Starting Monday, Sergeant Mark Bailey will be the interim chief of the North Adams, Massachusetts police department. The move comes after Chief Jason Wood was placed on paid administrative leave last month and Mayor Jennifer Macksey announced that his contract would not be renewed in June, citing a loss of faith in his leadership. Wood will remain on leave for the remaining weeks of his employment. While public records obtained by WAMC indicate that a messy extramarital affair bled into Wood’s professional life, Macksey said it was a separate personnel issue that led to her decision. Bailey is a 19-year veteran of the city police department. Lieutenant Anthony Beverly has been leading the force since mid-March. Macksey spoke with WAMC to talk about her decision to elevate Bailey.
MACKSEY: Mark has a great deal of experience with the North Adams Police Department, and he also has a master's degree in criminal justice leadership, which made him of interest to me. He's been a fine police officer, a great detective, as well as a super sergeant. And at this time, during this interim process, I thought that he would be a good candidate to help us move this department forward. As most of the people know, we are moving into a new building, which we hope to have completely operational by Wednesday. And having someone in the chief role working on operations with the lieutenant is very important to me. So, that's his number one priority, is to get this building up and running.
WAMC: What are the other major priorities Mark [Bailey] will have to address when he takes over interim leadership of the North Adams Police Department?
We need to really focus on policies and procedures, which interim Chief Bailey has experience with. And I feel confident he will help us realign all of our policies and procedures, and specifically working with the team on rolling out our body cams. And then beyond that, you know, I'm big on rebuilding the whole community policing model, getting our officers to engage more with the community. So. community members know our officers in good times and bad, and I feel confident in interim Chief Bailey's ability to do that. He's very committed to the police department and this community. And right now, I felt that was our best option for us in the interim.
Give us a look at the long-term plan here. I know North Adams is no longer under civil service, so what will the search for a new permanent chief look like?
Well, that will come down the road, probably in the end of summer, fall possibly. Right now, the focus is what do we need to do to get us up and running. But as you know, Josh, I think we've talked about this in the past, I'm very focused on rebuilding our police department. And this is the start of that.
What are you hoping that the interim chief brings to the position during this transitional period, not just in the physical location, but in leadership as well?
Yeah, I'm really looking for someone who can interact with the staff and navigate problems and help facilitate solutions. I'm looking for someone who can work with the community, again, in the same aspect. When people come in, they- Sometimes people just want to be heard, and working with the community and in the neighborhoods. And, you know, as we move forward, we want to restore professionalism. We want to make sure we have accountability. And I really feel confident in Mark Bailey’s ability to take this department to the next step. You know, we've been a bit stagnant in the sense of our staffing levels, and you know all of the problems about our old building. We're turning a new chapter in the police department. Granted, this is a temporary facility that we're moving into. It provides good working conditions, it provides a nice environment, and it's also safe for not only our officers but also our customers, our clients, so to say. But we're turning a new page and I really feel that Mark Bailey at this time, in this interim position, can help us with that, and what the future holds for the chief’s position will be determined when we do the full search.
