Pittsfield Police Chief Shares Israel Experience

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.

"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.

Teacher of the Month: Cindy Chevett

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:04PM / Saturday, August 31, 2024

Cindy Chevett has been with Head Start her entire career. She says teaching is challenging but also very rewarding. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire County Head Start preschool teacher Cindy Chevett has been selected as the August Teacher of the Month. 

 

The Teacher of the Month series, in collaboration with Berkshire Community College, will run for the next nine months and will feature distinguished teachers nominated by community members. You can nominate a teacher here. 

 

To Chevett, the best part of being a teacher is seeing her students achieve even just the little things, such as writing the letter E or their name. 

 

"It is the best job ever," she says with a smile and tears in her eyes as she says, "I love seeing them achieve."  

 

She said although teaching can be challenging, the classroom environment is very fun and the job is very rewarding. 

 

"There's children that come in and can't really speak so that you can understand them, and modeling, and when they leave the classroom, you can understand them. That was one of my best achievements with the child," Chevett said. 

 

In Chevett's classroom, the students take control of their learning, instilling in them a love of learning.