HATFIELD — The Whately and Hatfield selectboards are beginning to dive into the details of sharing a police chief and potentially officers by creating a group that will be tasked with drafting an agreement between the two towns.
Hatfield Police Chief Michael Dekoschak described a three-phased approach during the joint meeting on Tuesday. For Phase 1, the towns would share a police chief. With Dekoschak planning to retire in December, Whately Police Chief James Sevigne Jr. would step into that role.
“The best time to do that (Phase 1) is when a chief is retiring,” Dekoschak said.
If the towns move forward with Phase 1, Sevigne emphasized that he would not be a part-time police chief in Whately and Hatfield. Instead of splitting his days evenly between the two towns, which have similar call volumes, Sevigne would respond to calls when necessary in both areas.
When Whately Selectboard member Bradley Bean brought up the possibility of the chief needing to respond to both areas at once, Sevigne and Dekoschak assured him that second-in-command officers would be ready to step into the chief’s role in those cases.
According to Dekoschak, combining the two chiefs’ salaries into one would likely save enough money for Hatfield to hire a new full-time officer, and could potentially help hire a full-time officer in Whately. Dekoschak added that Hatfield could potentially raise its officers’ pay to market standards, draw more applicants and fill gaps in weekend coverage — a change Hatfield Selectboard Chair Luke Longstreeth said many residents have requested.
“We’re looking at some out-of-the-box strategies to save money but provide more services,” Dekoschak said.
The idea of sharing resources was partly sparked from Sevigne and Dekoschak struggling to fill full-time and part-time officer positions.
When the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission formed in 2020, municipal police officers — including part-time officers in Whately and Hatfield — participated in training that allowed them to become certified full-time officers, Sevigne and Dekoschak explained. The rise in these certifications drove officers to seek full-time positions outside Whately and Hatfield, Sevigne explained at the July 29 Whately Selectboard meeting.
Before 2020, eight part-time officers worked at the Whately Police Department. Now, there are only four. In Hatfield, the number of part-time officers has shrunk from 14 to two.
Sevigne said hiring more full-time officers could increase coverage and, therefore, alleviate the towns’ reliance on part-time positions.
“We are not looking at this as a loss for either community,” Dekoschak said. “It’s to protect both communities.”
Bean questioned the cost savings, pointing out the increase in administrative duties that would rest on Sevigne’s shoulders. Sevigne assured him that he already delegates responsibilities to other officers regularly and would continue to do so as Whately and Hatfield’s shared police chief.
“If we didn’t think we could handle this with just one person,” Sevigne said, “then it wouldn’t have been a discussion.”
The two selectboards also discussed Phase 2 of the proposed approach. This would entail regionalizing police services in the future, meaning the officers in each town would serve Whately and Hatfield, increasing coverage in both communities, Dekoschak said. According to Sevigne, the departments would be “mirror images of each other” with identical police coverage of 16 hours each day.
For Phase 3, the towns would look at creating a district combining the two police departments into one — a “much more difficult” path that would require years of work, given that the towns use different courts, jails and dispatch centers, Sevigne said in July.
Dekoschak told the selectboards on Tuesday night that each town is not required to carry out every phase, but he described Phase 2 as a “smart choice.”
A question arose about the benefits for Whately in sharing a police chief. Besides the cost savings Longstreeth reiterated, Whately Selectboard Chair Fred Baron said Phase 1 would “open the door” for Phase 2, which would then expand police coverage in Whately.
Bean asked the chiefs if the towns could move forward with Phases 1 and 2 at once. In response, Dekoschak described Phase 1 as a six-month “soft landing” that would give Sevigne time to look at both town budgets to plot the best next steps for Phase 2 and “iron out any unknowns or anomalies.”
The selectboards established a working group made up of Sevigne, Dekoschak, Baron, Whately Town Administrator Peter Kane, Hatfield Town Administrator Andrew Levine and Hatfield Selectboard member Edmund Jaworski to draft an intermunicipal agreement sorting out the details of the towns either sharing just a police chief or sharing both a police chief and officers. The group will present the draft of the agreement to the selectboards for approval before Town Meeting voters weigh in.
“We’re effectively signing a prenup,” joked Selectboard member Julia Frisby.
