District Attorney to Host Workshop on Organized Retail Crime and Financial Fraud

10:37AM / Friday, April 11, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. On Monday, April 14, the Berkshire District Attorney's Office, in partnership with the New England State Police Information Network, will host a workshop addressing organized retail crime and financial fraud.

At the workshop, speakers will discuss organized retail crime, financial crime, organized retail crime legislation, and current frauds effecting Berkshire County businesses and banks.

Speakers include Ben Dugan, Executive Director for Central Investigations for CVS Health; Mark Solomon, International President of the International Association of Finance Crimes Investigations; Ryan Kearney, General Counsel for Retailers Association of Massachusetts; and Kelly Kemp, Second Assistant District Attorney at the Berkshire District Attorney's Office.

The impetus of the conference was the concern over retail and financial crimes occurring in Berkshire County and across the country. These crimes effect both businesses and residents alike and threaten the financial well-being of the Berkshire Community. While many businesses have reported a decrease in retail crimes over the past two years, education regarding the crime trends and awareness is critical to continuing the reduction in organized retail crime and financial fraud in the Berkshires.

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Dalton Considers Updating its Municipal Code

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
01:21PM / Thursday, August 27, 2026

DALTON, Mass. — The town is considering updating its original 18-year municipal code to 2026 standards.

During a recent Select Board meeting, General Code New England account manager Zach Dumont outlined the 18- to-24 month process.

General Code New England is a division of the International Code Council, which writes all the statewide building codes across the United States. For the last 18 years, the organization has been the codifier for municipalities.

"We work with communities to build, maintain, and update your local municipal code. That is your collection of bylaws, ordinances, regulations, and any other legislation you've ever adopted," Dumont said.

Once the project is complete, the town would have a fully updated set of books and an improved eCode360 site, he said.

"The way the process would work is we would put together a scope of work, a timeline, a price point, and everything that we would want to touch or do as a part of the code project," Dumont said.

When a municipal code is built, it has a general lifespan of about 15 to 20 years, and although that is a long time, it goes by very quickly, he said.

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