1% one and half% of our calls which is very good and most of those building fires are outside of Maplewood and they're based on Mutual Aid and the way this works it's a game it's a sort of the old game of checkers where you you move fire off fire departments from one house to another house they slide over uh if our firefighters are out at the fire um for example we had a big fire in South Orange the Newark firefighters came and sat in our firehouses to cover the rest of to the town and we do that too we go sit in Orange's Firehouse we go sit in irvington's Firehouse if we're not called to the scene so that's um luckily again we don't have a lot of building fires we do have cooking fires that is something that does occur but luckily it's uh it's contained and we're able to deal with that so we are we are looking at these statistics trying to drill down a little bit more um so that we understand the operation and but overall we're in great shape and we're continuing to move forward um and that's about it with the scfd as far as Conlin's report um he did inspections his inspections were um about where we thought they would be when we started the Year we're now getting a I think a healthy dose of fees both for Life uh um Hazard inspections and non-life Hazard inspections and um everything's pretty good on that side too and that's it thank you very much does anyone have any questions for M Anda Miss Adams yes um just for the first one that you gave the lockouts and stuff so do all these calls require uh the fire truck to go and all the or do they do they always use the biggest equipment I think that's um kind of important for people to understand and even I I'm not quite sure I know um or is it just like a vehicle maybe like the SUV or the chief's SUV that goes to something like a lockout as opposed to having to put the bigger vehicles and the which is more expensive more wear and tear to run those every time so I'm just curious so a lot a lockout would be an engine with three firefighters I'm sorry you kind so you know the deputy chief you broke Engine with three firefighters okay yeah I broke up yeah you did yeah Engine with three firefighters uh okay but is that I mean I'm sure it's protocol for some reason but it feels like um can't can they consider doing something a little more logical for a lockout you can't you you can't break up the team you have to have those three people going at all times so you can't take one off the off the engine and put that person in the SUV because then you're breaking up that team that team has to stay wherever they are at all times it's like when you see them in shopping they're always together they have to be together uh because you know they may be at a at a call like for example Lockton and they may get a secondary call and have to go right to that understood yeah that's what I was missing okay thanks any further questions welcome Mr daas GL you're able to make it all right so let's move on to your report Chief Sally I have the um December metrics available if I can share my screen I can be your VA your PA person okay all right and this is the December 2023 Matrix okay uh do you have the monthly report did you want to start with that one yes oh I'm sorry uh December metrics um all right m c right now we're looking at your outlook oh that's weird hold on try that okay y That's it y that's the monthly report December all right so if you see uh on the left side column uh 2022 and 2023 uh if we go down to uh robberies in December of last year we had one in December uh we had one aggravated assault we had two burglaries and we had 25 ffts in December um if you go to the right column you will see the comparison year to date uh 2022 to 2023 that's the full years um so robbery in 2022 we had 20 and 2023 we had 10 that was down 50% aggravated assaults uh in 2022 were nine and 15 in uh 2023 and burglaries uh 29 in 2022 and 2023 we had 31 uh thefts 246 in 2022 218 in 2023 that was a decrease and we had Auto thefts in 2022 we had 93 and 2022 we had 93 and 2023 we had 58 which was a decrease um so that was the comparison between 2022 and 2023 uh for the month of January up to uh that's not on here but I'll just give you a a quick uh snapshot of what's going on this year uh we had four assaults with four arrests they were all domestics um burglaries we had uh we had four in January uh the style of burglary is the ones that they break in and uh remove vehicles or or attempt to steal vehicles to get keys to get the vehicle um and thefts so far we have um 15 and auto theft we have five so that's this year um January for the month of January so that's where we are our Auto THS are are still trending down last year in January we had uh nine this year we have five so we're we're uh we're we're going down in that in that category so um those are the major incidents we have uh that we're looking at the burglaries um are uh have did increase last year and we have a few this year uh we we are working with other agencies as far as Intel and sending information um so we do have uh we sent out what we call Bolo be on the lookout uh to other agencies and we do have pictures of possible suspects that were investigating with those so that's that's our that's our main concern as far as Prime is the burglaries um there was a huge increase it was like 60% or something like that um with the domestics with um assaults is it predominantly domestics and yes it is yes yeah because if if you look at our stats from last year we we're close to Almost 100% clearance rate right because it was domestic because we know who they are you know usually our partner so um that that has been an increase and uh most most of most of most of them are domestics all right and have we been I'm sorry go ahead just want Chief just if you could Define tastic so it's um could be a spouse to spouse partner to partner could be a child to an adult uh or a child to a child to is that correct the um the the the child to an adult is is not considered uh is that's more so that would be if a if it's an adult to a child that's uh you know di is related um a child to an adult um uh could fall on domestic but it's it's still juvenile so there not you know uh it's treated I guess I was thinking like an 18yearold gets in a beef parent yeah an 18y old that would be domestic right yeah okay correct correct yes yeah and have we been listed the the help of the social workers or services to uh address some of these definitely def definitely and also we're um we are sending some volunteers for training for the uh so when we do have a domestic for victims to speak to so we we are we we do have um um volunteers that are going for training for that to help us out with that as far as domestic Council I remember that was on the uh I want to say was on the December's weekly updates are those still going out on the weekly updates Mr weary or is it because the training has already begun that's been taken down we we we do have a group of volunteers um I don't have the information in front of me but they are working with Sergeant Fields she's coordinating that and she is sending um volunteers of training we had put out a couple targeted solicitations for volunteers I'm not I don't believe we have in maybe the last few of them and I can see where we are and how many more volunteers we're looking for and uh if we need more we can put out more targeted notices great if uh if detective feels feels that she needs more people um please communicate that um because I'm pretty sure there's some folks that maybe in the mix missed it and this could be the time for the all right great thank you so much um did you want to go over we finish the UCR or we did not over overtime overtime yeah okay so want me to read it off oh you got okay so there's the uh the overtime this is uh January comparison from uh this is Jan January so uh comparison from 2023 to 2024 uh you see a um a small decrease in there for 911 dispatchers and