After four decades on the force – the last two as chief – Michael Williams is stepping down from the Clarksburg Police Department as of Friday. The community of 1,700 watched its police contingent dwindle down from half a dozen officers to just Williams and a part-time officer in recent years. At a meeting Monday, town leadership officially voted to shutter its local law enforcement.
“I think we've at least got to explore the option and transition to state police coverage. If we go down the road and this just really isn't a viable option and continuing with that setup, then I think we can review it at that time, but I think from this point forward, we'd have to transition to state police coverage and obviously set an interim administrative chief of emergency management, and I think at that point, start to get that ball rolling on that process," said select board member Colton Andrews. “I'll make a motion to effectively, as of end of shift on Friday, Clarksburg Police Department will suspend operations. The Massachusetts State Police will pick up coverage of the town of Clarksburg until further notice, or any changes are made by the Select Board.”
Clarksburg officials say a confluence of limited finances, state regulations, and logistical issues have forced the move.
“The state passed police reform a while ago, which does have some rather stringent training guidelines and timelines that need to be met. So, this, in effect, has basically done away with part-time police officers, which both are pretty common in Berkshire County, but also in Barnstable County, out on the Cape. But unfortunately, no provision was made in in that aspect," said Town Administrator Carl McKinney. “I'm not disputing that there was some need for some reform measures, given some of the national headlines that I'm sure we've all seen, but at the same time, the rural communities and the smaller communities are much more reliant on part-time police officers and so this, in effect, it's a supply and demand- So, it's cut the supply, which in turn has increased the demand. And there's not a great big pool of ready, willing and able candidates to fill those roles.”
While Clarksburg attempted to replace Williams, it couldn’t find any local candidates or any willing to relocate to the area.
“We did discuss engaging with North Adams, but unfortunately the price tag was 300% of our current budget, and it basically would eat 20% of the town's budget, and that's just an area that, we just, we could not go there," McKinney told WAMC. "We're a fiscally strapped community. We're the second smallest community in Berkshire County, I think Alford has 70 acres less than us, and then half of the town is owned by the commonwealth, and so our tax base is incredibly limited. We're incredibly close to our Prop 2½ limit, and we have a lot of elderly folks that are retired, that are on a fixed income.”
It's not the first time Clarksburg has seen its local policing disappear.
“A couple of times in the town's history," said McKinney. "Back in the 1950s, reading old town reports, we had bought a new police cruiser, hired a new cop, and then in the year following, they got rid of the policeman and sold the police cruiser and then, I believe it was in the 1990s, when a funding issue at town meeting moved just basically all of the funding from the police department to the school department causing a mass resignation, and that was, it took a year to remedy that.”
McKinney is asking Clarksburg residents to move forward with caution.
“Patience is obviously going to be a necessity," he told WAMC. "Be mindful of your surroundings, obviously. If you have issues, please, 911, is still going to work. The response may be delayed, clearly, and, yeah, that's how we're going to have to move forward.”
Williams told the select board at their Monday meeting that he would agree to becoming Clarksburg’s part-time administrative chief to handle permitting and continue as emergency management director once salary and hours were negotiated.
His final day of work as chief centers around a long overdue homecoming. Over 80 years after he died in the bloody World War II Pacific Theater at Guadalcanal, town resident Private First Class Erwin King is having his remains returned to Clarksburg.
“They're picking him up Friday from the airport, bringing him escorted back," Williams told the select board. "I’ve been asked to join because he was a Clarksburg resident. Me and North Adams State Police, they got some motorcycles, and we're going down to [Bradley International Airport], and then we're going to be doing an escort all the way back when we get back into town, they want to come here in front of our war memorial, and they're going to put a wreath on it.”
Williams will be able to fully accept part-time work with the town in his post-chief capacity starting on October 15th.
