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Report of the Hancock Police Department
The Police Department has gone through many changes in personnel within the last year. This seems to have been the trend over the last 10 years. There have been many officers that have come and gone. Steve Baldwin retired at the beginning of June after twenty-one years of service to the Town. Mark Wattendorf also left the department this year to take a position in the private sector working in computer forensics. I want to thank Steve and Mark and wish them the best.
I was honored to have gone through the hiring process for the position of Chief of Police and been given the opportunity to serve the citizens of Hancock in that capacity. At the end of July, I was sworn in as Interim Chief of Police while the Selectmen had the necessary checks and tests completed. During this time we were working with limited personnel. Our part-time officers, John Minichiello and Brian Giammarino stepped up to the plate to fill shifts and assist whenever needed. In October we had begun a hiring process to fill the third full-time position. This process took about a month to compete. Officer Nicholas Weeks was hired and sworn in on November 2, 2009. Nick brings a tremendous amount of experience with him. He started his career in Greenfield 18 years earlier. Nick has worked for the Antrim Police and Rindge Police before coming here. We also added a part-time officer to our staff. John Melia was hired on November 9, 2009. John has been a police officer since 2004 and has worked for the Richmond, Winchester and Swanzey Police Departments. John has worked as a Communications Specialist with the Cheshire County Sheriffs Office. John is a very good police officer and will be a big asset to the department.
On November 2, 2009 I had the honor of being sworn in as the Chief of Police for Hancock. Several members of the community attended my swearing in ceremony. I would like to thank everyone who attended as well as everyone that called, stopped in or had seen me afterwards. I have been very appreciative of the support that was given to me and the police department. I am looking forward to building a strong relationship with the community, the school, other town departments and other area police departments.
Throughout the last few months I have been working on several things within the department. We have been updating our department policies, updating lists of our citizens who may need to be checked on during emergencies, as well as a multitude of other items. We have begun to spruce up the police department a little by having the interior painted. You will be seeing some minor changes inside the police department in the future which will make things safer for citizens. We will be more community oriented. I have been working with other department heads to consolidate accounts which will hopefully reduce costs to the town. We are working to find more cost effective solutions to many aspects of the budget. I have suspended the police prosecutor program within the department. Although this program is a valuable police tool to ensure effective court prosecutions, I feel that Hancock will be better served at this time by having its officers prosecute cases. I think with proper training, this will better prepare the cases that officers have. I am looking into switching our telephone service from Fairpoint Communications to and internet phone system which should drop cost by 1/3. I have also been evaluating our dispatch services and there may be changes to that in the future. I expect that these changes will better serve Hancock and reduce the costs.
The police department's objectives for the upcoming year are to provide a high quality of service to the town. We will be striving to enhance community relations and become more involved with community events. We will be researching many grant opportunities and will hopefully be awarded some of them. I will be hiring a third full time officer to fill the vacant position early this year.
This has been a very transitional year for the department. I want to thank all of the departments within the town for supporting us and helping us along. I also want to thank all of the citizens for their many thoughts, notes and support that you have shown. I look forward to the upcoming year and many to come. I urge you to stop into the police department to see the upgrades and to meet our officers.
Respectfully Submitted,
Andrew M. Wood Chief of Police
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