Police Misconduct Committee
No Longer Independent, It Would Be Part Of Police Standards & Training
Also on today’s menu:
Breaking Into TV
Toy Boat, Toy Boat
Senate Bill 456, which would create a committee to screen and investigate potential police misconduct, received support at a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 22.
The bill is nearly identical to one that received initial approval in the House. Both bills grew out of recommendations of the New Hampshire Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community, and Transparency and a legislative study committee appointed last year. That recommendation called for establishing an independent state agency to handle complaints about police misconduct.
Instead, the legislation calls for the formation of a new Law Enforcement Conduct Review Committee that would be administratively attached to the Police Standards and Training Council. Senator Sharon Carson (R-Londonderry), prime sponsor of SB 456, said that following the LEACT commission’s recommendation would be very expensive. Instead, the bill appropriates $350,000 for the new review committee within Police Standards and Training.
Breaking Into TV
Jamie Guyer of Sanbornton, a 1999 graduate of Winnisquam Regional High School, will make her national television debut as a forensic investigator on the season premiere of Law & Order on February 24.
Although her role lasts only about five minutes, it is in the “establishing scene” at the beginning of the first episode of what Adam Drapcho of The Laconia Daily Sun describes as a very important season in the show’s run. “This season is a return to form for Law & Order, with the original cast coming back together. Jamie’s character leads two of those star characters into the case that kicks off the episode’s plot.”
Her circuitous journey to television began with the influence of her parents, Becky Guyer — one of the founders of the Streetcar Company community theater troupe — and Bo Guyer, a community theater actor.
Toy Boat, Toy Boat
A miniboat built by fifth graders at Rye Junior High School took to the seas on October 25, 2020, and ended up on the coast of Smøla, Norway, after 462 days at sea.
Students built the 5.5-foot-long, GPS-tracked boat from a kit provided through a not-for-profit program called Educational Passage. They filled it with items, including leaves, U.S. quarters, and a face mask with the students’ names on it, and sent it on its way into the Gulf Stream. The 8,000-mile voyage was tough on the boat, which was covered in Gooseneck barnacles, had lost its mast, and its hull and keel were no longer attached — but its precious cargo was still safe — when Mariann Nuncic found it on an island near her house in Norway.
The GPS signal had stopped on September 30, 2021, and the school thought the boat, known as the Riptide, had been lost, but a signal showed its new location on January 31. The Rye junior high students, who were now in sixth and seventh grade, were excited to hear about the recovery, according to Educational Passage’s executive director, Cassie Stymiest.
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