Officer Sam will keep walking, just not on beat

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on October 10, 2008

A familiar face to downtown merchants from his days on the walking beat, and to countless others for his community policing, is leaving the department this month.

Officer Sabino Epiceno, known to many as Officer Sam, is retiring after 34 years as a police officer, the last 26 spent in Amherst.

Epiceno's retirement today comes a year after he received the department's Badge No. 1, meaning he's the most senior patrol officer, and just after he turned 55. "Fifty-five and being a patrolman is old enough," Epiceno said. "It's a young man's game."

Since 2001, Epiceno has been both a patrol and community policing officer for the department. But it may have been his years in the late 1990s on foot patrol, when he worked with senior citizens and dealt with teenagers hanging out at and interfering with the functioning of the Bangs Community Center, where he got the most attention.

"You address quality-of-life issues, not just crime," Epiceno said.

He organized Neighborhood Watch programs for Ann Whalen Apartments and Clark House tenants, holding meetings once a month to address their concerns; kept regular office hours at the senior center; and met with members of the West Downtown Neighborhood Association to deal with worries about speeding vehicles. He also helped University of Massachusetts physical anthropology professor Ventura Perez set up a program in which college students mentored troubled Amherst teenagers.

Recently, Epiceno trained in installing child safety seats, learning crash dynamics and the different kinds of seats and seat-belt systems. "Never did I expect so intense a course to install baby seats in cars," Epiceno said.

Police Chief Charles Scherpa said Epiceno has been an ideal officer in that whenever he is asked to do something, he comes through.

"He is one of the most dedicated, motivated police officers that I've ever worked with," Scherpa said.

Early career

Born in New Jersey and growing up in the projects of West New York, N.J., the son of the late Nicholas and Victoria Epiceno, Epiceno - who still speaks with a New Jersey accent - got his start in policing in April 1974 in Union City, N.J.

After graduating from high school, Epiceno enlisted in the National Guard, and later attended community college, took a criminal justice course and then took a civil service test to prepare himself for police work. He graduated from the New Jersey State Police Academy's 144th Municipal Police Class.

Densely populated, with 77,000 people living in an area just more than 2 square miles, Union City had an inner-city feel, with 155 officers in the ranks.

For five years, Epiceno walked these streets, occasionally feeling at risk, as the crime was often more violent than that found in Amherst. One of the most memorable crimes, Epiceno said, was a mob hit in which a car blew up a block away from where he was standing. Another time a man used a machete to severely injure his wife during a domestic disturbance.

In 1979, Epiceno earned Officer of the Year for the city and was nominated for the state award for his efforts at crime prevention. This came a year after he launched Operation ID at a 22-story senior citizen apartment and got police Explorer Scouts to engrave Social Security numbers and license numbers into the tenants' valuable property, such as television sets, stereos and cameras. He arranged this work through the building manager.

Coming to Amherst

Epiceno arrived in Amherst in 1982, three years after he met his future wife, Juanita, at a police Explorers camp in Connecticut. In 1979, she was working as a part-time police officer in Shelburne, where they now live, and both participated as instructors in the one-week camp.

On July 1, 1982, he was appointed as an Amherst officer. For two years, he worked the midnight to 8 a.m. shift, then moved to days as a crime prevention and safety officer, bringing his expertise in Operation ID to Amherst, as well as training in the Neighborhood Watch program.

Between 1986 and 1988, Epiceno got involved in a local police Explorers unit, became a ropes instructor in the mid-1990s and for 18 years served as the property officer, handling all lost and found items, destroying drugs and alcohol. He initiated the idea of giving discount coupons valid at local stores to drivers wearing seat belts.

Epiceno is a retired Guard platoon sergeant after serving 20 years in the New Jersey, and then Massachusetts National Guard, with the 101st Combat Engineers Company B in Florence.

In 2005, Epiceno and fellow officer Michael Johnson used a defibrillator to save a 22-year-old woman who became unconscious and unresponsive while driving a PVTA bus. Using the defibrillator and CPR, they shocked the woman back to life.

"The best thing I ever did here was saving that girl's life," Epiceno said.

Later Epiceno and Johnson received the Heart Saver Award from the American Heart Association for their actions.

In retirement, Epiceno said he will be a car salesman at the Brattleboro Chrysler Dodge and Jeep dealer. He noted he has always been a car enthusiast and is the proud owner of 1992 Corvette. He also enjoys model railroading and fishing.

The new job will also allow him to commute to work with his wife, who works at the Brattleboro Retreat. Epiceno has two children, Sabino Jr., who is pursuing a marketing degree at the University of Maryland, and Angelina, a graduate student in industrial engineering at Penn State University.

Though he doesn't expect to get back to Amherst often, he said there are many people he met over the years, including his fellow officers and downtown merchants, that he will try to visit.

"It's been an interesting and fun place to work," Epiceno said. "The dynamics of this town are a lot different than they were in Union City, N.J."

Before leaving Union City, Epiceno spent three years assigned to its crime prevention bureau and worked on police-student relations as a safety officer.

In 1981, he took a one-year leave of absence from police work and applied to several departments in the Pioneer Valley.

"We had intentions of having a family, and this is a much nicer area to raise a family than Union City, N.J.," Epiceno said.

He went into schools and talked to children about not speaking to strangers and how to safely cross streets.

Police Capt. Scott Livingstone also praised Epiceno.

"We're going to miss him immensely," Livingstone said. "Sammy has been a lot of fun and has a wealth of knowledge."

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.