GREENFIELD — In response to a growing number of public records requests over the last year, the Police Department has posted the last four years’ worth of reports documenting use of force incidents as well as bias-based policing analyses.
The reports, which date back to 2017, can be found under the “Transparency” tab at greenfieldpd.org.
“We’re not trying to hide from it,” said Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr., who noted the reports are submitted annually to the state. “Every month, we compile our numbers and notes … so we started posting them on the site.”
In February, the Police Department released its 2020 Use of Force Report, which showed an increase in reportable use of force incidents from 10 in 2019 to 18 in 2020.
According to Haigh, that increase is partly due to the fact that the ways of reporting — and what gets reported — is “always changing” based on state requirements.
“The breakouts and breakdowns are different,” he said. “With the police reform, there are going to be even more (breakdowns).”
In some cases, the report states, what might not have been reportable before is now included “out of an abundance of caution” in anticipation of a complaint potentially being made.
In the last year, Haigh explained, what classifies as “use of force” has expanded to include virtually anything other than a completely compliant arrest.
“Now you have all these other levels of reporting you have to do,” he explained. “It became much more detailed. They want to make sure the force was justified in any situation.”
Further changes in reporting are on the horizon with the police reform law signed last year, he said.
“We’re trying to get ahead of the game,” Haigh said, explaining that due to the accreditation process, the department has changed the way it documents reportable use of force incidents as a form of self-check. “We’ve been trying to be more transparent for a while now.”
According to the report, in 2020, 13 of those 18 reports were for separate incidents; five of the reports in 2020 were from multiple officers on the same incident.
Of those 18 reports, there was one Black male, two Hispanic males, five white females and 10 white males.
Haigh said that in general, 911 calls went up during the pandemic in 2020 — in particular, calls for mental health-related issues, as well as overdoses. In fact, 11 of the reportable use of force incidents involved individuals who were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, while three had mental health issues.
The hope is that with the addition of Clinical Support Clinician Kaitlin Richotte — who been assigned to a regional collaboration program between Greenfield, Deerfield and Montague police departments and Clinical & Support Operations — some of those instances will be mitigated.
“That is the idea,” Haigh said. “The hope is we have somebody to follow-up with so … maybe next time, there isn’t that type of interaction.”
The report also acknowledges the past year as one of “upheaval,” with demonstrations for the Black Lives Matter and defund the police movements.
“Our community has been more than supportive,” he said. “I know there’s a certain segment of the population that has questions about us, and … is not going to trust us no matter what we do.”
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne