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Pittsfield Police Chief Michael Wynn was peppered with questions about his trip during the reception following his nearly two-hour talk.

Pittsfield Police Chief Shares Israel Experience

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Chief Michael Wynn had two projectors one for his presentation and another to show the thousands of photos the group of officers took during the week.

LENOX, Mass. — A lot of the organizational and communication issues the Pittsfield Police are working to improve, Israel has down to a science.

Pittsfield Police Chief Michael Wynn recently returned from a weeklong conference to see firsthand how a country constantly on edge protects itself and its citizens. On Sunday, Wynn shared the lessons and experiences he gained with the Saint Helena's Church community.

"It was eye opening," Wynn said after showing hundreds of photos to a large crowd in the church's chapel.

Wynn was recommended for the Anti-Defamation League conference, which has taken American law enforcement agents overseas for the last 10 years to meet with nearly all levels of enforcement — from border patrol to navy to police — in the Middle Eastern country. Wynn traveled there with 15 other officers from the Northeast.

While the acting police chief has tactical training and has been to conferences in other parts of the world, the vigilance he saw in Israel was something new — starting at the airport gates.

"The security starts at the curb," Wynn said of El Al Airlines, which he took from New York to Tel Aviv.

After landing on Sunday, Jan. 27, the group had introductions and the majority of the work began the next morning.

On that Monday, the group met with a New York City police officer assigned to provide "on scene communications" followed by a tour and discussion with airport security there. They then went to see operations in Ramle and Lod — Central District cities — before learning about mall security and visiting the Western Wall.

Wynn said there are civilians with automatic weapons at the airport. Israel mandates its citizens to serve at least three years in armed forces and many go on to form or join private security companies that are contracted to protect the police.

"Their job is to protect the soldiers and cops," Wynn said. "It is completely backwards from our way of thinking."

Malls and most restaurants and hotels have security screenings. When he toured the Western Wall, the officers were asked to realize how difficult it would be to secure a location with complicated infrastructure. They were later brought back to the site and shown how the professionals there do it.


Tuesday featured briefings with border police, the Moriah subdistrict and meeting with officers whose job was constant surveillance of the Old City. The group met with media relations and then toured the Old City before going to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Wednesday included meetings with the Anti-Defamation League, a visit to the Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum,  a tour of the Calandia border crossing and a briefing on the Iranian threat.

Wynn displayed a collection of souvenirs from his trip.

"There are weekly attacks on the personnel working here," Wynn said of the border crossing.

Thursday included meeting with Eilat Police, tours of the Taba border crossing, meeting with the naval poolice and a trip to the Ice Mall to meeting with the police tourist unit. On Friday, the group flew back to Tel Aviv to visit holy sites and later the Syrian border.

On Saturday, they met with Brig. Gen. Nitzan Nuriel to tour the West Bank and Sunday wrapped up the trip.

Wynn said the most interesting thing was that the country has one police force so there are no jurisdictional debates and the communications go from the top to every officer creating efficiencies in operations.

"It is the state of Israel. It is one state, they have one police force, one chain of communications so there is no jurisdictional turf wars," Wynn said, adding that here, information sometimes has to go through multiple police agencies and there are still debates over who has what role in an investigation.

Additionally, Israel has plans for just about everything so every aspect of security knows what its role is in any situation whereas here, there are still meetings to sort out each role. Israel is also much faster in incorporating technology.

"They see a problem, they figure out a way to solve it," Wynn said.

Wynn added that in some places there are five to 10 times number of volunteer police than paid officers and even places that have few security issues will have dozens of officers in place and on call. The private security companies are always near by and can be deployed to scenes quickly.

Those types of provisions in place are a "force multiplier." However, the training of security personnel is much more strict here. While an Israeli can be out of the military and qualified in three years, an American would be just getting started in law enforcement here, Wynn said.

"I think we do more on our front-end recruitment and training," Wynn said.

Israel may be more efficient in some ways, but it is a completely different culture because of the high security risks. So Wynn said he can't recreate a lot of what they do but the trip has generated ideas that could be implemented by the Pittsfield Police Department.


Tags: Pittsfield Police,   presentation,   

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Letter: Is the Select Board Listening to Dalton Voters?

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

A reasonable expectation by the people of a community is that their Select Board rises above personal preference and represents the collective interests of the community. On Tuesday night [Nov. 12], what occurred is reason for concern that might not be true in Dalton.

This all began when a Select Board member submitted his resignation effective Oct. 1 to the Town Clerk. Wishing to fill the vacated Select Board seat, in good faith I followed the state law, prepared a petition, and collected the required 200-plus signatures of which the Town Clerk certified 223. The Town Manager, who already had a copy of the Select Board member's resignation, was notified of the certified petitions the following day. All required steps had been completed.

Or had they? At the Oct. 9 Select Board meeting when Board members discussed the submitted petition, there was no mention about how they were informed of the petition or that they had not seen the resignation letter. Then a month later at the Nov. 12 Select Board meeting we learn that providing the resignation letter and certified petitions to the Town Manager was insufficient. However, by informing the Town Manager back in October the Select Board had been informed. Thus, the contentions raised at the Nov. 12 meeting by John Boyle seem like a thinly veiled attempt to delay a decision until the end of January deadline to have a special election has passed.

If this is happening with the Special Election, can we realistically hope that the present Board will listen to the call by residents to halt the rapid increases in spending and our taxes that have been occurring the last few years and pass a level-funded budget for next year, or to not harness the taxpayers in town with the majority of the cost for a new police station? I am sure these issues are of concern to many in town. However, to make a change many people need to speak up.

Please reach out to a Select Board member and let them know you are concerned and want the Special Election issue addressed and finalized at their Nov. 25 meeting.

Robert E.W. Collins
Dalton, Mass.

 

 

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