Easthampton’s former Maple Street School may currently be empty of elementary-age students following the 2022 opening of the city’s new Mountain View School, but now a different type of students seem to have taken their place.
From Teslas to pick-up trucks, there has been no shortage of police vehicles and uniformed officers on the property this year. On March 7 and 8, the parking lot was filled with personal and department-decaled vehicles from Easthampton to Granby. Easthampton Police Department signs at the building entrances read “training in progress.” Officers banged on the glass of the second-floor windows to get the attention of passersby, waving and mouthing words unheard from the ground below. When a Shoestring reporter began filming them, they quickly retreated from the windows.
Then last month, The Shoestring again noticed police vehicles filling the parking lot of the building. But what exactly were they doing in the school? That’s a question The Shoestring has been unable to get answered this year.
When asked for records about the police use of the building in March, the city of Easthampton said it had none. The Department of Public Works, which had responsibility over the building at the time, said it also had no records of building use.
Dennis Scribner, who in July became the city’s interim police chief, said the EPD had no records related to training or use of the building — not an email, schedule, syllabus, or communication of any kind — even though they had managed to appear at the building at the same time as dozens of other officers. When directly asked to confirm that the department was not withholding records under any of the state’s exemptions to the public-records law, Scribner did not respond.
The EPD’s “public records and media relations” policy acknowledges the “news media” as an “essential medium through which members of the community become informed about the operations of their police department.” The policy also says “the public has a fundamental right to be informed” and that the EPD “is committed to informing the community and news media of events within the public domain that are handled by, or involve the department.”
On Nov. 5, a Shoestring reporter spoke with two Chicopee police officers standing with police dogs outside the school building. The pair said the Chicopee police had been training at the property over the last year. They said they believed their department’s agreement to train at the building was with the city of Easthampton.
After that exchange, The Shoestring asked again for records from the EPD and the Chicopee Police Department. The EPD again said it had no records. Chicopee police gave a more vague response, seemingly acknowledging the existence of the records, but claiming they had no possession of records related to training, including any communications about it.
“Please be advised that the Chicopee Police Department does not have possession, custody or control of the records you requested,” Officer Anouson Souvannasane replied. “As a result, there is no obligation for a Department to create a record for a requester to honor a request.”
When asked for confirmation that the department did not have any records responsive to the request, including communications or financial records, The Shoestring was met with silence.
Scribner did not respond Wednesday afternoon to follow-up questions about why officers had been congregating at the school. Mayor Nicole LaChapelle did not respond to an email requesting comment on Tuesday.
Typically, police departments keep records of training that their officers attend. The EPD and other police departments have previously provided The Shoestring with training records for its officers.
Other Massachusetts police departments — for example, the Braintree Police Department — have a policy on their website that outlines policy and procedure around training and career development. Under Braintree’s policy, officers are required to document and report any training they receive and submit either a certificate from the training or a “training completion form.” All employees of the department are also required to submit a “training request form” prior to undertaking a training.
The EPD website does not have a similar policy document available.
Statewide, there have been ongoing issues with police officer training requirements.
In November, the executive director of the state’s Municipal Police Training Committee, Jeff Farnsworth, began notifying Massachusetts police departments of officers seemingly by-passing online training requirements. A statement Farnsworth released notes that officers who completed training before the expected run time of the course would be referred to the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
The POST commission was established by the state in 2020 to create a mechanism to reliably evaluate training standards and municipal compliance with training requirements in Massachusetts for police officers.
In 2022, Easthampton decided that three former school buildings would become affordable housing and released a request for proposals. A 2022 city FAQ document says, “No City Department nor the School Department needs the space in these three schools. In addition, large older buildings are costly to maintain.” The final document on the city’s Elementary School Reuse webpage, a May 2024 Property Subcommittee memorandum/recommendation to the City Council, has no mention of use agreements for the Maple Street School aside from the planned development and public use of the parking lot and playground.
In March of this year, Easthampton Procurement Officer Michael Owens provided records — on request — of the city’s communications and planning about the pending land disposition agreement with the developer Arch Communities LLC. A May 2023 email mentioned the DPW’s interest in obtaining a “management/oversight of the three schools” for the time prior to the developer taking control of the property. None of these records outline temporary use of the Maple Street property for municipal training or police use.
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