[John Petrella]: Hello everyone and welcome to Method Happenings, a show for and about the City of Method, and I am John Petrella. And the purpose of this program is to give Method citizens facts and information to help you make informed choices and to discover city services or businesses you may not have been aware of. And we really do have a special guest on. I can't thank him enough for joining us. Our guest today, Lieutenant Charles Hartnett of the Method Police Department. Can I call you Charlie? Absolutely. That's what I prefer, Charlie. Charlie, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thank you. We're gonna get right into it. We'll start off, Charlie, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself? Who is Charlie Hartnett?
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, first off, John, thanks. It's great to be here. I really appreciate the opportunity to come on your show, talk about some of the great things that the Medford Police Department is doing in the community. But as far as me, nothing special, but For those who don't know me, I'm Charlie Hartnett, Lieutenant with the Medford PD. My primary assignment is the day shift commander here, where I oversee daily operations, patrol officers, sergeants, dispatchers, help ensure the department runs smoothly during the day shift and that we're providing the highest level of service to our residents. Outside of that, I'm also a crisis negotiator with the attached to a SWAT team in Northeastern Massachusetts. And I'm also, I've had the privilege of serving as the commander of the Community Engagement Unit, overseeing all of the department's community programs and initiatives aimed at, you know, building police positive relationships between the police department and everyone. But, you know, personally, just another Medford guy, third generation Medford citizen. Other than being born right over the line in Malden, I've been born and raised here, family's from South Medford, father's family from West Medford, and other than being deployed with the Army, I've lived here my entire life, I still call it home. My wife is also from Medford. We're raising our eight-year-old son here. He goes to the schools here. You know, so when I talk about community engagement, it's personal. It's, you know, it's not just a part of my job. It's something I continued, you know, to want to do, because I want to keep Medford being the kind of community that my family and every other family is proud to call home.
[John Petrella]: You wear a lot of hats, Charlie, and you work really well. You do. A lot of responsibility. We thank you for that.
[Charlie Hartnett]: I enjoy doing it.
[John Petrella]: Thank you for that answer. And it's nice to know you're a longtime Method guy. That's always a good thing, and that you live here. All good stuff. All right. Can you give us, the audience especially, some of the details on the upcoming national night out? What's it about? Where is it taking place? Time? And, you know, I know admission's free. I mean, there's really a lot to go on. I've attended every one of them, and I tell you, they're wonderful. They get better every year, so I'll let you take over.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, so I'm so glad you asked. It's one of the... I love to do this and talk about National Night Out. So a lot of people know that National Night Out is a community event sponsored by the police, but to know the history behind it is another thing. And so National Night Out, really, it's a nationwide thing. Began in 1984, is a crime prevention initiative created by the National Association of Town Watch. Really, the original idea was really simple. Encourage your neighbors to turn on their porch lights, spend time outside, get to know one another. And that was hopefully connecting neighborhoods and making them safer because engaged residents help deter crime and look out for another. Over the years, it's grown into one of the basically biggest community policing events in the country, bringing together all residents, law enforcement, fire, EMS, local organizations, businesses. So while today's events include family activities, demonstrations, music, and community resources, the mission is always the same, building trust between police, public safety agencies, and the communities that we serve. uh promoting crime prevention strengthen neighborhood relationships but to me National Night Out represents community policing at its very best. It gives our offices the opportunity to interact with all of our residents outside of emergency situations. It allows people to get to know us as individuals. The first thing you said was, can I call you Charlie? That's what I want you to call me. I expect my offices to call me Lieutenant, but I'm just a person. I'm a Medford resident, just like any of you guys. And so, you know, that's what I want to see. That's what we would like to see. There's the same officers responding to the emergencies in the middle of the night, helping people through difficult moments and working every day to keep Medford safe. So it's nice putting the name of the badge. And it's also an opportunity to showcase what the Medford Police Department and our Public Safety Department is really capable of accomplishing together. It requires months of planning, countless hours from officers, Dispatches, civilian employees, volunteers, community partners. And so we just want to see, you know, show the residents how much work that, you know, we do for our community. It wasn't always this large. In 2021, Chief Buckley, he made the community engagement a major priority. And this allowed us to create these events. Someone who's lived in Medford my entire life, I remember growing up here, doing a lot of events, and I wanted to help continue some of that stuff. So when we planned our first event, let's go big or go home, right? It's become one of the city's largest events, two to three thousand events each year, and so I'm really proud that the event is free. We feature free food, ice cream, slush, haircuts, games, music, dancing, state police flyover, canine demonstrations, touch a truck. You know, and it's just everything's free and that's what we intended for. So it's held on Tuesday, August 4th from 5 to 8 p.m. at Hormel Stadium. Again, admission is free. You know, we encourage everyone to come out and be a part of the event.
[John Petrella]: Can you do me a favor, Charlie? Can you just repeat the date and time again so people- Absolutely.
[Charlie Hartnett]: One more time. So actually nationwide, typically it is the first Tuesday in October every year. So ours is August 4th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Hormel Stadium.
[John Petrella]: Hormel Stadium. All right. That sounds great. And while we're on it, we're going to take a few minutes here. We got a clip. We're just going to take a look at this clip right now.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty eyes in your head, you know it You got me dancing in my bed, so let me show it You are exactly what I want, kinda cool and kinda not Wanna give myself to you, yeah, we're Driving down the freeway at night I only got one thing in the back of my mind I'm feeling like this might be my time Well, thank you, Charlie. That film showed a lot of what you were talking about. Great, great, great film.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Thank you, appreciate it.
[John Petrella]: No, it was really good. Can you tell our audience, you know, you guys, the Method Police Department, you really do sponsor a lot of events in this city. You have anything else you're sponsoring coming up? I know you do toy drives, all kinds of things, but anything else you want to mention while we're on the subject?
[Charlie Hartnett]: No, thanks for the question. Yeah, so National Night Out, obviously our flagship event, but it's just a number of different community events we do throughout the year. We usually typically kick the year off in March. We have the Guns and Hoses Hockey Tournament. It's our annual police versus fire game held at La Conte Rink. Great opportunity to bring the community together, supporting a friendly rivalry between our first responders. Then we push forward to April School Vacation. We host another two of our most popular events. First is Community Inclusion Day, which really provides individuals with differing abilities and their families the opportunity to meet, interact with, get to know our city's police officers, firefighters, EMS, and other public safety partners in a relaxed and welcoming environment. It's held here at the police department parking lot where everyone comes, brings their vehicles, their specialized equipment. Then we also host Video Game Day. We bring in a trailer. It's a gaming trailer, and it's filled with PlayStations and Xbox consoles, and we really just play video games with the kids. We play with their friends, and then also inside we play a movie, we get free food, and it's a fun experience for everyone. And then in August, after National Night Out, we hold our Junior Police, shortly before National Night Out, we hold our Junior Police Academy. Oh, I'm sorry, I apologize. Our Junior Fishing Derby is after August at Wright's Pond. And we have officers and families spend time together with the officers and just going fishing. And then once we go into Thanksgiving time, we do our holiday toy drive, our Thanksgiving food drive, stuff a cruiser, and the donated toys and everything are donated to local charities. We also do the Special Olympics Polar Plunge at Hormel Stadium in the winter. And all the proceeds go to the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run. We've done coffee with a cop at different establishments, just having coffee with our residents to talk to them. We also had our Hoops and Heroes event tournament at Barry Park. We gave our officers the ability to go out and play basketball in a little league with kids. And then one of the most programs I'm most proud of right now, and it's going on this week, we did it last week and now we have it this week again, is our Junior Police Academy. We launched the first academy last year Because how successful it was, we expanded to two weeks. And it's for kids sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. And it basically gives them a look inside of what being a police officer is through hands-on activities, demonstrations, specialized units, partner agencies, a visit to a real police academy, graduation ceremony. Today, we had the canine demonstration. We had the SWAT truck come in. And then we had the state police helicopter fly in and land over it. Medford High School.
