TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Rachel Johnson, Chief of Police
Andrew Enriquez, Police Captain
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of Police Department Incident Notification Protocols to City Council and the Community (Police Chief Johnson).
(Estimated Time: 30 Mins.)
DISCUSS AND PROVIDE DIRECTION
Body
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RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council discuss and provide direction.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are no fiscal implications associated with the recommended action.
BACKGROUND:
The Police Department recognizes the need for ongoing communication with internal and external stakeholders regarding notable events occurring in the community. Internal and external communications are guided by several City and Police Department policies. To provide clarity and consistency of messaging amongst Police Department supervisory personnel, the Police Chief has issued a standing order (Standing Order 23-01) that defines notable events and the process for disseminating information based on the type of occurrence. Further, the standing order discusses community alerts, and provides general guidelines as to when those alerts should be made.
DISCUSSION:
Communication on notable events begin with internal notifications made by the on-duty supervisor when an event has occurred. The initial notification is made to Police Department executive staff.
Examples of notable events include major injury or fatal traffic collisions, anti-Semitic/hate crimes, incidents that cause unanticipated disruption to core City services, and incidents of major significance or public interest. The full list of notable events is incorporated in the Communication Protocol Memorandum included with this report.
Following notification to the City Manager, and based on the type of event, a notification is made to the City Council or to key City personnel through the Major Incident Notification email distribution list. These notifications are completed by the Watch Commander.
Generally, when the incident impacts other departments within the City, a notification is made to the Major Incident Notification email distribution list. This will ensure repairs are completed and departments are aware of after-hours impacts. If no other impact or action is required of departments outside of the Police Department, a notification is made to City Council.
The City of Manhattan Beach utilizes the Alert South Bay (formerly Nixle/Everbridge) system to provide information to the community. The types of notifications used for Alert South Bay are Emergency, Advisory and Community Update notifications.
Emergency notifications are generally sent through the Police Department. They are for actively occurring events where the public is advised to avoid a specific area, shelter in place or evacuate a specific area.
Advisory notifications are generally sent through the Police Department. They are for planned events and road closures. An example of an advisory notification is for the road closures for the Hometown Fair 10K Race.
Community Update notifications are generally sent by the City Department responsible for the event from which the update is provided. An example of a community update notification is a notification sent by the Police Department for the catalytic converter etching event.
For the Alert South Bay notifications, additional consideration is taken to be mindful of time of day and impacted area when sending notifications.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
After analysis, staff determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The subject request is not a “project” as defined under Section 15378 of the State California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines; therefore, pursuant to Section 15060(c)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines, the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no additional legal analysis is necessary.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Police Department Communication Protocol Memorandum
2. Police Department Standing Order 23-01
3. Major Incident Notification - City Policy P-32
4. Public Alerts - Police Department Policy 316
5. Major Incident Notification - Police Department Policy 327