As Chief of Police, I respectfully submit the following 2010 annual report for the Townsend Police Department.

Overall incidents increased in 2010 with a total of 19,372, compared to 16,407 in 2009. The main factor in these increases can be directly attributed to a change in the increase in house and business checks which came about due to a large number of house breaks occurring this fall. Your police department provides the service of checking resident’s homes while they are away and I would encourage anyone leaving on vacation or for any amount of time to contact us so that we may keep an eye on your property. I would also request that residents be vigilant in keeping an eye on their own neighborhoods and report any suspicious activity that they might witness.

Also increasing this past year were assault and battery up 25%, sex offenses up 125%, and shoplifting up 100%. I am however, pleased to report that breaks into motor vehicles were down 300%, vandalism down 45%, motor vehicle accidents with injury down 44%, and motor vehicle accidents without injury down 29%. Custody incidents were down marginally with 87 custodies documented in 2010, compared to 98 in 2009. Criminal complaint applications in both the Ayer District Court as well as the Lowell Juvenile Court remained level with 199 criminal complaints being sought for the year. The balance of incidents for the year remained fairly consistent in all 97 reporting categories.

As in the past several years, we have continued our quest to become state certified as well as a state accredited police agency. In doing so, we have made adjustments within the organization to meet standards which are set by The Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. This is a very labor intensive process and involves adopting policies and procedures as well as rules and regulations that cover practically every phase of police work. The idea behind this process is to become a more professional organization, to decrease liability, and to clearly define our mission. Twenty-seven updated policies which meet accreditation standards have been approved and implemented since this process began while the total number of policies required is seventy-five. As stated, this is a very labor intensive effort and requires modifying boilerplate policies, impact bargaining with the union, approval by the Board of Selectmen, adoption, and implementation.

Once again this past year we continued our overall efforts to focus on those areas which are troubling to our community. I find it helpful to those of you who use our website www.townsendpd.org and go to our survey section to provide your comments on those areas in which we should focus our attention and areas where we can improve. While I find most of the comments positive, I also find those of you that are not satisfied or critical about the services that your police department provides and try to use some of the negative comments, along with statistical data to improve what we do here. With that being said, I would urge anyone who has an issue or comment to use this tool that is available to you to provide your input either way.

In July we lost a full-time officer’s position as the result of bargaining and the need to stay level-funded. In addition, two police officers have been out since September due to long-term illness issues. We are currently running with a full-time staff of thirteen officers, which is down from a high of sixteen. This year several major staffing changes had to be made in order maintain minimum staffing and decrease overtime spending. Our Detective’s position no longer exists, supervisors who were working 6 PM-2:00 AM in order to oversee supervisory responsibilities on the 3 PM-11 PM shift as well as the 11 PM-7 AM shift had to be adjusted and moved to the 3 PM-11 PM shift to eliminate hold-over overtime. In addition, impact bargaining with the union resulted in allowing a reserve police officer to work an open 11 PM -7 AM shift. While I am not comfortable with these changes I appreciate the cooperation from the union in allowing reserve officers to fill this vacancy which dramatically decreases the cost associated with overtime and cuts down on overburdening and burn-out to full-time staffing.

This year, there were six internal affairs investigations conducted involving officers. Two of these complaints were sustained requiring some disciplinary action against the officer, three were not sustained indicating that there was inadequate or insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove the complaint, and one investigation remains open and ongoing. Internal investigations are conducted for a variety of reasons and the objective of internal affairs investigations are: 1. Protection of the public; 2. Protection of the employee; 3. Protection of the Townsend Police Department; 4. Removal of unfit personnel; and 5. Correction of procedural problems. This year’s internal affairs investigations were conducted as a result of citizen complaints as well as alleged violations of the department’s rules and regulations. There were no criminal investigations conducted involving officer’s conduct.

Again this year I would like to add a few words of caution: Do not become the victim of crime due to complacency. Lock your vehicles at night, leave lights on in and around your homes and businesses and notify us while you are away on vacation so that we can make checks which are assigned to regular patrols. As stated earlier in this report, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of residential burglaries this past fall. In most cases houses targeted were single family ranch style homes with no garage attached so it was easy to detect if anyone was home and the general layout of these homes was similar, making it easy for the intruder to be in and out of the home in less than two minutes time. If someone comes to your door and ask if they can provide services to you, ask for directions, or is unfamiliar to you, call us. In most instances, perpetrators of these burglaries will knock on the door first to see if anyone is home. In some cases, they will look the part of a solicitor and even carry a notebook or clipboard. You should be aware that solicitation or door-to-door canvassing within the Town of Townsend requires registration with the police department and those doing the soliciting are issued badge-type permits. Do not give out any information about yourself over the phone or internet unless you can verify who it is you are giving the information to. Do not fall victim to computer scammers as we have once again found an increase in the number of incidents being reported to us involving computer crimes and unauthorized use of bank and credit card accounts, the most recent being a scammer from Salt Lake City Utah where a local resident found that more than $1300.00 had been fraudulently withdrawn from their bank account. If you do find that you have become a victim of identity theft, please notify us and fill out the identity theft packet that you will conveniently find as a link on our website.

