LACONIA, N.H. — The Laconia Police Department said it has increased visible patrols downtown and started assigning liaison officers to recurring quality-of-life problem sites, and officials described a well-attended National Night Out and progress toward higher accreditation standards.

Chief Steve Canfield said the department performed 193 park walk-and-talks and 584 extra patrols in July, a 154% increase over the same month last year when the comparable figure was 280. He said the department has been doing "high visibility walking patrols in the entire downtown area as well as high visibility mountain bike patrols" and that the downtown area is showing improvement.

To address complex properties where immediate enforcement is difficult, Canfield said the department will "assign a liaison officer to those problem areas, and then they can be the contact for those neighbors and a conduit for funnel[ing] information both ways, working to find resolutions. And if there's ways, we can take enforcement action, at any point." He cited recent squatter houses on Harvard Street and Brigham Street as examples of sites that require coordinated responses.

The department reported operational metrics for July including 2,741 calls for service (up 9.91%), six DWI arrests, 28 arrests for intoxication, 19 domestic disturbance calls and 104 other disturbances. Canfield also noted a shift in drug trends: "We've only responded to a total of 8 drug overdoses this year... However, we've seen an extreme change towards methamphetamine, which doesn't result in overdoses. However, it does result in a in much more violent behavior." He did not provide quantitative data on meth-related incidents at the meeting.

Canfield described National Night Out as "very well attended," noting the department distributed close to 500 hot dogs and brought in a Blackhawk helicopter from the National Guard. He also discussed accreditation: "CALEA is over 500 standards that must be met on a continual basis," he said, contrasting CALEA's international standards with the state's 100-standard accreditation. Canfield said fewer than 15 agencies in the state are CALEA-accredited and that Laconia has met CALEA requirements in prior years.

Public comment during the meeting included praise for improvements at Rotary Park and support for continued emphasis on the department's real-time notification program. The commission received the briefing; no formal policy votes or ordinance actions related to the community-policing items were taken at the Aug. 20 meeting.

What’s next: The department will continue expanded visible patrols, liaison-officer assignments and accreditation work; operational metrics and pilot programs may return to the commission for further discussion.