Select Board makes police appointments, gives help to restaurants

Jun 22, 2020

The Dartmouth Police Department has added three new officers to its ranks.

At a virtual Select Board meeting on June 22, officers Brandon Baptiste, Bryce Boswell, and Chris Saikali were officially sworn in to their new positions. 

All three recruits are Dartmouth High grads who recently spent 25 weeks at the Plymouth Police Academy, with seven of those weeks consisting of online courses because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re all looking forward to getting on the road and serving this community,” Saikali said.

Fellow recruit Boswell said he is very proud to join the police force, noting that his father is an officer in New Bedford and that his brother is a state trooper.

“It’s our family business,” he joked.

Select Board member Shawn McDonald took special note of the occasion, citing the current climate and saying how the new officers “are entering a job that, in community feelings, is probably not one of the best.”

“But the five of us support our police department and we honor and respect the work that they do,” he added.

Member Frank Gracie III also thanked the new recruits for coming aboard, saying that Police Chief Brian Levesque has done so much in such a short amount of time.

“We’re not Chicago and a big city where there’s different kinds of problems,” he said. “We’re Dartmouth and can stand proud and make sure we move our policing in an area that’s acceptable moving forward.

At the same meeting, the Select Board voted to waive the $25 fee for restaurants looking to add or expand their outdoor dining areas, along with cutting the fee for alcohol licenses in half.

For restaurants who have already paid their fees, that money will go toward a credit for next year’s licenses.