Reporters were given a tour of the new space inside the former Berkshire Juvenile Court at 21 Holden Street, culminating in the facility’s capacious meeting room.
“I spent the past 20 years in the old building," said Sergeant Mark Bailey. "So, looking at this place, it seems like it's way too big. But that's just because it's a real police department. We haven't had that in many, many years. So, looking at it, from my perspective, I love it. I think we're going to have a lot of community events in this room, particularly, and we're just going to have just more opportunities to be better.”
The quality-of-life improvements for the department are significant: Unlike the old station, the IT room in the Holden Street building doesn’t collect pools of water on the floor and has a functional fire protection system. The interrogation room for the detective bureau is no longer in a moldy basement.
Another is the sally port that allows for detainees to be taken into the station through a secured entrance.
“The sally port is huge," said Bailey. "I mean, if we ever have a combative prisoner at the old place, we'd have to be wrestling with them up two flights of stairs in the public's eye. It's just bad professionalism. And now we can just bring it in here it behind closed doors. That in and of itself calms people down. You're not having to fight with people or wrestle with people. Sometimes they're just putting on a big show for people if they see people in the drive-through at Burger King. So, just for safety measures, it's huge.”
Bailey was named interim chief earlier this month after Mayor Jennifer Macksey announced that Chief Jason Wood would remain on paid administrative leave through the end of his contract in June and will not be retained. Public records obtained by WAMC revealed that Wood was involved in a messy extramarital relationship, but Macksey maintains it was a separate personnel issue that led to his suspension.
WAMC asked Bailey about what the move to a new location and his ascension to interim chief means for the department following the turbulence of Wood’s departure.
“Well, I can definitely say that the personnel are already recharged, they're ready to go," he said. "They just want to come over here and start doing what they've always been doing. From the standpoint of a manager’s standpoint, I mean, everything's already working. I'm just pushing them forward to new things that I've learned or read about. So really, we don't need that much work with the patrol officers at all or the detectives or the sergeants. I mean, they've been doing great this whole time. For years, they've been doing amazing things. I can't say enough about how smart these officers are. So, it's really easy for me, I guess I should say, to come into something like this in this position in time. It's just molding it to what I feel the public wants, and whatever the public tells me they want, we'll try and figure it out together.”
Macksey noted that the move out of the crumbling building at 11 Summer Street also addresses longstanding accessibility issues that North Adams has allowed to persist for decades in its police department.
“In this building, you're able to easily access all of our entry points whether you're coming in to get an LTC or just say hello to the police officers," said the mayor. "And from a customer perspective – I use the word customer instead of prisoners – they are able to come in. In our existing space, anyone who's in a wheelchair or has any difficulties navigating are usually lifted into our station. And that's just embarrassing. When the officers meet our customers, our prisoners, they're in trouble, they need help. And then to have to put them through that traumatic event of having to be lifted into the police station, it's just not appropriate. So here, if you are in a wheelchair or you have any mobility issues, it will be much more pleasant- If there is such a thing in their business.”
An LTC is a license to carry.
The mayor says the move will mostly be complete by Wednesday, save for the 911 dispatch system itself, which is too fragile to survive the relocation. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the old station’s lobby was locked to the public. Macksey says the new space will be open as long as there’s someone at the front desk.
“We're going to probably staff the desk with some civilians, because all the 911 calls, all the emergency calls are still going to go into Summer Street, and they'll still dispatch from Summer Street," she explained. "But we do need somebody in the lobby. In the event that we're talking about, maybe the night shift will have to go dark, we will have a phone outside so you can pick up the phone and it'll ring into dispatch. But those are logistics that we're still working out.”
Money from the American Rescue Plan Act is being used to pay for the first few years of North Adams’ lease on the building, which costs upwards of $11,000 a month to rent.
While the new space is overall a major upgrade for the North Adams PD, Macksey hasn’t lost sight of her ultimate goal for its permanent home.
“I'm still very focused at this point that we will build a public safety complex somewhere within the city," she said. "Right now, the push for this building was not only to improve the conditions for our customers and the staff, but we needed to get out of the police side, again, mostly because of ADA compliance. But that building is literally crumbling around us. So, this is considered temporary space. Our lease is about three years with an extension if possible. So, I'm pretty hopeful that this will be temporary, three, but probably to maybe four or five years, because the whole design of a complex is lengthy in itself. But we're getting closer to now nailing down a space. I really am focused on reusing city owned property at some point. And with that comes, you know, is the space contaminated? What is the access points, things like that. But we have done a building needs assessment. I think we've talked about that. But now we're really ready for the next step of a property needs assessment. So, we know what we want, we know what we think it will look like. But this is just really temporary space. But if we had to stay longer, we certainly could.”
