"The Tisbury Police Department environment is dysfunctional,
at best, with continual tension between police officers and
management," declares a new report made public at the Feb. 27
meeting of the Tisbury board of selectmen. The 22-page report is the
product of a four-month study commissioned by selectmen and undertaken
by seasonal Island resident Robert Wasserman of the consulting firm
PSComm LLC.
Union Wants Two Additional Officers;Issue Will Appear as April
Article on Town Meeting Warrant
By JOSHUA SABATINI
An unprecedented move by the Tisbury police union will put the
debate over staffing of the town police force before the voters at town
meeting time in April.
Almost two years before he made the scathing comments about the Tisbury police which cost him his job, police chief John Cashin launched a similar broadside, aimed at his former colleagues on the Norwalk, Ct., police force
It was on July 26, 2007 and Mr. Cashin was almost 10 months into his tenure as Tisbury chief when he elected to speak to The Hour, a daily newspaper in his former town, damning the force there for insubordination, lack of discipline and immorality, and calling for a complete shake-up of the department.
An investigation is under way into claims by a Tisbury policewoman that she was sexually harassed by a fellow officer and then subjected to retaliatory action from the police chief and town administrator when she complained about it.
In a detailed complaint, filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) on April 28, Kelly R. Kershaw said she believed her alleged harasser, Sgt. Timothy Stobie, chief John Cashin and the town were trying to force her from her job.
Tisbury police believe they are getting closer to identifying the town’s peeping Tom, who remains active despite publicity about the case and the arrival of colder weather.
Det. Mark Santon said police now believed the man had been active since the summer, peering in windows over a large area of town. The most recent report of his activities came in on Wednesday.
A state labor relations committee has settled a long-running contract dispute between the town of Tisbury and the union representing the police department that spans nearly three years and four different police chiefs.
The Jan. 28 decision from the Massachusetts Joint Labor Managements Committee for Municipal Police and Fire sides with the town on the central issue of a 3.5 per cent pay increase for patrol officers and police sergeants retroactive to July 1, 2007, the date the contract was supposed to have gone into effect.
On Tuesday, June 29, the town of Tisbury will hold a special town meeting to seek the passage of two separate, but related spending articles concerning the town’s collective bargaining agreement with the Tisbury police union. The details of the collective bargaining agreement were the result of a Joint Labor Management Committee arbitration award, which both the town and the police union agree is a fair and equitable resolution. The town of Tisbury and union encourage Tisbury residents to attend the special town meeting and support the passage of these two articles.
Complaints against the Tisbury police department and Sgt. Timothy Stobie alleging discrimination based on sexual harassment have been found to have probable cause, after the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination investigated a broad complaint by a female officer, Kelly Kershaw.
