Good afternoon.

We will now call to order this meeting of the public safety standing committee.

I will now begin by reading the announcements and the public speaker guidelines.

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Persons appearing before the committee are not allowed to campaign for public office, promote prior business ventures, use language or personal nature, which is also demeans any person, including commerce directed at public officials or staff members that are not related to their official duties or just to question staff members directly.

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Fair to adhere to the guidelines may result in speakers forfeiting any meeting time and further disciplinary action as necessary, which includes barring from attendance at future meetings of the committee for a period of six months.

I will now move on to the approval of the minutes, the minutes to be approved or from the March 24th 2026 public safety standing committee.

If there are no amendments or corrections, then those meeting minutes stand approved as presented.

Those minutes have been approved.

We would now open the floor for public comment.

Is there anybody that would like to provide comment for things or items not on today's agenda?

Please approach the podium and state your name for the record.

Good afternoon.

My name is Moni Guiatt.

I'm speaking on behalf of inmates at the Richmond City Justice Center who have medical conditions and documented dietary requirements.

I'm using my fiance's case as an example of systemic failures that need immediate policy intervention.

At the Richmond City Justice Center, inmates and documented medical diagnosis are not receiving meals consistent with those diagnoses.

Medical staff discontinued diagnosis without consultant treating providers.

Inmates advocating for their own medical needs face retaliation, loss of commissary, solitary placement, intimidation.

Facility staff failed to conduct required security checks and refuse necessary medical procedures like weight monitoring.

This isn't individual staff failure.

This is systemic.

Between March and May 20 May of 2026, I documented a cardiac diagnosed inmate receiving non-compliant meals for months, despite providing medical documentation in person, medical staff refusing weight checks, a nerve stating that's making me work too hard when asked to conduct required medical protocols, staff staff failing required 15-minute security checks for over two hours, an inmate placed in solitary following medical advocacy, and most critically, that same inmate denied water for seven hours while in solitary confinement with a cardiac condition and blood pressure medication.

He was transported to VCU Medical Center where physicians confirmed he was dehydrated and at a risk of kidney failure.

This is not negligence.

This is a medical emergency created inside this facility.

A requirement that documented medical diets be strictly adhered to with weekly verification, a ban on retaliatory actions against inmates or families who advocate for the medical needs, mandatory hydration and medication monitoring protocols for inmates with cardiac conditions, monthly oversight reporting to this council.

This protects all 400 plus inmates in that facility.

Thank you.

Ma'am.

Excuse me.

Ma'am.

Have you spoken to the sheriff?

Because she is here today.

Yes, I have sent several letters.

I believe I'm up to my fourth letter to the sheriff.

I have yet to receive response even at the request and a response within 10 days.

I mean, these are extremely extremely concerning.

Cases that you're referencing, the subject that's very near and dear to my heart.

And I know all of us care deeply about the safety, health, and welfare of our individuals that are incarcerated in Richmond City jail, particularly those that are medically complex or fragile for and mentally have co-quarimental disorders for which there are many.

As to what maybe not now, that may not be appropriate, but here are some explanation or get a little bit more details as to what is going on here.

I know that there's a long history that predates our current sheriff and that we well, long before I was on council that these types of really tragic circumstances and conditions existed.

I think there is been a lot of progress made to resolve a lot of that and improve our systems, but would love to know what those have been and if there is an appropriate moment to bring forward the sheriff and have some of those concerns addressed.

I I would like to get that information.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, counsel.

Again, this is Dr.

Antoinette Urban Sheriff of the City of Richmond.

Um by law, I'm not um cannot speak on any individual condition of any persons.

However, um, as far as auditing is concerned, we recently passed our board of local and regions jail audit, and I'm not sure that all the information that she has is uh been appropriately passed on to her, but we are uh providing medical care for all inmates that are in our facility as well as our security that's going on in our facility.

If you have a specific question that you want to ask me now, I'll be more than uh happy to answer it if you want to come over or have me to come to you and have a conversation separately about what goes on again.

Uh, you guys are welcome to come over to the jail at any time.

Uh we're always open.

I'm always there.

Uh so we can do that, but uh we want to make sure that you know that any individual that's in our facility that has any conditions, we personally have conversations with them as well as the doctor provider, the practitioner, um, and those individuals that go out to the hospital.

I mean, just one follow-up.

That was my um for point of clarity.

Um, VCU still holds the contract with your department for actually delivering the care and being the contractor physicians that do the plans of care and compliance and all that.

Yeah, medical is our uh medical department that does our medical and mental health.

So that is now in because it used to be contracted out, correct?

It's still contracted out, but it's contracted out to medical.

Okay.

And who oversees that just so that we can start to do a little bit of diligence as far as overseeing the contract being fulfilled?

Uh the the local board, the board of local and regional jails, as well as myself, and I have a risk manager that also oversees um the medical department to ensure that we are in policy.

And those would be the individuals responsible for approving the plan of care, making sure it's implemented correctly and that we're following all the requirements, ADA requirement, all that stuff.

Right.

Medical is NCCHC certified, so they are in compliance with all health orders, and we are in compliance with the Board of Local and Regional Jails, which formerly was known as DOC.

Okay.

So who's who you have someone in your shop that's managing that contract?

We overall manage the contract, but I have a risk manager that works in nursing that also uh follows medical every day.

And just one, just one.

How many inmates do you have?

Uh currently, today we have 603.

And you have one contract manager overseeing the compliance for all the plans of care.

We have an entire accreditation team that does it, but she specializes in nursing.

She has a jurisdoctor in nursing and risk management, so she oversees that part as well as our accreditation staff.

Hear you on that difference between an individual who is ensuring that the direct plan of care is followed through.

So for example, I think with the example that the case that we're citing here is if we have a diabetic for someone that's on, you know, that has a a cardiology needs, right?

Um, and they have specific dietary needs and and whatnot, right?

That day-to-day plan of care has to be followed based on their diagnosis.

If there's 603 inmates, I would assume maybe a third of them probably have special, I'm just guessing, based on our special population, right?

We have individuals that are on special diets, which is done through the nutritionists through our airmark company, which does our food, and the dietitian and the provider from the medical company get together and make sure that one the nutritionist that is the appropriate nutrition and the doctor to ensure that it meets their medical needs, whatever their health conditions are.

Yeah.

And diet is just one, right?

But it but typically you have, you know, that's a lot.

I guess I'm I'm trying to assess out do you have the appropriate just from a contract monitoring standpoint and from successfully from us being having a degree of confidence, like are those individuals who have plans of care, are they being followed through on?

Do we have enough staff, nursing staff that are my because that's the only you can't have a layperson monitoring a plan of care.

Um, are do we have enough folks on your staff that are able to ensure that we are compliant with those plans of care on the day-to-day basis?

Medical has a matrix of 45 people on their staff.

And they're the one so you have 45 meters.

They have 45 people.

I have on my staff to oversee.

I have nurses on my staff as well to oversee to ensure that medical stays in compliance and within the policies of the state, and as well as NCC HC to ensure that they're doing what's supposed to be done.

But the matrix is 45 people for the company that oversees all of our medical.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, yeah, I mean, I think I think more to I again, I really appreciate um the young lady for for bringing this forward to us, and um, and certainly you know, might be worth another conversation with us.

I don't want to go down, this isn't on the agenda, I don't want to go down the rabbit hole, but um, you know, that there's nothing more serious than the health, safety, and well-being of our um incarcerated and population, given how vulnerable and fragile uh they are so um absolutely everyone that has some type of medical condition is sees a doctor, and the doctor provides a plan for them to follow along with medical medications, diets, what other those things may be, and we ensure that they follow them to the best of their ability, and then the the individual also has to follow those plans as well.

Okay, we stay in constant conversation with the individuals as far as going back and forth to medical or having medical conversations, and I have meetings with medical on a daily basis.

Sure, if I want to say that um I know that several years, probably since 2021, there's been issues in the paper or things in the paper, all over the news, you know, in reference to the conditions at the jail and with the inmates, and I know that I have been and my colleagues too, very much involved, um, trying to find answers as to what's going on, how how different things keep happening, and then when the young lady comes here, takes her time today to come here to speak to us.

And I know that you and I had a conversation last night and asked you to be here too, and I thought maybe that you could not hear openly, but maybe speak with her in reference to her loved one, how you're how you are addressing the issues, not only you know, I guess with him, so that we don't end up in a paper as far as another death or another, um, someone that felt like that they were um neglected by certain agencies at the jail that were not doing their part to help them.

So I just thought maybe today you could just have reached out to her just to say that you could have a conversation or give her the a number or whatever because I asked her before if she had your number so that she could, you know, talk with you.

Absolutely.

We can have a conversation for as much as I can tell her as far as giving her information in reference to a person's medical condition.

We have to still deal with HIPAA.

Okay, if you could maybe next month get with or get with Steve, because I know my colleague has asked for a follow-up on this.

Um I can give her a call anytime.

We'll stop by and we can have a conversation.

No, I think I think what I think what she's asking for is for you to come before the body of public safety, and if anybody else has any, you know, because I'm quite sure this this conversation is not gonna stop here.

I'm quite sure us we're gonna be getting emails and calls in reference to coming here probably next month to sign up to speak in reference to something else.

That's why I'm giving you the opportunity or my colleagues are for you to be able to come here and just you know, let us know and let the public know exactly you know what you're you know how you're moving forward.

How we are because there's some because there's other people that have called me too and asked me, um, and I'm not gonna get into that because like I said, you and I've been fighting and arguing since 2021.

I don't want to do that today.

I don't I got I mean arguing, you know, you know what I'm saying.

Don't want to disappear, we're okay.

Okay, all I'm saying since 2021, just please if you can reach because here she is.

She came here today, you know, with concerns about her loved one that's under your care, as you as the sheriff.

Absolutely.

I'll be more than happy to speak with her and give her the information that I can give her.

Understand.

Okay, okay.

And we can we can do that now if she wants.

She and I can go outside and I can give her what I can.

I'm not sure how much is that gonna be in reference to I think she's just concerned about her loved one, not now.

And then she's probably not, you know, maybe doesn't fully understand about how it works with this department, that department, and how many medical issues does he have, and she wants to make sure that all of them are addressed so that she don't have to be burying her loved one.

Absolutely.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate your time.

We're not fighting, Ms.

Trent, but we're okay.

Well, I know we have in the past, and I'll leave it at that.

Yes, ma'am.

And I don't want to wanna, you know, you're here, and and I appreciate that.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else that would like to address the committee regarding items not on today's agenda?

Seeing none, the public comment period is now closed.

We will now move on to the board vacancy packet.

Good afternoon, Kylie Kessaker, deputy city clerk.

The vacancy report before you this afternoon, uh, which captures current and projected vacancies through August consists of a reappointment application for a towing and recovery operator who resides or has a principal place of employment in the city on the advisory board for the assessment of towing fees and the storage of vehicles.

Aben Thomas, 8th district employment was appointed to serve a partial term, and the new term will be for a period of three years.

And I would recommend us to move this to the full body of counsel.

Is that a motion?

Well, do we have a motion?

Yes.

A second.

Okay, thank you.

Who was the second?

I'm sorry.

Who gave that?

Sarah.

Okay, thank you.

The committee is voting on the motion to forward the board recommendation of the advisory board for the assessment of tolling fees and the storage of vehicles for Abin Thomas as stated to counsel.

Ms.

Abubaka.

Aye.

Vice Chair Lynch.

Aye.

Chair Tramm.

Hi.

That motion has been approved.

We would now move on to the paper for consideration.

It'll be item one ordinance 2026 059 to amend city code to require the Department of Emergency Communications preparedness and response to route emergency 911 calls for emergency medical services to the Richmond Ambulance Authority.

That papers before the committee.

Yes, ma'am, and it was um requested to be referred back to this committee, which is why it appears on your um agenda for today.

Okay, thank you, man.

You're welcome.

Is it anyone for city administration or any the patron would like to speak in regards to this paper?

Good afternoon, Stephen Willoughby, director of emergency communications preparedness and response.

Uh I'll just uh reiterate um some of the highlights from Meravilla's um MO to council on May 10th regarding this paper.

Um in summary, uh maintaining the single uh call center as we currently have improves clarity and accelerates uh life-saving interventions, as well as uh moving to a dual center model as proposed by the ordinance.

Uh both RAA and DECPR would have to bear cost of licensing, infrastructure, maintenance, and training, resulting in doubling the costs uh for the city.

Um the current model is data driven and consistent with the best practices, industry practices established um city strategy and pillar one of the mayor's action plan and thriving city hall.

Um DCPR is nationally accredited public safety answering point and uses International Academy of Emergency Dispatch Protocols.

Uh IED that uh governing body performs quality assurance of DCPR's performance to ensure independent third-party performance reviews, um, addressing some of the concerns regarding misclassification.

Um we received uh a list of of those RA claimed were misclassified and reviewed all of those uh in many of the cases uh those calls were deemed as compliant and in fact in some cases those were part of the independent uh review that IE does and they determine that the initial call was highly compliant according to their standards.

Um the current model is more efficient, more physically responsible, and is operationally more efficient.

So therefore the administration opposes this change, the revision back to a dual center model proposed by the ordinance uh waste taxpayer dollars increases response time and it's inefficient method of addressing the patron's concern.

Thank you.

So can excuse me.

Oh, but in audio.

I'm sorry, Michelle.

Can we open up the floor for a public hearing?

What did you?

Would that be okay?

Yes, okay.

Is there anyone that would like to speak in opposition to item one?

Is there anyone that would like to speak in support to item one?

Seeing none of the public hearing is not closed, bring it back to the committee.

Excuse me, I would like for Chip Decker to come up.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Chip Degarcia, Richmond Amment's authority.

Um, as far as this paper goes, uh I've seen the mayor's response.

We also responded back to that.

Uh a couple of points.

And so while they are accredited, they're not accredited in the call taking by the IAED.

The Richmond Ambulance remains ready to add capacity, expertise, and accuracy to the call taking in the city of Richmond and hopes that you approve this paper back again to uh council.

Mr.

Decker, would you be requesting additional taxpayer dollars to move this to RAA?

