The Berkshire District Attorney’s office has received almost $100,000 from the state through a Safer Communities Grant award. The goal of the money is to suppress gang activity and interrupt drug trafficking in the county. Half of the grant will go to law enforcement, funding overtime, undercover work, new equipment, visibility patrols, and more. The other half will go to community partners of the DA’s office, including programs that will bring at-risk students to work at local farms and establish peer mediation groups in public middle schools. Director of Community Engagement and Communications Julia Sabourin spoke with WAMC at today’s announcement.
SABOURIN: It's the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Safer Communities. We received this from the commonwealth. This funding is specifically for gang and drug diversion and suppression.
WAMC: Now, broadly it falls into two general buckets, one bucket going towards law enforcement and one bucket going towards community groups. Let's start with that first bucket, the law enforcement- What kind of stuff is this money supporting in the Berkshires?
For law enforcement, a big bulk of it is going to overtime for the Berkshire County Law Enforcement Task Force. The overtime, we are budgeting about $25,000 for Berkshire County Law Enforcement Task Force overtime. With that, about $21,000 is going to be used for eight, four-hour patrols with nine to 10 members of the task force in plainclothes. So, that's kind of undercover, we would say. We also are doing two, four-hour visibility patrols with eight members from the task force. That's when a group of law enforcement members go out in uniform to show a presence. Along with that law enforcement funding, we are purchasing equipment. The primary purchase being radios, $7,000. Those radios are really high tech. They allow law enforcement to communicate in areas where there's no cellular service, which is a- We all experienced that problem in the Berkshires. We also are investing a large amount of money in training. So, a little less than $15,000 in law enforcement training.
Now, the overtime and patrols- Where is that going to be located? Which body is receiving the overtime money and where will those new patrols be taking place?
So, the body receiving that overtime fund is the Berkshire County Law Enforcement Task Force. The task force was created to strengthen law enforcement response in such a large rural area that doesn't always have the law enforcement resources that, say, a Boston or Springfield might have. In the task force is the state police detective unit, the Sheriff's Department, and the local police officers. So, with that overtime money, we can pay local police departments for overtime costs they may encumber based on these overtime patrols we are asking for.
And the location of those patrols?
So, the location is up to the Law Enforcement Task Force at the time. I can't speak to where those patrols are going to be. We do really appreciate CityStat, which Pittsfield Police Department keeps track of hotspot areas of crime. But I would assume they would make the call of where those patrols are going to be based on activity at the time. Like I said earlier, this grant specifically is for gang, to suppress gang activity and to interrupt drug trafficking in the county. So, the overtime would be focused on that.
Turning to the second bucket, so to speak, the 50% going towards community groups- Break that down for me, what are some examples of those community groups?
We have Roots Rising, which is receiving the largest bulk of our funding a little over $20,000. We are supporting programs for specifically at-risk students. So, targeting that at-risk population in both their summer farm crew, their summer farmers market crew, and their fall crew. The funding has to be spent by the end of December, which is why we're not going to be supporting them past December, although they run crews in the spring as well. We are going to be implementing a peer mediation program in four middle schools. We right now are working with Reid Middle School, who is set, they are ready to go. We have three others who are working, so I'm not going to identify them yet. That peer mediator program is to help build skills, specifically social skills that a lot of schools are saying kids have lost, especially during COVID with the increased use of cell phones. So, hopefully this peer mediator program will allow for increased communication skills and problem-solving skills. And we also are working with Chaos Theory. They are running a program called if “I Ran A City.” They're working with youth who are [Department of Youth Services] involved or potentially might be attending Eagle Street Academy, and they are meeting kids where they're at. They're working on a civic engagement project, and we have the election going on in Pittsfield, so Chaos Theory is going to ask these kids, if you were mayor, if you ran the city, what would you do? And at the culmination of this they're going to produce a video sharing their opinions.
