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The national reckoning with racial justice and police brutality has led to a conversation about the role of law enforcement in New England communities.
The May 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody sparked protests across the nation, including in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where residents worked to bring that conversation home.
Residents formed the Racial Justice Police Reform Group in July. They also pushed the town to establish the Advisory Committee for Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity, or DIRE, that same month to lead discussion in the town of 7,500.
One of their first tasks was to cut the police budget, a move that then-police chief Kyle Johnson resisted.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The chair of the town's committee on diversity, equity and inclusion Monday reported to his colleagues that he had a long conversation with the town's acting.
Without taking a formal vote, the board expressed a consensus around a plan to bring in a long-term interim chief to help the department move forward while the town completes an evaluation of how it wants policing to look in the future. That evaluation is being led by a social work researcher who the town is hiring to study the issue and engage the community about its public safety needs. A local social worker who helped the town hire that researcher told the board that the study will take time. What s being referred to as community conversations is a full-scale research project, Kerri Nicoll said after hearing the board discuss the question for several minutes. It will be conducted by a professional in this field. It s not simply social-workers going out to chit chat with people.
Search Is On For Permanent Williamstown Police Chief
The Select Board is moving forward to find a permanent police chief.
The Berkshire Eagle reports that, based on one of two options offered by member Andy Hogeland, Town Manager Jason Hoch will move forward to identify an interim chief in an abbreviated search.
It looks like community input will deduce what the department will look like and also what the community wants to see in a permanent police chief.
Once these steps are completed, a professional search firm would be engaged for the four or five-month process of finding a permanent chief.