As community leaders, we have been shocked, outraged, and angered by what we saw happen to George Floyd in Minneapolis last week, resulting in his death. These same feelings are felt by people across the Billerica community – by our residents, our business leaders, our educators, our town employees, and most importantly, by our police officers and command staff of the Billerica Police Department. We all share a vision for the future in which the injustices brought on by systemic racism must come to an end, and where they cannot be permitted to perpetuate for our future generations.

Over the course of the last week, many of our town residents have written and called with comments and inquiries regarding our police department. We want to assure our residents that protection and respect for all people is a guiding principle for our police department. We seek to earn trust from our community through personal discipline, reliability, sensitivity, and accountability in service to our residents. In embracing the six pillars from the 2015 President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, we have focused training on de-escalation techniques, procedural justice, scenario based training, and Fair and Impartial Policing. We must remain steadfastly committed to these principles now and into the future to earn the trust and cooperation of the community.

We acknowledge the feelings of pain, grief, and anger that exist across our community. But we also hope that within those feelings is a belief that we can work together to achieve a vision for the future in which justice is truly experienced by all. And so, we pledge to ensure that our actions – from how we teach our children to how we engage with our community – are in furtherance of that vision.

Sincerely,

John C. Curran, Town Manager
Daniel C. Rosa, Chief of Police
Timothy G. Piwowar, School Superintendent

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As part of our evolving response to the COVID-19 crisis we, at the Billerica Police Department, have been planning diligently to provide services to our community residents. Part of this planning includes keeping our workforce safe and healthy. We have made many wholesale changes to our operating procedures. Respecting social distancing while still providing personalized policing and protection to the community is our goal. To this end, we are offering the below described online reporting system as one of those changes. We hope that residents will find the system useful and will assist us all in respecting the unprecedented measures taken to protect the public health.

Please rest assured that public safety agencies here in Billerica will continue to respond to all resident emergencies as quickly, diligently and thoughtfully as we have in the past and we appreciate your cooperation and support during this crisis. – Chief Dan Rosa

The Billerica Police Department has long considered online reporting for citizens to report minor incidents without having to visit the Police Station or request an Officer to their residence or place of business. In the last few days we built a reporting form into our website which is now available for use. We pride ourselves in personal service but we also recognize that there is a need for additional reporting methods, especially during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and related state of emergency. The Police Department continues to answer calls and respond like we always do. We are now adding another option for residents to report incidents.

Online reporting can be convenient for residents but the public should not report emergencies through the Online Incident Reporting System. If a crime is in progress or if someone is hurt, threatened, or in danger, the public should call 911 immediately. The following types of incidents may be reported online:

• Animal Incidents (Non-emergency)
• Hit & Run Property Damage (No personal injury)
• Identity Theft
• Lost Property
• Suspicious Activity
• Theft (Less that $1200 value)
• Vandalism (Less than $1200 in damage)

To file an incident report online, visit https://police.billericaps.com/index.php/online-incident-report/ and follow the instructions given. Links are also available from the “Contact Us” menu and from the “Quick Links” section on the right side of our website.

While we are excited to offer this reporting opportunity we also recognize that residents failing to follow instructions can affect it’s long term availability. We will be closely monitoring the online reporting to see what works and what doesn’t and make changes accordingly.