‘Change-maker’ William Gordon to retire from Greenfield PD

WILLIAM GORDON

WILLIAM GORDON STAFF PHOTO/ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

Greenfield Deputy Police Chief William Gordon will retire from a nearly four-decade law enforcement career Friday, Nov. 1.

Greenfield Deputy Police Chief William Gordon will retire from a nearly four-decade law enforcement career Friday, Nov. 1. STAFF PHOTO/ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

Staff Writer

Published: 10-28-2024 4:20 PM

GREENFIELD — Deputy Police Chief William Gordon will retire this Friday, Nov. 1, closing a 38-year career in law enforcement and leaving behind a number of innovative changes to policing, both in Greenfield and across the country.

Gordon, 54, began his law enforcement training with the Sunderland Police Auxiliary Program as a senior in high school before being sworn in as a part-time Nantucket officer in 1986, the summer after he graduated. He served as an officer in both Sunderland and Nantucket, where he was offered a bicycle patrol position, before being  hired in Greenfield in 1993 — a dream that he had held since he was 11 — when he was taken to the Greenfield Police Department on a field trip.

“In the fifth grade, I went to Deerfield Elementary School. They had a Career Day program, where if you had ideas of what you wanted to be when you grew up, for one day, they would take you on an adventure,” Gordon said. ” I remember going in and seeing the desk sergeant, and he was up on a platform, so he looked so big and so respectable in that uniform that it really led to me thinking that the Greenfield Police Department had the greatest respect, and they were squared away, and I have had an affinity for the Greenfield Police Department ever since.”

As he climbed the ranks of the department, being promoted to sergeant in 2000, lieutenant in 2008, deputy chief in 2021, Gordon was known around the department for his role as a change-maker. According to Police Chief Todd Dodge, Gordon was responsible for spearheading the department’s efforts toward accreditation in 2016, as well as digitalizing or improving some of the department’s day-to-day operations, such as property or asset management.

Dodge noted that Gordon’s constant pursuit of change in the department, which at times did not have the support of higher-ranking officers, could be credited for a number of improvements over the years, including its use of clinicians when responding to mental health calls.

“In here, Bill [Gordon] wasn’t famous, he was infamous, and for the right reasons ... he would initiate these changes, and there was no talking him out of it, because he could see more than the average person where we needed to go, and he stuck to it and dealt with the beatings,” Dodge said. “Cops hate change, plain and simple, no objection, it’s easier to just keep going the way things have always gone, but just because you’ve been doing it a certain way doesn’t make it the right way.”

One of Gordon’s most widely acclaimed achievements was his idea in 2012 to bring comfort dogs into the police department, a choice that has been replicated throughout the country and led to him meeting President Joe Biden in 2021, as well as White House staff members under President Barack Obama’s administration. He said the idea was inspired by tips he received at the law enforcement and first responder training program On-Site Academy in 2012 while he sought help coping with post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD].

“In 2012, I was overcome by PTSD and I was struggling. I could see the symptoms in myself. Although police officers and first responders knew about PTSD back then, it wasn’t as much as we know now, and it affected me. I went from really a happy-go-lucky person to somebody that was angered and had a short fuse, and I had intrusive memories of horrific calls that I was on and I didn’t know how to control that,” Gordon said. “They taught me how to how to deal with stress, occupational stress, and they gave me tools in my toolbox to be able to work with the stress that was in my life … when you’re miserable and you’re in a depressed state, they said try to find things that you enjoy. They asked me what I enjoy and I said I really enjoy working with my dogs.”

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After bringing comfort dogs into the Greenfield Police Department and noticing the positive impact they had on both officers and community members, the program spread. On Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman shot and killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, Gordon brought the department’s comfort dogs to the shooting’s first responders.

Noticing that the dogs brought a positive change in demeanor to the Sandy Hook firefighters, Gordon continued the program, bringing dogs to first responders and community members in the wake of tragedies such as the Las Vegas shooting in 2017 and the Pittsfield Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018, which started a national trend.

“The Las Vegas Fire Department got their own dog, the Capitol Police got several dogs after we helped them. You could really see how much that those dogs affected that department as a whole, when these large cities started getting their own comfort dogs, because of the comfort that they got from our dogs,” Gordon said. “It’s really touching and it really started showing the effect of these dogs.”

At 2:30 p.m. Friday, Gordon will make his final radio call at the Greenfield Police Department, a ceremonial send-off into his retirement, which he said he plans to spend working part-time as an emergency responder for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) while continuing to work with Greenfield Police in a part-time capacity.

Stepping away from a nearly four-decade-long career, Gordon thanked his wife, Erving Police Officer Laura Gordon, their two sons Stephen and Nicholas Gordon, as well as the community for their support.

“The officers in this building are my best friends, and my best best friend is a police officer, and she happens to be my wife, and I have to give her credit for getting me through this career and her sacrifices, and my sons’ sacrifices ... there’s been Christmases without their dad, there’s been birthdays when dad has to go to work, or leave in the middle of the night, leave the dinner table, missing sports and all of that. So my family’s gone through this as well. They really have gotten me through with my sanity and I’ve had a very lucrative career,” Gordon said. “I really enjoy this community. I live here in this community and I can’t thank Greenfield and its residents and leadership more.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.