History

A little about our History

The Town of Salisbury is the northernmost town in Massachusetts, bordering the state of New Hampshire. Settled in 1638, Salisbury boasts 379 years of seaside history. With five miles of white sandy beach and easy accessibility from two major highways making Salisbury a popular attraction, the permanent residency of just under 10,000 swells to 30,000 during the busy summer months.

The Salisbury Police Department patrols 16.5 square miles that are divided into two sectors, an uptown patrol and a beach patrol. We operate 24 hours per day and because of service demands, shift complements are typically stronger during the late evening and early night hours. Our new state of the art Communications Center is manned by two personnel around the clock to dispatch both police and fire related emergency calls.

The Salisbury Police Department currently consists of 16 full-time Police Officers, 9 full-time Civilian Dispatchers, and 7 part-time Reserve and Special Police Officers.

While the Salisbury Police Department is charged with policing the Town we should all remember Sir Robert Peel’s 7th principle of policing:

Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.