[John Petrella]: Yeah.
[Charlie Hartnett]: So, you know, it gives the kids the opportunity to mentor young people, teach them about responsibility, leadership, teamwork, good citizenship while building positive relationship with law enforcement that can last a while. You know, when you look at all these programs together, they all share the same goal. We want to create meaningful opportunities for offices and community members to interact outside of emergency situations, build trust and strengthen the relationship between us and the people we serve.
[John Petrella]: And you're doing a good job at it. I happen to know a lot of kids that went to the game. when that came, the video game. They go inside. They had a blast. They loved it. So.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Oh, yeah. And we tried beating them at the games, but we can't. They're too good.
[John Petrella]: I had some little nephews that loved going to that. So it's, yeah, that was a really, really nice thing. You know, I want to go back to something, though. Who won the hockey game? Come on. I'll be nice. I'll be nice.
[Charlie Hartnett]: We did.
[John Petrella]: See, I had to ask Charlie who won. Our audience wants to know who won. The police department did win, everybody.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Police department did win, yeah. We got a couple of hockey players on our team.
[John Petrella]: A couple of ringers, maybe?
[Charlie Hartnett]: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I used to play, but I think my hockey days are over now.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I hear you. All right, so that's a lot of stuff that you guys are currently doing, really, and that's going to be applauded for that. Thank you, yeah. Is there anything like, I mean, and this is kind of a tough question, I think, but any new programs coming out? I mean, you have so many now.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, so right now it's, it's really full it takes, you know, up our whole year, you know, and we're so focused on making sure that those events are the best that we can offer that right now there's nothing new that the newest things the was the hoops and heroes league. Right. But, you know, it's, it's the primary focus is youth engagement. providing positive interactions and, you know, like I've said before, so, but they're also family oriented, you know, it's not just kids, it's also families, like National In-N-Out is a family event. So nothing new, but as you can tell, like I said, there's a lot of events that we've been doing. There's a lot of programs, yeah.
[John Petrella]: And I think this is great, because a lot of people in Method, I don't think they know everything that you guys have out there and what you're really doing. And it's a lot. It really is. And it's all important stuff too. It is. They're all good programs, really good programs. So we all know, you know, these programs involve a ton of work, planning. You know, a question that I have is, you know, What's the main goal? What do you really hope to accomplish by sponsoring all these events?
[Charlie Hartnett]: I mean, I know you probably mentioned it a couple of times, but the main- Yeah, so before I answer that, I really, I'm just one person here in this team, right? I mean, I may be the lieutenant, but it's not done without the work of our officers, right? And that's really what we want to see, because the officers, are the ones out there on the street working overnights, making sure everyone's safe while they're sleeping. But I have a great team that I have to thank. First, we coordinate, we oversee, and they volunteer their time. I'm also grateful for the support of the administration, the command staff, Chief Buckley. They've been advocates for the Community Engagement Unit. have consistently supported our vision of building stronger relationships. Another one I have to give a shout out to is Officer Jess Walsh. She's like my deputy. She is our public information and community outreach officer. She is really the driving force behind so many of our community engagement initiatives. She promotes events, coordinates logistics, connects with residents and community partners, puts a ton of work in. And without her, you know, if you've seen our social media, That's just what she makes that the success that it is. But really, you know, so I want to thank all of our people in our community engagement from every officer from the chief down from the patrol officer up. They all make it work. But, you know, again, it's it's really to strengthen the relationship between the police department and the community. um you know it it'll again it allows you to put a face with the name it's not it doesn't necessarily have to be lieutenant hot it's charlie you know i mean like um and and it's relaxed it's approachable you get to ask questions you know and i always love when adults come up and ask questions um you know so We want to see everyone at these events come to National and Idaho, sign the kids up. Everything we do is for free. And we intend to try to keep it that way. So we just want to leave a positive impression of their police department. One of the things is the police of the public and the public of the police, we want our residents to know who we are. We're just like you. We're family, we have families, you know, I'm a father, I'm a husband, you know, I'm also a son. So, you know, we all live in this community together. So, you know, we can all work together and make it the great city that it is, you know? And so maybe some of these events allow for people to make them feel comfortable now. If they see them outside of an emergency situation, maybe they, you know what, I remember seeing Joe or Mike, you know, Officer Joe or Mike, you know, and that's what we want them to know is that to feel comfortable to be able to talk to us. And, you know, hopefully we can keep these programs going.
[John Petrella]: So that leads us to the next question because, boy, it takes a lot to get them funded. You know, I'm gonna ask, you know, the funds in the police department budget, do you do fundraisers? I know a lot of businesses in Medford help you guys out, but even that's still a lot of work. You know, grants, I don't know, can you give us a little bit of understanding how the hell do you guys do it, really?
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, so funding is always one of the biggest challenges when it comes to maintaining and expanding the community engagement program. So it's obviously important to identify outside funding. And, you know, especially budgets are tight, but our community engagement is not funded through the police department operating budget, which is, it saves the community money, right? We were fortunate to be awarded a couple of years ago, the Cummings Foundation grant, So we were awarded $105,000 over three years to support all the community engagement efforts. And I'm happy to say that we got another year out of this too. But it was a detailed application process. We had to show our department's commitment to the community. We talked about our needs, outlined what the funding would be used for and why our programs have a meaningful impact. So because of that grant, we haven't had to contact, conduct fundraisers, which is great. Yeah, it helps. Exactly. You know, it's allowed us to kind of breathe a little bit, if that makes sense with the funding. But, you know, we also still do rely heavily on our local businesses. You know, we want them to be part of it. You know, and So I have to give another shout out Wegmans, fantastic partners. They have been so supportive of us. They donate food, supplies from our program. Another target Bianco sausages, local pizza shops, and there's so many other places that donate products, other resources. And when local businesses, residents, and the police department all work together towards a common goal, we can do a lot of good stuff. So we definitely look forward to the local businesses helping out. But it's obviously definitely always looking for other grant opportunities. Grants come and go.
[John Petrella]: uh but you know hopefully with building the relationships with the community we can keep these uh some of these steps going yeah and i think the businesses i i gotta throw this in they all appreciate what you guys do they really do i'm glad i'm glad you guys do an awesome job in this city you always No, you are. You're a great department. I can personally attest to that. But you guys do some great things in the city.
[Charlie Hartnett]: It's only because of the officers in our department that make it a great department.
[John Petrella]: It's a great group. It really is. It's a great police department. I have to say that. So another thing. I always like to bring up is, you know, as far as the, you know, the police department and I mean, you know, I know you got your website, you got all kinds of stuff, but how do you get, you know, a lot of this information, you know, to really get it out to people and get them involved with these programs, you know, in Medford?
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, so, I mean, obviously, like you said, social media is like the start, right? That's how we, for a lot of years, we didn't have social media and then we started using it and we saw its potential, how powerful it is. You know, that's the first part, right? Getting the social media presence out there, showing, you know, the community what we have to offer. And then a lot of it, obviously maintaining the social media presence, but, you know, a lot of it too is, kind of showing the proof in the pudding and getting out there having these events and showing that they are successful. And we, you know, so we rely on the community as well, word of mouth. Our community has been some of our biggest advocates. I've heard from people that have come into Medford and said, wow, I didn't know we had this big event. And then they come down and they see it and they're like, wow, this is great. It's a free night for friends and family to come down, play games, music, and just, I mean, there's so many things that during the summer, you know, there's things for people to do, but this is a big event in Medford that's free, and parents can just like, what are we gonna do, bring my kid, you know, gonna get out of the house, stuff like that, and it's a great event, and it's fun, and you get to, we get to meet all of you. You know, we also use, I mean, and that's the, I think that's the number one thing, right, is word of mouth after social media. But we also the city's website, local news outlets, community organizations, schools, flyers, all that sort of stuff. But you know, again, I come back to the best advertisement for any community event. It's the experience that people have once they get there. So when they have a good time, they tell other people and
[John Petrella]: hopefully more and more people come and we've seen that we've seen you know the first year it was big and it kept getting bigger and that's what we love to see yeah i mean the crowds i like i said i've attended them all and uh appreciate no i have and uh you know i had little nephews i brought whatever i've i've gone um the the events uh it's incredible first of all it's incredible the amount of things that are going on there.
