[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Aldermen (now City Council) of the City of Chicopee as Ch. 43 of the 1976 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Department of Emergency Management — See Ch. 9.
Traffic Commission — See Ch. 16, Art. IX.
Public Safety Committee — See Ch. 16, Art. XX.
[Amended 6-17-1981]
A. 
The Police Department of the City of Chicopee shall consist of one Chief, five Captains, seven Lieutenants, 19 Sergeants, not more than 120 patrolmen, such number of reserve patrolmen as prescribed by Chapter 314 of the Acts of 1986 (MGL c. 147, §§ 11 and 12).
[Amended 4-4-1989; 3-18-1997 by Ord. No. 97-12; 11-21-2000 by Ord. No. 00-83A; 4-15-2008 by Ord. No. 08-04; 2-15-2011 by Ord. No. 11-08; 2-17-2015 by Ord. No. 15-9; 3-17-2015 by Ord. No. 15-15; 12-1-2015 by Ord. No. 15-61; 12-6-2016 by Ord. No. 16-82; 12-17-2019 by Ord. No. 19-70; 10-18-2022 by Ord. No. 22-24]
B. 
There shall be no more than seven canine units within the Police Department.
[Added 9-7-1982; amended 3-19-2019 by Ord. No. 19-13]
No person shall be eligible to appointment in this Department unless he is a citizen of the United States, a resident of the City of Chicopee for at least two years, able to read and write in the English language, has not been convicted of crime within five years and is of good moral character and habits.
[Amended 9-1-2009]
The Chief of Police shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, give a bond to the City in such form as the City Solicitor shall approve in the sum of $2,000, with sureties to be approved by the Committee on Finance, for the faithful performance of the duties of his office, which bond shall be filed with and remain in the custody of the City Treasurer. He shall be responsible for the discipline and efficiency of his Department and shall have entire control of the patrolmen, chauffeurs and all reserve and special policemen when in the service of the City. He shall keep an account of all duties performed and of all absences from duty with a memorandum of the cause thereof and shall, on the last day of each month and at other times when specially required, make a written report to the Mayor of the doings of his department and of all misconduct, neglect of duty or want of efficiency in any member of the force. He shall devote all his time to the duties of his office and shall exert himself to the best of his ability to preserve the peace, order and cleanliness of the City and to see that the special laws and ordinances of the City and the orders of the Mayor and City Council are observed and obeyed. On the last day of each week, he shall make up the weekly payroll of the members of the department and certify the same to the City Auditor. At the end of the financial year, he shall make a written report of the organization, condition and doings of his Department for the preceding year and submit the same to the Mayor.
[Added 9-21-1995 by Ord. No. 95-66[1]]
A. 
The regular, full-time Fire Chief and the regular, full-time Chief of Police of the City of Chicopee shall receive an annual base rate of compensation which shall not be less than two times the highest annual rate of compensation of a regular, full-time fire fighter or a regular full-time police officer or patrolman, as the case may be.
B. 
In addition, parity shall be maintained relative to the compensation rates paid to the Police Chief and the Fire Department Chief for the City of Chicopee.
C. 
The highest annual rate of a regular full-time fire fighter or a regular full-time police officer or patrolman is to be construed and interpreted as the "base rate" and shall not include any other additional forms of compensation, and if, given this definition, the rates of the Fire Department Chief and the Police Chief would mathematically come out to different levels of compensation, then the lower rate shall be adjusted to the higher rate in order to maintain parity between the two Department heads.
[1]
Editor's Note: See also § 34-6.1.
The Chief of Police shall have the office at the police station in the City Hall and shall be at his office at reasonable hours on every day and evening for the purpose of receiving complaints and, if satisfied that there has been a willful violation, shall make complaint thereof to the District Court, but this provision shall not be construed to prevent any person from making such complaints directly to the Court. He shall attend all sessions of the District Court and render such services in connection therewith as may be required by said Court.
A. 
Each patrolman shall acquaint himself as thoroughly as possible with the business of the Department and hold himself ready at all times to render police service when needed and to answer the calls and obey the orders of his superior officers. He shall make daily reports to the Chief of Police of his doings and of all important facts coming to his knowledge.
B. 
The hours of duty for members of the Police Department shall be based on an eight-hour day on a four-days-on, two-days-off work schedule.
C. 
Whenever any member of the Police Department performs authorized police duties beyond his or her normal eight-hour day or beyond his or her regular work schedule, he or she shall be paid overtime at 1 1/2 times the regular hourly rate as computed from the salary ordinances.
D. 
All overtime work shall be assigned by the Chief of Police or by those designated by him.
