About NPD

History

Northampton Police 1915	Northampton Police 1931

From 1782 to 1860, Northampton residents relied on the services of the Northampton Society for Thievesand Robbers for their protection.  This was an organization of businessmen, comprised of a Clerk, a Treasurer, a Board of Directors and twelve pursuers.  For a fee of $2.00 per year, this group provided protection for your property against thieves and robbers.  Unfortunately, this organization was no longer in operation when in January of 1876, the Northampton National Bank was burglarized.  The notorious and skilled burglars were able to pull off such a heist because the two night patrolman employed by the town had gone home at 4:00 AM.

In 1884, one of the early acts of the first Mayor of the newly chartered City of Northampton, was to establish a police department.  Mayor Benjamin E. Cook appointed Colonel Joseph E. Parsons as the first Chief of Police in February of that year.  Along with his two night policemen, his mission was to keep order, to remove all suspected persons and to protect property from loss or damage. 

As the City of Northampton grew and changed, so too did it's police department.  In 1917 we received our first police automobile.  In that same year the Center Street School was converted to a police station.  Forty-eight years later, in 1965, the present police station was constructed in an adjacent lot on Center Street.

In its 128 year history the Northampton Police Department has led the way in many advances in the field of police services.  Northampton was the first police department in Western Massachusetts to have the 911 phone system and among the first to offer videotaped booking for use in court proceedings.  In more recent years, Northampton was the first community in Massachusetts to replicate the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.  In 1994, Northampton was the first to offer a Citizen Police Academy.