Middletown Public Safety Commission Meeting - July 8, 2026
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Middletown Public Safety Commission Meeting - July 8, 2026
The meeting was called to order at approximately 6:00 PM. The commission approved the minutes from May 18, 2026, and received updates from Police Chief Crossdac on department operations, community programs, and fiscal status. No public comments were made, and the meeting adjourned at 6:50 PM.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the May 18, 2026, meeting were approved unanimously with no discussion or opposition.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public spoke during either the initial or reopened public hearing periods.
Chief's Report
- Officer Accolades: Chief Crossdac announced the addition of K9 Officer Newton and his dog Sonar, who will work day shifts. Officer Brendan Spencer received the Exchange Club Officer of the Year award for 2026.
- Community Partnership: The Middletown Police Department received a YMCA community partnership award for their assistance with incidents at the YMCA men's residence, including an untimely death of a resident handled with empathy.
- Monthly Reports:
- Overtime balance: $213,000 in the red for overtime replacement line as of May end. Remaining budget for June: $265,000.
- Private duty line revenue exceeded the $750,000 delta target, resulting in a positive balance used for vehicle maintenance and replacement.
- Community Programs:
- PAL program active with partnerships (e.g., barber program, boxing program). Summer programming includes integrating School Resource Officers into PAL. Building updates involve minor renovations.
- Pride event and Memorial Day parade proceeded without incidents.
- DARE graduation held; Officer Murphy involved.
- Cadet program: met weekly, ages 14–21, current enrollment in high teens to low 20s (target 25–30). Officer Bloom is the contact.
- Incident Statistics: May saw 605 criminal investigations, 130 arrests, 3 DUIs, and 1,907 traffic stops.
- Accreditation Review: Annual review conducted by an outside reviewer from North Carolina focusing on policies for pursuits, body cameras, and Flock camera data sharing. The department is finalizing a contract with Flock for a first response drone, pending council approval. Chief Crossdac praised the data protection work of Attorney Bright Smith.
- Training: The department uses Kinetic training; implicit bias and workplace harassment training are planned, often piggybacking on city-wide offerings.
New Business
- Range Use Partnership: Chief Crossdac reported that the Cromwell Police Department has expressed interest in using the Middletown police range for annual qualification (4 days per year). A potential memorandum of understanding (MOU) is being explored with FBI partners. No financial impact is expected at this stage, and the commission was notified for informational purposes; no vote was taken.
Key Outcomes
- The commission unanimously approved the May 18, 2026, meeting minutes.
- The chief will continue negotiations on the range use MOU with Cromwell and FBI partners and will present a finalized agreement to the commission.
- No further business was discussed; the meeting adjourned by unanimous vote at 6:50 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, welcome everyone to the public safety commission meeting here in 208 at City Hall and also on WebEx. It is June 15th, 2026, and then call the meeting to order at six. I have that late. I'll be there as soon as I can. Tony. Okay. All right, excellent. That's a lot. All right. First on the agenda is the approval of the minutes for May 18th, 2026. I have a motion, please. Yes. So move. Second. Thank you so much. First and second did any discussion. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Okay. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Let the minutes pass. 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 and you will be acknowledged if you're in 208. Just to have state your name and your address. And you will be acknowledged. Please keep your comments to five minutes if possible. Is there anyone from the public wishing to speak at this time? I do not see anyone online, and there is no one here in 208. So we will close this portion of the agenda and I will hand it over to Chief Crossdac. Good evening, everyone. Hope everyone's enjoying the warm weather. It's been a very active time of the year as we see from years past. A lot of good things happening. Officer accolades. His dog sonar is our newest officer. They're a K9 team that'll be working day shift here in the city. Comes from a uh a long line of uh breeder that we use here in the city out of Pennsylvania. So we'll look uh we're looking forward to uh good things for them to happen uh with with K9 Sonar and uh Officer Newton. Um the um Middletown Police Department received the YMCA community community partnership award um last week uh for their contributions to supporting the YMCA in particular uh the men's residents um for uh calls of service and some of the uh some incidents that have happened in the men's um dormitories. Um they had uh emphasize the uh customer service that our officers have shown empathy to those that live in the men's residences and um unfortunately there was a untimely death uh of uh one of the residents uh of natural causes and uh to it the officers did a great job assisting in that uh so um they felt uh the that they wanted to award the department and their great partnership with the YMCA. I appreciate it. Is it an untimely death because it wasn't expected? Or or why? Yeah, untimely death, yeah. Yeah, untimely deaths are um unexpected deaths. Um there's no really timely deaths that people would call it. But um, but you do have uh you know those that are in hospice and yeah, expected uh, but not these are things that happen when expected. Yeah, yeah.
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