All officers of the Police Department shall, in such manner as the Chief of the Fire Department of the City may direct, aid the Fire Department in case of a fire by keeping the streets and grounds in the immediate vicinity thereof clear and by performing such other police service as may be required so that the members of the Fire Department may not be hindered or obstructed in the performance of their duties.
Any police officer, including the Chief of Police, who may be disabled while on actual duty shall be entitled to receive full pay for the time he is off duty in consequence thereof for a period not exceeding two months, the fact of the disability and the cause thereof being proven to the satisfaction of the Mayor.
A. 
The Mayor may, from time to time, appoint such special policemen as he may consider necessary who shall have all the power of constables except the service of civil process and who shall serve without pay, except when assigned the duty by the Chief of Police.
B. 
Should the Mayor be of the opinion that an emergency exists which requires additional protection for the property of any person, firm or corporation within the City, he may appoint any citizen of the United States a special policeman, provided that such person so appointed is, at the time, in the opinion of the Mayor, an employee of said person, firm or corporation, and the provisions of § 77-2 of this chapter shall not apply to such appointment. The term of such appointments shall be during the continuance of the emergency, and the emergency shall be deemed to continue until the Mayor shall file in the office of the City Clerk a certificate setting forth that the emergency under which said appointments were made no longer exists, and thereupon the term of office of said special policeman shall cease and terminate. These last-mentioned special policemen shall have all the power of constables except the service of civil process, and they shall serve without pay. Should the Chief of Police at any time see fit to exercise any control over such special policemen, he may do so, and they shall act under his orders. For any failure to obey said orders, he may suspend said special policeman and report the fact of such suspension to the Mayor, and said special policeman shall not thereafter act until he is reinstated. The special policeman appointed under this subsection, may be removed by the Mayor at his discretion at any time. The person, firm or corporation for the protection of whose property the aforesaid special policemen are appointed shall give the City a bond in the sum of $1,000 for each special policeman so appointed, with one or more sureties as in each instance shall be required by the Mayor and as approved by him. The condition thereof shall be to save the City of Chicopee harmless from any and all acts of said special policeman and to pay to any person injured in his person or property by said special policeman, in the course of his duty, such damages to which he may be legally entitled. Said bond may be sued upon by any person, at his own expense, who has been so injured by any of said special policemen.
The Chief of Police shall be the lockup keeper and, as such, shall receive into his custody and safely keep all persons arrested for any criminal offense and cause them to be brought before the next session of the District Court, unless otherwise lawfully disposed of.
[Amended 9-1-2009]
They shall receive such compensation as the City Council may from time to time determine.
The Chief of Police shall establish tours of duty for the regular patrolmen and shall fix the hours of each tour of duty, which shall be consecutive hours. Each patrolman shall be permitted to designate the tour of duty upon which he prefers to work, and the Chief of Police shall assign patrolmen to duty upon the duty so designated in the order of their seniority in service as regular patrolmen. Whenever the tours of duty or the hours fixed therefor shall be changed or there shall be a vacancy in any tour of duty, each patrolman in the order of seniority in service shall be entitled to designate his preference for a tour of duty and be assigned to duty upon such tour of duty in the order of seniority as a patrolman. "Seniority in service" shall mean the length of time in service following appointment to the regular and not the reserve force and when the service of more than one patrolman begins on the same day, seniority shall be determined in the order of the badge number issued, the lowest number having priority. A patrolman by this chapter shall not acquire any right or preference by seniority in service or otherwise to select the beat which he shall patrol or the kind of duty he shall perform, all of which shall remain under the control of the Chief of Police. Except as to the establishment of seniority rights in assignments upon a tour of duty as provided herein, nothing in this chapter shall repeal or affect any provision of any other ordinance or any rule or regulation of the Police Department approved by the Mayor, nor shall this chapter, except as to such seniority by rights, be construed as limiting or diminishing the control of the Mayor and Chief of Police over the officers, patrolmen or other persons engaged in the service of the Police Department.
[Added 7-7-1987]
A. 
The City of Chicopee shall provide every member of the Chicopee Police Force with bulletproof vests/jackets. These vests shall be part of uniform in the future.
B. 
These vests shall be worn at the discretion/option of the officer.
C. 
Any second-chance vest purchased shall be equal to or better than Level 2. A second-chance vest shall be maximum coverage.
[Added 3-7-1989; amended 3-16-1993 by Ord. No. 93-7A]
There is hereby established an account to be called "Reserve for Appropriation - Sale of Abandoned and Confiscated Items." Said account shall be held in reserve for the Police Department of the City of Chicopee and shall be used only for the purpose of establishing a Public Safety Work Program and Crime Watch Prevention Program. Funds held in the Reserve for Appropriation Account may be utilized only by specific appropriation thereof, in accordance with MGL c. 44, § 53, as amended.