NEWPORT – Police said they are working on a plan to improve safety at City Hall after a recent uptick in incidents requiring police intervention at public meetings and during the work day.
Police Chief Ryan Duffy wouldn’t describe the handful of incidents over the last month as a “trend,” but he said the city manager and department heads have expressed concerns about the safety of staff in the workplace.
"The worst thing we can have is a situation where people who are just trying to do their jobs are feeling nervous about their workspace when they shouldn't," Duffy said. "Finding an answer to that problem is important."
During the Energy and Environment Commission’s Aug. 15 panel on offshore wind farms, a man got into an altercation with a member of Green Oceans, an organization primarily opposed to offshore wind farm operations, who had interrupted the Q&A to display pieces of a broken blade from the Vineyard Wind turbine failure. The man took the pieces from her and attempted to discard them while chastising her conduct.
Police released photos of the man on social media asking for help identifying him as they investigated the incident. The man, David Booth, of Tiverton, pleaded no contest to the charge and had to pay $96 in court fees.
In June, a woman was escorted from a School Committee meeting at Pell Elementary School after refusing to leave the stand when her time to speak was up. Although she argued with committee members, she ultimately left the meeting without incident.
Duffy did not have specific data at hand on the frequency of such disturbances, but he said the recent spurt of incidents is unusual. In his nearly 24 years with the department, he said he's seen a cyclical increase in such police calls when contentious political discussions are taking place in the city, as well as during election years.
“There’s always passionate debates over different issues all the time,” Duffy said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, there’s no need for intervention. Sometimes it's just a matter of banging the gavel and bringing everyone to order.”
Duffy said the last few times the police had responded to School Committee meetings, it was because someone had taken the precaution of informing the department in advance that a discussion was expected to be more contentious than usual.
But disturbances aren’t limited to public meetings. Occasionally, Newport police will respond to calls from City Hall staffers who allege harassment by members of the public. One recent incident was sparked by a person the police were familiar with, who was likely having a mental health episode, Duffy said.
Duffy said police first began reassessing City Hall security last December, when staff expressed safety concerns to then-interim City Manager Laura Sitrin.
“The recent incidents just shed light on the need to continue the process going forward,” Duffy said. “It’s been a process of evaluation and seeing where that balance is.”
Duffy said the police and city administrators are working on a response plan for when staff feel unsafe. But they are also considering how best to manage the flow of traffic into the building without making City Hall inaccessible, especially for people with disabilities.
“The city is taking a look at how we find a balance between having a public building that does the public’s business and at the same time ensuring the safety of the staff and the visitors,” Duffy said.
Officers trained in building safety evaluated City Hall for possible vulnerabilities, and the department has already submitted recommendations to City Manager Colin Kennedy, he said.
Duffy said the department also has trained city staff on how to handle human threats through the ALICE program, a violence-prevention course used at K-12 schools to prepare educators for active shooters and other dangerous situations. ALICE trainers even visited staffers' work spaces to review how to implement aspects of the program in their specific setting.
“It’s about taking a look at the controls that are in place about coming into the building," Duffy said. "It's not preventing anyone from coming into the building, but more along the lines of ensuring that there is a way of focusing where people come in and out of the building and how they access the building and what to do, what the procedures are when there’s a concern, whether it be a safety issue from a fire standpoint or a medical emergency, or from the standpoint of a human threat or disturbance.”
