MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — Police in Manchester-by-the-Sea are giving the 411 on its recent policing efforts.
Chief Todd Fitzgerald presented the department’s quarterly report, which detailed some of the efforts made by the Police Department, to the Select Board recently.
“I know there’ve been some concerns and issues about parking enforcement,” he said. “Our parking enforcement has an expanded role pretty much this year. The numbers reflect themselves.”
Some of that heightened enforcement was specifically conducted along Pine, Bridge, and School streets, at each of the town’s municipal parking lots, and other areas such as as Raymond Street and White Beach, the chief said.
Fitzgerald told board members the department’s officers have increased enforcement of issues reported in Manchester Harbor. He said there has been a recent uptick in calls for service “for some alcohol-related issues in the evening after regular business hours” in the harbor.
In attendance for the presentation was Lt. Mark McCoy, a 29-year member of the department who recently completed a two-week, 18-module program conducted by the new FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association Five Star Executive Institute in Smyrna, Delaware.
“It was very intensive,” McCoy said of the program.
During the training, leaders from across the nation considered such topics as public and private partnerships, crisis communication, leadership integrity, management of liability matters and also wellness matters. The aim of the training was to better equip participants with the tools for making informed, strategic and accountable decisions.
Fitzgerald said some other highlights for the department during the quarter were:
— A hazardous materials (HAZMAT) “tabletop” exercise held by police at the Amaral-Baily Post 113 American Legion, 14 Church St.
The exercise was overseen by the Cape Ann Regional Emergency Planning Committee with the goal of focusing on necessary police preparation and reaction to possible HAZMAT incidents.
“We’ll have a regional HAZMAT plan out of that,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s a work in progress.”
— The creation of a public safety awareness video created for Manchester Police.
“That should be coming out shortly,” Fitzgerald said.
— Community policing events such as the End of the Year Ice Cream Social, an event called Coffee with the Chiefs held at the Laughing Gull Café, and also Public Safety Day at Masconomo Park.
— The second annual fundraising softball game between Manchester and Essex public safety departments, which raised about $1,400 for the family of Rockport firefighter Capt. Andrew Porter. Porter died unexpectedly in late May after serving for 25 years on the volunteer Rockport Fire Department.
Stephen Hagan may be contacted at 978-675-2708, or shagan@gloucestertimes.com.