you see a um a nice decrease there for uh police overtime and um um so there there's a small decrease there for overtime so we're you know we're working on that um and that's uh you know our overtime usually is replacing sick uh officers that are out sick and also for vacations and uh you know sick could be um you know family leave or Murphy or um just regular sick days and vacation or extended uh injuries um to that effect also we might get a um um you know an investigation that might uh lead us to um you know give over time for that well it does look like with full Staffing but the numbers dropped drastically so that's a great thing um and also from the approved leave at the bottom the number is showing only a few folks so they've they're starting to plan out and not feel so I don't want to say desperate to get out of the PD but it does seem like there's a balance happening so yay for for that Chief appreciate that we and we have uh three officers in the policey now so uh once they um graduate we'll have more um spots Phil great Chief can I ask uh are we full uh fully staffed with the dispatchers uh we are um we just have to get um I think I think the issue is uh the part-timers so we need um we probably need some some more part-timers are consistent that um you know that we can get to come in um so that's I think that's it but we we are full with the full times I know we advertise in the township uh eblast Patrick uh that we're looking for crossing guards do we we should probably say we're looking for part-time dispatchers too we can do that it's not listed right now but we can certainly do that great thank you very much Chief does anyone have any other questions for chief Sally that have to do with the um the MC the UCR report and the uh the metrics for this month yes so um so that that was it that's all I have all right great so let's keep it moving um going on to our discussion items um Mr Dela you had asked for us to put these three first items on the agenda and I want to apologize to Mr daffis um there was a fourth one and I don't think I found it I dug through my emails and I just could not find it but I do remember you mentioning something so if you notice it it is not here please bring it up so we can discuss it the first opt item is uh Parker Avenue traffic enforcement update in regards to the intersection of suffk and Parker um uh a few concerned citizens not only sent us videos but um like images of the um accidents that have been occurring there particularly people in Parker Avenue Fashion driving really really fast and letting gravity do the work as they come to the intersection in particular at suffk um it was brought up a couple of times um in previous uh meetings as well as by those res residents in those areas and what have we started to put in what have we put in place in this one particular area to um try to help slow people down and kind of calm the traffic in this area yeah so we we've been doing um uh details traffic details there for a few months now um but I do have a snapshot of um from this year January to to today uh um so we we do we're we're on that street a lot on Parker so for example um there is a synagogue on Parker so we do um multiple inspections there so for that time period we did over 100 inspections of that area um and then you move to U traffic details we have done 26 traffic details in a month um we have done uh crime 92 crime details there in the month we have done uh uh different kinds of DET probably over 10 15 other types of details over there um we we did have um eight traffic stops and uh three I believe three tickets were issued on Parker specifically however um we got to do a bigger check of the side streets because the check on just Parker only highlights Parker so it could be somebody spitting on Parker and then we pull somebody over on Summit and that stop will be recorded on Summit or it might be recorded on Su or it might be recorded on union or it might be recorded on you know we saw it on Parker and ended up on Irvington Avenue so um I do have um I just need a little bit more time to check those S those surrounding areas of where these stops might be taking place again we might observe it on Parker but it might be stopped somewhere else so um the way our data Works um it might show up somewhere else as far as the stops but um our actual details that traffic specific that we do a detail is 26 so on Parker for the month all right and how many tickets has this resulted in um because it does seem like it's rampant it's not just once in a while yeah so um again so uh three actual tickets on Parker for the month on Parker and one warning on Parker again it could be uh a ticket on Summit or so I got to I got to dig deeper into uh see if there's happening if these stops are happening on side streets okay yeah if you could bring that back for next month that would be great because we'd like to be able to report to the citizens who've asked are people even bothering being ticketed um it's something that we've wanted and it's something that we'd love to see do you do uh your people do um until we actually have fullon permanent traffic calming stop signs and striping and cones and everything else everything we've got to do everything we can um to calm the TR and help our citizens feel safe as they're walking their children to in from school just so I can I can give an update on the engineering side of it you know in all this we talk about the three e the Enforcement Education and Engineering so Chief just mentioned the enforcement on the engineering side we uh have engaged Dynamic track traffic which is our consultant our traffic consultant they provided us with a plan they're going to do a complete analysis of the road uh including trash datas uh studies they're going to take each section look at each section to see if there's any uniqueness to that section there'll be it'll be a striping plan it'll be a long and short it'll be a shortterm response on a longer term response um it might include the the mayor brought up uh mayor Adams brought up a high friction surface treatment um other types of uh treatments in the road um so that is all going to happen we're going to get a plan done by Dynamic traffic um the one wrinkle is because it is the beginning of the year and Engineering has spent all its money last year that we have to wait to get the uh budget passed and that'll that's in the capital budget so um we've had uh Patrick and Paul to speak with the CFO to see if there's a way that we could expedite uh the process by using other funds and and you know paying it back or whatever it has to be done so we that's going to be uh talked about if not we're probably talking about a May or June time for the study uh in the meantime we're looking to put up um in Street crossing signs those signs that go in the in the street and I I think we have three or four that we're going to be putting up along Parker all right I hope survive longer than the ones that have been on Prospect well they do get whacked yeah and they're not cheap but you know some of them have lasted so uh you know they'll be put at we know of a couple of the different intersections and we'll we can move them around so if we see that they're should be more effective one way or the together we'll we'll do that so I think as long as the chief keeps um doing the enforcement and we put some of these out there people will get a sense that we're we're moving and certainly when we have the dynamic study Dynamic traffic study it'll give us a road map of how we can move forward could we use digital sign board in that area as well this is another slow down it's 25 or just saying that it's enfor enforcement and progress or something something like that that you see like on 78 yeah so um our our mph signs we we took them off because of the weather you know because of you know we had snow and everything else going on so um once we get uh it cleared we can you know