Police Commendations and Concerns
The Selectboard recently awarded certificates of commendation to three of our police officers for excellent police work. On Thursday, April 14th at approximately 11pm, Officer Holly Doyle observed a vehicle being operated in a suspicious manner and the apparent disposal of evidence, so she attempted to stop the vehicle. The vehicle did not stop as it sped down 140 towards 190. Sergeant Thebeau helped stop the car using Stop Sticks to deflate the tires. Officer Porcaro arrived in time to recover a bag containing a sawed-off shotgun, ski masks and other items from Hobbs Rd where it had been thrown out of the suspect vehicle. When Officer Doyle first began pursuit of the vehicle, there were three people inside. The driver paused near fire station 2 and one of the occupants fled on foot. Officer Doyle had to decide whether to pursue the vehicle or the fleeing passenger and chose the vehicle.
Two dangerous individuals, one of whom had numerous prior charges including drug and firearm charges, were arrested. Both were successfully apprehended. Excellent work! But also excellent timing.
A close reading of the incident reports and knowledge of our department illustrated many of the issues our Police Department deals with. Officer Doyle was working an overnight shift that on every occasion is worked alone and occasionally without another officer on duty. The other officer scheduled to work that night was unable to do so and no part-time officers were available but fortunately Sergeant Thebeau agreed to stay and work on over-time. In addition, Officer Porcaro who was also on over-time to fill an earlier open shift hadn’t left yet even though his shift was over. It is possible that Officer Doyle could have requested mutual aid and it is also possible that the responding officer would have arrived in time. However, it is also possible that Officer Doyle would have had to abandon pursuit of the suspect vehicle.
When the vehicle finally stopped on I-190 because of its damaged tires, Officer Doyle and Sergeant Thebeau were each able to handcuff and frisk both individuals prior to any mutual aid arriving on scene. This provided additional safety for our officers. If Officer Doyle had been alone, she would have been placed in great danger by needing to restrain both suspects.
Officer Doyle and Sergeant Thebeau were each able to transport a single individual back to the station in their cruisers. If she had been alone, Officer Doyle would have waited on I-190 for mutual aid to help with the transport. Once back at the station, the male suspect was handcuffed to the wall in the booking/office area and the female was handcuffed to a moveable chair in the conference room. The officers were able to communicate only by standing in the doorway to the Chief’s office in order to properly watch each prisoner. Sergeant Thebeau faced a dilemma. He wanted to fingerprint both individuals but he didn’t want them near each other. The fingerprinting station was on the other side of the station next to the male prisoner and there really wasn’t a good way to safely bring the female prisoner over to be fingerprinted. With no holding cells in our police station, our officers are hampered in their ability to their jobs.
Once the prisoners were booked, the officers needed to figure out where to hold them since neither were able to be bailed. Luckily they only needed to be held until Court opened on Friday morning. If this had happened one night later, the prisoners would have needed to be held for three nights. Two neighboring agencies declined to hold the female suspect that night. The male was transported by Sergeant Thebeau to the Worcester County House of Correction. The female was transported to the Holden State Police by Officer Doyle. While both officers were busy transporting their prisoners, anything urgent in town would be handled by mutual aid. The suspects were in police custody for approximately 5 hours. The entire event including writing the reports for court took about 8 ½ hours, which tied up both officers.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that our officers have had to work in sub-standard safety conditions. Please consider this when you are asked to support a new public safety building in the fall.