George McMains, formerly the Superintendent of the Newton Police Department (NPD), is currently serving as Acting Police Chief. At the end of May, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller announced that Mr. McMains will serve in place of Chief John Carmichael, who is on “Personal Leave.” The Acting Chief is a twenty-seven-year veteran of the Newton Police Department, having served since graduating from the Police Academy.
“Service” is a guiding principle for Chief McMains. Born in Dunlap, Iowa, he joined the Marines, became an electrician, and was deployed overseas — including Kuwait — during Operation Desert Storm. After five years as a Marine, he went to work at a phone company working on circuit boards, but he wanted to continue to serve, and the police force offered that opportunity. When he graduated from the Police Academy, he joined the Newton Police Department and settled here with his wife, a Newton native.
When Chief McMains joined the Newton force twenty-seven years ago, he was one of 210 officers. There are now 142. From his perspective, the job has always been about serving the public, about talking to people and “quality of life issues.” Calls to the police are likely to be about noise — leaf blowers, for example — or disputes. Chief McMains advocates giving tickets to people who drive through red lights and STOP signs because they are likely to cause injury or death to others. The police are called on to deal with domestic disputes, which may turn violent. The NPD has specially trained officers who help victims of abuse navigate the system to seek effective protection.
At the same time, training is ever evolving. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer four years ago, police departments all over the country set up programs to establish protocols and training. Newton already had several community program officers in the department.
NPD acquires new, non-lethal Tasers
The Acting Chief was part of the training program for the use of new, non-lethal Tasers, which the department recently acquired. In fact, he volunteered to experience the Taser first hand. It was not a pleasant experience, he said. For five seconds, he was unable to move his extremities, although he could speak and breathe. Being “Tasered” during the training was voluntary. The point of the experience in training, he explained, is to understand the Taser capability and to be able to tell people who are becoming or likely to become violent that he has had the experience and he would prefer not to subject them to it. “How would I know it works if I didn’t try it?,” he said. Using the Tasers has reduced “line of deaths” by 50% according to the Chief.
He likened the experience of being Tasered to that of his life on a farm in Iowa, where the fences were electrified and contact with them could be quite unpleasant. Although he is happy to be living in Massachusetts, his computer screensaver is of a large field in Iowa with a large bale of hay in the foreground.
Asked if he is making changes in his new role, he explained, “I’m here to make decisions that have to be made,” but is working in the already established system. “I step up in any way I can as the person in charge,” he said.
The Acting Chief is a great fan of dogs. He and his wife, who now live in Norfolk, raise dogs for Guiding Eyes, a non-profit supplying well trained dogs to people who are blind. One of his canine trainees, Elmer, has spent time in his office and has become a friend of “Officer” Leo, the Newton Police Department service dog. Officer Leo is on hand to comfort children in emotional situations involving the police. Dogs can hear people’s problems, but won’t repeat them to others, which is a valuable asset, the Acting Chief believes.
Committed to communicating with as many people as possible, the Newton Police Department has expanded its efforts to social media (for example, Facebook). Social media is the way more people connect now, he noted, and the NPD wants to make its services and events available to everyone. As participants in the National Night Out, the NPD will once again sponsor a cookout and entertainment at Capt. Ryan Park, next to Police Headquarters in West Newton. Chief McMains invites all Newton residents to come to meet him, his officers, and Officer Leo at the cookout on August 6.