we'll put them we put them back out in different locations and stuff and chief do you have um anybody visibly stationed a long Parker at all like you know just sitting by the corner on a regular basis at um suff other than because you know seeing seeing a cop or even a dummy Cup car I'm just I thinking that presence sometimes helps as well yeah I mean the the times the officers are out there is when they're doing a um a detail and we we've done a lot of details there um or inspections of uh the synagogue they they will sit out there um but is he usually doing a detail but you know we again we did uh 26 traffic details and we have done um special crime details we did about 90 of those so that's time that they spend there in the area visible yeah okay yeah and then but if they get call off on a call then they you know they have to go they gotta go but all right well thank you Chief um are there any other questions in regards to Parker traffic caling all right discussion item number two public Gatherings um Mr Luca was so kind to pull out and send us in a separate email the um code or at least a blurb of the code and I dropped it in the notes that everyone should have gotten let me see if I can open it up so we can screen for so this item and D are you know sort of the same item on the agenda okay rickleton and this item so um let me just uh put up what I what I share I got it okay all right so you're sharing it or am I sharing it um no you sh you share it yours is better okay see I okay so um there two things that I pulled out one is disorderly conduct and second is public property use of or use of public property so just so so everyone's clear and anyone who's who's on this an an an attendee um we do have uh permit for events there you need to get an event permit um to use public property the I want to interrupt you but can you zoom in a little oh yeah I'm sorry yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah here we go is that okay that's great that's so um so we have some uh exceptions so if you look here all public Gatherings or events except these five things so one of them is a neighborhood block party because it's covered by another ordinance same with filming outdoor displays they're all covered by another ordinance funeral procession you don't need an event application for that so here's the big thing demonstrations picketing rallies Free Speech activity and that don't involve fire vehicles animals fireworks blah blah blah it does allow for um sound equipment um and here are the two kickers one you can't charge a fee or donation charge as a required to participate in the uh demonstration protest picking or rally and two it you have to notify the police at least two hours in advance of the commencement of the Free Speech activity so so the way this works is if you have a demonst rtion as long as you give at least two hours notice to the police then you do not need a permit but in that notice and chief you can you can talk about this you have to describe what you're going to do so if you're going to Rally where it's going to be um you're you're told that you can't be on the sidewalk uh you can't be in the street if they if there's a March involved that has to be told um you know we we can control the the activity we cannot prohibit the activity but we can regulate the activity and one of them is at least two hours notice um so that's that's what we have in our current ordinance so if you want to use a public park like rickleton um then you have to notify the police two hours before if you want to have a protest uh on the street on the sidewalk rather for example across the street in front of the movie theater you would also have to give two hours notice because you're setting up a table you you may be impeding um pedestrian flow or what have you and then there's and then there's the the disorderly conduct uh things so you know this is um loud offensive indecent language uh obstruct people uh fight brawl misbehave I mean some of this might be a little subjective but I think and the chief you can speak to this I think these are opportunities for our police officers to um if they see that uh people are acting outside of the normal conduct of a protest or counter protest then they could get a ticket for disorderly conduct and you know you you get a ticket and you know the fine is up to $1,000 or six months in jail um so I'm going to stop stop sharing so we could see each other so again um I know this past Sunday Chief we did not have knowledge of this of either of the um rallies is that correct that's correct yeah so there was a violation there of both rallies because they have to give us notice um and so I guess we were within our rights to go there and say you have to disperse but I think what we want instead is to make sure that they give us notice describe what they're going to do and then we give them a code of how they have to behave um and that means you can't be up in front of each other's face in the street you can't be on the sidewalk uh or you can't impede people walking on the sidewalk so I'm losing my voice so I'm gonna stop talking right so um I'm sorry that's okay I was just going to add to Mr duca's comments that um you know there's there's require requirements and and what I think he left out was that if um there's say in a narrow area like across the street from rickleton where the sidewalk is you know pretty narrow there's privately owned front yard at the um old Bergdorf realy building and then um you know people can't get by or they feel uncomfortable walking by there so uh the police also correct me if I'm wrong have the right to move people to somewhere else like they could move them to across the street to like the south southern end of rickleton for example away from the other protesters but to be able to the police have the right to move people um in this situation if they're impeding there you know ADA compliance for feet of clearance there needs to be um public space for people who are just trying to go downtown to be able to go to any businesses they want to go to and and so forth so I just wanted to throw that in there right so we we the police definitely need the two-hour notice uh if there's any protest or uh for First Amendment um uh situation going on because we need to know uh what is going on what and how we going to protect the public everybody you know the protesters and the people that are there um so we have at you know not so when we speak when we speak to the organizer you know we don't want to over police it but we don't want to underp police it so we need to know um or or get a idea of how many people are going to be at the protest I know you can't you know judge judge it 100% but you know I would like to get a certain number so we'll be able to make sure everybody's safe um also so again as everybody stated we cannot block the sidewalk we need people that have passes through the sidewalk we can't block the streets traffic needs to be traffic needs to flow um and if we need you to move to a certain location it's it's just pretty much us directing you to where to go for the safest place to be um we want everybody to participate we don't want to stop anybody from participating and we just want to make sure everybody's safe and that people who are not participating are able to go where they need to go to and they're safe U so that's just the major goal of uh the police department we're not um you know we don't we don't judge who is who's protesting on what side or anything we're just making sure everybody's safe and that's the that's the purpose of the police department and chief Could you um speak a little bit to some of the emails and comments we've received um of people feeling um threatened Ed or unsafe um just by walking through the village even if they didn't know this was going on and because someone is a certain religious persuasion or something and they're walking by and they feel unsafe can you