The Chilmark select board gave the green light for police chief Sean Slavin to begin talks with the police union to aid the Aquinnah police department, which currently has only one officer in its department.

Aquinnah select board member Tom Murphy and police Chief Randhi Belain attended the meeting Tuesday and put forth a formal request in writing, which the board had asked of them last month.

“We’re requesting to initiate a conversation between our chiefs to see if there’s an opportunity for Chilmark police department to assist Aquinnah during this period of time where we are down three officers,” Mr. Murphy said.

In recent months, Aquinnah has been hiring the Dukes County sheriff’s office and state police to assist with on-call services. According to Chief Belain, around 30 calls in Aquinnah were recorded during on-call shifts, which last from midnight to 8 a.m., from January to September.

“We don’t have a lot of calls between those hours, and I don’t think that it would be putting too much strain on the department,” he added.

Chief Slavin said that addressing on-call services only, rather than helping out with additional shifts, which the Aquinnah department had originally asked for, would be the most effective.

“I think the easiest and probably the most helpful in the short term would be if we could cover on-calls and the person doing the extra on call gets... around the same money as what we’re getting,” Chief Slavin told the select board.

He noted that the union should have more concrete answers within two weeks.

The process in Aquinnah is still fluid, Chief Belain said. Within the last few weeks, the town has advertised for two patrol officers and has received one application.

Though the board voted unanimously to initiate conversations, select board member Jeffrey Maida voiced concerns about possibly altering the union contract.

“If we go to the next step, I’m guessing we’re going to have to open up the union contract that we basically just signed and took a long time to sign.... What happens in six months or a year, and Aquinnah is back to staff, and they don’t need our help anymore?”

Aquinnah select board member Tom Murphy urged Chilmark to consider assisting their neighboring town.

“We’re aware that there’s challenges. We’re aware that it’s not an easy request,” he said. “All we’re asking to start a conversation to see if there’s an opportunity. Aquinnah is your neighbor. We’re in a difficult situation. Public safety is our main concern. It should be everybody’s concern. If, in fact, Chilmark can be helpful during this interim period of time, it would be wonderful.”