LONGMEADOW – Town and state officials met with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito on June 3 to sign a community compact agreement, which will grant the Police Department $30,000 to help it on a path to accreditation.

Police Chief John Stankiewicz told Reminder Publications he plans to implement a self-assessment of the department’s policies.

“We’re going to be able to ensure that there’s consistent delivery of services to all residents, no matter who the officer is delivering those services,” he added.   

He said requirements to become accredited by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission include providing a process to correct deficiencies before they become public issues, requiring the department to commit to policies and procedures in writing, promoting accountability in the department, enhancing the reputation of the department, minimizing exposure to liability, and increasing public confidence in the department.

Polito said the community compact agreement is a way to strengthen cities and towns across the Commonwealth and first began about a year ago. There are currently 221 communities in the state that have signed the voluntary compact agreement.

“It’s an exercise around this community leadership coming together and deciding on what you want to focus on,” she explained. “What are your priorities? What are the things that you have on the back burner that you just haven’t been able to get to because there’s just not enough resources to get to with your local budget? Through this compact, you’ll be able to put it on the front burner.”

Longmeadow’s community commitments listed in the agreement also include improving safe routes to school and improving citizen safety through community-based programs to increase pedestrian, automobile operator, and motorcyclist safety.

Polito praised Longmeadow’s commitments to offer safer routes to school and to improve the Police Department.

“This is your compact,” she explained. “You designed it. You choose what you wanted to focus on and the beauty of all this is, as a former selectmen, and [Gov. Charlie Baker] recognizes this too, it is funded.”  

The list of state commitments to the town include being a reliable partner for local aid, a pledge to work towards developing earlier local aid formula funding levels, providing technical assistance opportunities to help develop best practices, a pledge to not bring any new unfunded mandates to communities, and a guarantee to work with municipal leaders.

“Our administration will walk with you through this,” Polito said. “They’ve already been in touch with you around how to take the next steps to make this compact a reality.”

Polito said funding for the program comes from support from the legislative delegation. The state has awarded $3.5 million in grants this year for community compact related initiatives.

“By being a member of the compact, you get bonus points,” she added. “We want to incentivize communities to want to do more so when it comes to some of the statewide grants like MassWorks … you can get bonus points on your scoring sheets.”

State Sen. Eric Lesser said he’s thankful of the attention Baker and Polito have shown towards Western Massachusetts regarding the compact and other issues such as public transportation and the opioid crisis,

“This is just the start,” he added. “We’re looking forward to many more collaborations.”  

State Rep. Brian Ashe said he believes it is important for Longmeadow to work with state officials to improve the community.

“Sometimes we get a real knock in government for not working together, especially here at the federal level where there’s gridlock, but from day one your administration has been working with everybody without hesitation [to] just do the right thing,” Ashe said. “I just want to thank you so much for coming out here and all that your administration has done so far. It’s a great day for Longmeadow.”

Select Board Chair Richard Foster said he believes Longmeadow needs the community compact.

“We have every intention to move forward with this and this document will not be put on a shelf,” he added. “It will be prominently displayed and reinforced by future Select Boards. What I really like about this [is] this is a document that lives … It’s got to be on the forefront because we’ve made this pledge.”

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