speak to what they C have the ability to do and and you know something right that so so you you can you can always uh call us or notify us but um I want everybody to know moving forward we will have officers in that in that location so you will always see a loc officer there that you can come up to ask ask them or speak to them or just call us um and if we're like you know not in that specific area we'll get there pretty fast if you calls there and if you feel threatened or anything we will investigate it um individually everything you know U there different scenarios for different things we'll investigate anything that you if you're feeling harassed or if there's any um you know you feel some kind of way about something so Chief I have a couple questions so let's say that um this group wants to or any group wants to have a protest in rickleton square this upcoming Sunday um and they they call the police department you know the two hours that we're talking about right how is that how is that handled first of all who do they call okay so um hopefully they will you know they will call us during the weekday that's when the administration is working you know I'm not particularly working on a Sunday but um if if if I'm there they can speak to me directly or they can speak to my Administration directly usually on a Sunday it'll be a um a lieutenant or a sergeant on the desk so they will need to speak to the Watch Commander the watch get the Watch Commander will get the information The Watch Commander will notify the administration that there is a protest or um a protest happening um with the location time approximately how many people um so we will have that information so we can deploy officers to that location to make sure everybody's safe and does the Watch Commander um log this somewhere is there s sort of a digital Trail or paper trail of said notice yeah everything that comes into the police department is documented every documented it's document it's documented in our in our CAD system we have a system where it documents everything from disorderly conduct to a protest that's taking place um it's every every you know citizens reports everything's documented in our computer system so let's say for instance that we've established um that you know Mary is the contact person for right Som such and such group right and you know Mary has contacted us before a couple of hours you know followed our process and we kind of have an idea of Mary's group and their activity they've established a regular pattern uh we kind of have an idea of where they congregate and we certainly have an idea of audience size and behavior right let's say that Mary's no longer with that group and now uh it's John who is okay going here what I'm going where I'm going with this is that [Music] um you know I like what we have it's open there still is a process but I think that it may not be a bad idea to also have a more formal process um with the same elements right the element would still be the same that it's two hours notice no permit fee so on and so forth uh and all the rules apply that our existing code spells out but when that person makes a call it is the issuance of a permit that is happening during that conversation which with the Watch Commander so there's more of official um record of the activity so it doesn't stop people from being able to do something last minute right because a lot of times you know we we we have a you know God forbid a shooting somewhere and we want to go out and do a vigil right away right so you don't have to fill out an administrative permit like for events during the week with the clerk's office and all that jazz you can do it within two hours of your event so we're not restricting Free Speech but it allows us to have an official permit in place which we then have documented so that we can go back and use our discretion as we need to use it for instance we can say well based on previous Behavior you get a lot of participants and rickleton square is really you know you've outgrown that space so you should go we're going to allow you to do this you're going to go down to uh Baker Street you know by the benches which ironically is even more visible uh for Village uh for the Maplewood Village and not going to impede traffic or pedestrian flow as much as rickleton Square might do so it it establishes something official and it doesn't in any way uh burden the organizer um it allows for last minute flexibility um and the courts including the Supremes have said time and time again that permits for um protests and rallies are not unreasonable restrictions on peace because on Free Speech rather because they do allow for uh the people to still do their activity while allowing the municipality some discretion and authority and oversight over the activity so I'm sorry May Mr daff so you're talking about actual paperwork maybe yeah um yeah or at least at the very least in the meantime verbal paperwork as to making sure there's a contact person that the police have when they call in and say in two hours we're going to hang out and do a rally um but all all that all I think Miss I didn't catch what you guys are you mean because uh everything is documented with us right the chief said all that is captured in the cat system yeah we have it all yeah it's in the cat system okay because I guess what some of the questions were that we had received from emails and stuff were folks that had contacted the police department and was like did you know this that was happening and at the time the watch Person um Commander whoever was like no we were unaware um and this is just what we heard from the emails folks feeling like when they called and asked is this going on did you know about this the answer was no okay the group failed to follow the the procedure and that's to notify the police within two hours but once you not Chief you described it once you notify the police you take names and contacts how many people and all that and I would assume that with in your discretion if they say we expect 500 people you can say well you can't have it there because because it we we don't have the space that's correct so it it could be one or two things one uh they they haven't contacted us but also um this is um kind of new how this is popping up now so um we are retraining our lieutenants and sergeants of once they get this call what to do okay so is the followup for example if the case was this past week that did not fulfill the 2hour requirement and let folks know and everything is there going to be summons issued I think they can just tell them to disperse right or will they be told to disperse yeah yeah well if it was if it happened last week and they didn't have a permit is a summon being issued and if they do it this week without a permit or without the phone call will it be asked to disperse so I guess it's two parts yeah uh we could but we're we're trying to be proactive with it so we're trying to uh notify the organizers and inform them of what the ordinance is you know that the ordinance is that you need must you must notify Us in two hours and if we can get in contact with a uh organizer we'll let them know and then if we do we say go ahead and then if we do we'll say okay are you planning on doing something Saturday or Sunday what a day it is and then we'll get the information there and that um because I feel like the counter protest seems to be more um reactive to that so if the um people who are rallying or protesting are say in rickleton and then because they're there others come to sort of counter protest across the street presumably they I mean they are required to also notify the police department two hours ahead of time I think that's the message we need to get out and Mr warry maybe this is uh information we should get out through the public through SMS and and email to say Hey you know here's our process and and make it known uh broader and wider than this call and and