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Charlton Joins Statewide mutual aid network

3K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  SinePari 
#1 ·
Town joins statewide mutual aid network

CHARLTON - In what Police Chief James A. Pervier called another tool in the town toolbox, selectmen last night opted to join a statewide mutual aid agreement for public safety.

The statute, enacted by the state last year, is optional for local adoption.
"We have a lot of mutual aid agreements, but this only enhances what we do in our day-to-day operations. It gives us a larger pool to draw from," Chief Pervier said.

The cross-community assistance enabled by the provision includes police, fire and emergency medical services.

Interesting, almost like starting a regional police with state wide authority.
 
#6 ·
I dont think it has anything to do with wanting to be regional or any issues with the SP. Out here in the small towns in Central Mass it is common for each town to have a mutual aid agreement with other towns. A lot of the time out here there is just one officer on duty in each town.
 
G
#7 ·
I dont think it has anything to do with wanting to be regional or any issues with the SP. Out here in the small towns in Central Mass it is common for each town to have a mutual aid agreement with other towns. A lot of the time out here there is just one officer on duty in each town.
It's not limited to small towns....my city (Quincy) is 100,000+ population, and the 2 towns that border my specific patrol area (Weymouth and Braintree) are 56,000 residents and 34,000 residents, respectively. We also border Boston (654,000) and Milton (26,000), so mutual aid isn't some sort of abstract concept that is limited to "one-horse towns".

Nothing against the MSP, but they simply don't have the staffing to respond to immediate requests for assistance, especially inside the 128 belt.

STOP Team? Bomb Squad? K-9? Yeah, you bet (although we specifically have all of that readily available from our neighbors to the North, Boston PD).

But for immediate assistance, it seems like the Braintree PD (for one example) has figured out that I will get there a lot quicker by driving a mile or so out of my city, than MSP having one of their "desk and two" respond from God-knows-where.
 
#8 ·
It's not limited to small towns....my city (Quincy) is 100,000+ population, and the 2 towns that border my specific patrol area (Weymouth and Braintree) are 56,000 residents and 34,000 residents, respectively. We also border Boston (654,000) and Milton (26,000), so mutual aid isn't some sort of abstract concept that is limited to "one-horse towns".

Nothing against the MSP, but they simply don't have the staffing to respond to immediate requests for assistance, especially inside the 128 belt.

STOP Team? Bomb Squad? K-9? Yeah, you bet (although we specifically have all of that readily available from our neighbors to the North, Boston PD).

But for immediate assistance, it seems like the Braintree PD (for one example) has figured out that I will get there a lot quicker by driving a mile or so out of my city, than MSP having one of their "desk and two" respond from God-knows-where.
Actually in my experience out that way the opposite is more prevalent. The local SP barrack will get calls for assistance more often in rather routine calls such as domestics, large fights, traffic, etc for the area patrol troopers to respond. Then you'll see some of those same towns with a hair across their collective arse decide to wait several HOURS for an accident recon, K-9, or some other request for service coming from two area codes away when it's right down the street for free. That's when it's blatantly obviously egos are more important than getting the mission done.

Some of those same towns (west of 495) have such a low call volume that their officers decide to play highway patrol instead of doing slow crawls through neighborhoods to deter street-level crime. You don't see Worcester PD making mv stops on the interstate simply because calls are stacked. In fact, WPD had an armed stand-off the other day that tied up most of the area route cars. One of their Sgts came by and hinted around the fact that they've got no cars available if something else happened and asked if we could stay close by until that thing was over.

I just show up wherever I'm dispatched to. Don't really care what uniform everyone is wearing. But when I can't even see my break down lane on my assigned roads to pull cars over, and I get the hat-trick in roll-overs in one shift, it goes up my ass sideways when the mini highway patrols have so much time on their hands to do traffic on the big road. Why? Public safety? Crash reduction? Or is it more that the boss wants them to put up traffic numbers each shift? I don't get it.
 
#9 ·
It's not limited to small towns....my city (Quincy) is 100,000+ population, and the 2 towns that border my specific patrol area (Weymouth and Braintree) are 56,000 residents and 34,000 residents, respectively. We also border Boston (654,000) and Milton (26,000), so mutual aid isn't some sort of abstract concept that is limited to "one-horse towns".
The majority of towns on the south shore are understaffed. It's a no-brainer that when you need backup, you call on your neighboring towns if they can spare the cruiser for the moment. It happens regularly down here. It just isn't feasible, on a regular basis, to call the MSP to respond to a domestic on some random side street, that a local from the next town likely knows the location of already, and is only minutes away from. It has nothing to do with not wanting to use MSP, it it simply easier.
 
G
#10 ·
Some of those same towns (west of 495) have such a low call volume that their officers decide to play highway patrol instead of doing slow crawls through neighborhoods to deter street-level crime.
Different worlds....I can count on both hands the number of times I've been on the highway, with all of them being either pursuits, getting flagged down by a citizem who just got off the highway about a DMV or crash where I stood-by until MSP/Mets got there, or at the request of MSP to cover something until they could get there.

And I have to say, I'm not a big fan of standing on the side of the road while cars whizz by at 60+ MPH.
 
#11 ·
Different worlds....I can count on both hands the number of times I've been on the highway, with all of them being either pursuits, getting flagged down by a citizem who just got off the highway about a DMV or crash where I stood-by until MSP/Mets got there, or at the request of MSP to cover something until they could get there.

And I have to say, I'm not a big fan of standing on the side of the road while cars whizz by at 60+ MPH.
60 mph? Pffft. Maybe in a school zone...
 
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