hello everyone my name is roger colton and i'd like to welcome you today to community conversations through the community conversations podcast we hope to bring varying parts of the belmont community to the public we hope to make the process of learning about belmont not only educational but fun as well for today's show i have invited belmont police chief richard mclaughlin to join us chief mclaughlin was appointed chief of police for belmont in two thousand and seven he was the st chief of police to be appointed from outside of the belmont department congratulations to you in chief welcome to our community conversation stake you for taking time out of your schedule to be willing to talk with me on today's show good morning roger and thank you for having me chief you've been in the position of the chief of police for nearly ten years now can you give us some background where were you before you came to belmont i'll actually it'll be ten years in february roger prior to coming to belmont i've been involved in law enforcement for those that don't know i did twenty seven years in the that's where i started in law enforcement but prior to that i was did almost two years in the problem of corrections but m c i conquered and as i said then i went up and i did twenty seven years i started there as a patrol man and work i work at i think i work out and i try to do a good job i saw the position advertised and i did i spoke with a number of people and asked about the position and what was the expectations and i applied for it and i understand there were a number of people that applied and there was a process and assessment center and at the end of the day you know i was asked and appointed to the position but i often say we had a family meeting and at that meeting we talked about it and i asked my family what they thought what their thoughts were and my wife was very candid and she said to me richard everybody knows what you do but you do it over and i like them this is where we live do you need this and i says well i try and do a good job and i think i can bring something hopefully to the table and my sons were very supportive i want to say that the oldest one was getting ready to leave you know to go to college so but and lao i can't even it really makes me wonder sometimes when i think that was two thousand and seven here we are in two thousand and almost two thousand and seventeen and it's ten years and it just seems like yesterday that i started but i feel very fortunate and given the opportunity of what i can do and what i've been doing i'd like to get a fa is they have been different times and looking through the history of the department there has been a number of people that have been put in the position as acting police chief during the interim  period of time periods but yes i'm either the th or the th depending on how how what when you look at the history but like i said it's it is you know when you break it down one hundred and thirty years and how many chiefs have been in that position but it runs the gamut as far as the time and you know about how many sometimes people are in the position and like i said i know initially when i was appointed that there was you know talk that maybe it was only a short term type of thing but like i said here i am ten years into it and i recently you know have you know so i intend to be here for a few more you know so in my mind now having long term chiefs of police is can only be a good thing from a i think to that point we have a lot of good people doing a lot of good things for our community and being a very important part of the community so i think that pot you know it lends itself to consistency and i think that's what's important for our community anyways one thing that that i believe is having people know their their police not only their police chief but their police as i say the people and i say to the people that work in the police department a big part of my job is that being you know the face per se of the bomb just making sure people know that they can come to us whenever they need to  d i take that very seriously sometimes people ask me if i'm running for office i'm not but i think it's important to have that openness and transparency it within the department and you know like i said i i truly enjoyed the opportunity to serve the community you know i been my whole adult life i've been involved whether it be in the military are here in this position of public service i think it's important and  there there really are to many divisions if we took every one of the divisions we'd run out of time quickly but the down at least department is broken up into divisions and one of the divisions perhaps even the biggest division is the patrol division is can you tell me about what the patrol division does the patrol division is two hundred and forty seven thousand three hundred and sixty five days a year it's  primary focus it's a primary unit it is the biggest part of our department and they are there that encompasses everyone in uniform in the uniform branch it's the ones the officers that are out there every day as i say the boots on the ground they're the ones that are answering all the initial calls now if a call comes in and it's needs to be further investigated they would do a report the primary report take as other offices in patrol and that from that point there that if it needs further investigation would be covered under the detective branch detective division and they would follow up anything that from that point but primarily we patrol division and that's our logic group of people and how many men and women are in the patrol division that fluctuates but i think we're right and we have a couple in training right now for myself on down i believe we have one right now we have a recent graduate of the police academy and he's in his field training mode right now then we have another member in  presently in the academy but everybody else is out in the working in the department so we have a number in the detectives and we have a community service division and that of the school resource officer and lieutenant that's in charge of that group but right now our main focus is and i'm a number is through the patrol division and you have a dog right yes we do we place and what i'd like to do is to tell you a story and just to get eerie reaction to it i tend to walk my puppy late at night between eleven at night and one o'clock in the morning and there was a period of time recently where the town was repaving in cushing square yes and the belmont police were out directing traffic there at that time of night wasn't exactly the most stimulating thing and i don't remember the officers name but i remember that the officer that we happened to talk to also owned a wheaten terrier and ever since that night when i see him at night we we don't always say something to each other but we always exchange a waiver or hello  how is it or how is it possible to get more people to walk up and introduce themselves i'm assuming that that's a good thing that that doesn't detract that doesn't detract from the what they should be doing and all i can get people to do that i you know what i often say roger that we're st and foremost we're human beings you know there's no special treat you know what to of that they squeeze us and say this is what you're going to be your role in life where human beings st and foremost i think i would say this i would encourage people to