Hinsdale Residents Air Policing Concerns During Information Session
HINSDALE, Mass. — Broken trust, cavalier officials, no faith in the town, and the need for accountability and change were sentiments that bellowed in the town hall on Tuesday during the community information session on the police department organizational analysis.
Eric Diagle, Daigle Law Group principal attorney, stood before more than 30 community members who vociferously criticized the Hinsdale Police Department and public officials' reaction to past incidents. The meeting lasted more than an hour and 40 minutes.
The meeting commenced with Diagle emphasizing that the firm was retained to conduct an organizational analysis, not to investigate the fatal police shooting of 27-year-old Biagio Kauvil during a mental health crisis in January.
Early on in community comments, residents made it clear that the January incident and others are deeply intertwined with the analysis.
"This is an organizational study on how the department is operating, where it is, and where it should be, and how they get to those areas. The incident was the catalyst for the town in retaining the consultant," Diagle said.
Although the aim of hiring a consultant was not to investigate the incident, it still needs to be taken into consideration when developing solutions to improve the department, attendees said.
Some attendees emphasized that people do not feel safe calling 911 if they are experiencing a mental health crisis. More often than not, incidents that police are responding to involve people in desperate need of mental health services.
"They're ill, they're not inhuman, and I want you to look at Biagio…You need to know the human cost," Attendee Debbie Fassell said.
In a follow-up with iBerkshires, Fassell explained that she wanted to humanize the situation and remind people to remember that Kauvil was a "beautiful human being" who had a mental health crisis and needed help.
The sea of voices expressed that trust has been broken between the town, department, residents, and bordering departments, specifically Dalton, which suspended mutual aid to Hinsdale in April.
"I just think it's important to recognize that people are hurting. I think all the energy and all the anger that's coming out is because people feel like they have been wronged," attendee Sharon Choon said.
Diagle explained that the firm's role is to ensure its recommendations and findings produce feasible solutions that balance the community’s voices, national best practices, and constitutional policing standards.
"We believe that in these situations, the town and the people have to have an ability to give a voice," he said.
"No matter how bad the situation is that we are entering to investigate, we always give them the voice, because the voice is an important part of the beginning of the healing process and moving forward."
It is not unusual that the firm is hired to conduct a review following a critical incident and oftentimes death, he said.
"We do this all over the country, and this is not the first meeting we've been yelled at. So, we do understand that there's a lot of passion and there's a lot of energy and people have a lot of vested interests, and we try to acknowledge that by listening to you, by being here," Diagle said.
Throughout the meeting, attendees repeatedly sought actionable answers to their concerns but were often met with responses such as the analysis was still in its early stages, so recommendations could not yet be made.
Items that attendees wanted the report to address included:
- Recommendations on rebuilding the rift and trust between the town, residents, and bordering departments.
- Improved transparency, such as releasing the firm's report to the public when complete, and accountability, specifically, officials acknowledge past shortfalls and follow the recommendations the report outlines.
- A 24/7 police department run by a well-trained and experienced person.
- The navigation of different department structures.
- The need for body cameras was also emphasized, with one attendee highlighting that the only reason people know what happened during the mental health call in January was that Dalton Police responded.
Attendees were told that many of the requested actions fell under the responsibility of town officials, over whom the firm has no authority.
The consultant is in the beginning stages of the analysis and has spent the last two days interviewing members of Hinsdale and bordering towns to determine the best way the police department can serve the town and the surrounding areas.
Phase 1 was the investigation and research phase, which the consultant is nearly concluding, which includes gathering documents, such as training records, budgets, and personnel files, to set a baseline for where the department currently is.
The firm has moved on to Phase 2 and has spent the last couple of days interviewing Hinsdale officials, in addition to the Dalton Police Chief. The final phase is when the firm will give its recommendations and findings, which involve combining the efforts of the first two phases to provide and justify its advice.
Once that is done, it falls to the local and elected officials to enact these recommendations.
Several community members expressed a lack of faith that town officials will take the firm’s recommendations seriously, many perceiving that some officials, who sat at a table together, were "smirking and laughing" during the meeting. The officials denied these accusations.
"I'm talking to you as a select board member. We will take his recommendations, and as [Diagle] said, what we can afford and how we can work it out. We will apply it and try to make it all happen, but we will prioritize it to what we think is important first," Select Board member Raymond Huntoon said.
"We're not going to accomplish it all in a minute, that's what we're here for. We know there's weaknesses, we know there's issues, but we are trying to take care of it. That's what we're here for. We will work at it."
Some officials also urged residents to attend town meetings, such as the Select Board meetings.
"Regaining trust goes both ways I think that if you have lost trust in your police department, that you should also maybe engage with them a little bit and get to know them, because they are people too, and they are hurting as well as the family, and I think people need to give a little on both sides and try to come together," attendee Angela Stetson said.
One thing that became clear during this is that community policing is a high priority in town, Diagle said.
Additionally, the town has a high volume of medical calls compared to criminals, so the town will want services that align with this need, he said.
"I do know, at least at this point in our analysis, that the town has made great leaps to try to close barriers for pay and discussions on shifting, and trying to give the officers a little give and take on work days, off days, schedules, and all of that is part of the process," Diagle said.
"It is a national discussion that, unfortunately, is going to get, in my opinion, a lot worse before it gets better, just because of the environment of those who just want to be police officers or don't want to be police officers, nothing anyone can do about that."
