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Stankiewicz appointed as new chief of police

Date: 7/23/2015

LONGMEADOW – The town officially has a new chief of its Police Department after the Select Board unanimously appointed Police Capt. John Stankiewicz to lead the department at its July 20 meeting.

Stankiewicz, who has served for 32 years in the Longmeadow Police Department, hit the ground running, informing the board of the department’s goal to reduce property crimes within the town by 3 percent within the next year.

One facet of achieving this goal is through utilizing the town’s new K-9 unit program, which was funded with a $25,000 grant from the Stanton Foundation, he added.

In February, the board chose to delay acceptance of that grant and also chose not to accept a similar grant to start up a K-9 program in June 2013.

“The other is community outreach – utilizing the social media aspect [and] letting them know what the issues are – being totally transparent in Longmeadow,” Stankiewicz said.

Social media platforms that the department would expand its public outreach with include Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, he noted.

He added that the department would aim to expand its programs as well as start new ones, including Rape Aggression Defense System training, the school resource officer program, crime prevention and bicycle safety education, the citizen’s police academy, and Silver Alert – a public notification system for missing persons, typically for senior citizen’s with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Stankiewicz said patrolmen would begin carrying Narcan in their police cruisers to prevent drug overdoses in instances in which patrolmen arrive at a scene prior to emergency responders.

“Although Longmeadow has not been plagued by the same opioid crisis that other towns in the Commonwealth have, we will be responsive to those needs in our community,” he added. “We have not gone unscathed.”

Selectman Alex Grant praised this initiative, noting that former Police Chief Robert Siano and former Fire Chief Eric Madison had disagreed with implementing this policy.

Grant said he had disagreed with the former chiefs in regard to the Narcan policy.

Additionally, Grant asked Stankiewicz what the top three most prevalent crimes in Longmeadow are.

In response, Stankiewicz said one of the top problems throughout the town is drug and alcohol abuse among youth.

“That continues to be a problem,” he added. “It will continue to be a problem not only nationally, but here in our community … That’s something we should focus on.”

Stankiewicz said another issue the department has witnessed within the past year has been a rise in breaking and entering crimes for motor vehicles.

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase going from 59 to 104 [cases] over the last year,” he added. “Also, we’ve seen [other] property crimes increase as well.”

Stankiewicz also plans to continue with its succession plan for the department in order to groom the next police chief for the position.

Grant said he disagreed with this policy because it “limits minority applicants.”

Stankiewicz said the department’s officers are some of the best qualified in the United States as well as other countries due to the department’s rigorous training methods.   

“As a whole, there are outstanding officers here who we work with, who we groom, who we train, who are prepared to take over and that’s why we have aggressive succession programs – to ensure that if one of us falls or one of us leaves, we have somebody to step in line so we don’t miss a beat and provide the best service to the community at all time,” Stankiewicz added.

The department would also establish a traffic division with a primary mission to improve vehicle and pedestrian safety, which will be essential due to the future impact of the MGM casino in Springfield, he noted.

Selectman Marie Angelides considered this idea to “tie in beautifully” with the rest of the town’s future plans regarding traffic.