Don’t know your local police officers? The new Millis Police Chief, Chris Soffayer, is looking to change that. Soffayer, who was promoted to the position in December after an extensive assessment, hopes to build rapport between his staff (which currently numbers 13, with two more positions that will need to be filled).
“I am so appreciative of what’s happening here at the police department,” says Soffayer. “I’m a new chief, coming into a new building. I’m extremely fortunate to work with them. They all do a fantastic job and are really proactive. Policing aside, they engage with members of the community.”
Two years ago, says Soffayer, the department identified two key areas for improvement. The first, he says, was being transparent, and the second was being accessible to the community. Soffayer himself began the process of holding open Millis Police forums at the Millis Public Library. The public forums, he says, developed quite a following, but were was put on hold after Chief Edison announced his retirement in June.
“I was designated to replace him as the police liaison for the new building, and that was a lot of work and very time consuming, with a big learning curve,” says Soffayer, who praises the permanent building committee for being “fantastic about bringing me up to speed.”
At 10 a.m. on September 15th, all calls started coming to the new facility. They had eight hours to move 911 from the old facility to this facility –get it installed and have that move not impact residents in any way in terms of receiving emergency services. It needed to be seamless, and it went phenomenal. It was an all-hands-on-deck day, and it speaks a lot to the character of everyone here. The team effort was outstanding.”
Moving forward, says Soffayer, is a plan bring back the public forum to familiarize local residents with the different police officers. “Each month, the Millis Police Forum will be delivered by a new officer,” says Soffayer. The officer will deliver the program, then open up a question and answer session. “Not only will they get to know the department, but they will be able to put a name with a face,” says the police chief.
Online, Millis Police will have a stronger presence, as well.
“Last year, we built a new website. There will be significant changes to that to make it more interactive,” says Soffayer, who also intends to designate two other officers as information officers to strengthen the social media outreach. Right now, he says, “I’m the only one that posts to our Facebook” The Facebook page, he says, has received positive feedback, because of the timely nature in which Millis PD posts information about incidents. “We’re just putting it out there, and people really like that,” he says.
Soffayer says he hopes residents will feel comfortable enough to come into the department to talk about any issues they might have.
“If people have an issue with our department, instead of taking to social media, come in. I’ll meet with you, not a problem. Granted, we might not see eye-to-eye, but we can have a civil conversation and hopefully come to an agreement and be part of the solution.”
Most of all, Soffayer hopes to impart that the Millis Police Department is very much a team atmosphere, and he plans to do his best to get officers recognized for the way they resolve issues day to day.
“People need to know the critical decisions that are being made by our officers,” says Soffayer.
They’re doing a great job at it.” He points to an incident last year at Stonybrook, in which two officers, (short one at the time), were able to diffuse a situation with a man holding a knife with his girlfriend present. No one was hurt in that situation. Another time, he says, three officers, in March, did an outstanding job investigating stolen prescription medication by a woman posing as a DEA agent, and last June, two officers were again able to calmly negotiate with a man who had barricaded himself in his bathroom with a knife, evacuating his spouse and calling SWAT officers to the scene. In the end, no one was hurt.
“Critical decisions were made that drastically altered and ended volatile situations,” says Soffayer, who points out that the department is extremely fortunate to be able to offer its officers extra training. “Our officers are going to do everything they can to make a volatile situation come to a peaceful resolution.”
Issue Date:
February, 2017
Article Body: