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Date: 11/27/2023
PELHAM — Police Chief Gary Thomann’s department, with three full-time and three part-time officers, often has just one in the field at a given time. Now that the department won a grant for three BolaWrap devices Thomann won’t have to worry if the criminals are fleet of foot or spoiling for a fight.
“It’s fairly new, within the last couple of years, and there’s a number of police departments going to it,” Thomann said of the restraining device. “Springfield’s about to go to it. Pittsfield’s had it for a couple of years.”
The BolaWrap is based on the bola, a weapon used for thousands of years in South America to hunt wild game. Hunters threw the bola, ropes equipped with weights on each end, at the legs of a quarry. The weights caused the cord to wrap around the legs of the animal and trip it up, reducing the likelihood of escape.
The BolaWrap is a handheld device, equipped with a flashlight, that shoots a weighted cord. A suspect may be brought down to the ground and more easily controlled with the bola wrapped around their knees. The great benefit is that an officer can bring down a suspect from a distance.
Lt. Derick Lamoureux announced the grant award by writing on the town’s website, “The BolaWrap device allows officers to apprehend non-compliant individuals without resorting to batons or pepper spray, effectively lowering the risk of injuries to all parties involved.”
Thomann agreed. “Any time we can use less lethal [force] it’s always an enhancement. It prevents people from getting injured. Any time we can improve that, the better off we are.”
The department secured three BolaWraps with a grant from the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Associate, the MIIA, for $5,895.49. Training in the use of the Bola-wrap will begin in early December.
Lamoureux also informed the community the department received word that a grant was also coming to Pelham from the Edward J. Byrne Assistance Grant Program, also known as the JAG program. The grant for $6,549.88 will cover the cost of two portable Microsoft computer tablets loaded with mobile reporting software from Central Square RMS.
The department’s rolling units are equipped with computers. Those computers cannot leave the vehicle, a disadvantage if an officer gets out from behind the wheel. In the time they are out of the vehicle they are also out of touch with dispatch.
“It’s something they can take out of the car with them,” Thomann said. “If they go into a scene or if they go into an interview, it gives them a little bit more ability, whereas the ones in the cars stay in the cars.”
Lamoureux informed the community the new tablets will enable computer aided dispatch, the means to create a call record and access to vehicle inquiries. The tablets will also allow tracking of officers, their location while on a call or traffic stop.
“The additional mobile reporting licenses that are loaded onto the tablets are critical for officer response and continued communication with both our dispatch center as well as officers in the field,” Lamoureux wrote. “These two new licenses and tablets will be used by supervisors that currently do not have priority access.”
The Police Department was informed of the grant from the JAG Program on Nov. 15.