We still maintain all the software because we have a whole nother side to the AMIS Authority.

We take non-emergency or pre-scheduled call taking also, and we follow this the same.

So it's it's no savings for us.

So you know, I I haven't seen the numbers, unfortunately.

Uh Director Willoughby and I have been unable to meet to uh discuss where this figures are coming from.

But the insinuation that this would be duplicative and cost additional taxpayer dollars is incorrect.

It's not it's not going to save anything.

We're going back to the way it way it was.

I can't see that it's going to cost any additional taxpayer dollars, and what you're getting is additional capacity to answer the phone, and the uh the accreditation standard of excellence for uh the accuracy in uh the call taking from the ambassador.

And last question, um, you know, part of we've been talking about this now.

I think this has probably been the most deliberated uh topic since I've been on council um for almost year and a half now.

Um basically the entire time it's been switched over.

Um in our deliberations most recently we've we've asked for the opinion or expertise of the state.

Um can you speak to what this the state authority has shared with us?

Yeah, there's a state statute that um requires PSATs, public safety answering points to be trained in uh emergency medical dispatch.

The um letter we received from the state, uh it says that yes, you need to be trained in it.

It is silent on the operational responsibility as to who needs to uh actually provide it, um, because the state does not intend, and you know, particularly in a situation like this to roll back the quality just to comply with you know a law.

It was never intended to do that.

It doesn't do that.

The opinion that the mayor and I received, you know, that was prior stated uh before by administration seems to be incorrect.

Okay, so to summarize this the state that we the state authority that we went to to ask for their opinion, said that the accreditation is required, but that the opera, like how we operate is at the authority of the they were they were neutral on how the locality decides to operate.

So if we wanted to go back to RAA doing medical calls, the state is agnostic about that, correct?

That is correct.

Okay.

So just because I think it's important for clarity because I'm over this conversation.

We the underpinning argument for why it was switched over July 1, 2024 of this being a state mandate, state law is null and void.

According to the correspondence from the state.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um again, again, I feel like we have been asking for good data to compare uh pre and post-test since this switch was made and since I first kicked this ornament's nest about a year and a half ago.

Um, and so I'm still trying to make sense as to like is it better?

And I don't know that the data that I'm looking at now really gives me an indicator of that.

The strongest data point that I'm seeing here is exhibit A from, and this is from emergency communication communications and preparedness and response shop, that says the average time to determine it, uh we've seen a 34% drop.

Can you elaborate on that for me a little bit?

Absolutely.

So the curtain certain national standards that are used, you know, for the accreditation, and that is my knowledge not one of them.

So what that is saying is that when somebody dials 911, it goes to the department of emergency communications, and they're gonna ask the address of the emergency, a callback number in case you get disconnected, and tell me exactly what happened.

And if they say I'm having chest pain, then the software has a drop down and you select chest pain.

At that point, based on the software logic, it sends to a dispatcher, what unit should go for chest pain.

Is it a fire truck?

Yes.

So it goes to fire dispatch.

Is it an ambulance?

Yes.

So it immediately goes to the ambulance authority for dispatch.

Now that has occurred, but that is not the end of the caller's experience on the phone, because then you start asking the rest of the questions.

How long has this been going on?

Is it you know, is it in the left arm?

And so there's a whole bunch of questions that based on the caller's response takes you down a different pathway until you get to the very bottom, and that is the final determinant, so the resources were dispatched after like the third or fourth question, getting to the bottom of that whole interrogation, if you will, you know, it's not a race, it's it needs to be accurate, and our data shows we're more accurate, because if you if you take the wrong path on your way down, then it can change the response.

It can cause the you know, a fire truck to no longer be necessary, it can cause an ambulance to go in not with lights and siren on, you know, so it's it's not a race to the bottom to get to the wrong answer.

You also have to be accurate.

I think they're saying they do it a minute faster.

The questions are the same, no matter who's asking it.

How do they ask the questions a minute faster in such a short time?

How how would how does that even look?

Well, so the corresponding data point that we've been asking for this whole time is about just that, right?

How with the accuracy rate?

And I think that's you tell me, but or someone who's knows more than us, tell us.

But isn't that a really important data point to have to know the avoidance of liability and risk?

And life or death situation, right?

It absolutely is.

Is that like the most key thing that you could do?

And that's what the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch that are the authors of that software.

That's what they look at.

Did you draw the correct conclusion?

Did you give the proper pre-arrival instructions based on your correct conclusion as to what's wrong with the patient when necessary?

And if the answers to that are yes, and you did it more than 90 90%, I believe or more of the time, then you can work towards or be accredited, like the Richmond Amments Authority has been since 2001.

Okay, so let me ask this question again for the um tenth time a year and a half.

Who has better accuracy rates in like a 12 month time period?

But all the data we've seen is the Richmond Amus Authority does.

Okay, I hear you, Chip.

Is anybody else want to speak to that or can back that up, or do we have any other data points that give the administration a chance or an opportunity to share?

Steve.

The question is, it's the most important, I think.

That's important question.

Um, the most important questions we've been asking, um, is what is the difference, if if any, in accuracy rate between the call center when it was with the RAA versus the call center, the current accuracy rate, the percentage of accuracy rates with you.

He's saying it was higher when it was with the So we're both using the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch standards to measure those accuracy rates.

Uh, the big difference, I think, is what you guys are trying to get to and how we're able to affect a dispatch quicker is the call is no longer being transferred.

It's being handled by a qualified, certified emergency medical dispatcher upon the initial 911 call.

I just with simple percentages, this is a metric that's captured by the accrediting body.

What was it in 20 from 2023 to 2024 versus a look back of 2025 to 2026?

Do we know that?

Statistic.

I mean, we could provide that, but I think I think that data has been provided in many of the packets that we have that we've provided over the last several weeks.

So I would go back to my statement that the initial determinant, it's very technical how this whole thing works, the initial determinant of the initial questions that a call taker, you know, requires to determine the response who's going hasn't changed, hasn't changed.

The only part that has changed is after the units have been dispatched, DEC used to send us the caller to ask the remaining questions to get to that point where we fully understand what's wrong with the patient.

Can we intervene over the phone for care?

And are the right pieces of equipment responding?

Nothing has changed in determining the initial response.

If they if you tell them you're having chest pain, they're going to code it as chest pain.

If we're asking the rest of the questions and realize you're having chest pain because you got hit in the chest with a basketball, that's different from a potential assumption at the very top that you're having a heart attack, especially if you're 13 years old, right?

So that's what those extra questions do is dig deeper into what was the initial chief complaint.

And the and the process of determining the response when the response is distributed to dispatchers to dispatch resources, has not changed either way.

What we're trying to restore is the accuracy at finding out is it is it chest pain medical cardiac?

Is it chest pain?

I got hit in the chest with something.

You know, that's what we're we're trying to uh establish.

And once again, we're ready to add capacity to their call taking because if they can transfer the caller to us, freeze up time, answer another call.

Did I answer your question at all?

Okay.

Um so what would I what I believe the I'm assuming the president, maybe the administration asks us to do because they sent it back to this body, was to give a more thorough analysis of whether or not it makes sense.

