Updated Oct. 10
The Aquinnah Select Board has signed off on an agreement between the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and Massachusetts State Police that allows troopers to respond to incidents on tribal lands.
The agreement, finalized Wednesday night at the town’s select board, comes as a result of a scant police force. The department had four officers to start the year, but that’s dwindled to just one now due to one officer going out on medical leave, one officer retiring, and one officer transferring to the West Tisbury Police Department.
The sole police officer left is Chief Randhi Belain, who also plans to retire in eight months after three decades of service. Over the summer, amid staff shortages, the department relied on officers from the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police.
The town and the tribe have a long-standing public safety agreement, but it didn’t explicitly allow State Police to handle calls on tribal lands. And so, in the past few months, legal counsel from the tribe and police force negotiated an agreement to extend that authority to State Police troopers, and because tribal land resides in the town of Aquinnah, select board members were required to be signatories to the contract.
The contents of the document weren’t discussed at length at Wednesday’s meeting; the length of the contract is three years, and there are no obligations on the town’s part more so than is already established between the town and the police department.
“I know it’s very expensive,” Jeffrey Madison, town administrator for Aquinnah, said about the hourly rate for these contracted troopers.
The town is currently paying the Sheriff’s office about $90 an hour for overnight shifts (midnight to 8 am) and between $80 and $110 depending on officer rank for coverage from the State Police, typically for the 4 pm to midnight evening shift and some day shifts. There are no monetary requirements in the agreement for the tribe, however.
There is ongoing discussion about a combined force between Chilmark and Aquinnah due to the impending dissolution of the smallest Island town’s police department, but nothing is determined yet, and Belain said no meeting is yet planned.
“I have a little more work to do with trying to figure out what’s going to happen with Chilmark,” Belain said.
Updated to include comments from Chief Randhi Belain.
As is the case with most employers housing eliminates majority of potential candidates. It is the elephant in every room.
Comments are closed.