Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi said that he’s scaling back several partnerships with local police departments to save as much as $4 million in response to prodding from Beacon Hill lawmakers who’ve been scrutinizing sheriffs’ budgets.
In a statement last week, Cocchi’s office said the budget cuts are the first step in a “multi-phase plan to reduce spending and align operations with the Commonwealth’s current budget realities.”
The initial phase will involve “scaling back and restructuring” several external partnerships outside the Ludlow jail, the office’s primary responsibility.
The moves will “redefine, limit, or eliminate” about 50 positions at a savings of $3.6 million to $4 million, Cocchi said.
Lawmakers had reduced the state’s allocation to the sheriff’s office for the current fiscal year by $26.5 million, the statement said.
Among the initial cuts are partnerships in which his deputies assist operations at the Springfield, Palmer, Chicopee, West Springfield, and Holyoke police departments, Cocchi said.
Their duties include patrol shifts, serving restraining orders, helping to operate a real-time surveillance center, and connecting people with recovery services, he said. Those positions will no longer be filled unless paid for at the local level, he said.
Cocchi said he doesn’t relish the impending cuts, but his hands are tied.
“This is not something we want to do,” he said in the statement. “These partnerships were built over decades and have made a real difference for public safety across Western Massachusetts. But given the current budget situation, we have to scale back in these areas. I don’t believe it’s the right move for public safety, but it’s the reality we’re being asked to respond to.”
Cocchi’s announcement following a damning report last month from state Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro’s office, which described the budget process for Massachusetts’ 14 county sheriffs as “opaque, chaotic, and deeply flawed,” with some overspending their budgets annually and potentially violating state finance law.
Shapiro said the budgetary problems likely stem from unclear and outdated laws defining the responsibilities and authority of their offices — historic entities that date back to colonial times and, until 16 years ago, functioned as part of the state’s largely bygone county government system.
State lawmakers ordered Shapiro to investigate the agencies after the sheriffs reported more than $100 million in budget deficits last year.
“It is apparent that the role of the sheriffs’ offices may not be as narrow as some legislative leaders expect, nor as expansive as some sheriffs believe,” Shapiro said in a statement his office released with the 62-page report.
Earlier this month, Plymouth County Sheriff Joe McDonald said he was moving to lay off 33 employees, including an entire department that helps collect evidence at crime scenes, citing an “unprecedented fiscal emergency.”
Cocchi’s office said last week that while he believes partnering with local police departments goes “hand-in-hand” with good correctional practices, it’s “clear” not everyone on Beacon Hill shares his view.
“In light of that perspective, and in the absence of clear direction about how those activities should be funded going forward, we believe the responsible course is to begin scaling back those external operations,” Cocchi said.
If “the financial situation in the Commonwealth improves, we will request prior approval of funding through the legislature to again support the public safety gaps and deficiencies in Hampden County,” he said. “But as of now, this is the sad reality we are facing.”
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.