AMHERST — After more than 13 years leading the detective bureau for Amherst Police, Lt. Ronald Young is being promoted to the department’s captain in charge of administration.
The promotion was announced Tuesday by Police Chief Scott Livingstone, and Young will be sworn into the position at the Select Board’s meeting Monday evening.
Young replaces former captain Christopher Pronovost, who left the department in May to become police chief in Belchertown police chief. Young will join Livingstone and Capt. Jennifer Gundersen to form the administrative team. At the same time, Gundersen will assume Pronovost’s role as captain in charge of operations.
Livingstone said Young was selected from a deep pool of internal candidates. “Ron’s expertise rose to the top,” Livingstone said.
Young has great respect within the department and has a good relationship with Gundersen, who as administrative captain oversaw the detective bureau, Livingstone said. “Jen and Ron have always worked well together,” he added.
Young is currently enrolled in the Southern Police Institute’s command officers development course in Hartford, Connecticut, and has completed more than 250 individual courses in topics such as community service, domestic and mental health issues and diversity during his career.
Young joined the department as a community service officer in 1987 and was appointed as patrol officer Aug. 1, 1988, advancing to the rank of sergeant on Jan. 22, 1997.
On May 1, 2003, he took over command of the detective bureau, after being promoted to lieutenant, less than three years after becoming a detective. He served as a member of the Northwest District Attorney’s Task Force, developed the department’s warrant entry team and acted as the department’s instructor for legal update training.
High-profile cases the detective bureau handled during Young’s tenure in charge included investigations of the 2004 murder of a University of Massachusetts senior at his off-campus apartment on Meadow Street and the conviction and life sentence for his assailant, a series of break-ins in Amherst in 2012 that led to the arrest of two brothers for their involvement in an alleged crime spree that stretched into the Berkshires, and a pedestrian fatality in 2014 that led to this week’s guilty plea by an Orleans woman in Hampshire Superior Court.
Young teaches courses at the Massachusetts Police Training academies, area law enforcement agencies and the Massachusetts State Police Academy.
He graduated in December 1988 from the 12th Massachusetts Police Officers Corps Basic Recruit Academy. A graduate of Springfield Technical Community College, where he earned an associate of science degree in law enforcement, Young also earned bachelors of science and masters of science degrees in criminal justice from Westfield State University.
Young lives in Granby with his wife Christine and daughter Nora.
Meanwhile, Livingstone said the detective bureau will be run temporarily by Detective Sgt. Brian Daly and a promotional exam for lieutenant will be held in September.
At that point, Livingstone said there is potential for restructuring the detective bureau, as well as the department’s policy of sector policing.
In addition, Livingstone said more resources may be made available as part of the community liaison effort to reduce off-campus student issues.
“We want to expand a lot of the success we’ve had with the community liaison,” Livingstone said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
