ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen approved a raft of Police Department policy changes on Wednesday. 

 

Acting Police Chief Timothy Sorrell presented the updates, noting that some hadn't been touched in 20 years. These new policies are in line with the standards of the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission and changes made by the state Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission.

 

"What we did is, instead of reinventing the wheel, I think when I first stood me before you, when I came on as the acting chief, we talked about getting policies from other departments, and there was a town in South County who became accredited, and they were more than willing to share with us their accredited policies," he said. 

 

Detective Michael Wandrei, Officer Travis Cunningham and the chief reviewed the policies and brought them to officers with specialized training in those areas. 

 

"We discussed, how does this fit into Adams? And some of it was just changing that town's name to the Adams name," he said. "So we just had to tweak it to what fit Adams is what we ended up doing ... It doesn't make us accredited, but we're a step closer, maybe when we get all these policies in line."

 

Policies reviewed included use of force; vehicular pursuits; detainee processing; protective custody; police media relations; body-worn cameras; collection and preservation of evidence; and property and evidence control.

 

More than a few of the updates related to new techniques, equipment and methods that have changed in the 15 or 20 years.