This paper, what it's asking us to do to move these this call center, whether or not it makes sense.

I don't know that the data that we're sitting here looking at from the administration gives us a good indication of that, primarily because I don't see anything that speaks to accuracy and rate of um if if or not that code that call was coded correctly, um, what the analysis of additional capacity added back to the call center would do should those calls transfer back over to you, and it seems like we have some misaligned cost impact data.

Um so I feel like this is like an incomplete homework assignment, and I don't know if I'm adequately prepared to say that we have enough information to make a great decision.

So it leads me personally to say, well, let's fall forward it to full body and have more give our colleagues the opportunity to ask those questions.

Chip, I want to thank you.

Um, you know, putting up with this for the past couple of years, I should say.

Um, you know, I think it's pretty bad when Mr.

Willoughby comes down here and attacks one of my colleagues because she's got some questions that are not fully um explained to us and hardly ever pays attention to us.

But anyway, I am sick and tired of every time I have a paper, every time I put in legislation, I have to go through something like this, and it's pretty bad when I support my colleagues on council just about everything and anything that they want to throw in front of me.

But this right here, this is I mean, how do you put a price on life and death?

This right here is is life, and you know, every second counts.

And when someone calls and and I know I've called 9 11.

What's your emergency?

What this that I'm like, what I'm calling for somebody else who don't want to call 9-1-1.

You're asking me all these questions.

You know, that takes time too.

I guess Mr.

Willoughby's called 9-1-1 and figured it out for himself, I guess.

I don't know, but I know I have.

If the mayor and the CAO's got a problem with it, come talk to me about it.

I'm the chairperson.

Come talk to me.

I have yet to talk to them, which it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter, not to me.

But Chip, I hope, you know, I hope my colleagues, we're going to forward this paper to the full body of counsel, and I hope that they will vote for this because this is wrong to do this to you and to every citizen in this city of Richmond that calls 9 1 1 and waits for someone to come and help them.

Like the poor lady was on Bells Road pregnant, having a baby on the asphalt in my district, and had to wait for someone to help her because the police officers couldn't put her in a police car.

The firefighters couldn't pick her up.

I saw that.

Why are you shaking your head now at me?

Okay, you're just shaking your head.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chip.

Second.

The committee is voting on the motion to forward item one ordinance 2026 059 to council with the recommendation to approve.

Miss Applebacker.

Aye.

Vice Chair Lynch.

Chair Tram.

Aye.

That motion has been approved.

We will now move on to our presentations.

We have the Richmond Fire Department response times and updates by Chief of Fire and Emergency Services, Jeffrey Siegel.

I'm Jeffrey Siegel, Chief of Fire.

Good afternoon.

Chairson, Councilwoman, Member Trammell, and Councilmember Abu Baka, Councilmember Lynch.

We're very pleased to be able to present this.

Well, how is the fire department planning for the future with the growth of the city?

So you had questions such as well, what are we doing to prepare for the increasingly dense city?

That was one of the questions, too.

What about the tall buildings?

Are we planning properly for the tall buildings?

And what about uh overtime rates and policy?

So we're very excited to be able to explain some of these things to you because that's some of the good things that we've been able to do uh in the fire department within the last year or so.

Uh just to start uh to help you to understand that everything that we've been doing in the fire department all aligns with the mayor's pillars.

For example, a uh thriving city hall, the things that we've been doing and the changes that we've been making, such as reorganization, policy reviews, using data to be more efficient.

Uh we've made all those changes and we we really really feel good about it.

And uh we we're going to talk about it as we go through the presentation, as well as uh thriving neighborhoods.

Um, some of the approaches that uh you have seen us uh doing, uh knocking on doors and etc.

That involves community engagement, a different approach, a strong approach that we're taking uh to grow with the city and uh be ready to handle any of the challenges of the future, as well as uh uh low vacancies, fleet upgrades, and um additional uh staff and doing uh dynamic staffing.

So to get right into it, um we're looking at, okay, well um high rises.

Um, one of the concerns that uh uh you had um and here in the city, the city's growing, and as you can see, there's over 52,000 residents that's been added since 2020, and uh the high rises, for example.

Um the city's growing vertically.

Um, and uh we are well aware of that.

So taller buildings means uh more complexity when it comes to fighting fires.

So, what have we been doing?

Well, if you look at this slide, you'll see that um we have positively grown, and uh we've used technology added with that uh for uh the uh challenges of a city that's growing.

For example, in 2023, we added uh four additional units.

That was truck six on Hawthorne Avenue, truck seven, that's on Thompson Street, truck 10 that is on the Richmond Highway, and engine 24 uh located on Forest Hill Avenue.

Uh we also uh recently we've had uh just this past year uh two new fire stations that that's allowing for growth.

Uh one is um down uh station 21 down on Richmond Highway, and the other one was station 12 uh over in Kerrytown, and those stations are allowing for us to have additional growth, uh more uh space for units, and uh we're very excited about that.

CIP current projects are extremely excited about this.

We're bringing the burn building back to the Richmond Fire Department.

For the last few years, we couldn't even do burns at the fire training academy.

We had to go out to other jurisdictions like Henrika and other jurisdictions to do proper training.

So now, because of the budget, we are very, very pleased to say we're bringing it back.

We should have that done within a year.

We're going to have our burn structures back here so that we can properly train, and then a result of that is that we're protecting the citizens because we're properly trained.

We can train more, train more on live burns and etc.

Right here, and our training facilities within the fire department.

That's one area.

Future plans, CIP plans, we are making recommendations, have made recommendations for future CIP plans to have an additional station downtown, well, as well as replacing the station at station 18, which is located on Thompson Street.

For example, predictive response modeling.

With the data, we're able to look at okay, well, what's the trends?

How to move resources around.

Then in addition to that is uh dynamic staffing, uh using data helps us to do that, and that's how we're moving with the city as the city grows where we can keep up with the demand.

Just to give you an example of um how efficient uh things are now is that uh we just took a sneak uh a peek at uh 1972.

In 1972, it's very was very similar to the uh population here in the city, about 250,000.

Well, uh, how many resources did we have there?

Well, if you can see that we had over 35 uh fire companies, then in addition to battalion chiefs and so forth.

But today, with the same amount of population, but if you notice that the annual incidence has more than doubled.

So that means that the fire service is uh much busier than what it was back almost 50 years ago, but the population is the same.

So we're we're extremely busy now.

But the difference now is that we're able to manage the demand through innovation.

We're able to uh manage that demand through good planning, better training, and better operational efficiency.

So we we feel really good about that.

So if you notice there, the newer fire engines, fire trucks, they're much faster, they can get into alleyways much more efficient uh than the days of yesterday.

Another strategy that uh we feel really good about as far as um growing and uh being able to adapt to the changing environment is community risk reduction.

We strongly feel that response, planning, having efficient response is extremely important.

But just as important as that is also community risk reduction.

If you can prevent a tragedy from happening, it's far better than responding to a tragedy.

So that's why we're focusing on community risk reduction, education, education, education to the public, uh helping them to see fire safety.

Well, what can they do to prevent a tragedy from happening?

