Page 10 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, June 26, 2020 ASKS | from page 3 the people that I met there back then that I still have today that are involved in other communities. Q: Right now, what do you see as the biggest challenge facing you as the chief law enforcement person in the town? A: I think you see what’s going on across the country – there’s a lot of anti-police rhetoric out there. By no means am I saying to disregard it. I think those people need to be heard, and there are some things that need to be addressed in this department and every other department, some more than others. But I do want people to understand that it seems like it’s that small group of bad apples – or whatever you want to call them – and we’re getting lumped in with them for some reason. I don’t think that’s fair, but it’s what we’re going through right now. We’re dealing with it. There are certain things you can do to help with that: meet with some community stakeholders and be more transparent. Q: And you have the citizens’ Police Academy. A: Yes, sure, that’s one of the things. Q: If you have some outspoken critics in town – I don’t know if you do – but if you do, maybe ask them, “All right, would you like to be on the citizen’s police academy?” A: Yeah. At the same time – it’s funny, we just had a police support group just drop by. I know the percentage of people [anti-police] is pretty small. Over the past week, I had a lot of people reach out to tell me they do support us. In Saugus, I believe, people support us. I’ve been here for 25 years, and (knock on wood) we haven’t had any major type of incidents like that [the death of George Floyd while being arrested by the Minneapolis police]. Q: During your time on the police force, has there ever been a complaint of police brutality? A: I don’t recall anything. Nothing sticks out. I think it would if it were significant. Like I said, I have been here for 25 years, and I’m proud of the men and women and the work that they do. I haven’t seen anything like that [police brutality]. Whatever force we’ve been involved in, it was certainly justifi ed, reasonable and necessary. Q: You had the two demonstrations recently. It’s not like you have a lot of issues here in Saugus. Q: How did the demonstrations for those two days go? A: It did go well. It did go well. Obviously, we wish we had some more notice, but Lt. [Anthony] LoPresti – who is a member of NEMLEC [Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council], the regional SWAT response team – he kind of put the plans together on how to address both of those demonstrations. And we were ready and they really weren’t a problem at all. Everything went according to plan. We were happy to give them the opportunity to demonstrate peacefully, and that’s what they did. Q: How many offi cers right now? A: From myself down, I think A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE: Students in a class at the Oaklandvale Elementary School listen as then-Lieutenant Michael Ricciardelli reads to them last year during National Read Across America Day. A: No, but you know what, I think it was good that people were given the opportunity to express themselves. Maybe the issues aren’t here in Saugus, but those Saugus residents who demonstrated felt strongly enough about it to get out and do something. So … listen, that’s First Amendment stuff , and we’ll defend that to the end. it’s 60; then we’ve got 13 dispatchers; in addition to that, a small clerical staff . Q: On the Police Department, do you have any African Americans? A: We do not have any African American on the department at this time. We did have one who retired a few years back. What we have done is hire a lot of females. We were down to one at one point over the last couple of years. Now we are up to fi ve, and they are all doing really well. We have ASKS | SEE PAGE 11
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