EASTHAMPTON — After working up the ranks of the Easthampton Police Department over the last 18 years, Capt. Robert Alberti is now its new chief.
“I will continue to build upon the chief’s legacy,” Alberti said of former police chief Bruce McMahon, who retired on Oct. 27 after 37 years at the department. “He was a good role model for me.”
Alberti has served as acting chief since McMahon retired. Mayor Karen Cadieux announced Alberti’s appointment Nov. 2, and on Wednesday, he was interviewed by the city’s appointing subcommittee, followed by unanimous approval by the full City Council.
City council member Joseph McCoy said Alberti’s resume is “impressive.”
“Any city or county would be honored to have you apply,” McCoy said to Alberti.
“The reason that I’m still here is this city and that family standing in the back row,” Alberti said as about 30 officers and employees came to support him. “I hope to follow in Chief McMahon’s footsteps and retire here.”
One change Alberti plans for the department is to create Facebook and Twitter pages to put out factual and “real-time” information for the community.
For the opioid crisis, Alberti said he believes in long-term treatment for addicts. He said the department is working to get a state certification for Narcan, which is used to reverse opiate overdose.
Alberti, 43, has served on the Easthampton police force since 1998. Before his time in the criminal justice field, he spent over a decade working at Rock Valley Tool Inc., a machining facility in Easthampton. He grew up in the area and graduated from Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in 1990.
Early in his police career, Alberti worked part time at police departments in Sunderland, Southampton and Easthampton while employed full time at Rock Valley Tool.
In 2002, he was promoted to a full-time officer for the Easthampton Police Department. A year later, he earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Curry College. In 2004, Alberti was promoted to detective.
Since he made the career change, Alberti said “no two days are ever the same.”
He has investigated bank robberies, internet crimes, sexual assaults, suicide, manslaughter, fatal accidents and homicide cases.
He spent six years as the Easthampton agent working with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Springfield. During his time working with the DEA, Alberti was able to investigate drug trafficking cases beyond Easthampton and Massachusetts.
In 2011, Alberti was a key player in an investigation that led to charges against men from Easthampton, Northampton and Hadley implicated in a cocaine distribution ring whose supply chain appeared to stretch as far as Texas.
In 2013, Alberti was named captain, second in command at the police department. He earned a master’s degree in criminal justice in 2014 and the following year he was accepted into FBI National Academy, a 10-week program in Quantico, Virginia.
Since 2015, he has served on the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and has participated in the investigation and arrest of domestic terrorists.
Alberti was one of three applicants for the position. The position was posted on bulletin boards throughout the city and on various websites such as Strategic Government Resources, according to the city’s personnel director Jane Sakiewicz. No expenses were incurred in the search, Sakiewicz said in an email.