This past year has been busy for the police department. With an increase in incidents coupled with a shortage of staff has made things difficult but we continue to do the best job that we can with the resources that we have and always attempt to address crime and furnish services to provide a safe environment and enjoyable community to live in and visit. For the last several months I have personally been involved in, and continue to investigate the disappearance of Deborah Quimby, who disappeared while riding her bicycle in 1977 on Turnpike Road at age thirteen. A renewed effort has come about with the assistance of investigators from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children along with the F.B.I. and other resources who have been assisting me and providing support to find the answers and resolve this case which continues to be important to me both personally and professionally.

In closing, I would like to say that it has once again been my privilege to serve this past year as your Chief of Police. I would like to thank the men and women of the Townsend Police Department that have given so much of themselves this past year and who carried themselves honestly and professionally. I would also like to thank and acknowledge the business owners and citizens of Townsend for their support and extend my appreciation to the Massachusetts State Police, Attorney General and District Attorney’s Offices, and Chief of Police from the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council and across the state. Further, I would like to thank the other department heads, boards and committees, Board of Selectmen, and Town Administrator for the support and guidance this past year which has led to the overall success of the organization.

Respectfully submitted,

Erving M. Marshall, Jr.

Chief of Police

As Communications Director, I respectfully submit the following annual report for the Townsend Communications Center.

The Townsend Communications Center, the hub of emergency services for the Town of Townsend, recorded 19,275 overall incidents for the year. These incidents are recorded for reporting purposes and include all incidents both major as well as minor in detail within ninety-seven separate categories. The number of incidents increased from 16,407 incidents the previous year, showing an increase of 2,868 incidents. The main factor in this increase can be directly attributed to a change in the increase of house and business checks, where 2,231 additional incidents were created over the prior year as a result of this change. The increase in these incidents came as a direct result of a dramatic increase in residential B&E’s this past year and a need for added security and oversight of certain areas of town.

While these incident statistics give us an accounting of the type, quantity, and nature of calls received, they do not account for the thousands of informational-type general service calls that do not require incident reporting, thus do not account for the overall work performed on a daily basis by the department’s telecommunicators. In addition, the work performed by the telecommunicators, who besides answering phone calls and handling radio traffic, also handles walk-in customers to the police/communications facility.

Two additional part-time telecommunicators were added to augment the staff of the four full-time and five part-time telecommunicators employed within the communications center. Donald Girard, a former full-time Telecommunicator, as well as Andrea Deschene, were appointed in November. Although Girard had the necessary experience and qualifications, he required some additional training and is now working. Deschene who had no prior experience, remains in training. Both of these individuals were added to handle the wide variety of services which include emergency calls for police, fire, and emergency medical services as well general information calls. In addition, the telecommunicators handle radio traffic for highway and water departments and is equipped to handle mutual aid radio traffic for out of town services and during incidents where mutual aid enters the community.

The communications center is a very active place that can go from routine one minute to utter pandemonium the next. In some respects it is a clearing house of information that is sought by the general public and which the public relies on not only in an emergency, but when they don’t know where else to turn for answers to their questions. This can sometimes become troublesome for the telecommunicators when they are attempting to handle an emergency call at the same moment and is why I urge those seeking general information to use the communications center as a last resort.

I am pleased to report that improvements within the communications center were essentially completed this year. We once again have a state-of the-art communications center which contains the most up-to-date radio, computer, and monitoring equipment. This project was essential to maintain proper communications and avoid the failure of outdated equipment which was original to the building in 1990.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to advise that it has been my privilege to serve as Director of Communications this past year. I would also like to thank the men and women who work within the confines of the communications center and who are there to serve the community. They are the faceless professionals who are there to give advice and assistance and are the first contact made for those in time of need.

Respectfully submitted,

Erving M. Marshall, Jr.

Director of Communications