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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSWAT 2006 aOOC JOINT AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT RELATING TO THE USE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL AND EQUIPMENT AND THE INVESTIGATION OF MAJOR CASES 1. GENERAL PURPOSE The purpose of this agreement is to provide a means by which a party to this agreement may obtain emergency law enforcement assistance from other parties when: 1) unexpected exigent circumstances arise, or 2) assistance is sought in major case investigations, or 3) circumstances exist such that the parties requesting and providing such assistance deem it to be appropriate. This agreement is made and entered into under the authority provided in Minnesota Statutes 471.5g subd. 12. 11. DEFINITION OF TERMS For the purposes of this agreement, the terms defined in this section shall have the meanings given them. Subd. 1 "Party" means a governmental unit which is a party to this agreement. Subd. 2 "Eligible party" means a governmental unit which is entitled to become a party to this agreement, at its own option. The eligible parties are the County of Washington and every city, and town within the County of Washington, State of Minnesota. Subd. 3 "Requesting party" means a party which requests law enforcement assistance from other parties. Subd. 4 "Responding party" means a party which provides law enforcement assistance to a requesting party. Subd. 5 "Law enforcement assistance" includes police, sheriff, and Special Response Team personnel and equipment. Subd. 6 "Requesting official" means the person who has been designated by the requesting party to request law enforcement assistance from other parties. Subd. 7 "Responding official" is the person who has been designated by a party to determine whether and to what extent that party should provide law enforcement assistance to a requesting party. Subd. 8 "Special Response Team (SRT)" is a multi - agency law enforcement support unit which is specially trained and equipped to respond to and resolve critical incidents and other high risk law enforcement functions. III. PARTIES The parties to this agreement shall consist of as many eligible parties as shall elect, through resolutions adopted by their respective governing bodies, or authorized representative, to become parties. Upon the adoption of such resolution by an eligible party, an executed copy of this agreement shall be sent by it to the Sheriff of Washington County. When two or more eligible parties have elected to become parties and have provided such resolutions to the Sheriff of Washington County, this agreement shall become operative, and shall continue in force until, by reason of withdrawals as hereinafter provided, the number of parties to this agreement is reduced to one, or if the Sheriff withdraws, whichever is first. The Sheriff of Washington County shall maintain a current list of the parties to this agreement, and whenever there is a change in the parties of this agreement, the Sheriff shall notify the designated responding official of each of the parties of such change. IV. PROCEDURE Subd. 1 Each party shall designate, and keep on file with the Sheriff of Washington County, the name or title of the person(s) of that party who shall be its requesting official and responding official. A party may designate the same person as both the requesting official and the responding official. A party may designate additional and/or alternate officials to act in the absence of the official. Each party shall also designate one of the four options for SRT response as described in Section V, below. Subd. 2 Whenever, in the opinion of a requesting official of a party, there is a need for personnel and equipment or assistance in a major case investigation from other parties to assist the officers of the requesting party, such requesting official may call upon the responding official of any other party to furnish such assistance to the requesting party. If the requesting official of a party determines the need for an SRT response, that request shall be made to the Sheriff, Cottage Grove Director of Public Safety, or the Woodbury Director of Public Safety (or their respective designees). Subd. 3 Upon the receipt of a request for personnel and /or equipment or assistance in a major case investigation from a party, the responding official for any Ether party may authorize and direct law enforcement officers of the responding party to provide assistance to the requesting party, and if so, to what extent such assistance shall be provided shall be determined solely by the responding official (subject to such supervision and direction as may be applicable to the officer within the governmental structure of the party by which the officer is employed). The parties agree that the decision by the responding official to provide or not provide assistance is a discretionary decision and failure to provide assistance will not result in liability to the responding party nor provide a cause of action for the requesting party or to any third party. Subd. 4 When a responding party provides law enforcement assistance under the terms of this agreement, it may in turn request assistance from other parties as "back -up" during the time that it is providing law enforcement assistance outside