Uh coupled with engineering smoke alarms uh as well as uh good code enforcement.

So, what does that mean?

Well, if you just take a look at the bottom bullet there, January, January to April.

Here's some of the things that we've been doing to really work with the change of environment.

We visited over 14,500 homes, and even right now, as I speak, it jumped up close to 17,000.

That means that all firefighters are knocking on the doors.

We're talking to the citizens, we're educating them, and we really think that is a strong way to to work with the changing environment.

We've participated in over 500 community and station events.

We've engaged in over 27,000 citizens, and we've installed over 450 smoke alarms because we truly believe if you have smoke alarms, that's going to save lives.

Other strategies that you asked about is, okay, well, what about some of these complex incidents such as hazmat and so forth?

Well, we have invested in certain equipment, such as earlier monitors.

These are special meters that will help us to uh cope and mitigate uh hazardous incidents.

Uh, we're also very uh involved with the local emergency planning committee as referred to as the LEPC, and we're we're well trained, and that's the picture over to the right with regards to hazmat incidents, river rescues.

Uh we made sure that we have those resources very close to our jewel, and as you know, the um the James River is our jewel.

But it's also very dangerous if uh at times.

So we're well equipped with that.

And another changing environment is uh active shooters.

Things are not the same as it was 20, 30 years ago.

We have that threat of active shooters.

Uh, before the fire department will be in a cold zone.

Um, we would not go uh into the interior and uh help out with uh stopping the bleed.

But uh we've been working with the police department as being part of a rescue task force, and you can see that on that bottom picture.

That's some of the current training that we're doing uh under the uh guidance of the police department.

What that means is that if we have an active shooter, we're training with them to be able to come in and stop the bleed.

Our role is to stop the bleed, um, uh to be able to help out there, and that saves lives.

So we're we're moving and we're changing with the environment, and that's some of the things that we feel really, really good about.

And that means every one of our firefighters are involved in this training, so at any given moment we can work beneath the the guidance of the police department as part of that rescue task force to get in there and stop the bleed.

Other uh strategies you asked about, um, and uh that's regarding our overtime, uh, overtime management.

Uh we feel really good about this.

Uh, our strategies uh has been successful.

Um, and we've done that through these four areas, uh controlled vacancies and vacancies are a key driver of overtime.

Um, on average, we uh in past in the past four years, we've averaged about 24 vacancies.

And this past fiscal year, at the beginning of the fiscal year, we had actually 30 vacancies.

But through proactive um hiring, working with HR, we actually realized zero vacancies in February, zero vacancies.

I've never heard I look back through the records, I couldn't find another time where the fire department had zero vacancies.

Well that was short-lived, um, and uh we only have five vacancies, but we're putting another class in very shortly uh to be able to make sure we have zero vacancies, but vacancies have a direct impact on overtime.

That's why we focus on that.

Dynamic staffing.

Well, sometimes we we put more firefighters on the street when there's certain activities, and sometimes we bring down the number of uh firefighters when it's not as uh active.

Improved climate.

Uh, we strongly believe that people come to work.

Firefighters come to work just like anybody else when they're happy and they like the environment.

So therefore, we have improved the climate, the morale of the fire department, and the result is that when people come to work, that's less overtime.

Since March, we've implemented some changes and some improvements, and we've actually realized 54% overtime reduction.

That's huge.

So we're very, very optimistic about the future.

We uh we're looking forward to next year and fiscal year 27 to keep that going and to be able to report back out to you about okay, what are you doing?

How how successful are we?

So far, we're doing really good in that area.

So uh the question comes up: well, how's the fire department different from other agencies?

We have the FLSA mandated overtime.

Uh, the normal work schedule for anybody is about 40 hours a week.

Anything over 40 hours, they get paid overtime.

Well, the fire department's different.

Our work week is a 56 hour work week.

And FLSA federal mandated overtime says if anyone works 53 hours or more, they have to get paid.

And that is one of the drivers of our overtime because our schedule is 56 hours.

So therefore, it's automatically earned through their normal work schedule.

So if you look there, you see that it's pre-predictable, and uh we have about 67,860 hours of FLSOA overtime.

That's a driver of overtime.

Then the other overtime comes as a result of uh staffing shortages just because of uh leave and things like that.

This uh slide here helps us to understand um what drives overtime further.

It's okay.

Well, how many fire engines do you have on the street?

Well, how many uh four-time uh employees do you have, your staffing factor, as well as leave usage and vacancies.

I have that picture up there just to show you that on average they're not Martians, but they're actually people.

They're the red every fire engine and fire truck in the city of Richmond.

We try to keep four uh firefighters on there.

That's most efficient.

So, in order to keep fire or four firefighters on there, if you look over to the right side, um, we refer to that as a staffing factor.

You have to have five employees, or we have five employees, because out of the five, one of them is normally on vacation or leave and etc.

But that staffing factor of five was good in the 70s, 80s and so forth, and before that.

But the ideal staffing factor is 5.5.

So that's why you see up there because we have more leave.

Uh we have parental bonding, child care, um, uh mental health, and uh more leave options than what we had 30 years ago.

So that's why the staffing factor, the ideal staffing factor is 5.5.

Just to give an education on what drives over time, how do we staff?

So far, uh the steps that we've taken, these proactive steps makes a world of difference.

We're averaging so far uh with the changes we've made, we're getting almost seven more employees a day, seven more employees a day that's coming to work as a result of um the changes that we made.

You can see there and uh FY25 versus uh FY26, you can see the difference of who's showing up to work and how many folks we have.

103 versus 110.

And um basically the way that we're doing that is staying ahead of attrition, uh proactively hiring, making sure we do that, and we have a recruit classes coming in uh June 2026.

Another contributing factor, and we thank you, the council as well as the mayor for approving our budget.

Uh we have an increased uh budget for our FLSA, um, and our staffing budget is at uh 1.3 million, but overall it's an increase of almost three million dollars and uh uh overtime, and that's appropriate because of our staffing factor.

Another strategy um that we we we really really feel good about is uh employee retention, employee engagement.

We have improved communications in the fire department, we have award ceremony, we're doing a lot of positive things, even with our relationship with the union, all these areas have improved, and the result is that we have good retention.

Um that last bullet there is the climate survey.

That was a survey that was done about a year or so ago, and um basically it asked the employees, well, um, what areas do you think the city would the file department can improve in?

Uh, what areas do you uh feel as though uh can make a difference?

Well, we did that the same basic basically same climate survey in 2026, just uh a few weeks ago, and the survey results was overwhelmingly positive.

Um for example, negative morale dropped from 27% to eight percent.

Uh the majority rate of morale is excellent or good, and while we share that is because when you improve employee satisfaction, the result is that you have good retention and people come to work, but it also impacts overtime.

So, in conclusion, we really want to say hey, we we're not the same department that we were a year ago.

Uh we are uh deeply rooted in a community, we're community focused, we're knocking on doors, we're educating people, we have a thriving workplace, our resources are uh better more or is better organized.

We're using data to help us to navigate the expansion of the city and uh be able to reduce uh overtime and handle future uh demands.

And uh as a result, uh we're doing pretty good with that.

