Local COVID rates are generally lower. Mask and vaccine mandates have been lifted. The weather is warming (on some days!), and flowers are starting to bloom.While some aspects of life on our planet continue to feel heavy and hopeless, the COVID.
NORTHAMPTON When it comes to investigating its own, the Northampton Police Department rarely disciplines an officer who is named in a civilian complaint. When a superior officer or fellow Northampton officer files an internal complaint, however,.
NORTHAMPTON The city’s planned Department of Community Care is in line to receive an additional $150,000 from an amendment to the state budget.The department, which was a major recommendation of the city’s Policing Review Commission, would be.
Northampton, Massachusetts, Police Chief Jody Kasper, kneeling second from left, with protesters last summer. (Alden Bourne / NEPR)
A commission in Northampton, Massachusetts, suggested major changes to the city s policing approach. The police chief is pushing back on some parts but not all.
The Northampton Policing Review Commission, created after last summer s racial justice protests, spent half a year thinking of ways to change the city s reliance on the police.
A key premise was, the more that armed officers respond to non-criminal matters from mental health crises to parking disputes the more likely things can escalate into violence.
“My hope is that at a baseline, we ll be able to respond a little bit better to the needs of the most marginalized people in the city,” said Dan Cannity, co-chair of the commission, “and that everyone will feel respected and dignified.”
Northampton Board of Health: City health board grateful for director’s leadership
Published: 3/9/2021 5:00:28 PM
The Massachusetts state COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been frustrating at best, and infuriating and potentially life-threatening at worse.
For Northampton’s Health Director Merridith O’Leary, the COVID-19 pandemic and the state vaccine rollout have presented huge challenges, one after another, and she has repeatedly risen to the occasion to meet and conquer those challenges on behalf of the residents of not only Northampton but the entire region.
Earlier in the pandemic, Director O’Leary and her team took on contact tracing for towns that did not have the ability to mobilize the necessary staff and know-how. She offered her expertise to local governments, schools, and businesses, and arranged for a COVID-safe shelter for the houseless population. Recently, she and her team took on the immense challenge of offering a local vaccine clinic, and repeatedly neede