From the Eagle Tribune;
December 16, 2011
Atkinson rebuilds police department
By Cara Hogan
chogan@eagletribune.com
ATKINSON — The police department is slowly rebuilding, but much of the recent hiring has come at the expense of neighboring Plaistow.
Selectmen agreed Monday night to hire Officer Stephen Lundquist at $22 an hour, bringing the department up to four full-time officers.
Lundquist is the fourth officer Atkinson has hired away from Plaistow.
In October, the town hired three veteran officers from Plaistow, Sgt. Patrick Caggiano, Officer Nicholas Fiset and Sgt. Scott Anderson.
Lundquist will start his new job on Jan. 10 and fill a much-needed position, according to Caggiano.
"The department is currently running at 60 percent of the workforce," he said.
"We have three full-time officers and we would normally have five officers. We're looking to fill that gap."
There has also been a high turnover rate in the Atkinson department, too, creating the openings.
Officer Christopher VanHirtum left the department in October and Detective Sgt. Philip Farrar retired in September.
Earlier in the year, Lt. William Baldwin and Officer Justin Paquette left the department.
Baldwin actually joined the Plaistow department.
In order to hire Lundquist, the town had to buy out his contract with Plaistow, adding $2,500 to his salary.
"Plaistow has made an investment in training him and, if he leaves, they lose it," Caggiano said.
"They spent about $33,000 on the cost of his training. Atkinson would only have to pay the rest of his contract until April."
Selectmen voted, 2-1, to hire Lundquist. Selectman Fred Childs voted against it because of the employment contract.
"It's like buying an officer," he said.
"I have a problem with buying people."
Childs also said he was worried about setting a precedent for future hires.
"We opened up a can of worms," he said.
"If the next officer comes and is asking us for the same thing, are we going to say no? I want to be consistent."
Caggiano said Lundquist is worth the investment.
"To get someone who has already proven himself, we're getting a considerable cost benefit," he said. "I'm comfortable putting (Lundquist) in a cruiser in three or four weeks. If I have another officer, I made have to put that off to the industry standard 12 weeks of training."
Lundquist has worked as a full-time officer in Plaistow for the past three years, including serving for a short time under Caggiano.
"I had the opportunity to work with Steve and I know the caliber of officer he is," Caggiano said.
"Within two years of becoming a police officer, he showed his ability to do detective work."
Plaistow police Chief Stephen Savage would not comment on the loss to his department, saying it's a personnel matter.
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
36 comments:
call animal control not pd
how about a trained bos
Now if we only had a trained Chief. Even an honest one would be an improvement.
You can't get either in the town of Atkinson. Selectmen won't allow it. you have to ask you're self why?
Let's say the Board of Selectmen hired a new Police Chief and reminded Consentino that his original appointment as Chief was never extended and it's time to go. Well what do you think will happen? Bubba Phil and his Flock will take out the BOS one Selectman at a time, until they have a majority. And then the new Chief will be booted out and Consentino will be reinstated Chief. Two years and he'll be back. My guess is the Selectmen value their position more than they value doing the right thing for the folks they represent. If I were Selectman I"d get rid of Phil immediately. What"s there to lose? a low paid thankless jjob. What"s a be gained? My reputation back.
First of all
December 18, 2011 5:12PM, (Who we believe to be Chief Consentino) we don't see anywhere in this article where Ms. LaFrance has posted anything you are talking about.
Next you little Maggot (who we believe is Chief Consentino) that it is you that should be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and escorted to the town line, kicked in the ass and told never to come back.
According to Town public records Ms. LaFrance legally owns property here, pays her taxes, votes her conscience at the ballot box, and is a citizen of the USA.
How dare you to even suggest that she has to move! How dare you to suggest that no (one) appreciates her (supposedly) constant negativity against the chief and the elderly folks.
Ms. LaFrance has the constitutional right to speak her mind and fight the corruption in this town all she wants. You however Mr. Consentino, do not have the right to use your badge to shut her up or insist that she move.
Unlike others you have forced to move out of town in the past, Ms. LaFrance has made the decision to stay and fight your corruption.
That being said Mr. Consentino, is it your position that you are going to use your position to falsely arrest Ms. LaFrance and run her through the legal system like you have done so many times in the past? If so, go ahead and try it. There are those that dare you to do it.
If Mr. Consentino didn’t post December 18, 2011 5:12PM, we apologize, but to the Consentino supporter that did…………..pack up your tent and get out of town. You are not wanted or needed. Stay and you will be prosecuted for the stalker that you are. To that end, we promise you that you will get your just reward.
I didn't read the latest nasty post I have never seen or heard of any reason for these attacks. This is obviously someone who has a personal grudge but I think it is the lowest of the low who attack women and who attack anonymously.
I did not see the post in question and have not seen anything negative here about the elderly.
If anyone is going to be arrested, it will be some of our darling neighbors who vandalize the property of others and the corrupt cops who allow it.
No one is going to run anyone out of town, certainly not a disgruntled UNofficial.
No one should be threatening residents especially not women, certainly not a bully with a badge.
You should not be sitting in a public place denigrating residents either, it might get back to them. Can you say 'oh-oh, another lawsuit'?
If they fired him, he would never be back. I don't know what they are waiting for.
Bubba has been attacking all 3 of the selectmen and he will continue to do so. He needs a lawsuit that he has to pay out of his own pocket.
I appreciate constant negativity against the Chief.
PD is the only ones making threats to arrest people - nobody else can make arrests. Why are they so dumb?
Did he actually threaten to arrest her?