So I um that's the conclusion, but I would love to be able to ask if we can, if Tom permits, uh just to give you some responses from some of the citizens.

It's it's about a minute or so video on okay.

Well, what's happening when we knock on the doors when we're we're trying to uh communicate with the public.

And this these is very educational for all of us.

If we can play that, yes, so that's the feedback that we we received in recent weeks, simply by trying to educate the public, grow with the city, prevent tragedies from happening in advance, um, getting out there knocking on the doors, and our ultimate goal is to knock on every door every year at every residence to educate them, and that's the way you save lives by preventing a tragedy from happening, and that's how you grow with a city doing education, technology, and good fast response.

I just want to take a moment to celebrate you and say how much we appreciate you and all the work um that you all do, and we hold you so near and dear in our hearts, and we know um what you guys are facing every day.

Um so the the uh the the officer that came to my house got me real good.

Cranking real hard, said it was coming.

He's like, ma'am, I've heard a noise complaint.

Like, oh, and we just so happen to be doing an Easter eight contact there at the time.

So um anyway, I think we've we've heard a lot of um really great feedback from our neighbors and constituents on the the door-to-door outreach, and you already engendered yourself into the community.

We already loved you already, but that really has gone a long way, and we really appreciate you taking the extra mile to do that.

Thank you.

I just um I mean I of course I impartial, but um I knew Richmond fire was second to none to see these numbers, the actual data that were you're responding to nearly triple the number of responses that you did in 1972 with less, less trucks, less less companies, um is a testament to your efficiency and deployment of resources.

Um so again, thank you.

Um, and thank you, Chief, for your leadership.

I think it's no surprise that the climate survey looks the way it does, given that you your appointment happened, your official appointment happened last year.

Um, and having gone to many firehouses with you, I see the way that the men and women of those stations look at you and interact with you, and I see the way more importantly that you interact with them.

Um, and it would be I think an honor for anybody to work under your service.

Um, so I I want to say all that, and then uh I wanted to ask about the um the growth of the city.

I know I think it's in Charlotte, um, that they tie permits.

I think it's like they actually tie the number of fire companies to permits, um, like new permits being pulled.

And I'm wondering, you know, given again the the growth of the city, if that's something that we're looking at as a as a data indicator, and um, so that's kind of number one.

Number two, you know, when we we were visiting, somebody said one of the firefighters at a station said something that I thought was so incredibly um insightful, which is that we talk a lot about as being a capital city that our our resources are expended much more than you know our our regional uh neighbors because people come down to the capital and um and we're we constantly have events down here.

Um but they mentioned that the state supports police, we've got the the capital police, we've got state police, we've got a great partnership with VCU police, and they they have a resting authority.

Um, but there's there's nothing commiserate to that for fire.

So while the resources are being expended um on both sides, fire really is it really has to carry that.

And I thought that was such an interesting way of looking at um us as a capital city.

So I guess it's a two-part kind of question.

One is, you know, are we how are we looking at our our growth model um with data?

And then two, um, is there anything we should be considering as a capital city in in terms of additional supports for the fire department?

Well, as you well know, any uh capital city here.

When something happens in uh regionally, well, even in a state, would it wind up at I'm pretty sure Chief was going to agree with me on that?

And it does add some additional challenges.

So what we've done, we can we will always welcome more, some more help, financial help on that.

However, um we've been really, really efficient with uh grants, and uh we have a very, very good uh grant writer that's brought in over like 5.2 million over the last three years that helps out with certain training that help us to uh make up for that gap.

Um so that as well as uh making good use of our resources.

So uh with that gap, that challenge, uh, that's how we're trying to overcome that.

But we'll we will always welcome more resources from the state.

And then um, one last thing with the with the growth.

Um another thing that was brought up to me is that there are um, you know, 10 15 years ago, a lot of landlords were local.

Yeah, they're they were and they didn't mean they were good, but they were they were local, and now we've got a lot of high-rise buildings that are owned by firms out of New York and Chicago and Boston, and so the ability for the fire department to get into those buildings has been a little bit more difficult.

Is there any um solutions, either policy or legislatively, that we could help support so that your men and women can get into that building faster?

Yeah, actually um we uh the legislation that we have now is that key holders have to be able to respond within a certain amount of time.

I can come back and uh give you some additional research where we can use some additional help uh because we do want to get inside of buildings.

If that key holder is not available, that means that unit is um being delayed and well, something can happen inside that building.

So we always want to get in that building sooner the better.

And also what happens is that it minimizes damage to that building because if we see any inkling of a danger, smoke or something like that, then we have to force our way in.

So economically, even to the the uh uh owner of the building is it's better for them to respond, be there.

So I get you the data to see uh where we are on that, uh, because it's always in a uh a concern of ours to make sure that those key holders are getting there.

Uh so we'll follow up with you on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything we can do to support you know that we'll we'll do it.

Okay.

That was great.

Stephanie.

Chief, I just have a couple questions.

Um you said something about a burning tower.

Yes.

Where would that be located?

That's in Sandstead.

Um that is at our fire training academy.

Remember, we haven't had a burn building.

It uh the conditions in our tower, our burn building, we couldn't train inside of there as far as live burns and so forth.

So that's why we had to rely on our neighboring jurisdictions.

Okay.

And then um you said the firefighters have visited over 17,000 citizens.

As of this day, but when we put the power the uh presentation together um a couple weeks ago, it was 14,500, and uh it's gonna grow.

Because we're continuing to uh go with that mindset of knocking on doors, preventing a tragedy.

Okay, and then they have installed over 450 smoke alarms.

That's correct, yes.

Okay, because I just got to all right.

What about apartments?

They want to know do you go into the apartments too?

I told them I thought you did.

We are educating everyone.

Everybody, it doesn't make a difference.

Apartments, high-rise, we had work with the community associations and so forth.

So even apartments, um, we have to be careful with that because landlords are responsible for that.

But you would never ever see the fire department say, hey, you have a landlord and you've got to wait on that smoke alarm.

Life matters.

So we we will install them if there's no smoke alarms.

Um, but uh the landlords are responsible for uh those uh buildings, um, and that is apartments, high rises and so forth.

But uh we'd never walk away and uh leave a occupant without a smoke alarm.

Okay, and then um something about I think you and the chief is working on thing about active shooters, like when the firefighters go there to put a I mean we've seen it on TV how they get ambushed along with our police along with police officers too.

So I think y'all are working together on that, and I know.

Yes, that's that's what the rescue task force um as uh one say let police do police work and let firefighters do uh firefighting.

Um our responsibility is is to stop the bleed, um, to support uh Chief Edwin's uh police officers.

Uh, uh that's our role in that.

And uh, which in a capital city is extremely, extremely important.

You want to know if there's an active shooter that someone's stopping the bleed, and that's why we feel good about partnering with uh Chief Bad Witch and being able to respond properly and uh be able to stop the bleed, be able to help out and be able to get victims to um raw uh ambulance.

And then um, Chief with South Side, you know, mainly the eighth and ninth district with the Hispanic population.

Um, how are you doing with recruiting firefighters?

Um, yes, yes.

Location 21, 22.

Yes, yes, yes.

