HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-05-10-LHRC-min
TOWN OF LEXINGTON HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Conducted by Remote Participation
LHRC MEMBERS PRESENT
Tanya Gisolfi, Chairperson (TG), Mona D. Roy, Vice-Chair (MDR), Christina Lin, Clerk (CL), Stephanie Hsu
(SH), Amber Igbal (AI), Lexington Public School District - Larry Freeman (LF), Town of Lexington, Police -
Lieutenant Collen Dunbar (CD), Town of Lexington, Human Services - Melissa Interess (MI)
Guest - Chief Mike McClean, Town of Lexington, Police
The minutes were taken by Christina Lin, LHRC Clerk
• Meeting Called to order at 8:47am
• Meeting Minutes - Minutes from meetings on February 08, 2023, March 08, 2023, April
12, 2023, were approved by unanimous vote
• Chief McLean - LPD presentation
Chief McLean shared appreciation for having a partnership with the LHRC. This
partnership offers a path for community members with issues that might not always rise to
the level of breaking the law, but where the individual(s) may benefit from having a process
for having their concerns or grievances heard by community peers. Historically, the
Lieutenant Detective is assigned to be liaison to the LHRC because they are in charge of all
the investigative cases that run through the department which makes them well aware of
issues in the community. Additionally, Lieutenant Detectives are certified civil rights
violation investigators. Chief McLean appreciated the two-way communication with the
Chair since becoming the Chief and greatly appreciates TG reaching out direct ly to share
information about upcoming relevant events or involvements with the police department
such that any issues can be dealt with immediately.
Chief McLean is working on increasing community engagement and awareness of services
that LPD have to offer. - much of this is through increasing transparency and building trust
with the community by sharing all departmental policy, police call logs and arrest log
(except where confidentiality must be maintained) are all accessible on the police
department website. Currently working to create a dashboard for improved public interface.
LPD signed a contract for a pilot program for Q-hit which will collect feedback on police calls
to the community. This will hopefully provide data on what types of police ca lls may or may
not need support/additional training.
Other community engagement efforts include building a stronger relationship with the
cultural affinity groups. Chief McLean is proactively meet with community groups to make
connections and build relationships under positive circumstances rather than meeting only
when issues arise.
Police reform and accreditation
Lt. Dunbar is one of the State of Massachusetts subject matter experts in the field of
accreditation and serves on the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. Lt.
Dunbar's expertise has been invaluable to the police department. Police reform and
accreditation standards constantly change (monthly at times) so having Lt. Dunbar's
expertise has been invaluable, but more staffing would help with ensuring compliance and
record keeping stays up to date. A lot of the training is based in DEI - cultural competency,
fair and impartial policing. Lt. Dun bar and Sgt Sever are certified and can train and certify
others in Fair and impartial policing throughout the state. De-escalation training is a
significant part of the training in the department and complimentary to use -of-force
training. The new police department will have a de-escalation room with a simulator that
responds in real time to the officer. There will also be a civilian advocate space which can
be used by mental health clinicians, domestic violence partners and mental health supports.
Mental health will be the biggest challenge to policing going forward from Chief Mc Lean's
perspective.
Lexington currently has 50 officers in the department. LPD holds a lot of expertise within
staffing. Lt. Dunbar is a subject matter expert on police reform accreditation. LPD officers
take a lot of training. Much of the training is related to DEI work, fair and impartial policing,
and de-escalation tactics. Going forward, mental health is likely the biggest challenge to
policing. The new police station will have space to offer to civilian advocacy needs, for
mental health clinicians can use and other support services.
Question about retention, recruitment, and diversity of staff:
Chief McLean acknowledged that currently, recruitment and retention is a c hallenge not only
for Lexington, but nationwide. LPD is now at full staffing (50 sworn officers). LPD is also part
of the 30-for-30 pledge which aims to have 30% female officers by 2030. Christiana Severe was
first black female promoted and Aidan Evelyn was the first African American major case
detective. Chief McLean believes that having a police department that reflects the diversity of
its community is important and while diversifying the department is an important goal, all
promotions, and new hires, regardless of an individual's identity, are based on merit. The
department continues to work with the Town to find new ways to attract new hires and to
diversify their staffing.
LPD belongs to the jail diversion program with a few other districts which provides access to
two clinicians who can be onsite at an incident and provide real time. Would like to have a
full-time embedded clinician with LPD in the future.
Lexington has only one School Resource Officer (SRO) for over 7200 stud ents. Chief McLean
would like to have more SROs to support the students better and appreciates the
partnership with the school allowing officers to visit schools during lunch and recess to have
positive interactions with students and build connections at a human level first.
Currently there are 50 sworn police officers. According to the FBI, 63 officers is a more
appropriate ratio of officers to community members.
Question from a member on information on demographic breakdown on police stops. They
are working on getting this data up on a dashboard for the public to see in a transparent
way but unfortunately that is held up by the State, with no clear plans to get it up and
running.
A committee member voiced concern about national statistics around vulnerability of
neurodiverse people who may respond and/or appear differently which can make it more
challenging for an officer to accurately assess the situation. They also expressed support for
the culture of support and positive relationship with the community being established by
the police.
A committee member expressed gratitude for several police officers who attended the recent
Eid festival at Lexington's Depot Square; sharing that some of the community members were
initially scared/afraid of police because there has been an underlying distrust between
Muslims and police officers since the 9-11 incident. Therefore, at the festival AI made an
effort to introduce the officers to each table and was happy to report that the officers made
an excellent impression and helped alleviate the fear. "As Muslims we want to also feel
comfortable with the police department." AI extended an invitation to meet with the Muslim
community to continue working on building more trust. Chief McLean was grateful for the
feedback and has had similar feedback from attending other community events.
• AAPI Heritage Month Proclamation for May - A discussion on whether to add NH (Native
Hawaiian) to AANHPI. These terms are fluid and will likely change again. A member shared
both a desire to support the Native Hawaiian identity but also that delineating more cultural
groups can inadvertently alter the genesis of Asian American. TG suggested that we
consider adding to the LHRC proclamation a recognition that these terms are fluid and
definition can change over time. The group decided to work on the language for next year.
• Funding and size of civil rights groups in other towns : CD looked at 10 different
communities’ Human Rights Commissions/Committee to compare funding, structure, and
responsibilities. The two most similar were Andover and Arlington. Andover has
representatives from clergy, student, the town's DEI manger and 6 representatives. Andover
gets funding from the town budget funneled through their DEI group called Andover
Diverse. Brookline also gets funding through their DEI director. Concord-Carlisle have only
a volunteer group not affiliated with the town government. Brookline has a DEI director and
3 full time staff members. They have 16 town representatives. TG commented she has been
wanting to add a student representative for over a year, but timing of LHRC meetings has
been an issue. TG & CD discussed funding thorough Chief Equity Officer position.
• Based on how other civil rights groups operate in their towns, C D suggests that the LHRC
could expand to 12-15 members to be able to run the programming and process the work
that the LHRC have discussed in the past. Additionally, a student and clergy representative
would be valuable perspectives to add to the LHRC.
• Recommendation to the School Committee - the list below will be further refined by
MR and LF for the June meeting.
That in order to put into place policies to protect all children from discrimination, racism, and unjust
disciplinary treatment the Lexington Human Rights Committee (LHRC) recommends the School
Committee (SC):
• Quarterly meetings between LHRC executive team and SC liaison and/or an appointed LPS
member to provide any more in-depth updates.
• Systemic transparency where LHRC Chair and Vice Chair are timely informed of any human
rights allegation, issues, concerns that occur in the schools.
• Continued support of LPS systemic barriers report.
• Continued discussions with LPS on refining processes.
A member stressed that it is important that all incidents should be shared with the Chair of the
LHRC in the interest of the town. Two additional recommendations were made (1) that the
LHRC revisits past recommendations to see if the district acted, and (2) that past
recommendations be added to track changes.
Another member felt points 1, 2 and 4 were too broad. LF and MR will work together on
refining the recommendations for the next meeting.
• Recommendation to the Select Board - the draft below will be further refined by MI and CL.
• Continue to evaluate the CEO role to be included in the senior management team in town.
• We request consideration for funding of the LHRC in recognition of the education and
programming the committee organizes annually.
• Question on the process for creating the participatory budget. What voices are part of the group
that contributes to itemized proposed projects? And how can the town ensure marginalized
voices have full access to the entire process including opportunities to propose a project.
• Feedback on the Town survey - Equity is a fundamental element of decision making to town
business and not a benefit or resource to be treated like a commodity. Equity should not be
listed as an item to prioritize, rather it should be embedded in all we do.
Next Meeting is Wednesday, June 07, 2022, at 8:45AM in person at LCC
• Meeting adjourned at 9:45AM
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420