Massachusetts communities losing police officers due to new state requirements

With new police guidelines beginning to take hold, some communities in Massachusetts have started to lose police officers.

According to State House News Service, the first wave of officers to be recertified under a 2020 law designed to bolster the state’s oversight of police officers following the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers in Minnesota and Kentucky, respectively, are supposed to be recertified by July 1, 2022.

As part of the recertification, officers are mandated to attend 200 additional hours of training at the Bridge Academy. Officers say that many part time officers did not have enough time to attend under the timelines that the seven members of the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission set. Some would have to take time off from their full-time jobs as the training is during the day during the week.

The mandate appears to put a dent in police departments in small communities in particular as far as part time officers are concerned.

Take, for instance, the Halifax Police Department which issued this statement on Sunday.

“Officer Donnelly tossing the ball around with some kids before the fireworks yesterday. Pat has been with our department since 2007 as a special police officer. The fireworks event was his last time suiting up as a police officer. He along with officers Acevich and Gaynor will no longer be certified as police officers effective July 1st with the new requirements put in place with police reform. The town is losing decades of experience which will be difficult to replace. Thank you all for your dedicated service, you will be missed.”

Some may say that departments can just rehire other officers to replace the uncertified. That may have been easy to do a few years ago, but as of late, Departments have had difficulty rehiring to replace retirees and those leaving the profession altogether. Scroll on social media for a few minutes and you will likely see a post from an area police department looking to try and hire new officers.

In addition to the issues concerning part time officers, Auxiliary Police Departments are being disbanded altogether.

According to WMUR, over a dozen of the units in Massachusetts have disbanded or are preparing to disband this month alone due to the training mandate in addition to reserve officers having to record 2,400 hours of patrol time as an officer with the power of arrest. Volunteer officers don’t make many arrests.

Communities, both small and large, having to replace unpaid officers with paid officers could also see budget issues. Some of the price tag could also be passed on to organizations that typically use volunteer officers for events.

On the bright side, officers whose last names begin with I through P have until 2023 and last names starting with Q through Z have until 2024 to become certified through the Bridge Academy. Money was also set aside by Beacon Hill to help departments cover the extra costs created by the new certification program.

The impact on the new training, either positive or negative, should begin to show in communities in the coming months.