Randhi Belain, chief of the Aquinnah Police Department for 22 years, soft-retired and stepped down from his role on Nov. 6. His position is now filled by Ryan Ruley, a former Edgartown Police sergeant and former Oak Bluffs Select Board member.
The Times’ police reporter Nicholas Vukota spoke to Belain about his decades-long career in law enforcement in a brief interview Tuesday morning, a few days after his final sign-off ceremony. Here is an abbreviated transcript.
Nicholas Vukota: You served the department for 34 years. Your dad, Kenneth F. Belain, was chief for 22 years before that. What does it mean to you to carry on a family tradition, especially in a town where you grew up?
Randhi Belain: It’s great. It’s what I knew growing up. He was there every day in my life, and I just knew that this could be something I was going to do. As it got closer to the time, he didn’t want me to become a police officer, to be quite honest. However, after he passed away, I knew that was something I wanted to do. I actually went to college for accounting. I was in college when he passed away, and it was kind of funny how things played out. I started doing summers [as a part-time police officer], and it had to be my third or fourth summer there [when] we hired Matt[hew] Mincone, and at the end of the summer, he said, “I want to go to the police academy. Why don’t you come with me?” I’m like, well, “I’m kind of in school. I don’t know how that’s going to go with my mother paying for school.” But I talked to my mom. She’s like, “That’s what you want to do? Then go ahead and do it.” And as they say, the rest is history. [Mincone and I] both lived together in the academy. We both graduated in ’95 — we went from ’94 to ’95. Going back, it means a lot that it’s in my family, and it still means a lot that Lucas [Belain (Randhi’s son)] is looking into doing the same thing now. It means a lot.
NV: Looking back over the past three decades, what stands out as most different in policing in Aquinnah compared to when you started?
RB: Technology. When I started out, we pretty much just had what they called at the time a brown book. We called it a brown book because it was just a small book that we took. When we started as special officers, there was a one-week class that we did here on the Island, and pretty much you just had to do that class on the brown book. I could tell you about the laws that you need to know, and you were tested on that. You passed that and your CPR first responder [certification], and you were pretty much a special officer. Then you went out and did firearms, and that’s how you ended up carrying. So that was pretty much where it was back then. I remember typing reports on a typewriter. Here we are doing computers. You used to call in motor vehicle stops on the radio. We hand-wrote the citations. Now, we’ve gotten to the point where we’ve got printers in the car … You used to call in to check a license plate. Now, you can do it on your own. Technology has taken over. For defensive tactics, we didn’t have [oleoresin capsicum] spray. We just had batons back then. Now, we’ve got tasers. So technology is the number one thing that sticks out in my mind over these 30 years.
And needless to say, policing in general — definitely the different laws to deal with, especially now with de-escalation and the [Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training] Commission, you have to be careful. Officers have to be careful [with] what they do and rightfully so. It’s about transparency, which I totally believe in.
But those are the changes: technology, the changes in the laws, and the culture of policing in general over the past three decades. We’ve gone back and forth where the public loves us, the public hates us, and the pendulum keeps swinging. So just trying to keep doing the right thing and hopefully we end up on a side that the public loves us.
NV: At your retirement ceremony, you were honored by Kevin Devine, chairman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), with a ceremonial blanket. How has your connection to the tribe shaped your approach as Aquinnah chief?
RB: Obviously, it’s been embedded at least since I started. Being a tribal member, living in that town, you obviously need to have that bond, that connection with the tribe. It’s definitely been interesting over the past 10 years or so with the casino. We always used to have a tribe-town public safety agreement. We were meeting about that. Bret [Stearns] and I were really close about that, and the administrations that came in — we always talked, we always met and discussed it, and updated it. The problem being, once that started with the town and the tribe with the casino issue, those talks went on hold and were on hold, and it’s kind of still on hold today. Luckily, it seems like that tide is turning because that document is so outdated, and it needs to be updated, and that’s where we ran into the problem.
When the State Police came in, they were never part of that agreement, so when the town had the agreement with them to help us last year, that was a big void because they asked what happens if something happens on tribal land … And not only that, just with the community there and the tribal housing, it’s important that we go in there and make ourselves known so that people know when they do have an issue that we’re going to come and try to help them as best we can. Right now, we’ve always been kind of the law enforcement part of it for them. And when the [tribe’s] Natural Resources Department was fully functional, they had tribal rangers. The town would appoint them as special officers, more so when they were on the beach for the clay issues. And obviously that was a tremendous help for us to have their special officers in the off-season or even year-round when we were short-staffed. It would have helped this past time around, but they were in the same situation that we were. They had nobody. The rangers have left to go to other towns for different jobs, so it’s definitely important that going forward — and I’ve told Ruley this — he knows he’s going to try to talk to Kevin to start those talks because it’s definitely needed. We’ve gone way too long without talking about public safety within the tribe.
NV: Last year, the department shrank to a point where you were for a time the sole police officer. What was that period like day to day, and how did you and the town manage coverage?