The chief has alot of supporters. They might not have a a blog but they have a voice. They may be elderly but not even Joyce will be able to slow them down. We will be victorious and it will be glorious. Good bye to all you Atkinson reporter supporters including Joyce. Haha love to see all the negitive attention that she is receiving. YOUR EVIL!
The Conman has no friends, only co-CON-spirators’ or scared elderly that fear him. Time to put the fear of God and the wrath of the voters into him and get him out of office.
Nobody in their right mind believes half the stuff posted on this blog site, unless of course it is well documented. I have to say that they really have the goods on the police department.
To everyone knowledgeable about why Joyce LaFrance is being targeted by Phil and his supporters:
I don't get cable and don't get around that much in town anymore so I am completed unknowledgeable about why Phil and his supporters are so constantly and abusively targeting Joyce LaFrance on the blog and according to the blog, also elsewhere.
What happened to start all this
abuse of her?
Why does one particular nasty blogger always demean her by calling her cat woman? (if that is
who the blogger is referring to)
I would appreciate some knowledgable person filling me in.
There's a couple of cops targeting her for a few years now. Phil Consentino tried to get her off the CIC, even going to the newspaper to pressure her into recusing herself from reviewing a petition they never even accepted!
Then there's Farrar who chased her for years and she didn't want anything to do with him so he badmouths her all over town and he recently went after her in a store too.
They are trying to disparage her by slandering her and pretending she's the problem, but it's really just part of the same old thing that's been going on for years. Her house was vandalized last year and the cops would not do anything about it. Typical Atkinson Police Chief bully behavior.
This is how the police treat people here, it's disgraceful. Anyone can be a target.
Carol, what happened is simple. Ms. LaFrance witnessed the dispatcher, Lynne Cunningham sending out "thank you for your donation" letters on the police dispatch computer, during the work hours she is being paid by the Atkinson PD.
What make this worse is she was NOT sending these letters out on behalf of the TOWN, but on behalf of Phil's private slush fund, the Atkinson Police Charitable Fund. Of which Phil is the President.
Ms. LaFrance brought this to the attention of the Selectmen. When Phil was told about it, he had the Dispatch window covered in reflective film. I happened to be in the Pd to get a report a couple of weeks after this, and when I asked Dispatcher Cunningham why the film, she told me "someone saw something they shouldn't have and made a big deal out of it, and the chief had this stuff put up."
BTW, There is no expenditure for this, nor was there a vote of the selectmen to allow the alteration of a town building.
When asked, Phil claimed it had never happened before, and would not happen again, and after some discussion he agreed to re-imburse the town for her time, He paid the town $15.36. If it will never happen again, why did we need the film?
What happened next is classic Phil. He began investigating her. He called the state, he spent taxpayer money/time in his efforts. He came to a meeting of the Conflict of Interest committee dealing with a complaint of my own, and demanded that Ms. LaFrance remove herself. He held up a bunch of papers, claiming "I have a 32 page dossier on Ms. LaFrance".
This incident, and his retributive practices combined with our lovelorn detective, effective stalking of the poor woman, has once again created the situation where our semi-fascist, bullies with badges are allowed to use Taxpayer funded time and effort to retaliate against taxpayers who offend them.
Now the budget committee is about to give Consentino an extra ninety thousand dollars in a legal line that should be zeroed out. That money will be used to defend the next lawsuit the Conman creates. That's taxpayer money designed to protect the biggest crook this town has to offer.
How do you like what this town has become? Crooks protecting the rest of the crooks in this town.
Chief Consentino also never produced the alleged 32 page dossier on her and the Town claimed they didn't have one.
This is representative of the lack of decency and how low he will stoop to keep his job, and they let him.
$90k for defending his sorry a$$? I don't think so.
I dont think that we should flatter mrs lafrance and say that the detective was stalking or harrassing her, it would be much the other way when she calls the police 20x's a day to report somthing that never happends to try and get the detective over there to "investigate" come on now we all know it was the other way around. Nice try...talk about a cover up.
To 10:38,
Sounds like the police chief’s vial attacks, except that the spelling and grammar are pretty good.
So, maybe you are the chief’s “confidential secretary” that was illegally doing work for the chief.
I understand that the selectmen have removed the reflective plastic from the window at the police station.
This is one for the Right to Know law.
Maybe it is true that the confidential secretary is jealous and had her eye on the former detective.
I don't believe that for a minute, have you met him?
I also have not seen any calls like you describe in the logs.
Why is Farrar going around telling people himself he got in trouble for stalking her then?
'somthing that never happends'
It occurs to me when I read this that you may just not understand what is going on around you and the problem is just your lack of education.
I wouldn't be flattered if he was after me. Besides he's not much of a catch to anyone successful.
maybe farrah can go for jody heard shes available
To Carol Grant:
Do you always get your facts from a blog and if so, how do you know what is true and what is false?
You don't. If you want facts, why don't you ask your questions of the person?
This blog is nothing but a rumor mill except for those who watch meetings on TV, nothing else can be accepted as true without some investigation.
Any good detective would do their homework before listening to rumors.
To Dec. 21, 5:35 p.m.
You made a very good point.
Back to the topic of this blog. Word on the street one more Plaistow cop coming to Atkinson. Do you think Chief Savage is happy he brought Billy over to the big city? HMMMMM
Word on the Street, are you kidding? This is the PD slamming a new guy.
Nicolas Fiset is a dirty Laurie Cop! He was caught falsy arresting residents for personal gain then paying their bail. No proof of a crime, no evidence of a crime, no investigation, no probable cause, no reports, and deleted case evidence then will pay your bail because he's a nice guy. This known dirt bag makes good officers look bag and is a discrace to the proud uniform he wears.
Post a Comment