Mike Ziemba told the board Monday July 12, that he has compared Williamstown s policies against 170 policies from the town of Great Barrington, where the department is accredited by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. Ziemba said it is the WPD s goal to achieve that same level of accreditation, a long-term process the department has just undertaken. He highlighted a couple of policies that have been updated, including one where changes were necessitated by the commonwealth s recent police reform bill. The WPD s new use of force policy, among other things, spells out a prohibition on the use of choke holds, Ziemba said. He also provided some detail on his department s policy on de-escalation techniques, which include using techniques like verbal persuasion warnings and calling in mental health consultants.