response to the emails that we've been getting so we can make it public I know in this instance there are two two groups um protesting and we've connect we're in the process of connecting with both of those groups if you'd like us to make a broader appeal to the general public as well to make them aware we can certainly do that that's I think I think it's important to do because we can't just presume that you know these are the only people who might feel out so um to Mr dea's point you know I think it it's not necessarily a bad idea and maybe as we kind of go through this and we see what we need and what we you know what we're doing now and if it's sufficient that's that's fine but you know um there is a little bit of like uh formality that is projected when you require someone to fill out a piece of paper perhaps so that they're like yes we even though you're capturing the information and stuff it just kind of gives that extra level so it's just something to think about and and we you know as we're rolling with this and trying to you know figure out what we want to do without um impeding Free Speech because we don't want to do that but we also don't want to be unprepared right and in the case of those folks I'm I'm just asking for clarification every single time they meet or they plan a protest they're supposed to call you so it's not one I'm G to do this every Sunday and then they're expected you to track every Sunday correct every time they're supposed to call okay yes yeah they they can't pull out a permit for like the month right because that's kind of the messaging it seemed to have gotten out is that will be here every Sunday from now until perpetuity um but if they have to call then yes then that's the process and then we'll have that point person that point name whatever and I think that's good Miss K because there's a you know there's sort of like you can't just Reserve this spot for you there are other groups or other people or maybe a tree lighting or whatever you know like you can't just so I think the requirement on a week you know every time you're GNA do it is yeah I just wanted clarification because the vibe seemed like it was coming out as like we did it and we're doing this until whenever and one phone call so I just yep yep so my final my final comments are these I think we're not paying attention to what our residents are saying right now I think we're being flat-footed people are saying that they don't feel safe whatever side they're on and people who were not even engaged in the protests they're saying they're they're feeling safe and when you dig into that a little bit more you find out that what they'd like to see is something a little bit more of a formal process again with the same elements so we're not restricting speech Beyond what's currently allowed right now to the mayor's points um I I'm not in favor of our waiting to see if we need more I think we should just make it official and figure that out now because people are getting aggressive out there yeah that was my concern yeah I mean we've gone beyond the slogans and you know the different name calling and all this and all that and now people are getting in each each other's faces faces and there's even scarier things in some social media threads where people are um you know saying other things that are very dangerous and we can you know sit here and say what we have is fine and we can discount some of that as extreme or this person was kidding or they didn't mean it but again we're not paying attention to what's happening right now we have to meet what's happening right now I think however I don't think we're not paying attention I think we are yeah I think we are we're gonna have the police there last week the police didn't know about it and they weren't there the police are going to be there in the future and you know I it's you they have to tell the police what they're going to do if they don't do that the police are fully within their rights to disband the app the event so that's what they should do so if they tell if they if to me there's no difference if I sit there and fill out a form or you call call me up as the lieutenant and you and I say okay what's the name of the group who's in charge what's the cell phone number how many people blah blah blah you get all that information that gets logged in at the police station every officer is aware of what's going on so when they get to that scene they're prepared to deal with potentially two groups or more and so I don't think there should be anything that's going on the police have full powers to deal with it both from an event side and the disorderly if people get disorderly they write them tickets or they give them cool Downs they give them warnings and that's what they need to be they need to be proactive out there making sure that each side has the opportunity to say what they want but not in each other's face and they can't be they can't raise this to the level where it becomes disorderly right I think some of the problem however and to your point Mr DeLuca is that there are some phrases and things that are being utilized by people who are here um at these protests that are extremely um disc discomforting for folks um it's frightening some of the things that are being said some of the intention even though it may not be what the original Yeller might have been how it is used in the greater World um is a negative thing and and that's when we start to fall into that slippery slip of First Amendment like who do we get to police who gets to say what I don't know if we're at that stage if we'll ever be at that stage I don't believe that that's that's where we have to be but the accountability is something that's got to have to be figured out by the officer on hand and and I don't know if that is the right thing to do or the I'm weirded out in this one spot just because of First Amendment yeah well and the first amendment is strong and important and it does it does unfortunately enable people to say really vile awful things that upset other people uh Chief can you speak to what you and I spoke about with regard to um when it becomes uh when someone feels feel unsafe or uh threatened personally or when it becomes criminal activity and passes uh takes that step past first First Amendment right yeah I just um pulled out um title 2C for disorderly persons and uh it says since the statutes enactment the United States Supreme Court and the New Jersey Supreme Court have held that a person may not be punished for speech which solely is offensive to the sensibilities of the hearer uh such speech comes within the the protection of the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution as a result there is no valid statutory Authority for prosecutors based upon the public use of course or abusive language which which does not go beyond offending the sensibilities of a listener so um you know a lot of speech might be um um you know hurtful to somebody but um you know the police are there um just to make sure it doesn't go any further than that acts of Civil Disobedience or violence to that effect so the actual language um that's yelled out to a group um we um we are there just to make sure it doesn't escalate um and if it does to something criminal then we then we take action and you mentioned something about an individual threat like a yeah yeah so if I walk up to somebody say I'm going to kill you or something to that effect that's a that's a a direct terroristic threat to somebody so the so the so the thing is going forward we do have officers there um they are uh trained on um and again each situation is a Nuance or a different uh scenario so um you know um again we don't want to violate anybody's uh First Amendment but we are there if um for the protection of everybody so if somebody is you know if it comes to something criminal then we we will take care of it um as as we observe it and chief you're reaching out to