Charges of racism erupted this week at the Tisbury police department, with the town's only African-American year-round officer saying he has been the subject of harassment, jokes and even an offens
A Tisbury police officer has been placed on leave after she was involved in a one-car crash last week.
Officer Kelly Kershaw sustained minor injuries after she drove a police car into a tree on State Road on Nov. 20, according to state police.
According to state police Sgt. Thomas Medeiros, Ms. Kershaw said that she felt like she was going to pass out before she hit the tree. Ms. Kershaw was travelling west on State Road and struck the tree around Mayflower Lane.
The firing of a longtime Tisbury police sergeant over his alleged mishandling of a 2011 domestic and sexual assault case was upheld last week by an arbitrator.
In a decision dated Oct. 12, arbitrator Richard G. Boulanger found that the selectmen’s November 2011 decision to dismiss Sgt. Robert Fiske was justified.
Sergeant Fiske, who had been with the department for 20 years, was fired for failing to comply with the Tisbury police department’s domestic violence and sexual assault policies.
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.
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.
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.
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.
