On eve of retirement, Scherpa looks back at 40 years

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on June 26, 2009

When Charles Scherpa applied for a position with the Amherst Police Department in 1969, the interview with then-Police Chief Francis Hart was anything but conventional.

Scherpa met Hart at his family's dairy farm on Strong Street and, riding in a silage truck along North East Street, successfully answered questions about policing that landed him a job on the municipal force.

Almost 40 years later, Scherpa is preparing to retire from the department Tuesday, after working his way up through the ranks to serve as Amherst's chief of police for the last nine years.

Scherpa said this week that it is important to credit the work of his police officers for any accomplishments in maintaining the safety of the community.

"The responsibility of a police chief is always keeping in mind the need to keep the public safe," Scherpa said.

With this responsibility comes the burden of knowing that officers can use lethal force, if necessary.

"It's constantly on your mind that officers have the power to take someone's life," Scherpa said. "You don't want one of your officer's lives taken, or the life of a member of the public taken."

Scherpa said he puts confidence in his personnel, noting that department has well-trained officers and, in 2000, became just the second department in the state to be fully accredited. Being in Amherst, Scherpa said the department has a willingness to accept criticism and communicate openly to improve.

Scherpa grew up in Springfield, the son of Italian immigrants.

His first experience in law enforcement came at the Barnstable Police Department in the summer of 1967, where he was assigned to the Kennedy compound, escorting Ted Kennedy and family matriarch Rose Kennedy to Sunday masses. He was also part of an entourage that brought President Kennedy's family to the dedication of the USS Massachusetts in Fall River.

Love on the Cape

It was while on Cape Cod that he met his wife, Kathleen, who was teaching at Yarmouth-Dennis High School.

They were married in 1968, just five weeks after being offered a full-time job with Longmeadow police. On Oct. 1, 1969, he came to Amherst, joining a department far different from the current one that has authorization for 50 officers, a contemporary building with space for a dispatching department and technology that allows for instant access to records.

In 1969, the department had just 15 officers working out of the basement of Amherst Town Hall, a dispatcher located in a closet and no computers, with information transcribed on 5-by-8 inch notecards.

The first several months he spent on the midnight to 8 a.m. walking beat with special officer Harold O'Brien, with most of the work checking the security of downtown businesses.

One night, Scherpa observed the orange glow of a fire coming from Restaurant on the Green, in the Main Street block where Pasta e Basta now located, calling in the Fire Department to prevent more damage.

He then moved on to having a cruiser, switched to the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, before going to days in 1976 and rising up the ranks in the department.

In 1986, he was named a captain and was in charge of operations for 14 years.

Scherpa received a bachelor of science in law enforcement degree from Western New England College in 1974 and went though the New England School of Law Enforcement Management at Babson College.

Challenges of the job

Running a police department in a town like Amherst, where college students make up a large segment of the population, requires a tolerance for types of behavior that might be deemed unacceptable in other communities, Scherpa said.

He paraphrases his wife when referring to the way students act. "They're still in the oven and not fully baked yet," Scherpa said.

With this understanding, if officers see a suspicious vehicle on the streets of Amherst at 3 a.m., it most likely a college student returning from a night on the town, not a criminal surveilling the area.

But this can pose its own issues for police. "It's dangerous, too, because you become relaxed," Scherpa said. "In a city, you're always on high alert."

Because of the large student population, Amherst has more flexible policies, allowing a lot more activity to take place than other communities might tolerate.

"Our philosophy has been to take a passive approach to protests, demonstrations, walkouts and parades," Scherpa said. "There's no hurry to deal with those because they are just inconveniences."

In 1971, an estimated 5,000 students marched from the UMass campus to the town common to protest the deaths of four students at Kent State. Instantaneous gatherings have often gotten courtesy escorts from police to ensure the marchers are safe.

Exceptions to this become newsworthy, such as in 1991, when Gulf War protests led to 43 arrests as protesters deliberately blocked the streets for more than hour.

He noted that when students do get out of control, most of the time police are able to disperse and handle it with minimum arrests, though police have increasingly had to use riot gear out of fear of being pelted with bottles and other objects.

"Today, we still get cooperation from most, but you get 10 to 15 percent who want to confront the police," Scherpa said.

This happened at the riot on North Pleasant Street in spring 2003, when 15 Amherst officers were injured and several police cruisers were damaged.

"The most horrifying thing during my tenure as chief was the riots where they tried to burn a police cruiser," Scherpa said.

Several other incidents stick out during the course of his career, with one of the earliest coming in 1977 when a woman came into the police station holding her 2-year-old child, who was cold, blue and clammy, and appeared near death.

With the help of police chief secretary Jennie Sarna and former Chief Donald Maia, Scherpa was able to revive the girl and get an ambulance to the station.

"She lived, but to this day I don't know who she was," Scherpa said.

Another memorable incident occurred when a man holed himself up inside a North East Street home from which he was facing eviction, waving a shotgun and making threats. Scherpa calmed the man down by discussing his interest in beekeeping, a mutual interest.

A murder in Amherst woods in 1988, a murder on Meadow Street in 2004 and the early 1980s bank hold-ups masterminded by Michael O'Driscoll were other major incidents during his tenure.

And while there were numerous occasions of taking knives and weapons from people, Scherpa said he never had to discharge his firearm.

Accomplishments cited

Among his accomplishments as police chief, Scherpa cited implementing the accreditation process, starting both mounted patrol and bicycle programs, organizing Seniors and Law Enforcement Together picnics, inaugurating after-school programs for children, including a ropes course, and unifying the appearance of the police uniforms and police cruisers with a navy blue color.

Scherpa has received several honors during his tenure, including Police Chief of Year from Springfield South End Businessmen's Association, the Phil Hano Award from the Western Massachusetts Chief of Police Association, and recognition for nine years participating in the Jimmy Fund Walk.

With interviews scheduled to begin Monday with three in-house candidates for his successor, including Capts. Michael Kent, Scott Livingstone and Robert O'Connor, Scherpa said he supports having one of these men follow him.

"I'd like to see the tradition of the Amherst Police Department continue, going forward with new ideas, exploring new technology, and continuing the upward mobility and professionalism we've had under all administrations," Scherpa said.

All internal candidates are well qualified, he said.

"If you don't have a candidate from within, your police department is not worth anything," Scherpa said.

In retirement, Scherpa said he will spend more time with his family and will look for work opportunities.

A former Town Meeting member, he said he'd be interested in getting involved in Amherst politics again.

Buying and selling antique cars remains a hobby, and he might even get back into beekeeping.

Scherpa said for five years he and Julius Muskus, a well known tailor in town, oversaw six hives.

There will be some things he misses about being on the job, namely, "the good people I deal with everyday," Scherpa said.