these groups beforehand correct yes yes and and we have a um what we call operation plan so we have operation plan for events going forward um our our officers are are aware um our supervisors are aware and um hopefully we'll have uh we'll have supervisors out there during the time uh so um you know we can we'll go from there all right being that was pretty much tied into item d our list um I'd like to move since we're kind of already in this wheelhouse um to item e which is concerns from our Jewish community in regards to some of the Social Media stuff that Mr daff has referred to um in his statement um what reports have been made and what can people do um if they feel threatened so on social media so um I'm uh I I I do believe we did we have received some reports I haven't um reviewed everything but um yeah definitely come to the police department report anything uh that you feel threatened for and we will investigate it um social media is kind of tough to um ID a person they can use a different information but um we we investigate everything that that comes in that somebody feels threatened or um you know uh so yeah uh call the police department come down to the police department we'll take all the reports I have received emails from from uh people um I spoke to a couple people and um we we uh will investigate it okay because I know some cases it was email lists of people who identify as Jewish being published on sites so that people know where these folks live and that's private personal information that shouldn't be getting out yeah I don't I don't think I I saw that um not not that it hasn't come in but I I haven't se I haven't um seen that particular one um but um again yeah uh give it to the give it to us we'll investigate it again we we we um you know law enforcement is bigger than just our agency so we when we have protests we not we notify the sheriff's department um we have the prosecutor's office so we have other agencies that can assist us with uh with these any type of threat or any type of concerns or demonstrations all right thank you um does anyone have any questions further for chief Sally in regards to this before we move on to the employment rates item C no okay chief um I believe again this is Mr Lua this was one of your items so this could be quick um each year we're supposed to uh establish by resolution the rates so we haven't done that and and we ought to update and it's based on uh rates of the high of high the highest paid police officers so um we ought to just make sure that we update those rates and then we just need to for purposes of of dotting all our eyes and tees just have it put into a resolution passed by the township committee well do all right thank you any further questions or any discussion on this item all right um we've now moved into our public comment portion of the meeting Mr wey any members of the public would like to speak in public portion please raise your hand now and I will promote you two panels I am promoting Henry satone Mr satone welcome to public portion you can unmute yourself and speak unmute all right cool hey thanks Patrick I appreciate it so I live in South Orange normally I don't come to your meetings because it's another town one of your residents and this is the chief Sally one of your residents who's a realtor took down a list of 1,200 so much Jews and put us all on a list because she allegedly feels threatened by somebody now that's okay she's not threatened by anybody those lists are valuable to terrorist organizations okay they're extremely valuable because they they are currency you can sell them you can trade them you can give them to other people a lot of the people that are coming to your protests over in Maplewood are coming from outside of Maplewood this protest was advertised internationally by sadun which which is a tflp affiliate that is banned in numerous countries and they put Maplewood down on there and now we got a list with my family on it and my address on it in your by a resident of your town you got to go down to her house and give her a talking to I don't care if what she did is First Amendment or not what she's doing is dangerous okay so you got to deal with this the same way we dealt with the clan down in the South I was I lived in the South and the sheriff would go down there and tell those old boys hey you know I know what you're doing as first amendment but you got you step over the line I am watching you that's what needs to happen with this lady thank you I am promoting yval Brockman hi eval Brock my welcome to public portion you can unmute yourself hi thank you uh my name is yal I'm a resident of South Orange and I just want to make sure that everyone here understands the gravity of the situation and the threats that are being made against the Jewish Community I want to be very clear I'm not asking to stop any of these Pro terrorist rallies that are taking place in our town that's the right that protects me from rallying for peace protects them for shouting Pro terrorist slogans and I don't think it's the job of this group to solve the uh peace in the Middle East um that's someone else's job but I think you should really truly understand the threat that the Jewish Community is feeling these individuals are holding signs that say kissas and resistance is cute they're yelling that Jews should go back to the gas Chambers as Henry shared there's a person who's written down all of our names and our addresses and we have swastikas in our schools but the worst part is the things that they're shouting particularly about the death of Jews that they're they're hoping for in our town they're yelling there's only one solution intifa Revolution and what that means is the Arabic word intifa is used to describe two periods of violence in the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s where people would Palestinian terrs would strap bombs to themselves walk into cafes and schools and buses and blow themselves up killing people that's what they're calling for in our town a globalized in defat they literally want people to strap bombs to themselves and walk into the businesses in our local community and I don't understand um that how we can allow this in our town I don't think we would we would we would be using this kind of language or saying or not restricting what they were doing if they were talking about bringing back the lynchings or or stoning homosexuals you wouldn't stand for it and we would as a community denounce it publicly and then do everything in our power to encourage them to go elsewhere my synagogue alone and their other members from my synagogue have spent $300,000 on additional Security in the last six months because of these threats and I don't want to wait to take this seriously with something more than just these words happen thank you now promoting Andrea bramfeld to panelist hi Andrea welcome to public comment you may unmute yourself and speak hi um I just wanted to reiterate what you've all said I am I'm really scared what's been happening is just getting worse and worse and I don't know if you saw what happened in West Orange last night it's really scary and I know I'm a lawyer I understand your hands are tied and again like You' all said I'm not asking you to to do things you can't do but like I I just want to know that people care and have our back because it is frightening what is happening out there and it's important that we do stand together and we speak out against bad behavior and the things I heard tonight sound good they do sound promising in what the town is going to do so I'm hopeful for that but I again just want to make it clear like we really need you we do thank you if any other participants would like to speak in public comment please raise your hand now miss single you should be able to unmute yourself well I was raising my hand for public comment um because I am one you know on talented committee but I'm also a Jewish resident