RB: It was interesting I’m not going to lie. That was kind of part of my decision on whether to retire. It was tiring. Not living in town day to day and having to leave down here [Vineyard Haven] and go up there and come back and forth — that made for long days. And being the only one there, it’s kind of stressful. Something you always hear: “Nothing happens in Aquinnah.” Well, for the most part, that’s true, but over the last three decades, there have definitely been some interesting incidents that have occurred that you would not think would happen there … I’m glad we did a little thinking outside the box, and me knowing the special officers that the other departments had because of the training I did with them over the years, knowing what was available. That was kind of out-of-the-box thinking with them, and then just to augment it with the State Police … Was it expensive to the town? Yes, it was. But that part helped, I think, for the police department today. It was a little eye-opening to [the town] because we do have a union now in Aquinnah, and we were in the middle of contract negotiations, and obviously one of the biggest things was pay. And I think now that the town had to deal with what happened, it’s turned the tide for them to open their eyes that, unfortunately, they’ve got to pay … We’ve gotten the people from Tisbury, and Ruley and [Jeffrey] Trudel from Edgartown. If it wasn’t for us increasing the pay, that would not have happened. And had we not been in that situation, that wouldn’t have happened. So, as they say, things happen for a reason.
NV: You helped bring on officers like Christopher P. Manning and Krystle Anderson. How important was it to you to hire people with local ties, and what do you hope they carry forward?
RB: It’s huge, especially in that small town. People want to know the officers that are working for the department. Not to say that Trudel and Ruley won’t fit right in, because they will. Ruley’s worked there before. Trudel’s catching right on … I’ve heard many compliments about him since we hired him in July. But it is important that there is some sort of a nexus to Aquinnah, and those two provide that nexus. And Krystle, a tribal member, obviously that makes it even better.
NV: Last year, you told The Times that part of the reason for retiring when you did was to get out of the way of efforts to regionalize up-Island departments. Can you expand on that thinking at all?
RB: I still believe in the regionalization piece because I feel that we’re just creating a spin. It’s a wheel right now, and we’re just moving pieces on the wheel. Here we are — Trudel and Ruley left Edgartown, which now leaves [Edgartown] in a spot where they’re going to have to hire … Same thing when people left Chilmark. That was how Bret [Stearns] got into the show, so we’re just spinning. In the end, I don’t think we’re really solving any issues. We’re just leaving departments to fill holes, and it’s getting harder and harder to fill those holes, so why don’t we start and try to come together because it’s going to be harder and harder to fill these positions … Maybe you’re still probably going to have to fill positions. However, in the short-term, you can probably help each other out and make that happen. And I will say, I do know how EMS works here on the Island, and I honestly think they’re somewhat doing it now, and nobody’s really paid attention to it. We’ve got EMTs and paramedics working in not just one town, and that’s part of a regional system, in my opinion … We do it with Tri-Town Ambulance. I think, yes, will it be difficult for the whole Island to take over? Yes, but I do think the discussion needs to start … And I think it may have to start with up-Island departments. And I don’t think there’s any opposition, especially between the police chiefs …
And housing, I think, is a big part of what’s going to push it. Because we can’t fill positions prior — it is housing. Years ago, we would have special officers come here and work for the summer. That program has gone, so we rely on the traffic and [community service officer] position. That’s not the optimal way to fill it, but that’s what we’re left with now as far as people wanting to get in the profession. They get a start as a traffic or parking officer, and then if they want to go to the police academy, that’s great. But again, it comes down to, in the very end, housing. … So yeah, I do think the discussion needs to be had. And I thought the timing didn’t work right with us as far as me retiring. We had started the discussion a little bit, but it wasn’t going to happen before I retired. So we did fill positions, but that’s not to say going down the road that, in my opinion, you’ve got to have the discussion.
NV: You’re going to stay on part-time as a special officer. What does that role look like for you, and why did you choose to remain involved rather than step away completely?
RB: Well, to be quite honest, it was for financial reasons. And obviously, I don’t have anything lined up right now, and I know that the Island struggles to fill details … I could have stayed on as a community service officer, a traffic officer, but because most of my in-service is completed for this year, I really only have to do hands-on CPR and firearms training. Basically, the special officer is the next step up in the process. As a special officer, you can actually fill shifts and still have the powers of arrest … In the event that, while Krystle’s in the police academy, and the department still has a need where if they can’t fill an open spot, they can ask me to fill a special officer position and I can do a shift if need be.
NV: After 30 years, how do you hope the community remembers you?
RB: That I was fair. That I was fair to everyone. I guess that’s the number one thing. And that the decisions I made were not only for the department but kept the town’s interest in mind as well.
NV: Any regrets?
RB: Absolutely no. Absolutely not. One of my friends, Chief Christopher Delmonte from the Bridgewater Police Department, was recently the president of Massachusetts [Chiefs of Police Association], and during his acceptance speech, he said, “Don’t let anybody tell you that this isn’t a good profession to get into.” And I’ll have to agree with that. No regrets about doing what I did. And I would advise anybody that wants to do this to do it. So no, no regrets.
Editor’s note: Matthew Mincone eventually became chief for the West Tisbury Police Department and has since retired.
