Plymouth County Sheriff's Office layoffs may have ripple effects in small towns

ROCHESTER — At the beginning of March the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office announced 33 layoffs in the offices of Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Field Services and Civil Process. 

The Bureau of Criminal Investigation took the largest hit in layoffs.

The Bureau assists towns across Plymouth and Bristol County assisting with crime scene investigation, analytics and forensics, usually taking photographs and fingerprints in untimely deaths. 

The goal of the layoffs was to balance the tight sheriff’s office budget according to Karen Barry of the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office.

“I would say that we're being forced into a position to have to manage an insufficient budget,” Barry said. 

Barry said these layoffs will save around $3 million. 

According to Barry, 33 of the people who were laid off either retired, were placed in other positions or resigned. 

“I think it's important for the community to know that we stand firmly with the chief and we do believe that this is important work,” Barry said. 

Barry recognized that the Massachusetts state police will not have the full resources to do what the BCI was fully doing before, but they are still an operational unit. 

Rochester Police Chief Michael Assad said he was concerned about the layoffs, but not sure how they would affect the community long term. 

“When a lot of the small towns heard about that, that was a tough hit,” Assad said. 

Barry said that Plymouth County agrees with local chiefs that the resources the Bureau of Criminal Investigation offers are important to the area and even with a smaller staff, they will continue to work cases. 

Assad said that the full impact of the changes probably would not be realized until next year. He was grateful the Rochester police department could hire two Bureau of Criminal Investigation employees previously laid off who can offer many of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation services in their experience. 

Paul Douglas and Christopher Coyman’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation experience will help Rochester in forensic analytics. 

“They come highly trained, highly certified, that they're going to now be able to provide that service that we were calling now for us directly,” Assad said. 

Assad also mentioned that Rochester is at its minimum for staffing officers. With the population rising and a busy summer season on the horizon, Assad is worried response times will increase. 

“It'll probably take a good year for us to see how much it's affected local agencies, because state police do not have the time to go out to all the calls that we had Bureau of Criminal Investigation go out to,” Assad said.