As you well know, our Hispanic population has grown and it continues to grow, and we want to see good representation in the fire service.

Um, very much like in this room here, you want to see the same representation.

So we are going to, and we have been communicating, Chief.

Um Martin has been our lead on that with the Hispanic communic um uh community, and it's just not just when it comes to um employment.

We want the Hispanic community uh to be part of our fire department, but we also want to be able to uh get in the community and install smoke alarms and educate them as well.

So we're working really, really hard on that to make sure we overcome certain societal um challenges and uh language barriers as well.

Chief, I know that um I'll say in my district because I have all the just about all the um mobile parks, a lot of them they definitely need the firefighters to come through there.

Especially um I have like three in the area, and I went over there not too long ago, take some clothes and things, and I was like, Do you don't have a smoke alarm?

They said, No, no.

And when I saw the extension cords and some other things, I said we've got to do something because I to educate them in Spanish so they know what we're talking about.

You can't go there, try to talk to them, and when they don't understand what I'm trying to relate to them, because if I point to the court, they don't they think they need another one.

No, you can't have that running out of the window to this one or that one.

Exactly.

One more last thing.

I just want to say thank you, thank you for what you're doing with their firefighters with their um the health and the safety with the uh cancer screenings that you're doing.

Because I know that Chief Andy's for years and years has asked for that, and you're here and you're doing that.

I know those firefighters definitely appreciate that.

Well, uh, we appreciate being able to provide that because that's one of the uh occupational hazards of fire service.

Uh our rate of cancer is is enormous in comparison to others.

But if I can say this in conclusion, uh I do want to thank the women and firefighters um and men of the uh fire service.

We stand on their shoulders and our command staff, so I'm thankful to them for what it what we're accomplishing.

So I just want to make that publicly known.

Thank you.

You're great, Chief.

Thank you.

Thank you for all that you do.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate you.

All right.

Fire chief, that is.

I saw the chief.

We will now have a presentation for traffic enforcement and safety from Chief of Police Rick Edwards.

Good afternoon, uh Chair Trammell.

I'm Rick Edwards.

I'm the chief of police for the city of Richmond.

We'll start off with a presentation about uh updates on our crime.

If you go to the let's see, maybe I can.

Do you want me to ask Chief?

So here's a snapshot of our crime.

Obviously, this is from a few days ago, but trending in the in the right direction with all of our violent crimes, specifically homicide down 57% over this time last year.

A key indicator of of gun violence that often is overlooked is the non-fatal shooting rate, which is down 33%.

That's on top of good numbers from last year.

Our robbery commercials have dropped the most significantly to 35 or I'm sorry, 65 percent, largely driven by the closure of vape shops.

I can report.

As you know, a third of the vape shops, a third of our commercial robberies last year involved vape shops, and now only one of the nine is a vape shop.

Uh and our robbery individuals, that's by far the largest number of our violent crimes.

Uh, when it comes to robbery, those are individual robberies down 23%, rapes down 25%.

Again, that's a very small number going from 9 to 12, or I'm sorry, 12 to 9 this year.

Aggravated assaults involving uh non-domestic related are down 6%, where we are still uh seeing a large increase in the reported number of aggravated domestic assaults.

As I said, we anticipate that number going down as the year goes on.

That is based upon the reporting change we have discussed uh previously for an over, and that is obviously driving our overall violent crime, but even with that big number, a 4% reduction in violent crime, which we're pleased with.

And Chief, um we know that you have another very important obligation after this, and we appreciate you sticking with us to the end.

So we if you if you need to go through a little father, please now.

Yeah.

Uh property crime, one percent.

That's the headline there.

Uh current photo speed uh location.

So these are the current locations, as as you know, we transitioned one of the the locations on Westover Hills, the double up Mary Mumford.

We had to give, if you look at the the time frame and the violations mailed, you can see that we had to do the warning program again after that move.

You get a 30-day warning program.

So, as you see, pretty consistent, except during times when school is out, obviously.

So that's where the transition in some of those lower numbers for various school breaks like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Uh, you'll see a drop-off.

The red light violations.

So, as you all know, we have 10 locations, five north of the James River, five south of the James River for red light uh cameras.

This has uh been implemented.

The grace period in some of these newer locations have started in May, and the other two Belt Boulevard and Hall Street and German School in Midlothian are still pending.

Uh still a lot of tickets being mailed.

So 10,000 total, 10,543 total citations, uh 6,535 warnings have been mailed.

Uh, and here's the breakdown of when those occurred.

We anticipate that number to continue to grow.

Uh traffic enforcement through our monthly blitz blitzes.

Uh part of our response uh is to focus on the higher injury network where we have members of our special operations division every month have committed to me.

They will pick an area of our city and do a focused enforcement or blitz uh once a month.

In January, focus on Broad Street.

Uh, there was certainly some tickets, but but nowhere near the level of some of these others on the high injury network.

So Sims and Cordon and the Lee Bridge is prolific.

March, we moved to the Hall Street corridor.

In April, we moved to Laburnham and Chamberlain, and then in May, the downtown expressway.

And we're still uh pending.

Uh next uh week we will be next Tuesday, we will be picking another location.

I haven't heard that yet.

One of the things though that we're excited about is the fully transition our officers to the digit ticket that not only speeds up the process, it keeps the motorists for a shorter period of time.

Once you uh enter the information digitally on this device, you can add additional charges and it speeds through it, so you're not standing there uh writing tickets for people uh over and over again, and you're holding people for 30 minutes, whereas in with this, it can be significantly reduced time of the stop, and it's better tracking for some of the other things we're required to do by state law.

Here are some uh these are the uh summonses issued by officers.

We went back to 2021.

As you can see, the lowest was 2022.

We started picking back up in 2023.

Again, these are these are actual officers writing tickets throughout the city, not just special operations but patrol as well.

Uh I was informed this year we're a bit down when I inquired our team about that.

They said some of it's the processing, so those numbers will likely increase.

Uh again, while we certainly prioritize traffic enforcement to be clear, there are no quotas.

Uh, we we have we are asking simply our officers to be in certain areas and run radar and when people speed to enforce the law.

So Chief Siegel talked about this.

I really have to give him a lot of credit uh for seeing the value in our alert training, uh, active shooter training.

I'll go over a little bit uh more specifically.

The first goal that that we have in any incident like this is to stop the killing, and that is largely a police responsibility when when we believe uh an active shooting is occurring, the training is for our officers to respond rapidly and neutralize the threat, either by isolating or um engaging that person with gunfire.

Uh and that is something that has always been a traditional method uh since Columbine of police, that's the way we've been trained since I've been a police officer to respond rapidly to not set up a perimeter, not call out SWAT.

We are going to the sound of gunfire and sprinting towards that threat.

What's changed with this alert training that is put on it's funded by DCGS and the state is including our partners in fire.

So the next stage of this stopping the killing is an important part of it.

But the second part is just as important, and that's stopping the dying the dying.

So what you see here in these pictures is a Richmond police officer partnered with a rescue task force.

The firefighters have been given rescue equipment, they have ballistic vests as well.

They will be going into what's called the warm zone, which is once we have neutralized the threat.

Um we will not wait to clear the entire structure.

