An Open Letter to Our Police Consultant

Dear Attorney Sampson:


I e-mailed you a few months ago, asking about standards for part-time chiefs. Thank you for your invitation to phone you and discuss my concerns. But I’m writing now to thank you for your help at Wednesday night’s hearing. You were impressive and an outstanding articulator, which has been missing in this town for a very long time.

Our police force believes they are in charge of our town. As one officer put it, "We own this town."

Mr. Kendall Chow, a much-decorated officer who was asked to step in, is now being hunted by this group,
since they hope to counter his report on the police department.

The select board just muddles on, which heightens the fear of the citizens. At times there seems only one select board member, Dave DeHerdt, who constantly strives to find the bare truth and work from there.

One has to wonder, if the police department does not respect the select board members, then how are we safe from the officers? If the select board cannot control the police department, then what chance do citizens have to protect themselves or their basic right to move about freely without being subjected to being stopped by our police?

You may be saying that the select board members are moving towards a solution. But we are determined not to settle for any return to the past. An old shoe is comfortable, but we are requiring the select board members to look for new solutions.

The police have been right on the verge of civil rights violations, and some of them have crossed it (in my opinion). Citizens of this town are frightened and scared to even stand up for their own individual rights. But they must, or at some point they will need permission from this dysfunctional department to step outside of their own homes. We are the hunted and preyed upon.

Would you stop a vehicle while it is snowing, with the reason for the stop that the license plate is obscured by snow?

Would you stop a vehicle going down Ashfield Mountain (famous for its black ice, with a bridge below that quickly freezes) for going too slow, when a normal speed will cause a slide into the bridgework?

Will these people and others come forward with complaints? There’s no chance they will, since this type of policing causes fear of retribution.

You and I know these frail violations for vehicle stops are only to see what else can be written up. Driver’s license on the person? Suspensions? And the like....just to make an arrest and increase one's stats. That is how they see policing, not to build trust and protect the safety of the public. The public becomes the prey.

You cannot enjoy the day or night at all without wondering if you will be stopped, or what kind of demigod(dess) nonsense you will have to take from the officer, or whether you’ll be arrested.

Late reports, even accident reports filed late, smoking and drinking, inaccurate logs, the cruiser being driven for personal use, and aggression are all part of an escalating pattern that just goes on and on. The select board just wants it off their table and given to someone else.

We do not want just someone that nobody else wanted to hire or someone who needs a job because he has been fired. Ashfield has hired like that four or five times already, and what did we get for it. We got to be right where we are now, the hunted and the preyed upon.

The good officers who came onto this police force stopped, looked, listened, and got onto another police force as soon as they were able, and as far away as possible. The rest may be new, but not new to what is continuing to go on here. If they do not know a good police force from a dysfunctional police force, I doubt they know what is right from what is wrong or how to keep their behavior in check. I would not hire any of them to secure my hen house!

SMCorbett