introduce themselves because it's what we're all about you know what you know just talk you know if the  involved with something they'll let you know that you know it's not a good time of whatever but like you said you're just out walking at night and you want to conversation please i would encourage that because this is what we're all about like to throw some words back at you you and i have known each other for a few years now that i don't remember the context but hopefully you'll remember the words when we had a conversation and you stated that i'll always remember you saying the most important thing for folks to remember is to call us we can't do anything unless you call us now you have a whole communication right that's one of the the divisions can you talk about the communications division and then i'd like you to respond to that we have actually it's just finished up being renovated now you've got to stand with them under the umbrella of the police department we do have the communications division i just said we're that's me and two hundred and forty seven thousand three hundred again three hundred and sixty five days it is always two individuals within that center to take the calls and we also dispatch for police and fire out of the and out of the same unit and also after hours on any other day we also get the calls for the highway to pop and the like department and everything that way th the call will go up to the units and you know we have mobile data terminals within the cause of the dispatchers can send electronically the information out to the offices that they need but we're very fortunate  is a number of places you know that have a different set up but i'm very happy with the way our group is working and again it comes down to the people and we have a quote group communication when do i call the police when is it an appropriate time to pick up the phone and call the police department i often say and to your point earlier  roger you know we try and be out and about within the community but i can't stress it enough that if somebody sees something that they feel is suspicious that makes them uncomfortable call us it's a lot easier for us to respond to that call in check it out and find out it's just innocent somebody lost in the neighborhood trying to find their way in this and that it's a lot easier that way and that's why i stress just call us we'll take the steps we have a lot of very professional people out here that are doing their jobs and know how to interact with our community and with the people that come into our community but that being said it's a lot easier to do it that way than having us respond later when either a crime has been committed and that we have to come in then and somebody says oh man are i saw something and i should have called and that's why i stress to everybody please if you see something that doesn't look right and nobody knows yet maybe what better than you you know the offices are out there and about but sometimes you know things happen but if we can be you know i say that in a proactive way if you see something call us we're out there and we can look in the handle the call and make sure it's just something simple and innocent so that's that's a message to take away is to five hundred but if it's a true emergency that you need us right away call nine hundred and eleven because that comes right through and you know we have resources there that we can send out immediately i'd like to remind our listeners that we're talking today with belmont police chief richard mclaughlin who has agreed to take time out of his schedule to to join us and thank you for doing that chief i'd like to change directions here for a little minute or for a moment as you know my daughter just graduated from from college and she went to a large university thirty five thousand  sexual assault i don't know what the term is but the sexual assault or sexual harassment occur in delma is not something you deal with the sexual harassment is one thing but sexual assault as the actual crime being committed  if it's a sexual assault yes unfortunately in today's world we do have and we have had them and we would do the investigation and follow it through as anything but again people have to let us know women and self defense does that occur regularly oh it is what we call the rad for arguments of self defense program we have a number of instructors and we have we have a number of classes that we provide to the community we do it down at the high school for the seniors going on to college just to give them a little heads up in ways that they can protect themselves we have also done it for a number of other community members of our community as well but if there is interest i mean what we can do is i don't know how many people know o within the group that way there it's you know worthwhile to come and give the class but if anybody is interested in that i can supply a number through either you are on the mail and you can put it out there and people if they want to you know we can schedule something to move forward with it and to make sure that i heard what you are that what i heard was what you said the group of people can get together yes and contact you yes and ask to receive the tray it's not sitting back and waiting for a while the thing that's what we have done in the past is sometimes we have a number of ways you know sometimes but the thing is  know that we put a lot into it and so to make sure we have a good showing we want to make sure we have a good amount of people there so but we're more than happy to provide it to the community if that's something that people want so to  summarize that thought that if there are groups of people and are interested in organizing group of women or i can imagine it could be men or women who are there now and almost she's our school resource officer and her e mail is o'connor at belmont p d dot org either way you can leave a message or send an e mail and melissa will get back to you and will coordinate that outfit that's great thank you i was looking at some crime statistics ferb elma getting ready for this show and i see that by far the combined can you talk to me a little bit about what people can and should be doing to promote security in their own homes st and foremost roger i'd like to make the comment about money is a very safe community i want people to know that right right from the stop our offices are out there doing a great job and we also often call it the omni presence and you see the crews driving around the community doing what they need to do and that keeps also crime down as well but as far as you talk we have been subject to a crime spree every now and then i mean you know belmont is a pretty affluent community and do that sometimes we have people that do this for a living come to our community need to make their living i would say but overall we do we haven't seen that  every now and then you have a spike but that's in reference to any community but what we can do we call it target had ning and the business per se and what i often tell people is just take a walk around you community property you don't want lad is outside in the yard because that can be used pretty much against you they can use it to put up the nd floor window you know get into the house that way so those are the things you want to look around i've usually you want to try and keep your shrubs as you know down small not overgrown so that either somebody can