We once that threats neutralized, 98% of active shooters involve one person, one perpetrator.

The other two percent, when there are two or more perpetrators, they're usually together.

So we know that based upon those numbers, instead of waiting 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes to clear the structure before fire comes in and helps us render aid, uh, once that threat's neutralized, we send in the rescue task force that is protected by armed police officers, but the firefighters are are better trained with stopping the bleed with for rendering first aid and using their strong backs to get people to a higher level of care, and our officers can focus on what we do.

So stopping the dying is just as important as stopping the killing.

And the third thing is stopping the chaos patch to patch.

What I mean by that is one of the things that we've learned through this process is the fire department is fantastic at helping us manage the chaos.

They are very well organized, they can deploy resources really well, they're good at logistics, and having police officers side by side with a uh a firefighter uh helps us manage that response because another part of the delay sometimes is uh people just showing up, the logistics not knowing where the ambulance is coming to, not knowing where to deploy the proper resources, so using them in a in a command post has been really interesting and learning from them and uh moving as we've moved through this training, of which I've participated myself.

Uh I saw throughout the days getting better and smoother.

So we are ready when the bell rings, uh, if this were to happen, better than we were this time last year.

So I'm very thankful and appreciative of our friends in fire.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Just one question.

The firefighters aren't armed.

No, ma'am, no, no.

We are armed.

When they go in, they will they will have police officers that are assigned to them.

Even if those officers hear additional threats, they will not leave them.

That is a commitment we've made.

Uh, that was a concern of theirs.

So the firefighters have ballistic material on their bodies to protect them, but um, they'll be protected by armed police officers.

Um, Chief, I well, first thank you.

Um you are doing just incredible work, and um we echo the sentiments that we have.

We got two of the greatest chiefs ever.

Um, hurting my feelings before.

We had to clarify that.

We didn't specify that real.

Um, but we really do.

We appreciate you.

Uh and all the sworn officers and all the the just tremendous work that they're doing in the community.

Um, we're really really proud to have you as a chief and um have all the officers working for us and with us every day.

Um, you know, that we've talked about this before, but the the DV, the domestic violence, um, pretty dramatic increase in domestic violence is just deeply disturbing, and you know, I'm seeing that play out in my community in very specific communities, and that that the impact that it's having on the child welfare system.

I mean, we just had a call last week, it's pretty horrific.

Um, you know, it we uh couple years ago we were dealing with high rates of homicide, really high rates of homicide with our youth, and so there is some targeted interventions that we put in place are you all kind of what are you all kind of looking at to address um the domestic violence uh incidence rates of incidences that we're having and what we the first thing that we did as a police department was to ensure that uh we are focusing on that every week the captains meet with me and talk about crime in their four precincts and I want to know how many outstanding domestic violence warrants they have both simple assault and aggravated assault what we found last year was that there were people who the officer would get there the suspect wouldn't be there they're taking their report they're swearing out the warrants they're doing all that but the person is not being actively searched for so we're prioritizing even those lower level cases that normally wouldn't get the same attention because we know domestic violence can be uh escalatory in nature and when we look at last year our our murder rate was we had 54 murders the second the first uh motive behind all of our murders and non-fatal shootings are um arguments that escalate the second is domestic violence and that's the first time we noted that and we're looking at it not just domestic partner violence but romantic rival violence which is prolific so we're we're looking to arrest those people quicker the cases get better uh so that's a tangible step we've taken I'm also uh a full throated supporter of of our commonwealth attorney who who wants a um a family justice center I think that the investment in that a one stop shop for for victims you know there are certainly men who are victimized but the majority of our victims are are women so having a place for women and children who have been abused to go and it's the things that the police department can't really help them with we can get the warrants we can arrest the bad guy but but what they need is infrastructure support.

How do they change schools?

How do their benefits get how do they get moved if they're on in section eight housing that can be a barrier if they if they don't get a voucher to move to another location where the perpetrator doesn't know where they live so having a place to take away some of those barriers of leaving their domestic abuser I think will help pay dividends down the future and I'm committed to that as a police department to participate in that I think it's just um it's gonna be something that hopefully we can invest in as a city I think that would address that number significantly yeah and and I would deeply saddened that um that that we had a budget cut um this year and and saw that get cut out of the budget and I could not agree with you more and had talked with our um Commonwealth attorney about that and the need there um you know one one ask and maybe one follow-up uh to to this whole you know topic is really that the um coordination you know to that end with our DSS office and I'm seeing it on the CPS side where we will have an incident that is um it may not the CPS call may not be derived specifically from a DVN incident but we have become aware that there's DV in the home and we used to have that second responders program and I cannot tell you how many times just in my other hat working in the child welfare world um we've seen that increase of CPS workers that really are not equipped um to deal with um with those types of incidences and situations and furthermore it might be aggravating a domestic violence situation inadvertently by not coordinating with RPD to ensure that person we take some steps to remove that person from the home if it if that's necessary.

So I I would love to see some type of um just because these two things are so intrinsically linked um to see some type of um second responders uh you know an evaluation um from the administration to to say like hey like if we're allowed to draw down the type because it's Title 4e reimbursable if that's a program that would have merit um I know we tried to to put in a resolution um in 2020 it got hijacked for other reasons um and second responders resolution came something else but I would love to see that um to see that come back and and for us to do a true look at what it would take to implement that program back back again.

Yes I think that you know second responders were a great asset to the police department they have skills that we don't have we don't need to be experts at everything and it was so nice to have someone in our buildings that we could call and say they're five minutes away and they can come out and deal with it and not just domestic violence but when we see children who die as a result of negligence or or malice oftentimes there's indicators there that I think could be addressed earlier uh with um with resources and the criminal justice system so when we see children who have unfortunately died when we go back and look at those cases we see uh there may be other opportunities for the for us whether it's the police or CPS uh to to intervene.

Chief I just want to say thank you for all that you do you're always accessible to everybody um from the community to us I know council members everybody and I know that um you have some great deputy police chiefs deputy chiefs they answered my calls and I know they answered the citizens and sometimes my citizens can be so upset and when they call me back they just say I don't know who in the hell that that person was but he was just so nice to me and especially always saying cat where is major um Keyshawn Manns I said he got moved up oh no not the chief he didn't do yeah he did what who do we have now we have major Ronnie Armstead and he took some calls last Saturday just as nice as he could be and even um Monday the holiday and he calmed down some citizens of my district that was very very upset so and your officers all of them and I'm so grateful for your leadership and our fire chief because that's what we need brothers and sisters working together hand in hand that's my question about you know and you cleared that up with them not having you know ammunition or guns there you all are right there to protect them too thank you chief thank you for everything thank you police chief and fire chief that appears to be the last item on today's agenda other than the staff report we've given you all a staff report uh covered the presentations and uh uh what we expect for next month on illegal dumping and that sort of thing we'll get with you about the Commonwealth attorney's concerns on the presentation uh involving uh justice services correct and family justice and uh we'll follow up and then a follow up from the sheriff's office too you said I I will reach out to her I beg your pardon okay all right second responders program Steve all right that appears to be all for today's agenda there's no further businesses meeting stays at turned