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Lanesborough Police Chief Search Undecided After Three Interviews
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
10:08AM / Friday, March 20, 2015
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Being an in-house candidate, Timothy Sorrell is the most known. However, the commission said they really liked the other two candidates as well.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Police Advisory Commission will mull over its recommendation for the next police chief after interviewing three candidates on Thursday.
 
The five-member panel interviewed Sgt. Erik Josephson of Saint Albans, Vt., Detective Chelsea Tovar of  Richmond City, Va., and Lanesborough Investigator Timothy Sorrell.
 
"They are all strong candidates. We didn't find a fatal flaw in the interviews today," said Town Administrator Paul Sieloff. 
 
Tovar is a Lanesborough native, a graduate of Mount Greylock High School and still has family into he area. She moved out of the area to attend college at George Mason University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a minor in psychology.
 
She then joined the Richmond City, Va., Police Department. She later earned her master's degree in criminology. She has been in law enforcement for seven years and comes from a family of officers.
 
In seven years in Virginia, she became an environmental officer working with various agencies on topics like blighted property. She became a crisis intervention trainer to help officers understand ways to deal with mental or drug issues among individuals they encounter. Eventually, she moved to Internal Affairs. 
 
"Coming to Internal Affairs was one of the hardest days I've had as a police officer," she said, adding that it was "crushing" to see that there were officers being improper. "It was difficult to deal with but they made their choices."
 
If she was chief, she said the entire department needs to be moving in the same direction. She characterized her leadership as one of "teamwork." 
 
"I wouldn't ask anybody to do something I wouldn't do," Tovar said.
 
That extends to working neighboring agencies, community organizations, and the residents themselves to combat crime. In a small town with limited resources, it is best to be proactive in trying to prevent crime, she said.
 
"Community policing is really near and dear to my heart," Tovar said. 
 
Chelsea Tovar is a native of Lanesborough who has spent the last seven years as an officer in Virginia.
If chosen, she said her first task would be to make sure the elementary school, Berkshire Mall, and the natural resources of the towns all had proper policies and procedures in place should something happen like an active shooter. 
 
She said she'd like to build a social media presence to help make connections with the community. And she'd like to continue to build relationships with other law enforcement agencies.
 
But overall, she said she wouldn't expect to make any drastic changes because "if it's not broke, don't fix it." 
 
Tovar said she manages a group of officers on a special detail in a high crime, housing project. She analyzes crime data and deploys the officers at the appropriate times while keeping within a limited budget, she said. She believed that experience would help her manage the town's department, which has seven full-time members and seven part-timers. 
 
Sorrell boasts significantly more time in the profession, all of it in Lanesborough. He is the most senior member on the department with 27 years of experience, joining the force as a patrolman in 1987. He was promoted to sergeant, which he served for 12 years, and in 2002 the Police Advisory Commission recommended he be selected as the police chief.
 
The Board of Selectmen at the time opted to hire Mark Bashara for the chief's position. Sorrell then went back to patrol and another officer was promoted to sergeant. Sorrell later became an investigator and serves in numerous other roles in the community including being a former School Committee member, current chairman of the recreation committee and heading the Williamstown Lanesborough Youth Basketball League.
 
He received his associate's degree from Berkshire Community College.
 
Sorrell says the department is performing well and could use some minor changes, particularly in efforts to get officers out of the car and being more active with residents. 
 
Timothy Sorrell has the most experience, with 27 years on the Lanesborough force.
 
"I don't think there is any reason for major changes," he said. "We have a good bunch of officers. We just need a little tweaking."
 
He would like to find more ways to get the officers trained and doing what they really enjoy doing. He said he'd take shifts for officers if they want to spend a day learning things like accident reconstruction from officers in another department. He said he'd try to lead by example and try to be a role model for younger officers.
 
"We have guys who haven't had much of an opportunity to do more than patrol," Sorrell said. 
 
When asked how he'd go about working with less of a budget, Sorrell said he'd personally step in and take shifts working alone. He'd move the K9 unit to the night to ease personnel requirements there. 
 
"We might have to go back to one man per shift. We might have to cut back on a day shift," he said.
 
Currently, the investigator works overtime in other cities and towns by taking detail work. Sorrell said he'd be willing to give up those shifts to focus all of his time on running Lanesborough's department.
 
Josephson has 28 years in law enforcement being hired in Cumberland, R.I., in 1986. He joined the Woonsocket, R.I., Police Department in 1991 and stayed there until 2002. With two young children, he opted to leave the city environment and moved to Lincoln, N.H. He later took took a leave of absence to help his father, who was diagnosed with cancer. He was hired by the Franklin, N.H., force as a day-shift sergeant. In both Rhode Island and New Hampshire, he worked on special weapons and tactics teams - with New Hampshire's being a regional one like Berkshire County has.
 
Again, he put his own career on pause for his family when moved to Colorado because his wife had gotten a job. But, the family shortly moved back to the Northeast and, in 2008, he joined St. Albans Police Department.
 
"You can stop and talk to people. That's what I like about small towns," Josephson said. 
 
His children are older now - 19 and 22 - so he envisions being in Lanesborough for the 15 or so years remaining in his career. The job brings him closer to the rest of his family.
 
"I'd like to have something completed and finished when I am done," Josephson said. 
 
Erik Josephson has experience at both large and small departments and is currently an officer in Vermont.
He said his management style would be one to provide a mentor to the younger officers. He works to arrange assignments not solely based on seniority to keep the officers busy during the day. He said he'd talk with every single officer and form a good relationship with them and the community.
 
"I think I bring more to the table [than the others]," he said. "I bring in a different perspective, a different point of view to the town."
 
Josephson has seen the way big city departments operate. But, he's also seen the limitations the small-town forces have. He said he'd be looking for "creative ways" to police at a lower cost.
 
"It is not a matter of selling things you don't need. It is getting the things you do need," he said, adding that federal aid that helped towns buy extra equipment and training has all dried up. "You can't get anything anymore so you have to think outside of the box."
 
The commissioners were undecided on their favorites. Three of the five did specifically say Sorrell was a leading candidate while two said they needed to think about it more. 
 
"I think they all interviewed well," said Chairman Marvin Michalak. 
 
With Tovar, the commissioners spoke highly of her resume and interview. But they noted that she had significantly less time served than the other two and that she doesn't have experience in a small town. The commissioners noted that it will be easy for Sorrell to step into the job and that he has already shown that he performs the community policing efforts. But they wondered if maybe it would be better to bring in new eyes and if Sorrell's promotion would cause any disturbance among the existing officers. They liked Josephson as well but said they were concerned that he'd be the first one to eliminate the K9 unit based on his answer to a question about that unit, which they all felt was important.
 
Nonetheless, the Selectmen will be updated on Monday and will help direct the Police Advisory Commission on bringing a recommendation forward. The Selectmen will have the ultimate say over the hiring: the board can choose to interview one or more of the candidates or accept and hire based on the commission's recommendation.
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