its boundaries. Subd. 5 Whenever a responding party has provided law enforcement assistance to a requesting party, the responding official may at any time end such assistance or any part thereof, if the responding official in the official's best judgment deems this necessary. Subd. 6 When a responding party supplies law enforcement officers to a requesting party, such officers shall remain employees of the responding party; shall be paid by the responding party; shall be protected by the Worker's Compensation of the responding party; and shall otherwise be deemed to be performing their regular duties for the responding party. However, the responding party shall undertake to coordinate with the requesting party the operational law enforcement assistance which it provides. Subd. 7 A responding party shall be responsible for its own personnel, equipment and supplies and for injuries or death to any such personnel or damage to any such equipment or supplies, except that unused equipment and supplies shall be returned to the responding party by the requesting party as soon as circumstances so permit. Subd. 8 The requesting party shall not be responsible for any injuries, losses or damages to persons or property arising out of the acts of any of the personnel of as responding party nor shall the responding party be responsible for any injuries, losses or damages arising out of the acts of any of the personnel of the requesting party or the personnel of any other responding party. Subd. 9 The parties hereby agree to indemnify, hold harmless and defend the other parties to-this agreement against any and all- liability, Foss, costs, damages, expenses, claims or actions, including attorney fees which the other party or parties may sustain, incur or be required to pay arising out of the performance by a party of its obligations pursuant to this Agreement. It is understood that the parties' liability shall be governed by Minn. Stat. § 471.59 and Minn. Stat. Chapter 466 or other applicable law. Nothing herein is intended to waive the liability limits set forth in Minn. Stat. Chapter 466. Subd. 10 The chief peace officer of the requesting party, or the designee, shall be responsible for the supervision of a major case investigation and the members assigned to the major case investigation team. Subd. 11 All members assigned to the major investigation team shall prepare reports at the direction of the chief peace officer of the requesting party, or the designee. All reports created by a responding party shall be maintained by that party but shall only be released by requesting party, who shall handle the data consistent with the Minnesota Data Practices Act and related policies of the requesting party. Subd. 12 The requesting party shall be the custodian of all evidence and /or property collected and /or maintained in the course of the requesting party's investigation. The requesting party shall be responsible for the processing of all evidence for appropriate analysis or examination. Subd. 13 Only the chief peace officer of the requesting party, or the designee, shall- respond to media requests for information concerning the major case investigation until the case is submitted to the prosecuting authority. V. SRT PROCEDURE The primary concern of everyone is the safety of the officers, the public, and the subject(s) involved in a critical incident. The potential for an SRT incident exists throughout the County, and some plan for response needs to be in place. Response by the SRT, due to the specialized training and equipment, is very costly. A cost- effective method of making that service available is drawing a small amount of resources from each law enforcement agency in the County. There are four options available to provide for SRT response to a requesting agency; Option 1 - assign an officer(s) as a tactical officer Option 2 - pay an annual fee equivalent to the cost of assigning an officer(s) Option 3 - pay a fee if the Team is used Option 4 - if none of the three options are selected by a requesting agency at the time of execution of this agreement, response by Washington County SRT will not be available for the requesting agency. In as much as the cities of Birchwood, Landfall, and the portions of White Bear Lake and Hastings within the County, receive primary police response from law enforcement agencies outside the County, Birchwood, Landfall, White Bear Lake or Hastings choose Options 1 or 2 above, response by the SRT will only be available -under this-agreement to those parts of the cities within the borders of Washington County. Attachment A to this Agreement sets forth the formula for determining participation on the SRT. VI. WITHDRAWAL AND TERMINATION This agreement shall continue in effect until the number of parties is one, or if the Sheriff withdraws, whichever is first. Any party may withdraw at any time upon thirty (30) days written notice to the Sheriff of Washington County. The Sheriff of Washington County shall thereupon give notice of such withdrawal, and of the effective date thereof, to all other parties, as hereinbefore provided. Such a party may again become a party by entering into this agreement. This agreement supersedes and terminates any prior mutual aid agreements that exist between the parties. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned has caused this agreement to be executed and delivered on its behalf. Dated this 22nd day of August , 2006. Agenc Oak Park Heights O A r 4 Y, - B . Y SRT Response Option (See Attachment A) Its Mayor By C - y Its Administrator Attachment A to Joint and Cooperative Agreement In 1997, a decision was made to combine the Sheriffs Office SWAT and the Cottage Grove /Oakdale/Woodbury ERT. After a significant amount of discussion and evaluation, it was agreed that a 30 members would be necessary to respond safely and appropriately to critical incidents throughout the County. At the time the teams combined, a decision was made to not allow other police departments to join until possibly some time in the future, due to organizational and training challenges associated with combining the Teams. The SRT is now a trained and functioning combined unit, and additional members need to be added to reach the desired number. The most equitable way of sharing the costs of the SRT is to add officers from other police departments. We evaluated population and number of peace officers within each jurisdiction. The percentage of total population by agency, and the percentage of total officers by agency were very similar, with the exception of WCSO and Woodbury. WCSO provides primary law enforcement service to 28% of the population, but has 35% of the total full -time officers. Woodbury serves 27% of the population and has 21% of the full -time officers. We assumed that the number of peace officers within a jurisdiction was some representation of the need for law enforcement services, and therefore the most reliable correlation to SRT activation. Based on that formula, the following SRT personnel assignments are equitable: (Note - The use of part -time officers varies significantly between departments. Some departments have part -time officers that are used very little, if at all, for regular patrol duties. Based on that position, the part -time officers were excluded from the analysis.) City # of sworn % of total # assigned sworn to SRT Bayport 5 2% 1 Cottage Grove 36 16% 5 Forest Lake 18 8% 2 Oak Park Heights 9 4% 1 Stillwater 19 8% 2 St Paul Park 8 4% 1 WCSO 83 37% 11 Woodbury 49 22% 6 Total 227 29 (Newport and Oakdale Police Departments have chosen to not contribute personnel to the SRT at this time.) The four options available for each requesting party are: Option 1 — Assign an officer (2 in the case of Stillwater and Forest Lake) to serve as a tactical officer. The police department will supply the initial uniform equipment as part of the assignment — approximately $2600. The department will also be responsible for the "Basic SWAT" training class — approximately $600. The department will also be responsible for a percentage of the annual operating budget — currently about $1170 per tactical officer per year. Option 2 — The City can pay an annual fee and receive services from the Team as though they had a participating officer. The annual fee will be approximately $6000 per year per officer: $4,200 wages and benefits $1,170 annual operating budget $ 630 initial uniform /training (assuming 5 year assignment) $6,000 Option 3 — Pay expenses if the Team is activated. The cost for response by the Team will be $750 per tactical officer for the first 4 hours, plus the actual costs for negotiators and communications personnel. Actual costs for all officers after 4 hours. An 8 -hour incident with- a resporse of 2/3 of a 30 person Team would cost approximately (assuming no cost for WCSO response): 20 tactical officers © $750 (8 WCSO) $ 9,000 4 hours 12 officers @- $42 per officer /hr $ 2,016 4 negotiators (2 WCSO) $ 672 2 communications operators (WCSO) $ 0 misc gas/supplies /bullets $ 1.200 Total $12,888 Option 4 — Pay nothing and no eligibility for SRT response. RESOLUTION 06 A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF OAK APRK HEIGHTS CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN A JOINT AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT RELATING TO THE USE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL AND EQUIPMENT AND THE INVESTIGATION OF MAJOR CASES. Whereas, the City of Oak Park Heights has annually participated in a joint- powers agreement to provide law enforcement personnel and expertise from other jurisdictions when unexpected exigent circumstances arise, when assistance is sought in major case investigation and/or when circumstances exist such that the parties requesting and providing such assistance deem it to be appropriate; and, Whereas, the City of Oak Park Heights has reciprocated with similar and available services; and, Whereas the City of Oak Park Heights and other participating cities in the Joint and Cooperative Agreement have saved resources and dollars by not replicating services. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the City Council for the City of Oak Park Heights that the City does renew its commitment in the Joint and Cooperative Agreement Relating to the Use of Law Enforcement Personnel and Equipment and the Investigation of Major Cases. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Mayor and City Administrator are authorized and directed to execute the Joint Powers Agreement on behalf of the City. Passed by the City Council for the City of Oak Park Heights this 22 day of August, 2006 $ 41 v. David Beaudet, Mayor ° c • nson City Administrator