A study into the management of the Abington Police Department has been completed, and the findings were presented to the Board of Selectmen.
Municipal Resources, Inc. was hired to conduct the study after Town Meeting approval in 2019. The report includes interviews with current and former employees and a tour of the department.
“There is a solid foundation in policy,” said Sean Kelly, the Project Manager for MRI. “Some of the recommendations that you’ll read as you go through that report are minor course corrections.”
Representatives to MRI pointed to the accreditation of the police department by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission, which certified the department with full accreditation in 2012. The department was re-accredited in 2018.
What MRI defined as “problematic” was the number of employees the town has lost in the past decade. Citing a Wicked Local article, the department has lost 55 full-time officers since 2004.
In the report, MRI spoke to former employees who said they left the department due to reliance on forced overtime assignments, being overwhelmed by special assignments, and strained relations between front-line officers and the administration.
“Communication in a small agency is still a challenge. Anything that runs 24/7 is obviously going to be a challenge,” said Dave Kurz. “It sometimes becomes rare to see the command staff, especially if you’re on nights or on weekends. It’s not easy, but that doesn’t mean that it becomes ignored. You just have to seek different avenues and multiple avenues to get the word out.”
MRI suggested that more focus go to formal communication, rather than use of an IMC system. In addition, MRI is recommending that the department implement a personnel early warning system to evaluate employees and provide help to those in need.
The study includes recommendations to improve communications, promoting a second lieutenant and moving to a two-division operations/personnel system, and considering removal from civil service hiring.
The Selectmen plan on holding a public meeting to further discuss the findings.
A redacted version of the study is posted on the Abington Town website.
