2025 05-21 Board of Public Safety Meeting Minutes

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MAY 21, 2025 38 Chief Scott Ruszkowski submitted a letter of recommendation for the above individuals be accepted for employment, as probationary police officers, with the SBPD effective May 21, 2025. Chief Ruszkowski stated they have all met the requirements of the application process of the SBPD and graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy Friday, May 2, 2025. Captain Kathy Fulnecky read the biography for each officer. Upon a motion by Lee Ross, seconded by Pam Claeys and followed by a roll call, the Board approved the hiring of the above probationary police officers. 2. SWEARING IN OF PROBATIONARY POLICE OFFICERS City Clerk Bianca Tirado administered the Oath which was then followed by the badge pinning. Each Board Member welcomed the officers and thanked them for their willingness to serve the City of South Bend. 3. APPROVE PROMOTIONS TO PATROLMAN 1ST CLASS Daniel Kurz Jeffrey Rose Nathaniel Taborn Eric Vargo Chief Scott Ruszkowski submitted letters of recommendations for the above officers to be promoted to Patrolman 1st Class and retro pay, effective May 15, 2025, and stated the officers have successfully met the requirements outlined in the working agreement to become a PFC within the SBPD. Upon a motion by Pam Claeys, seconded by Darryl Heller, and followed by a roll call, the Board approved the Promotions to Patrolman 1st Class for the above Officers. 4. ACCEPT LETTER OF RESIGNATION – CHRISTOPHER KOZORA Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski submitted a letter of resignation for Officer Christopher Kozora. Chief Ruszkowski stated Officer Kozora was sworn into the department September 19, 2018. The Board accepted the letter. 5. RECEIVE LEXIPOL POLICIES 318 – Victim and Witness Assistance 701 – Personal Communications Devices 1007 – Personnel Complaints Attorney Connell briefly went over some of the changes to each of the policies, so that Board would be ready to approve them at the June meeting. 318 – Victim and Witness Assistance: Attorney Connell advised that they were clearing up what the City does versus what other entities do. They also added language for U Visa and the T Visa and a brief explanation of how that works. 701 – Personal Communications Devices: Attorney Connell advised that this is just updating section 701.3 where members have no expectation of privacy when using their own personal devices. If it’s work related, we’re making it very clear that just because you are using your personal device to take photos of a scene or typing a text message that the City would be able to request access to it. 1007 – Personnel Complaints: Attorney Connell advised that in 1007.6.2 item K, it stated that no member would be compelled to submit to a polygraph or truth telling device, whereas in the standards of conduct it specifically says that a polygraph can be used if there is an investigation, so she took that out because SBPD does use polygraphs during an internal investigation for officers, so that wasn’t accurate for what the practice is. Another big change was changing the wording from “Board of Public Safety” to “the responsible board”, so if something changes in the future this won’t need to be updated again. The last changes involved the two (2) sections added at the end. The policy update simply reflects existing law that requires reporting misdemeanors, felonies, and other officer actions to the