Second Acts: Zachary Townes

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“When I grow up, I want to be a policeman.” Think of how many little kids say that. Most, as they get older, find other paths, and rarely look back. But not Zachary Towne: “Growing up here on the iIsland, I always really respected the police officers. It was a lot smaller community … so I knew most of the police officers in Edgartown by name, and they were always nice. And I always enjoyed trying to help people.” 

Zach was born in Oak Bluffs, graduated from high school on the iIsland, and went off to college in Vermont. To study what else? Criminal justice. When he came back to the Vineyard after college, he thought maybe he’d go into probation work, “to help people get back on their feet,” but he wasn’t yet ready to decide on a career, or even how to go about it: “Being a police officer is something I thought, Hey, that’d be cool if it was possible, but it seemed like it was really hard to obtain.” 

So, like a lot of young people at that stage of life, Zach picked up odd jobs like he had during high school and college summers — working for the town, doing seasonal work at the rec areas or playgrounds, or on South Beach, cleaning up, working for park patrol, with no real plan in sight.

“I was kind of wandering aimlessly, not really sure what I was going to do with my life, so one winter I took a job working for an insurance agency.” Would that be Zach’s next step in life? After all, everyone on the iIsland has to have insurance, and the Vineyard population was booming: “I hated it. It was awful.” Zach was glued to a desk, in front of a computer screen, in–putting documents, changing names, putting policies together. For a guy who loves the outdoors, interacting with people, helping one on one, this wasn’t the answer. “It took me maybe two or three days to realize that I absolutely did not want to be there.” 

WIth all due respect to insurance agents — we all need them — Zach knew he had to get out of there. So he saved his paychecks for five months, and took off to join a friend in Hawaii. “I spent the winter there, trying to find myself, to find what I really wanted to do.” As great as living on Oahu was, Zach knew it wasn’t forever. “I picked up some carpentry jobs, but … the island is huge, and it got to a point where I was either going to invest in buying a car, or come home. I’ve always been more of a homebody; I love the Vineyard. So I made the choice to come home.”

In 2010, Zach was back working at South Beach. That’s where he met his future wife, also working at the beach for the summer. But as always, summer ends. Now what? “Again, I wasn’t really sure what to do. I had some friends who had subbed [substitute teaching], so I put my name on the sub list, really just for the money at that point.” But it turned out he liked it. It wasn’t sitting in front of a computer screen; it was working with kids, something Zach had always enjoyed. And it was at the Edgartown School, the same school he’d attended. Zach covered kindergarten classes, gym classes, wherever in the K through eighth grades, they needed him.

Then later in that year, a big change came: “One day they asked me to sub in the Bridge Program, and I really liked that.” Bridge is the all-Island program for kids on the autism spectrum, or who have another in a wide range of learning issues. “It would usually be a one-on-one situation. I’d have one student for the day. Depending on that student’s level of ability, I would go to class with them, help them with certain parts of their day, or spend more time in the Bridge room itself, working on programs with the two specialized teachers.”

Zach thrived on the work. “It’s a great program. I had parents tell us they moved to the Island just because they’d heard about it.” By the winter of 2012, Zach got a “long-term sub” job offer in West Tisbury, which means you work every day as an assistant to a classroom teacher. The following year, 2013, he landed a full-time position with the Bridge Program. Maybe Zach Townes had found his calling. Maybe he wasn’t destined to be a policeman, but rather a teacher. He began to think about going back to school to earn his education certificate, to make this his life’s career. But then …

“I remember it very clearly. One day I was sitting at recess, monitoring the kids. And a friend of mine who was on the Edgartown Police Force (spoiler alert: He’s now my sergeant) texted me and said, ‘Hey, we have a position coming up for a reserve officer.’ That’s essentially a seasonal officer, which means you help out during the summer when things are busy.” Zach’s friend said a lot of the guys on the police force thought he’d be a good candidate to hire, and told him to look into going to the Intermittent Academy, the training required to fill the position. In the past, the academy program, overseen by the Massachusetts Police Training Committee, had been off-Island, and Zach didn’t think he could make the timing work and hold down his school job. But now it was on-Island, and he’d been recommended for it. He was further encouraged by the husband of a kindergarten teacher he knew who was a sergeant in Edgartown. This was what Zach had always thought/hoped/dreamed he could do. He signed up. “I was like, All right, I’m going to do this.” 

The Intermittent Academy was 300 hours of work over the winter, at the Oak Bluffs Police Department, all while he was working full-time at the school. Three days a week, he’d go to class at night, and learn defensive tactics on weekends. He completed the course, became a reserve or seasonal officer, with shifts through winter in West Tisbury and Edgartown. Reserve or not, Zach was wearing the uniform of a police officer.

In December of that year, Zach was recommended for the Police Academy, the official, and rigorous, training for full-time police officers. It starts with a physical entry test, running a mile, climbing over walls, dragging a dummy simulating an unconscious human body, all against a stopwatch. And that’s just to apply. Then, if accepted, it’s 40-plus hours a week of physical fitness training, classroom work in motor vehicle law, constitutional law, and state law, with tests and drills for seven months, all in Boston: “I had an apartment there and my place on-Island, so I took out a pretty hefty loan to get it all done.” 

Then there’s the next if — if you graduate. “They’re trying to break you, to put you through a lot of stress, and teach you to react appropriately while you’re stressed. They’d work us to exhaustion, and critique us harshly.” There were 120 in Zach’s class on day one; 15 to 20 dropped out in the first few days, then another 20 or so in a month, so by the end, only about half made the cut.

It’s still not over. Now you have to get hired. “A lot of guys put themselves through this in hopes they’ll get a job. I was fortunate that I had a conditional (if I graduated) offer through Edgartown.” Zach joined the town force, and at first the work was similar to what he’d done during summers, though the pay and future were better. He did ride-alongs with senior officers, picking up where and how they patrol, their tips and instincts, what to watch out for — learning by doing. Today the orientation is more formalized, a four-month field training officers (FTO) program with binders full of guidelines, and procedures, which Zach now teaches.

Zach is now in his 10th year as a police officer. What is his day like? “It’s from small stuff like having conversations with people who are lost, to rushing to do CPR, to domestic situations. I’ve helped abused people get away from the people who were hurting them; I mean pack up, leave the Island, and go to a place where they’re safe. I’ve helped kids in living situations that are terrible, so when they get taken away, you hope at least they’re going somewhere better. We help people in bad accidents, something traumatic when it’s hard to think straight. You just try to be a calm, steady voice to help them through it.” Helping people. The recurrent theme in Zach’s life.

It’s what he learned at home. From his mother who had worked at the secondhand store to support the Boys and Girls Club. Or his father, now a retired lineman who went out after storms to get the electricity back on. It’s what his wife does — that girl he met working on South Beach, who became a social worker. It’s what Zach did with kids in the Bridge Program. Zach says helping is, in a way, selfish: “It’s a selfish feeling to be helping that makes you feel good.” He also says that’s part of living on Martha’s Vineyard, where people just help each other. His wife helps him when he brings some of his work problems home, when he’s shaken by what he’s seen or done, or when what he does is dangerous. Now they have a little boy, almost 2, so he worries for his son too. “I want him to do whatever he wants. But I might rather he not do what I do.”

Zachary Townes is a policeman. Finally. After putting it on hold, after nearly abandoning it, after almost trading it for another career. Some little kids do grow up to be police officers. Luckily for us. That was his second act. His first act was just wanting to be helpful.