hide or get be blocked and shaded by you know breaking into the house and things like that a big pot is to let you know being aware again as we talked earlier about your neighborhood and if there's something going on of someone out there that you don't feel come to with call us but again like i said you know just you know be aware of it if you're going to be going away you know let enabler know let us know you know we have a log that we keep if you're gone be away for an extended period of person that's looking around to make take it an opportunity but you know what a bunch of newspapers on the front lawn are you know the mail piled up at the door those are indicators that somebody probably isn't here so those are the things you to take care of but again we're here to help and if there's anything please you know make sure you know you call us and i have a confession to make as as chair of the town of belmont's energy committee it's probably not one of the most energy efficient things that my wife and i do but we don't really have a street like close to us and ann and i leave our front porch light  tell we have a program today to go off late at night is that helpful or is that sort of a crazy thing to do while if you know it's going to sit in on time you do it i'll tell you this i do the same thing i think it's very important and not for not for any other reason but also in as you said area that maybe not have a lot of street lighting in the same thing but i think it's important in the event that somebody needs help during the night at least with a light on they can say you know what maybe there's somebody there that can help me and that's why i leave mine on i do it in that way there again it lights up the area of my street that i you know that i can see out and if somebody needs help that they can come to my door so i'm guilty of it as well well we've always thought that it not only provides a benefit to us but he there's a group of homes around us as well and there's just a light on the street you know one other practice that we engage in in our neighborhood is the neighbors have shared key the keys to our homes it's started and as a response to a bunch of kids on our street that seemed like they were forever locking themselves out but it  flowerpots that i know i can go knock on my neighbor's door and they can get me into my home it's a good practice again roger be guilty of that myself but again like i said i know  just having that resource and being able to do that you know we're not if you need to leave a key out in a bug you want to make sure you do it in an area that's not so obvious that somebody else could find it without too much effort but i think it's a good practice to have your neighbor again i do have a number of neighbors that we give a key to and but you know like i said whatever you can do to help and resolve issues that's a huge thing we're running a little short of time here but i have to question related questions that i'd like to pose to you and the st one revolves around the concept of community policing is community policing a this may be an unfair question to you but is community policing really a real concept or is it just a political throwaway line that we hear from politicians who want to pretend like they're addressing a problem to me personally i truly believe in the concept of community policing for five years and but i think that is the purest form of community policing and it brings to offset into the community and i say this roger with all honesty i still have friends today that i met i don't want to say how many years ago but it's a long time ago but i can still go back to those people and i consider them friends but that in itself and we're big believers here and don as well and the community policing philosophy you know we're here to help and i want to stress that the people it's what we do and how we do it we're part of this community we want to be part of the community and we want to help resolve and that's why i said if there's anything that we can do please call us that's why we're here and my nd question relates to community policing in a way but it seems like that priority is for the police department would change over time we've talked today about some of the what i would call the traditional crimes sexual harassment and burglaries but depending on the year people might have concern about shootings in the schools about cars speeding on their neighborhood streets about hate crimes and hate speech about school bullying how do you keep on top of setting the priorities or determining what their community priorities are while we're in in that life  could say we have a crystal ball sir but i often say that we don't you know we look at things in trends what and that's happening around the country or the area you know obviously what is happening here is important to us that's what's driving what we do and how we respond we're a big believer in being part of the community and reaching out to the community and again a lot of my job is focused on you know going to meetings listening to people and finding out what bothers them what they like and what they don't like about the you know police department but that's how we're driven you know  respond we want to be pot of and we try to be very proud of the community and looking at situations that we can help resolve and that takes the partnership and again i can't stress that enough that that's why we're keep abreast of the changes in you know through training and through conferences and things like that and gathering you know all that information out there as best practices and you know sharing i know that many people understand that we are proud of number lack which is the northeast massachusetts law enforcement council where one of sixty one cities and towns and the two sheriffs right now so we are again sharing information and how best practices and how to address things because belmont isn't isolated as i often say we don't have a golden dome over us and you know just happening here at things happening around us that we can learn from and  we try and do that each and every day that's great thank you if i made a trial as for just a minute it does seem like one of the consistent themes that we've talked about today is that in belmont there is integration of the department into the community and between the officers and the community and communication is a good thing as simply walking up and saying hello introducing having introducing yourself having a conversation is is a good thing and it will it's a good thing in that it will make our community a better community as chief it's been great fun today we've had some laughs i appreciate you taking time to be here i hope you would consider joining us again some day we've been talking today with dhamma police chief richard mclaughlin i would like to thank the chief again for joining us today and i would like to thank you the listeners for tuning in you can listen to this podcast by accessing it online at w w w media dot org or by accessing it on line at w w w dot wicked local belmont dot com you can also download it from i tunes by searching for that b m c podcast network i would encourage our listeners both to stay tuned to the media center into read the weekly belmont citizen herald for continuing information about events going on throughout the town about a month i'm your host logical thank you and good for listening i will talk with you again in two weeks