and also very scared I mentioned to some of my colleagues that I no longer feel safe coming to The Village on Sunday afternoons with my children because of some of the words that are being spoken and the tensions that are arising I also got very nervous when I saw that someone said that they have a list of everybody in a Jewish group and that they're holding them responsible for some people's words and then when I I did speak to that person because I have a relationship and I was surprised to hear that there's death threats against her as well and so I'm just wondering I was surprised Chief Sally that you didn't know about some of this stuff so I guess I have a few questions one is our RPD monitoring Facebook and seeing some of the stuff that's going on um because that's where it's all happening a lot of this stuff is happening on Facebook so I'm not sure what we're doing there my second question is have our police officers received training on anti-Semitism and islamophobia um because it's different than anti-bias training and I'm not sure where the line is for hate speech and for direct threat because when I hear someone say go back to the gas chamber to me that's a direct threat and so I don't know if it's just the law is it has to be just physical or in your face and is there something that us we as elected officials need to start advocating for that verbal abuse is just as damaging as physical abuse um so I'm just not sure so those are kind of like my three thoughts listening to and I came late but that's my three thoughts listening to this thank you so um as far as social media um we we we don't monitor it we monitor it but um a lot of stuff um you know we need to get direct um information from people uh social media sometimes you know I don't we we we might not know what's going on um people are talking back and forth on social media about threats they might have but I would encourage people to contact us directly so we have the information so we can do the investigation um as far as anti uh sentis uh we need to um I need to check to see if we do I think we might need to do more training on that I'm not sure if we have um enough training in that but as far as the I was just going to let you speak Mr DeLuca I think we unmuted at the same time go ahead I think the chief was gonna say something I don't want to interrupt you Chief yeah I just want to repeat about the threats though because um again like a lot of information uh on social media we might not see um and we might not have so um you know I just want to hammer to point in that we do need uh residents uh if they do get a threat or anything you gota you got to call us so we make sure we have that information so we can investigate yeah that's what I was going to I was going to ask like people should and and then the police can you know at least have record of it and start realizing that it's there but I mean I don't know that it's it's hard enough for anyone to follow social media and some of those groups are closed group so it would be helpful for the public to notify the police department and file a report that this is what's being said and with screenshots yeah yeah and and and and most of everything um that a threat like this we we notify the prosecutor's office so we get we get guidance through our uh the Prosecutors office they have a bias unit and uh different units that can help us out with that but if we don't know um you know or um you know we need to we need to know directly yeah and chief Could you actually prioritize that uh search for training for islamophobia and anti-Semitism because it is not going to get any easier um so the sooner that can happen the better I I wanna I want to Echo that please and this goes to Administration as the appropriate Authority we've talked a lot about this kind of updated training that needs to happen in the police department it's explicitly referenced in our adopted Sanctuary resolution of uh a few months back and you know and then people the people who are here tonight have emailed us they've sent us screenshots they've told us what's going on Chief um I know in the past the state police has been monitoring Facebook and social media do they are they still doing that and are you in Homeland Security State Homeland Security are you in touch with them on on this type of uh information yes so we we we we have uh monthly meetings and they do share um any intelligence they might have of any threats that might be possible um so they they do notify us of uh any um possible threats um as far as you know U anything that might be going on okay Mr Ry who else there's a few other yes we have other raised hands I'm moving over th to panelist welcome th you can unmute yourself you're now in public comment th you are still muted if you'd like to unmute yourself you are in sorry no trouble um this this was just a comment for for chief Sally um it was my understanding that a call for violence is not uh protected by free speech and um at the last rally there was chance as mentioned previously for antifa antifa Glo uh Revolution um that is a kind of global call for violence um it's just something that I wanted to clarify I think that's going Beyond name calling or free speech and it actually is calling for violence thank you see for those like specific phrases and chants can you speak to the prosecutor's office specifically about that type of language specifically the type of language they're using and get some feedback from them on know what they constitute as free speech and what constitutes calls for violence like what's actionable because am I am I right that they'd be the one that you turn to for that type of clarification all right I think we had talked about this before as well and I know you've been in contact with them so this isn't just coming up now but I think it will be a good idea to get more clarification from them before this coming Sunday and am moving over I seizure to panelist you are now a panelist you may speak thank you um first of all I I wanted to thank you all very sincerely for taking this extremely seriously um it is it's been working its way up as you know for quite a while and um we have sent information in fact just a few minutes ago Chief Sally I sent you that excerpt from Facebook with the uh message about the list um so you should receive that and I have something else I'll send you it's a whole write up that I did I was going to submit it to the police department but I think I will just send it to you directly um I really have to say I have lived in Maplewood for 40 years almost 41 years I have never felt in danger or threatened in the town I live in this has escalated to a point where we feel frightened intimidated and threatened as Jews in the community um it is very difficult as some have said and and upsetting to be in Maplewood Village on Sunday afternoon um and I appreciate your investigation of the language used and and it's very complicated because some of the it's not yourp Like Chief Sally you said if somebody says I'm going to kill you this this has more I don't want to use the word nuance but you know when you use a word like inata a lot of people don't know what that means when people say from The River To The Sea a lot of people don't know that that is code language for basically killing all the Jews in Israel not necessarily threatening those of us on Maplewood Avenue but for for dismantling the state of Israel when someone shouts go back to the gas chambers that is very threatening and very upsetting especially um for those of us who are descendants of those who suffered from exactly that um so um in some I just want to say thank you for taking it very seriously um and one one other thing you know when when you talk about this 2hour notification and we've been focusing on you know there's the group that's been protesting in rickleton park and there are the the few maybe five of them count of protesters on the other