Examples of ways Great Barrington demonstrates Building Trust and Legitimacy
- The GBPD enforces policies on discrimination, impartial policing, internal affairs/citizen complaints, conduct unbecoming of an officer and bias motivated crimes. Complaint forms are available on the GBPD website and in the lobby.
- All use of force reports are completed and reviewed by department command staff. An annual analysis is completed by the Chief of Police.
- The GBPD has a policy outlining public records requests, which allows the department to release information to the media and public as soon as reasonably possible regarding critical incidents.
- The GBPD compiles monthly incident and arrest reports.
- The GBPD and the town of Great Barrington utilize notification systems such as CodeRED and Facebookto communicate with the community in regards to safety information or critical incidents.
- The GBPD participates in community programs like Toys for Tots, Special Olympics events, Truck Day, School Safety Day, Kops & Kids and more.
- The GBPD participates in TRIAD.
- The GBPD participates in a ‘Park & Walk’ program at the local grammar, middle and high schools.
- The GBPD utilizes LanguageLine to provide adequate help to members of the community who speak languages other than English.
- The GBPD has a Spanish speaking officer.
- The GBPD adheres to a U-Visa policy and the towns Trust Policy.
- Officers participated in ‘Refugee and Immigrants: Fostering Positive Relationships with Local Police’ training.
- Our Sergeants have attended the Massachusetts Civil Rights Training.
- The GBPD has created and updates and Open Data Portal that includes statistics regarding Hate Crimes, Use of Force, Internal Investigations, Community Engagement, Officer Involved Shootings and more.
- The GBPD holds a Community Police Academy.
- The GBPD strives to create a workforce that contains a broad range of diversity including race, gender, language, life experience, and cultural background to improve understanding and effectiveness in dealing with all communities.
- The GBPD follows a recruiting plan.
- Information about how to become a police officer is on our website.
- The GBPD adheres to the Massachusetts Public Records Law.
- The GBPD has participated in the Governor Baker’s Statewide call to honor our Veterans and Gold Star Mothers. The Governor’s initiative asked cities and towns to light up their buildings and bridges gold to honor those who have served our Country. With many Memorial Day ceremonies cancelled, this is one way to show our country’s gratitude to these exceptional people and their memories. For Memorial Day weekend, the blue lights in front of our station were changed to gold in their honor.
- Officers attended an in-service class on procedural justice and legitimacy.
- In December of 2020, the Department announced many re-imagination initiatives and policy reforms pursuant to proposed legislative reform. (See news blog)
- In 2020, GB had a Police Chief search committee consisting of 7 community members to select the new Chief.