Siano to step up as police chief

Date: 4/27/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



LONGMEADOW -- Soon, Police Chief Robert Danio will be stepping down from his position, leaving the force after serving an extra year past the retirement age of 65. Capt. Robert Siano will be replacing him as the head of the Longmeadow Police Department.

"I've worked with Bob for 34 years," Danio said, "both in a supervisory capacity and as a detective. I think the town's made an excellent choice. He's got a lot to add to the job [of police chief]."

Town Manager Robin Crosbie, who conducted the search for the new police chief, recommended Siano to the Select Board at its April 6 meeting.

"He distinguished himself with integrity, fairness and commitment," Crosbie noted. "He's prepared to develop and implement goals for the department."

"Capt. Siano is going to be great," Select Board member Kathleen Grady added. "He already is."

The Select Board approved of Siano's taking the helm with a vote of 4-0.

Siano describes himself as a "townie." He's lived in Longmeadow his entire life, graduating from the high school in 1970. He served the fire department as a call firefighter from 1968 to 1972, and attended Holyoke Community College to earn a degree in criminal justice.

"I always wanted to be a cop," Siano told Reminder Publications. He pursued state trooper training in both Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1974, and in 1975, joined the force in Longmeadow.

Siano started as a patrolman before becoming a plainclothes detective. "Back then we had a lot of housebreaks and even a couple bank robberies," he said of his time as a detective. "It was enough to keep us busy."

He worked with Danio for 10 years in the detective bureau.

Technology has changed a bit since Siano came on the force -- from carbon paper copies and man-powered typewriters to being completely computerized in the early 1990s -- and said that technology is invaluable to police today.

"Investigations are faster, but we do the exact same function," Siano said. "In a lot of ways, policing is easier now, technologically speaking, but we still need boots on the street."

He moved back to a position as a patrolman before being promoted to a sergeant's position in 1999. He became a captain in 2004.

Siano said his most memorable moment on the force so far is from the early 1990s, when he arrested a sex offender who was driving around on the night of Halloween.

"I was off-duty," he explained. "I called a cruiser. It was a memorable moment because we took him off the street. I was in the right place at the right time."

He may forge a new memorable moment when he becomes police chief.

"I was on pins and needles for a month and a half," Siano said of waiting to learn about who would be named chief. "I was just elated when I heard the news. It's a culmination [of my career]."

He commented that the Longmeadow Police Department is a great one, and that his biggest challenge as chief will be dealing with the budget. "It's tough to work with less," he said. "When I started, there were 27 of us; now there's 18."

Siano said his top priority as police chief will be building a good partnership with the community.

"We gotta have a proactive department," he said. "We've gotta get the public to help us."

The police department will be hosting a retirement party for exiting chief Robert Danio on May 19 at the Knights of Columbus, 26 Baldwin St. in East Longmeadow, from 5 to 8 p.m. Tickets to the event are $25 each and can be purchased at police station, 34 Williams St. For more information, call Jan at 565-4192.