A staffing shortage has the Aquinnah police department facing the possibility of closure, putting the future of law enforcement in the Island’s smallest town in limbo.

By the end of the month, police Chief Randhi Belain will be the only officer working for the department. Town officials last week convened a special meeting to deal with the daunting public safety concern, and, with few other options, said they plan to turn to Chilmark in hopes that the neighboring police department will pick up shifts.

“I always said it’s going to be a bad day when somebody goes,” Chief Belain said at the meeting last Friday. “Well, welcome to today. We’re here. This is the bad day – it’s the worst day, actually.”

The department’s staffing shortage started in April when one of the four officers retired and the town received only one applicant, who did not pass a background check. A second officer is now on medical leave, the third is leaving for another department.

Chief Belain, who has been on the force since 1996, is set to retire next year.

At the meeting last Friday, Chief Belain told the Aquinnah select board and town finance committee that asking Chilmark for help was the only available avenue to fill an immediate need for police coverage in-town.

“Although I think that making an arrangement with Chilmark is our best option, I’m pessimistic that Chilmark is going to be receptive to that opportunity,” said select board member Tom Murphy.

Chilmark police Chief Sean Slavin did not respond to the Gazette’s request for comment this week.

The police officer shortage has been a growing concern for the Vineyard, raising questions about regionalization as a long-term solution. Applicants from off-Island are difficult to recruit due to the affordable housing crisis, and with retirements, the Island’s hiring pool is shrinking.

The issue has created a competitive hiring process between departments on the Island, with officers leaving for whichever town offers the highest wages, police have said.

According to Chief Belain, Aquinnah pays officers $49.13 an hour, which is $6.06 less than the Island’s average rate of $55.19 per hour, and $3.63 per hour less than Chilmark — which at $52.76 is the second lowest rate on the Vineyard.

Aquinnah has already taken stop-gap measures to prevent the town from having an understaffed police department. Chief Belain turned to the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office in April to help fill the retired officer’s vacancy ahead of a busy summer.

“They were looking for other departments on the Island to ask for support, but the other Island departments are already short,” Sheriff Bob Ogden told the Gazette. “I was really the only option.”

Six special duty officers were deployed to the town on a rotational basis throughout the summer. This was the first time an arrangement of its kind occurred on-Island.

The agreement expired on Sept. 6, but Mr. Murphy and Chief Belain asked Sheriff Ogden to extend it. The sheriff agreed under new terms that his officers would not be obligated to fill the entire 40-hour weekly shifts or take on-call shifts.

“I felt it would be disingenuous to agree to the same contract — something I couldn’t honor due to our own staffing issues and agency obligations,” Sheriff Ogden said.

“We wanted to make sure we didn’t leave them hanging so we reworked the agreement that allowed us to continue providing special service to Aquinnah but only on an as-needed basis,” he added.

Sheriff Ogden said the Aquinnah police department’s duties drop off once the shoulder season starts, and the need for staff is less urgent. While it provides much-needed coverage, the new agreement isn’t a panacea.

“This is week one of their new agreement, and this weekend they can’t fill any shifts,” Chief Belain told the select board.

The new agreement also increased the rate Aquinnah would pay the special duty officers, pushing the cost from $75 per hour to $90, including for the on-call shifts. The new price tag is something Aquinnah is struggling to bear.

“They would be getting $720 to sleep...” Chief Belain said. “That needs to firm up because we will run out of money quick.”

Sheriff Ogden told the Gazette that Aquinnah’s rates aren’t in step with state worker compensation, making it hard for his departments to provide help.

“During the summertime, I agreed to their terms just because they were so destitute to fill those positions,” Sheriff Ogden said. “But it’s not feasible for me to continue that physical outlay indefinitely.”

In June, the Aquinnah department took another hit when its police sergeant went on emergency medical leave, Chief Belain said. He asked Sheriff Ogden if special duty officers could fill those shifts, but the sheriff declined.

Chief Belain then turned to the state police who agreed to work the extra shifts with overtime pay that varies from $60.00 to $113.00 per hour based on rank. They also said they would only work a maximum of six to seven shifts per week, and not provide on-call service.

State police also said they did not have legal authority to patrol tribal lands. The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) currently does not have any tribal rangers, town officials have said recently.

Currently, Chief Belain and officer Steven Mathias are working overtime to fill vacancies and there is potential to get reinforcements at some point.

Aquinnah received two applicants for the full-time officer roles, but both would require six months at the police academy and field training before they could start in town.

At the end of the month, Chief Belain said Officer Mathias will be resigning to work for another Island department.

“If you were in his position, I think you’d see where he’s coming from,” Chief Belain told the board. “I don’t think it’s been very fair.”

The select board sent a letter of appreciation to Officer Mathias in July. Chief Belain said it was disheartening to see the town pay outside entities, such as the sheriff’s office, more for doing the same job.

The police shortage is affecting off-Island towns in a similar vein. The Clarksburg police department in Berkshire County suspended all operations in September last year after their police chief and the only other officer retired. Blandford in Hampden County also combined with the neighboring Chester police after the Blandford department folded in 2018 when its officers all quit.

There is another town in Dukes County that doesn’t have a full-time department. Gosnold, the smallest town in the state, hires a seasonal chief to deal with the summer population, but doesn’t have a year-round police presence.

Aquinnah officials last week discussed long-term solutions and resolved that if they want to keep their local law enforcement, they would have to raise their wages in hopes of attracting officers to work in Aquinnah.

“We’re going to have to increase the pay scale for our Aquinnah police officers, if we have any, and then look at other options if we’re unsuccessful,” Mr. Murphy said.

“We’ve always been the lowest paying department on the Island,” Jim Newman, former longtime select board member and finance committee member, said. “It’s obvious that we’re going to have to raise our taxes. I mean, that’s the bottom line. The money’s not going to come from nowhere.”

Finance committee member Jamie O’Brien feared raising rates could make the shortage worse, and urged the town to familiarize itself with the scope of the police department’s work to help make a decision.

“If we try to outbid other towns as the smallest town, I think all we’re going to do is cause wage inflation,” Mr. O’Brien said. “The bigger towns are then just going to pay more to keep their [officers].”

The Aquinnah police department averages 400 incidents per year and Chief Belain said a majority are not major. However, he stressed the need for officers in emergency situations. If someone were to call 911 and the town is underresourced, on-call officers down-Isla

nd might be the only available option.

“You’re talking quite the response time,” Chief Belain said.

Bret Stearns, executive director of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Natural Resources Department, who has worked as a police officer for more than 30 years, added that while the up-Island Tri-Town regionalized ambulance service would respond, they often only send two people, which is not enough to handle certain situations.

“There’s an integral role that the police play in just about every activity that happens,” Mr. Stearns said. “It’s a person that you can depend on to be there from a lost dog up to the worst moments in someone’s life.”

Chief Belain said all six Island towns have a mutual aid agreement, meaning any time a town requests emergency help the other five towns will respond if their officers are available.

“We haven’t got there yet, but it’s obviously something that can be very real, happening pretty soon,” he said.