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Date: 4/13/2022
RUSSELL — The towns of Russell and Montgomery have received a state grant of $200,000 to establish a shared police department.
Russell Police Chief Kevin Hennessey, who will oversee the Russell-Montgomery Police Department, said the grant will help purchase equipment needed to extend his department to cover a second town.
“Both towns will benefit from this shared policing project, and with the funding from the state there will be no initial start-up costs that the town of Montgomery would have needed to provide,” said Michael A. Morrissey, chairman of the Montgomery Board of Selectmen.
Morrissey, Hennessey and Wayne Precanico, chairman of the Russell Board of Selectmen, said the agreement took a lot of work.
Morrissey gave credit to Montgomery Selectman Donald Washburn, who attended numerous meetings with state officials, met with the Westfield police chief, the Massachusetts Environmental Police, and representatives from the Massachusetts State Police to see what enforcement aid they could provide.
Currently, Montgomery has an administrative police chief to issue permits, Paula Chapman, and two constables. Morrissey said the constables are not trained law enforcement officers, and it’s been nearly 20 years since the town had patrolmen who could respond to emergency calls — dating back to shortly before the town’s former police chief, James Stevens, retired. Currently, Montgomery relies upon the Massachusetts State Police for day-to-day policing.
“In the end, having local policing was the only sustainable long-term solution, so [Washburn] worked to develop the framework of this shared policing concept,” Morrissey said.
Hennessey, who has been police chief in Russell for five years and was formerly in Blandford for 12 years, said the merger discussion started before the coronavirus pandemic, but the initial conversations were held up due to the pandemic.
Precanico said when the grant program came up, the two towns applied, and are now finalizing their agreement.
“The state is pushing for regionalization of services,” Hennessey said. He pointed to the Chester-Blandford Police Department, which merged three years ago, and the Hardwick and New Braintree departments before them.
Hennessey said the Russell-Montgomery agreement is more fine-tuned than the Chester-Blandford agreement, acknowledging they had that agreement and experience of the last three years to study. He said there is more clarification as to which town has what responsibilities in the new contract, including oversight and administrative details.
Hennessey said overall police reform has been challenging, because the state has set the requirements, and small towns are held to the same standards as the big cities. He said regionalization will help.
“That’s the reasoning for most of these mergers; for some towns, it’s a financial burden to keep up with these regulations. We’re lucky we have a community that supports us. We’re also lucky that the towns of Russell and Montgomery have always had a great relationship,” Hennessey said.
The Russell Police Department now has two full-time officers, including Hennessey and Lt. Sean Shattuck, who was hired in 2021, as well as five additional sworn police officers. Those officers will now work in both towns.
“When we’re on duty, we’re on duty for both towns. There will be directed patrols for certain hours in both communities,” Hennessey said.
Hennessey said the Russell-Montgomery Police Department will be up and running by July 1, if not sooner.
“We’re basically gearing up on our end,” he said, adding they are just waiting for the contracts to be finalized and signed.
Morrissey said once the agreement is in place, the Montgomery selectmen are planning a public meeting to be scheduled, to allow residents to meet their new police chief and his officers, learn how to contact them and hear what the new police department sees as priorities for the town.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito presented the grant, part of the state’s Community Compact regionalization initiative, to local officials at a ceremony in the town of Buckland earlier this month. Police mergers in Becket and Otis, Bernardston and Leyden, Buckland and Shelburne, and Dalton and Hinsdale are part of the same round of funding, as is a shared regional economic development effort covering Blandford, Chester, Granville, Huntington, Montgomery, Russell, Tolland and 17 other communities in Hampden and Hampshire counties.