[Charlie Hartnett]: We have more people that continue, like we have to have a deadline for some of these tables that we have to do. We have to cut it off because we literally have no space and we feel bad You know, like, you know, we want Medfordite, but we have no, we don't even know if we have enough room for that day. So we keep getting more people say, I want to be involved. I want to be involved. I want to be involved. And we want you to be involved. You're gonna, you could follow us. follow what we have, you know, and we'll get you in there.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, and I gotta say the food's delicious, all the vendors that are there, there's so many activities for the kids.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, one of my favorite things with the food is that usually about an hour or two in I get on the gator that we have and I start throwing hot dogs and the kids love it.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, I know, they love it, yeah.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, yeah, they have a blast and, you know, And I've seen kids on the streets saying, oh, yeah, we're coming to National Night Out. We'll be there. And that makes me happy that we can provide that for the community.
[John Petrella]: A lot of people talk about it. I think it's great. So once again, I'm going to ask you again, just to make sure we get it out there, and we'll put up a graphic at some point in the show, the date and the time, Charlie. One more time.
[Charlie Hartnett]: All right. Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, 5 to 8 p.m., Hormel Stadium. Be there, we will.
[John Petrella]: And it'll be a great night.
[Charlie Hartnett]: It will be, yeah.
[John Petrella]: And before we close, I gotta ask you one more question. Just a quick question. Go ahead. The cadets, right? The program you do, right? How long have you guys been doing this?
[Charlie Hartnett]: This is actually our 2nd year. We, yeah, we wanted to, we started that last year. And I tell you, John, it was such a great. We, we had there's a lot of planning, obviously. I mean, we do we, like, all of our events. I mean, our kids this week. I mean, just today. was awesome with the SWAT team, the helicopter and the canine demonstration. But we'll be going to, tomorrow we're going to a police, an actual police academy where, coincidentally enough, the student officers at the academy, it's their day two as well. And it's our day two, right? We have a bike safety course. We actually use the high school pool. We have the state police dive team come in and do lessons on swimming and stuff like that. We do crime safety. We have a rollover from the state police. They have a car that comes in and rolls over and shows them what it's like to not, when you don't wear a seatbelt, what happens. And yeah, we have social media safety as well. We do try to think of detectives come in and they talk about what they do. But then also, we also, you know, this afternoon, we played some basketball with them, but we teach them respect, teamwork, and you know how to march and stuff like that so they get a kick out and the parents get to love it at the end of the day when they see you.
[John Petrella]: And it's done locally which is great because you know I'm going back a ways but I think the sheriff's department used to have a program when my kids were young
[Charlie Hartnett]: And yeah, and they still do it.
[John Petrella]: They still do it up in Bill Richter, I believe.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They come all over. It's up in Bill Richter. It might be Chelmsford, I'm not sure, but they come all around. So this was something we wanted to do for just our Medford residents, you know, and it's free of charge. We get them t-shirts, we get them hats, water bottles, and they're held accountable. They have to They have homework every night that they have to do, or we all do push-ups. And we try to model that after our quasi-police academy.
[John Petrella]: It is. It's a great program. I've heard. That's why I wanted to get back.
[Charlie Hartnett]: All the parents love seeing the formation. I remember last year, one of the family members said, How did you get my kid to say, yes, mom, and clean and make his bed? It's a great time, and the kids love it.
[John Petrella]: I'm so happy you guys are doing it local, because it makes it easier for people, and it's an exceptional program. And I hope more people you know, get their kids involved with it.
