Pittsfield Police Advisory's Lack of Members Leads to Fewer Meetings
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Down to just three members, the Police Advisory Review Board has decided to scale back to meeting every other month.
"I have sent emails to [Mayor Linda Tyer's] office many times reminding them that there's only three of us," Chair Ellen Maxon said last week. "And I don't know what more to do, and I also don't think it's our responsibility to find members."
Maxon added that she had passed a recommendation to Tyer's office for a new member but the person did not work out.
The board, which was established to serve as a liaison between the Pittsfield Police Department and the public, feels that the COVID-19 pandemic has stunted community engagement and on top of that, most of its members have opted not to serve a second term.
"I guess I would like to know if you have any thoughts, we're going to be discussing now that there are only three of us, how effective and should we be meeting when we don't really have a true representation of the community," Maxon said to Police Chief Michael Wynn at last Tuesday's meeting.
"That's one thing we want to talk about, and then the other would be, since we're only required to meet quarterly and there's so few of us, we will talk about whether we should meet quarterly until we get new members."
Wynn said he understands the difficulties the volunteer organization faces but feels it is important for the board to meet regularly with the option of urgent meetings when there are citizen complaint cases to review.
"I think that it's important that this board meets regularly, what frequency that is, it's up to you," he said.
"The ordinance requires quarterly OK, that's fine, I would ask that it would be quarterly with the permission of emergency meetings if I need to communicate something to you more frequently."
Vice Chair Michael Feldberg said the board may lose touch with each other if they have quarterly meetings and suggested that they meet every other month.
They also decided to change the meeting time to 5 p.m., rather than 4:30 p.m. to make the meetings more accessible during the public's workdays.
Last year, the board considered amending the governing ordinance's language to make changes that support its mission but decided not to go forward with the amendment and instead, focus on increasing engagement with the community.
The board had planned to host an in-person listening session to hear the public's experiences with the Police Department in February but it was postponed because of the winter COVID-19 surge.
The listening session was not brought up in this meeting and board members agreed to continue meeting virtually. Maxon said that she fears a possible uptick in cases because of the recent lifts in mask mandates.
The board will meet again on April 19. Information about joining the panel can be found on the city's website.
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