It was an honor to have Detective Mills visit us once again. He previously became the first Community Officer for the Town of Westerly with the goals to "listen to the public and build bridges between police and the community." In 2018 he told the Westerly Sun that the reason he chose policing as a career was to help people, to make a difference in the community. He has served over 25 years with the Westerly Police Department. As Community Officer we were fortunate that he liked our idea to make lockboxes available to local residents free of charge. We partnered with McQuade's Hardware to purchase the lockboxes, at a reduced price, and Chris DiPaola's WBLQ to advertise the program in September of 2019. The program, thanks to Detective Mills' efforts, was on its way by November of 2019 and continues as he passes the baton to other officers.
For those who don't know about the program - The lockboxes are offered free to people with mobility issues and they provide emergency responders with a way to get into a home without breaking windows or doors. The resident provides the Officer with a key to put into the lockbox. He will make an electronic record of the resident's contact information, location of the lockbox installed and a code to open the lockbox. Only the Police Department has that information. Once a year, they revisit the residence to make sure the lockbox is in good working order and the same resident is present. If a resident moves, they will retrieve the lockbox so it can be re-used.
Detective Mills told us of two incidents in the past couple of years when the lockboxes proved their value. If anyone know of a person with security issues, please get in touch with WPD's non-emergency number - 401.596.2022.
