Report: Police funds, licensing mishandled in Cummington

CUMMINGTON — Interim Police Chief Brian Cioffi attended the Select Board’s most recent meeting with inch-thick stacks of clipped papers and wads of envelopes — evidence he has collected that shows the town’s previous Police Chief, Michael Perkins, had allegedly mishandled at least $92,427 in funds for a variety of services, including firearms license-to-carry fees, donations and other items.

Cioffi also reported at that Thursday, Dec. 4 meeting that Perkins, who served for a decade as chief before resigning in July, did not correctly store or label evidence, nor did he properly secure firearms at the department. Other breaches of policy include not assigning officers and personnel with job descriptions, failing to file some traffic citations with the state, and neglecting to pay 53 invoices from the state, Cioffi said. 

Cioffi said there is no evidence that Perkins stole the funds, noting that unopened envelopes with checks inside were found littering his former office.

“The weaknesses were definitely a very poor adherence to legal and procedural requirements with evidence and firearms licensing,” said Cioffi, who was hired in August to assess the conditions of the Police Department. “He [Perkins] had a minimal commitment to officer training and professional development. Officers weren’t being offered or allowed to go to extra training beyond just what’s required by the state for in-service training. Policy and procedures were obviously deficient because new officers had never even seen them.”

In an interview Monday, Perkins acknowledged that his negligence was the result of a “perfect storm” that began in 2021 with passage of the Police Reform Act that overhauled regulations and standards for police departments across the state. Those changes put a severe strain on rural departments with small staffs, he said. 

Additionally, Perkins was juggling a full-time job with the State Police, his part-time job as Cummington’s chief, and raising a young family.

“I made mistakes. I certainly made mistakes. I’m not going to say that I didn’t, but I also gave 20 years of my life to the town. I was appointed to the Police Department in 2005,” he said. “The Police Department, even though it is a part-time job, was the center of my life.”

License-to-carry permits

One of the most severe shortcomings, said Cioffi, was that Perkins was not filing license-to-carry permits with the state. These permits include $100 in fees, with $25 going to the town and $75 to the state. Cioffi said the lack of filing the permits has impacted some 54 applicants, totaling $5,400 worth of checks. In addition, 11 other applicants were found to have no record of payment, which brings the amount to $7,200 of missing licensing dollars.

“People weren’t getting their firearms licenses in a reasonable amount of time. Nor were any fees being turned over to the town from firearm licensing,” Cioffi said. “In total, with the information I was able to pull together with the help of other people, we’re looking at $7,200 lacking in turnovers.”

Cioffi told the board that this is an egregious breach of trust for the community since only police chiefs are able to issue license-to-carry permits.

“People were not afforded their rights for firearm licensing — that’s a big problem,” he said. “That puts your public at odds with your Police Department.”

After Cioffi said this, resident Saul Casdin, who has been personally impacted and never received his permit over a stretch of years when Perkins was in charge, told the board that they already knew that this was going on in the department.

“I have plenty of recordings proving they knew for years,” Casdin said in an interview with the Gazette following the meeting. “Maybe they didn’t know everything, but they 100% knew money was missing and people’s Second Amendment rights were being abused in every way … I will add that I got my license to carry in 30 days with Cioffi.”

Another issue remaining is that these uncashed checks have expired. The Police Department is in the process of reaching out to firearm applicants, but there are other checks that need to be hunted down, Cioffi said.

Additionally, he estimates that some $9,500 in donations to the Police Department were never cashed and those checks are also stale. Consequently, the Select Board will address letters to people who have donated asking them to write another check. Select Board Chair Kenneth “Trudge” Howes said the donors are good people and he expects they will be willing to rewrite new checks.

There is also $910 worth of uncashed checks from insurance companies. When an accident occurs, insurance companies are charged about $20 to receive an incident report. Meanwhile, Perkins did not complete paperwork for state grants, including $30,000 for Motorola radios and $19,000 for new street signs. 

Cioffi also said Perkins wasn’t following policy with regard to storing evidence. Since coming on board, Cioffi said he has worked to clean up the Police Department by organizing firearms and installing a refrigerator to store biological evidence.

Cioffi, who said he would like to step down as interim chief on Jan. 8, said he is leaving the department cleaner than he found it. He has been in the role since Aug. 1.

“I think now we’re doing really well,” he said. “People are getting their licenses. We’re getting turnarounds before the 30-day mark that the state likes to see. And money is getting turned into the treasurer, the town is getting its funds back.”

Perkins responds

In an interview with the Gazette, Perkins offered an apology to the people who have been impacted, especially those who didn’t receive their license-to-carry permits. 

“There’s 24 hours in a day, and I’m sorry for what happened,” he said. “I wish I had gotten up sooner because I started to get buried.”

Perkins said he was struggling to manage his full-time job as a radio technician with the State Police on top of his role as the Cummington chief. Then the Police Reform Act included many new standards for all departments to abide by, including a requirement that all police officers be certified as full-time officers, even if they only work part time. For Perkins, this meant he had to take three weeks of his paid vacation time from work to undergo a five-week training period in 2023, in addition to other mandates as part of the act.

Perkins said that the changes, which were made after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and subsequent protests against police brutality, were “necessary.” However, he also said that people didn’t realize how the changes would impact small towns and rural departments.

Perkins said he approached the Select Board at the time about needing more personnel, but a position was never able to be filled. Even when full-time officer Billy Bissell was hired in May of 2024, Perkins said by that point, “it was too little too late.”

As a Cummington resident himself, he understands there may be a lack of desire to pour more funds into the police department. However, he said that it is necessary to be able to attract people who can do the job.

“You can have part-time officers, but you need someone there full-time running the police department, at least a full-time chief,” he said. “I don’t want taxes either, but at the end of the day you have to deliver services.”

Moving forward

Cioffi — who lives on the eastern side of the state and was the former police chief of Chilmark, a town on Martha’s Vineyard — recommended that Bissell, the department’s only full-time officer, be named Cummington’s permanent police chief.

After emphasizing that policing is evolving, Cioffi said it is a serious task and full-time responsibility for chiefs to stay up-to-date with statewide mandates. As a result, Cioffi also recommended that there should be a full-time patrolman hired to avoid burnout for the next chief.

“There’s more to it than just stopping and getting coffee and saying ‘hey guys’ and telling some people to slow down,” he said. “You can’t expect a full-time chief to handle all the administrative duties of a police department and be the only person that works in response to calls. You’re going to burn the person out.”

The Select Board acknowledged the point and said they would discuss it at future meetings.

Cioffi also recommended that training for officers be provided and that software be updated so that evidence can be filed digitally. Finally, he encouraged the Select Board to take a more hands-on role with all departments in town. 

“A big one, and I suggest this across the board for all departments in the town of Cummington, are biweekly meetings with a representative from the Select Board … because a couple of you said to me, ‘geez I’ve never been in here before,'” he said, referring to the police station.

Select Board member June Lynds affirmed that no one on the Select Board had been to the police station before the board made a visit. Before the meeting was adjourned after about an hour, Howes thanked Cioffi for his service to the town.