Albert Scherr

I've been a police commissioner for the last 4 years.  We've been very active during that time. We now have body-worn cameras on every officer (a primary reason I ran 4 years ago). We've hired a social worker who's been  helping those in the community with mental health issues and who have contact with the police connect with appropriate services. Our dispatchers are now keyed into the statewide mobile crisis unit system. Upon request by the police or resident, they can send a pair of mental health professionals to a situation involving a non-violent mental health crisis (instead of uniformed, armed police showing up). As a result of the work of our social worker & trhe availabilty of the mobile crisis units,  officers and dispatch are spending notalby less time with people who are better served by our newly expanded resources.

 

We are implementing a new software program that allows the department to collect important demographic and other data it previously has not been able to collect to measure areas in which the department may need improvement. We've implemented more transparency by eliminating non-disclosure agreements for the settlemnt of police misconduct cases and by putting the huge majority of department policies on our website.  We've been able to re-hire our police chief and increase the wages of our officers to be competitive with other departments in the state.  And, the Chief and the Commission have made claer that we will never engage in what is called a 287(g) agreement with ICE to act as their proxies in Portsmouth.

 

The Department is now a 21st century police department.  It has recovered so well form the difficult Goodwin-Webber years that it is now one of the best police departments in the state.  I want to continue the great progress we have made over the last 4 years.  I ask for your vote to continue this work.