Scott Smith, the Ludlow Police chief, recently outlined the reason behind the ongoing discussion regarding the proposed merger of police stations after talk at a recent city meeting.
He clarified that the merger is not happening soon due to various challenges.
In one of his reports about a year ago, he said that at some point, they will have to merge with neighboring police departments because the retirement system is too expensive.
“It’s not going to happen anytime soon,” Smith said.
There are steps that need to be taken for the merger to happen.
Smith highlighted the steps needed for police stations to merge.
First, all the police departments involved – the police chiefs – must agree. Then, the mayors of each city will need to approve the plan. After that, the city council members will need to agree.
Following that, the councils must figure out the expenses, equipment, and other significant details for this merger to work, he said.
“There’s so much involved that if other cities don’t feel comfortable, and they don’t agree, everything doesn’t align, it would never happen,” he said. “Once everybody agrees and they feel comfortable with each other, then the final question: Who runs it? Who’s in charge of it? Is one city in charge of it? Do we have a commission.”
However, Smith agrees that, at some point, some of the smaller cities will have to merge their police stations since the current situation is not sustainable long term.
“I’ve had conversations with other chiefs about this. And the ones I’ve had conversations [with] also agree that eventually it does have to happen,” said Smith.