With only one full-time officer left on the force, Aquinnah officials this week turned to their neighbors with calls for aid.

Aquinnah select board member Tom Murphy and Aquinnah police Chief Randhi Belain went to the Chilmark select board Tuesday and requested help, specifically with overnight calls and the potential for them to be covered by Chilmark. 

For the last several months, Aquinnah has been hiring the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office and state police to keep an eye on the town.

Aquinnah is hoping to get help from Chilmark.

Ray Ewing

Aquinnah is hoping to get help from Chilmark.

Ray Ewing

“We currently have a situation with the sheriff’s department and the on-call services that are being provided [are] a very costly process,” said Mr. Murphy. “We’re currently paying $90 an hour for somebody to sleep in the town of Aquinnah and provide those services. It’s unsustainable from our little town’s perspective.” 

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Belain asked to start conversations with the Chilmark police department, to which the select board asked for a formal request in writing. 

“I would ask that you put in writing, really build it out,” Chilmark select board member Matt Poole said. “Fill it out and be specific about what you’re asking for, and it would be something that we can respond to your question [of if it’s] okay to begin the process of conversations.” 

Currently, Chief Belain is the only police officer in Aquinnah. While Aquinnah is advertising for open office positions, the best possible solution would be asking Chilmark for aid in the meantime, according to Mr. Belain. 

“We see this as a short term help ask, hopefully,” he said. “[It] is going to take some time to get the advertisement out and interview, and we’re hoping during that period that Chilmark can assist us.” 

Chilmark police Chief Sean Slavin had some concerns about how such an agreement would work, and said that further discussions would need to take place.

“My overall concern is my officers and the wellbeing of the town. Unfortunately, Aquinnah isn’t my purview, and I don’t want to disrupt what we have in our department,” he said. “That’s not to say we’re not open to helping out, but anything that would come would be a discussion with the union. I’m not going to force these guys to do something that they’re not comfortable with or don’t want, especially if it was volunteer.” 

Mr. Murphy also brought up the idea of regionalizing police forces.

“We’re in need for not only [the on-call] service, but probably a long-range discussion in the future with regard to some sort of regionalization of the services,” he said. 

“It’s not for a conversation today, but at some point in time, it seems to me that with wage discrepancies, with lack of candidates for the police department that people have been dealing with throughout the entire Island and housing challenges, it’s been problematic to for us to have candidates for the service,” he added.

While no decisions were made, Chilmark select board chair Marie Larsen said she was in favor of helping in whatever way the town can.  

“I would like to do all we could within reason to help this situation,” she said. “I’m going to have to think of this town, but I really feel like we’re an Island, and we’re all responsible for everyone on this Island.”