[Charlie Hartnett]: I was talking to friends from out of state a couple of days ago, and they were talking about it, and they were like, what do you mean it's free? Yeah, no, I know. And it's thousands of dollars to go to camp. And we're just so happy that we can provide this to kids free of charge with their parents, you know?
[John Petrella]: And how much time is that? How much time's involved? Is it a week, two weeks? What's the program like?
[Charlie Hartnett]: So it's one week long, but we had two separate classes. We wanted to get the most kids we could. So there's about 30, 33 cadets each week. And then we have Councilors as well. So the Councilors What they also do is we, they're providing community service. So they're getting the community service hours in, doing that that's required for high school now. They're a great help. They help us with the cadets. They help us with moving stuff around, setting stuff up. And they kind of serve as, you know, little role models for the cadets. And what we hope is at some point is that some of those cadets can, as they go up, you know, once they reach ninth grade, then they can become Councilors. So, they've been cadets, and they can become Councilors. And then, you know, just have fun during the week and learn something.
[John Petrella]: It's a win-win. The program is a win-win for everybody that gets involved. It really is.
[Charlie Hartnett]: I think it is. And I think the kids get something out of it. The parents get something out of it. And, you know, we also get something out of it, too. We learn from the kids as well. And we get to know them.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, no, I just had to bring that back up.
[Charlie Hartnett]: There's one kid I remember I used to see him not riding with his helmet on his bike. Oh, okay. You better believe it now. Every time I see him on the street, he's got his helmet on, you know.
[John Petrella]: All right. Charlie, it's really been great having you on the show.
[Charlie Hartnett]: Oh, it's been great being here. I appreciate it very much, John.
[John Petrella]: And one more time, give us the time and date. Just one more time.
[Charlie Hartnett]: I know I'm- No problem. I'll gladly, anytime. Tuesday, August 4th, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Hormel Stadium. National Night Out.
[John Petrella]: And it's free, everybody.
[Charlie Hartnett]: It's free. It's free. Come on down. There's music, games, food. everything you we get swag for everyone you know sunglasses everything we just come down and have a good time that's great that's our only requirement is come down and have a good time it's great night great night out for everybody um all right uh it's that time again and uh
[John Petrella]: We really appreciate you coming on.
[Charlie Hartnett]: And before we begin, I appreciate your organization allowing us to get the word out about it.
[John Petrella]: We're honored to have you on, believe me. So I want to take a moment. I want to thank Lieutenant Hartnett. I want to thank the entire Method Police Department. for their unwavering dedication to protect and serve the citizens of the city of Medford. And I mean that, and that comes from the heart. You guys really do a great job in this city and you always have. And that's it. I thank you for joining us, Charlie. And next time we're going to have you on, we'll talk about a few more things as far as the police department. Sure. Love to have you on again.
[Charlie Hartnett]: All right. Thanks, Charlie. Thank you again. I appreciate it, John. All right. Take care. Thanks. Have a great night. You too. OK.
[John Petrella]: So it's that time again. I want to take a minute. I want to thank everyone who has been watching the show. And I want to thank you for your feedback. If you would like to appear on the show, please contact us. Method Happenings. 02155 at gmail.com. You will be able to watch replays of this program on Method Community Media Access Channel. And please check out our website, methodhappenings.com. You can either, now you can view or listen to the podcast of this program. You can find all our shows on YouTube. Just go to the youtube.com and search for Method Happenings. Please like and subscribe to our channel and videos. You can also find us on Facebook at Method Happenings. This is getting longer and longer every week. I also have to say we're on subreddit, which you can find this at reddit.com slash a slash method happenings. That's reddit.com slash a slash method happenings. I want to thank you all for watching. Really, we appreciate it and I guess we're doing something right because we've been talking with a lot of people and we got some great shows coming up. People have been getting involved and looking to come on the show. So there's some great stuff going on. So for the Method Happenings team, for Paul, Michael, Bruce, James, and Joseph, I am John Petrella, and remember Method, stay informed. Thank you.
|
total time: 10.22 minutes total words: 986 |
|||