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Date: 4/6/2021
EASTHAMPTON – Mayor Nicole LaChapelle submitted a report to the Easthampton City Council that details the Easthampton Police Department’s (EPD) use of force policies, as well as recommendations for re-envisioning public safety.
On June 3, 2020, LaChapelle signed the Mayor’s Pledge as created under My Brother’s Keeper under the Obama Foundation. To fulfill the pledge, LaChapelle created a “Mayor’s Pledge Work Group” composed of Easthampton residents. The work group’s goal was to report out recommendations that focused on practices that would lead to increased trust and accountability between the police and Easthampton residents.
The final report contains six recommendations for reimagining the police in Easthampton.
The first one suggests that the city begins investing in community-led non-police responses to health and safety concerns. According to the report, only one in 13 surveyed community organizations believed that the EPD should be solely responsible for mental health responses. The work group asks that the city conduct a community assessment of needs and resources, as well as develop a formal Memorandum of Understanding with Community and Support Options to provide non-police crisis intervention and mental health services.
The second recommendation asks the EPD to engage in robust data collection, analysis, and regular reporting. Through this report, the work group found that current data collection and analysis with the EPD are “inadequate,” and the department lacks capacity when it comes to infrastructure. To improve this department, the work group suggests that the police publish and present departmental reports that provide a review of biased-based policing, as well as a report on the department’s Restorative Justice Program, among other things.
The third recommendation advises the city to strengthen oversight, since findings from a 2019 Community Oriented Policing Services report found that the traditional approach to internal affairs “lacks consistency and transparency.”
The fourth recommendation involves engaging in intentional, regular, communication and collaboration with the community to understand and co-define safety needs and develop responses. The work group recommends that the EPD expands their engagement approach to a broad spectrum of community members, specifically communities of color.
The fifth recommendation asks Easthampton to examine police culture and training. Community members who provided feedback during listening sessions reported positive interactions with the EPD. This idea was acknowledged by the participants who were mostly white women, however. Part of the goal is to work with and invite members of impacted communities to design a police training curriculum.
The sixth and final recommendation asks the EPD to educate and inform the Easthampton community about the revised use of force policy.
Nicole Hendricks, professor, and chair of the Criminal Justice Department at Holyoke Community College, facilitated this review of past police use of force in Easthampton, reporting policy and methods with the work group. Aside from Hendricks, the work group also consisted of Easthampton City Councilor Homar Gomez, Ed.D Margaret Kierstein, Northampton Attorney Rebecca Passa, and Easthampton High School student Alice Wanamaker.
“Like the pandemic, systemic injustice in our criminal legal systems is a threat to public health and democracy,” said Hendricks. “And while images of police violence did not originate in Easthampton, local responses to long-standing challenges in policing must be part of the solution.”
Phase one of the work group process began in September of 2020 and involved weekly meetings over Zoom, according to the report. During these sessions, the group discussed the mayor’s initiative, conducted a preliminary review of the use of force policy, invited the EPD to provide a presentation regarding the use of force policy, and discussed approaches for “rigorous and holistic” outreach.
Hendricks completed a series of qualitative interviews with command staff, participated in a ride-along with an EPD sergeant, designed and administered an officer survey, and reviewed administrative data and EPD policies.
In phase two, the work group spearheaded two community listening sessions centered on the role of police, and visions for a safe and inclusive community, and developed and administered a survey to community-based organizations. According to the report however, the efficacy of the community outreach was limited by a short timeframe, and the inability of the work group to gain legitimacy among some influential members of the Easthampton community.
The next reporting phase urges Easthampton to facilitate conversations in as many settings and formats as possible.
According to LaChapelle, the report has been submitted to the city council, but the mayor said that she does not expect them to vote on anything yet. The goal, rather, is to elicit public comment and consideration.
“There were so many diverse opinions, feelings, and emotions around these issues,” said LaChapelle, when describing the work group process. “As a city, we assumed a lot about being able to trust each other as a whole community, and that trust is nowhere near as strong as we hoped it to be.”
LaChapelle added that the work group did not have enough time to build up relations and really understand how Easthampton communicates with each other for good or for bad. The hope, therefore, is that the report goes to the Public Safety Committee so the public and city employees will be able to submit their own thoughts on the matter, and develop a worthwhile discussion.
The mayor wants to put together an action plan based on the work group’s recommendations, as well as the discussions that will occur during Public Safety and council meetings.
“I am not going to do something that can’t be in existence in 10 years,” LaChapelle said, with regard to her future action plan for reimagining the police. “I think the recommendations give us as a city realistic and pragmatic ways forward to deal with these issues and concerns.”
What it comes down to, according to LaChapelle, is equity. “We clearly know that there is inequity based on race, orientation, class, and based on economics,” she said. “To close those gaps, there’s some overlap, and we need to take advantage of that overlap to amplify bringing folks forward under their own dreams and hopes.”
The aspirational end game to all of this is common ground, according to LaChapelle. More specifically, the city wants to break down barriers within their government that “subconsciously and implicitly” make it more difficult for people to live in Easthampton. While the focus of the main report involves reimagining the police, LaChapelle believes that the process for achieving equity goes beyond law enforcement regulation.
“It’s a three-part thing,” said LaChapelle. “You give people capital; with capital they create equity, with equity they create wealth.”
The city hopes to advance the ideas of business owners by helping them build a network on a very personal level with unbiased agencies.
For now though, the mayor hopes to see consistent discussion between residents and town officials during the upcoming meetings with regard to the work group’s recommendations.
“What do the residents of Easthampton consider community policing?” asked LaChapelle. “If it doesn’t match the expectation of people who live in Easthampton, regardless of where they live in Easthampton, then it’s a lot of wasted money.”