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Police chief reports patrol workload and offender registry changes; select board reviews cruiser financing options
Summary
Police Chief Ed Dumas presented department statistics showing declines in some offense categories and a steady calls pattern; the board reviewed financing proposals for a new cruiser from McGovern Municipal HQ and asked staff to seek competitive financing given high quoted interest rates.
Ed Dumas, town police chief, presented monthly and quarterly call and case statistics at the Jan. 28 Select Board meeting and updated the board on patrol workload and staffing arrangements, including how transfers of calls between local and state police units affect counts.
Dumas highlighted the department’s top incident categories for fiscal 2024 and said some enforcement areas, such as sex-offender registry violations, have declined in parts of town. He also walked through call-volume charts by time of day and day of week, pointing out that Wednesdays are consistently busy because more officers are scheduled then, allowing the department to handle a higher number of calls.
The board discussed financing for a new police cruiser proposed to be purchased from McGovern Municipal HQ of Marlborough, Massachusetts—the vendor identified by the department. Finance information in the meeting packet showed a dealer/bank financing package with interest near 7% and a three-year structure described as three balloon payments (one each fiscal year), not monthly installments. Board members asked Ted (municipal staff) to provide a breakdown of the three-payment schedule and asked the town’s banking contacts, including TD Bank and local credit unions, to check whether better terms are available before any signature is finalized. "So this is financing it through the bank that the government use ... interest rates are kinda high," a board member said.
Dumas told the board he had distributed three charts: a December month pulse-of-service summary, top-10 issues for the year, and a comparison of calls by time of day, which the board used to discuss shift patterns and expected caseload changes when the department moves into the new public safety facility. Chief Dumas said moving to extended evening coverage would raise visibility of events (and thus recorded calls) rather than necessarily indicating worsening crime.
No final financing contract was signed at the meeting. The board directed staff to obtain a financing breakdown from the vendor, confirm what local banks and credit unions can offer, and return with a recommendation.
Speakers who provided direct detail in this item included Ed Dumas, town police chief, and Select Board members present on the dais.
