CSSJC: Town Lags in Meeting Racial and Social Justice Commitments
Photo: The Urban Institute.
Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, October 22, 2025
The meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.
Present
Debora Ferreira (Co-Chair), Allegra Clark (Co-Chair), Everald Henry, Erica Piedade and Lissette Paredes. Two vacancies.
The five members of the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC) called for the Town Council to make progress on the committee’s seven social justice priorities by the beginning of next year while preparing for the committee’s presentation on Nov. 3, before the town council, their first in at least two years. Other business included hearing member reports and a presentation from Valley Community Development on their affordable housing development in North Amherst,
The nearly two-and-a-half-hour meeting served as a reminder to the citizens of Amherst that there has been little progress in the pursuit of the Community Safety Working Group’s (CSWG) 2021 recommendations (see also here). The CSSJC was meant to be a successor to the CSWG and at its creation in June of 2022, was charged with ensuring that the Town Council and Manager implemented the CSWG’s priority recommendations.
“I think it’s very clear that there is a lack of movement and a lack of commitment to get these recommendations in place,” Erica Piedade said. Piedade’s observations on lack of progress on CSWG recommendations were echoed by two recent reports from the Liberatory Visioning Project (see here for a summary) and the League of Women Voters Amherst Racial Justice Committee (see here for a summary).
ICE Presence in Amherst
CSSJC member Everald Henry reported on his recent meeting with Amherst Police Department (APD) Chief Gabriel Ting to discuss Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Amherst. He also asked why dispatch calls are not being passed on to the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS).
Ting told Henry that the federal government does not inform the APD of any past, present, or future ICE activity in Amherst, and has no obligation to do so. However, Ting did say that there have been limited ICE sightings and noted three separate instances. He specifically mentioned an incident where ICE pulled a car over on Henry Street. The only reason APD was aware of this action was because there were officers on Henry Street at the time,.
Henry inquired if ICE has access to Amherst schools, to which the chief replied that the doors at all Amherst schools are locked so ICE agents would be unable to gain entry unless let in by those inside.
Ting reiterated to Henry on behalf of APD that the town government and APD support the immigrant community of Amherst and neither encourages ICE. Ting said APD does not hold anyone at their facilities for ICE pickup, and that there have to be legal warrants for APD to be involved.
“APD serves the community and does not, in any way, shape, or form, work with ICE,” Henry recalled Ting saying. Ting was not in attendance at the CSSJC meeting though Henry and other CSSJC members did request his presence.
Debora Ferreira challenged Ting’s numbers, saying that there have been more ICE sightings in Amherst, based on reports from community members “[They have reported ICE] patrolling UMass grounds, patrolling different kinds of apartment complexes and things like that,” Ferreira said.
CRESS and APD
Henry moved on to the second part of his conversation with Ting, concerning CRESS not receiving calls from dispatch. Most public safety calls (including those not in need of an armed response) are currently dispatched to APD.
CRESS was founded in 2022 as an alternative to traditional policing with a plan that they would be dispatched for most calls that did not require an armed response. At the time of their founding it was anticipated that CRESS would respond to up to 30% of calls then answered by the APD.
Ting stressed to Henry that APD has no issues with CRESS or with them taking 911 calls. The issue is that CRESS has no documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) as to what responders should do in the event that a call does not go as planned. One example Ting offered was a what-if situation in which CRESS was responding to a noise complaint and the person pulled out a weapon. There are currently no standard procedures to follow in such a situation.
Ferreira agreed that there need to be SOPS put in place for the safety of the CRESS staff, but she does not understand why this is still an issue four years after CRESS was created. She said that community members have come to her with concerns. “The police have been the ones that have been resistant,” she said.
In the last CSSJC meeting, however, CRESS Director Camille Theriaque reported that she had already submitted a draft of dispatch SOPS and was awaiting review by the Amherst Police Department. Henry recalled that it might have been two or three years ago that the committee had had the conversation with CRESS about SOPS and were told they had been submitted to the town for review.
“We’re either not being given all the information, or there is misinformation being provided somewhere,” Henry said.
Ferreira noted that there were three different entities giving the CSSJC different information: APD, CRESS and the dispatch supervisor. “Something is just not adding up,” she said.
Presentation on Community Housing Development
In response to Allegra Clark’s request, Jessica Allen, real estate development director for Valley
Community Development, gave a presentation to the committee on Amherst Community Homes, a first-time homebuyer affordable housing development currently under construction on Ball Lane in North Amherst.
Valley Community Development is a nonprofit affordable housing developer based in
Northampton. It has been working on Amherst Community Homes for four years.
The development will consist of 30 affordable homes designed to support community, with either two-bedroom or three-bedroom units with 1.5 baths. They will specifically be sold to first-time home buyers at incomes 80%-100% AMI (Area Median Income). One home is ADA compliant and five are ADA adaptable.
Clark asked whether the profit that is accrued from the sales will be put back into affordable housing. Allen said that this was up to the town.
Valley Community Development is marketing early to BIPOC communities and is attempting to access reparations money to help assist with mortgage downpayment costs.
Henry doesn’t believe that reparations money will be dispersed by 2026 and is concerned because having enough savings for a downpayment is not a possibility for most people in the designated income backet.. Having sums such as $50,000 in the bank is “not a reality,” he said.
He is also worried about the significant role that credit score plays in being approved for housing. As a solution, Henry wants to invite credit councilors to present at CSSJC’s next meeting. Both Clark and Ferreira agreed.
Planning for Town Council Presentation
After two pre-meetings with Town Council President Lynn Griesemer, CSSJC is on the agenda for the upcoming Nov. 3 town council meeting. They spent 45 minutes of their committee meeting going through the progress of the seven CSWG priorities that the town council adopted in July of 2022.
Ferreira wants to inform the community of the town’s progress on these prioriites, as well as the fact that the committee does not have a budget. She also wants to make known that the CSSJC has been underutilized as an advisory committee since its creation.
CSWG/CSSJC Social Justice Priorities
- Community visioning with a focus on safety and social justice
The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department has been addressing this priority, according to Ferreira, but could expand upon it if the department was properly staffed, funded, etc.
- Implementation of Resident Oversight Board (ROB) for the APD
Clark said the Town Council has hired consultants, but not much progress has been made otherwise. Griesemer will present both the APD’s version and the CSSJC’s version of a proposall for an ROB to the council on Nov. 3.
- Public safety protocols
CSSJC members state there has been no progress in implementing these protocols.
- Protocols for CRESS
SOPS have not been approved yet.
“CRESS was put in place in 2022, and here we are about to be in 2026 and still no protocols for dispatch,” Ferreira said.
- Youth Empowerment Center (YEC)
The town has sponsored some youth programming, but there still is no center. There was $500k earmarked for the YEC, but CSSJC said they don’t know where those funds went. They want the Town Manager to establish a staff liaison to update CSSJC on the YEC at monthly meetings.
- Provide racial sensitivity training for town employees
The DEI department did some optional staff training, but CSSJC wants mandatory, immersive, strategic training for all staff to “eradicate structural racism within town government,” said Ferreira.
- Above-stated recommendations to be followed up on by February 2026.
CSSJC wants their recommendations to be followed up in a timely manner. They would also like the Town Manager to come to their monthly meeting on Dec. 10.
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the CSSJC will be on Wednesday Nov. 12, 2025.