All right, welcome everybody.

This is the public safety commission uh meeting, uh special meeting for the Middletown Police Department here in the community room and on WebEx.

It is March 5th, and I call the meeting to order at 702.

All right, first on the agenda is approving the minutes for December 15th, 2025.

May I have a motion, please?

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

It's been first and seconded.

Any discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Hearing and seeing none.

The matter passes.

Next on the agenda is public hearing for matters on the agenda only.

If there's anyone from the public wishing to speak at this time, please use the hand raise function on your device or raise your hand here in the community room.

You'll be acknowledged.

State your name and your address.

Please keep your comments to five minutes if possible.

Is there anyone online?

No.

There's no one here in the community room, so I will close this portion of the agenda and hand it over to Chief Costa.

Good evening, everyone.

Glad that we're able to get together after we've been out of luck with the last two meetings with snowstorms of significance.

That being said, I would like to I'm gonna first do a correspondence.

Correspondence.

We had the death of um Lieutenant Dan Smith of our department.

Um he passed of cancer.

Um it was a significant event.

Um, one that uh our agency um came together as um men and women and and and honored him as he should have been.

Um I got correspondence from across the state.

Um, you know, you know, giving us um you know uh cost of sympathy uh and um and our and our officers um again were supported by for everyone in the community uh with food and and um understanding of um our you know partners such as the fire department, um South Fire and uh West Um West Lake Fire Um helping out with um some of those um activities here in the city.

Um pipes and drums again honoring him during um his wake and um services, and then I want to thank Tate's uh for the after uh for the after um function um where um family and friends uh got together and remembered Lieutenant Smith and all the uh the greatness that he brought to this agency and his commitment.

Um Cole was very appreciative of the ceremonies as well and uh the remembrance of his father.

Um again um I got got a um a letter um later last uh let's say early um last month from his dad thanking us um for honoring their son um being there for him uh as he went through the process and um struggled with um with the diagnosis and then um being there all the way to the end and uh it was very kind words and um he's gonna be sorely missed here in the police department.

Um it comes to monthly reports.

Um I'd like to uh go back to what I was gonna do in February um meeting, and I just emailed those that are not in attendance.

Um, my annual report.

Um so instead my overtime balance.

We are seeing the same issues that the fire department are with um the CT uh 40 sick day.

Um that has caused a significant uh increased our um overtime as it acts as a PL.

Um there's nothing that we can restrict on those days.

Um we've also seen an uptick in just regular time used.

Uh obviously we had um a death in a death in the agency as well as um some go out on um FMLA uh for family members as well as um some injuries uh we have gone out on um on workers comp injury.

Um so those add up into into our overtime hours.

Um we have we did mitigation where we restricted some training um with our marine unit and tactical teams.

They're now back on regular uh training methods, but um we reduced that over the winter time um to save some money in um in overtime for patrol, which a lot of those members come from.

Um and we did some um some trainings that uh were specialized and not something that was required for us um certifications.

Um so we can go into our training um section of where we're gonna be um putting on a new weapon platform.

We're switching into a red dot um firearm, um, which will um give our officers more uh ability to um be more precise on their shooting.

Um it's um something that was used and learned from the Bristol shooting and the death of two officers in Bristol a few years ago.

Um we are looking to start that training here in March.

Um that'll be um probably a couple months to get the whole agency trained and fitted out for uh for the new weapon system.

Um their new Glock um uh weapons, they were um the ones that we are getting uh rid of are being sold back to the company.

Um and uh we are upgrading those weapons were over 10 years old.

The um in the career field weapon systems usually change over every 10 to 15 years, so we were uh we're definitely in that mark to make the change.

Um we found the money within our budget.

It was nothing that was allocated or an appropriation.