side near the theater um is it going to be just whoever calls first two hours before or four hours before what if the group of five protesters on this sort of pro-israel side call up and say well we want to be we're going to be in rickleton park on Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock do the do the other protesters then end up on the other side of the street how are it seems like this is going forward with with two sets of two groups of people and there's one rickleton park so if we don't want them on the sidewalks and one calls for the other how how are you all going to deal with that I I don't know that you have the answer now but it's complicated like that and I'd like you to to think about that anyhow thank you all very much for taking this very seriously I never see email um I was coming on to this call when I received it so I didn't get a chance to read it but I'll read it uh soon as this is over now promoting who's pains to public portion Bruce pays you're now in public portion you may unmute yourself and speak welcome hi actually my name is Joanna Rothenberg it just shows up as different sorry you're still welcome no trouble so um I'm actually going to share something that happened to to me on February 4th um and I've made a police report already in Maplewood um there has been a detective assigned to my report and someone else who also made a report but um I just want to share this because it is really serious and it just keeps getting more and more serious and it's scary for us so um on Sunday February 4th um on Maplewood Avenue I was standing in front of the Maplewood Cinema observing the prop Palestine rally and was the victim of an anti-semitic hate biased crime by one of the protesters in the rally um it was I'm not going to describe the person right now on here who said it but um he used some hate language aimed at the Jewish observers yelling swatka swatka an anti-semitic reference to German Nazis he then used the speech threat you should be sent to the gas Chambers while literally looking me straight in the eye um to the and to the other Jews that were behind me and around me in the crown in the crowd referen to the murder of Jews at the gas Chambers during the Holocaust the hate speech threat was overheard by the protesters and by police officers that were standing there which did not tell this person to stop then immediately after that looked at us and said that we were the KKK and started calling for the antipa sorry my son is screaming in the background I just wanted to share that that happened it was very scary and I don't think I I heard the chief say earlier that you you feel that the police department needs more training on anti-Semitism that day on February 4th there were two police officers and no and I don't I I agree with you I think you really do need more training because I really believe that they had no idea what any of those things meant so training on anti-Semitism to the whole department is crucial and important so people are educated and know what they're hearing and what is being said and what is being shouted to us thank you any other members of the public would like to speak in public comment please raise your hand now I'm moving over Joshua C to panelist welcome Josh RI you can unmute yourself you're now in public comment good evening uh thank you for uh holding this meeting it was actually very informative um as you said my name is Joshua my El name is Kar I'm not actually a resident of Maplewood but my wife lives in Works in Maplewood we live in Livingston I feel a connection because she works there to your town obviously um I'm also concerned as a Jewish person and you know father of kids um thankfully my wife works in a building that's been hardened um and protects itself against possible bias attacks or any attacks of any kind um I'm sad that it's necessary in today's day and age I'm concerned about the mindset that you guys seem to have I I may be wrong I've came on a little bit late to the meeting but I did hear a lot um it seems like you guys as as the town government are more interested in overall prevention of protest and you know the the protest about the Palestinians and whatnot um I'm concerned that that approach will actually invite more nefarious modes of protest or actions um and I say that because that group is not shy about the types of language that they use um the language they use is condoning violence both against Jews in Israel obviously in the Middle East um but also here in New Jersey when they scream things like inapa Revolution um and one that I think actually any American should be concerned about which they used I believe it was two weeks ago um Yemen Yemen make us proud um I'm sure we've all watched the news and all very well aware of of what the hooes um have been undertaking shooting rockets and and launching them directly at American resources shipping and even military installations um so so so this group is condoning that behavior and encouraging it and that is what's creating the environment making people like us feel very unsafe um and I'm not looking to blame the town I'm not saying it's the town's fault obviously but I'm just very concerned that a lot of thinking has to be done and I'm not sure it needs to be done in public space but it really needs to be looked at internally how you guys handle groups like that um you know asking for two hour notice is all well and good but if you're not prepared to be on site deal with what's being said in the moment and you know you're too scared or shying away because of First Amendment rights I understand them I I respect them I appreciate them but at the same time I think the poers that being need to really invest instigate and understand what these slans really mean and and do what's maximally allowed under the law to prevent it and again prevent more nefarious and dangerous actions from happening thank you very much for my time any other members of the public would like to speak in public portion please raise your hand now I see no other hands Miss cran thank you Mr Wy um on behalf of this committee I just want to thank all of the citizens both those who live here in Maplewood or those who just enjoy being a part of this community for coming out and sharing your concerns with us um we needed to hear it we needed to see where things are falling short and where we can make things better um as much as we possibly can we've got a task list together that was much bigger than I thought it would be at the end of this meeting so that was definitely an education piece for me and um I appreciate the way that you continue to engage with the community of leadership here um we may not always 100% agree on things but I am very conscious of the fact that um our citizenry feels comfortable reaching out to us and I hope that that never changes um so thank you for your time and for sharing your concerns with us and we will do everything in our power that we can to try to make this situation less frightening this time period less frightening for you as our residents um as a woman as a as a as a a mother as a friend I I want you to know that we hear you and we respect you and we want to make sure that you feel like Maplewood is a safe place for you to thrive and raise a family um and that that never changes um so thank you for taking your time out again I don't know if anyone else on the committee would like to say anything um in regards to you said it oh thank you for that all right um so thank you very much for being present um we have um our next meeting on March the 13 2024 um so I would like to move that we move into executive session to discuss one item that we have on our agenda and then come back before we fully adjourn second second Mr weary all those in favor hi hi all right we'll go into executive session I will now be removing the public participants in this meeting from the meeting so thank you all for joining us thank you all