Chief Paul Storti is turning in his badge and gun come January after more than 30 years as a member on the force. A town native, Storti was appointed chief in 2021.
“For me, it was a dream come true to be able to be a police chief coming from a small town," he told WAMC. "I grew up in Housatonic, and I don't think you could ask for anything more.”
Storti says his focus has always been on the community.
“I always looked at it as, I was their messenger, so I always tried to figure out what the community wanted from their police department, and then try to make that happen," he explained. "And that comes with a lot of conversation, getting an understanding of the community, and then getting your officers to buy into what the community wants.”
The chief says he’s looking forward to spending more time on his farm and with family.
“We operate on a retirement system," he said. "I hit my maximum threshold last fall. So, I've been trying to build the command staff and give them the experience to hopefully take over for me, somebody internally, to have a seamless transition.”
Storti’s says his favorite memories of his time in law enforcement actually happened off duty.
“I coach pretty much year-round, several different sports, and what I was able to do with that was to show a lot of the youth in the community who knew I was a police officer, to show the police officers there is a human side to them, and to kind of have them look at me in that light," said the chief. "And I thought that was very rewarding.”
He says the intimacy of serving a small rural community comes with both blessings and burdens.
“You know so many people, and when you have a critical incident, or any type of situation involving a child, you may know the family intimately, grew up with them, know the parents," said Storti. "[You] go to accident scenes, fatal accident scenes- And, I mean, I don't think I can drive down a road that I can't think of some situation, some negative situation that happened. So, when you're working, you're constantly reminded of those situations.”
Storti reflected on the Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 that saw hundreds take to the streets of Great Barrington demanding police reform.
“That was important for us, and what I learned from that was, and I was able to, I think, share with the community, with a lot of their concerns around that, is that we were already doing a lot of those programs that they wanted during the police reform- The five pillars of community policing, we started that in 2016 under Chief Walsh," he told WAMC. "We had a lot of the programs already in place, but where we struggled was, is we didn't get our message out there.”
The hours-long demonstration had its share of tense confrontations between participants and law enforcement, including a lengthy standoff at the Great Barrington Police Department headquarters that saw one protester climb the roof to display a Black Lives Matter sign.
“So that gave me the opportunity to show them that we've been working on this, we've been training our officers, we've been doing this," Storti continued. "We just didn't share that information with the community as well as we should have, and I think once I started having those conversations, of open dialog and showing them the stuff that we had been working on prior, it's like, holy cow, we didn't know this. So, I think our messaging was terrible, but we worked to resolve that.”
Storti was unable to comment on another controversial chapter of his time with the GBPD – the decision to send an officer to W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School in December 2023 after a then-anonymous tip about the presence of Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” a memoir about the author’s understanding of non-binary and asexual identity. The move prompted outcry in Great Barrington, leading to the chief issuing a public apology. The issue remains tied up in the courts as the former teacher targeted by the investigation seeks restitution through a suit directed at town leadership, including Storti.
“Unfortunately, I can't even discuss it pending litigation,” he said.
The outgoing chief offered a word of advice to his eventual successor.
“You need to constantly be talking, learning and meeting with people, having an open door, answering your phone, being as transparent as possible," Storti told WAMC. "All that goes into building the trust that the community expects from Great Barrington Police Department.”
