Policing the Island
How Nantucket’s Police Force, and Crime Levels, Stack Up Against Coastal Resort Towns
Nantucket Police Department
Every police department is built around a single number: the size of the community it’s supposed to keep safe. But what if that number changes — not by a few hundred, but by tens of thousands — overnight?
That’s the challenge facing Nantucket. For most of the year, the island feels like any small New England town: about 14,000 residents, quiet winters, a police department that knows people by name. Then summer hits. Suddenly, Nantucket swells with visitors, summer workers, and second-home owners. The population explodes: 50,000, 60,000, sometimes even more. In July and August, the island becomes a small city with small-town infrastructure.
So how does Nantucket’s police force handle a town that morphs from sleepy to bustling almost at the flick of a switch? And how does that compare to other resort towns up and down the coast?
The Nantucket Police Department: By the Numbers
Nantucket’s police department runs with about 43 full-time, sworn police officers. Supporting them: dispatchers, administrative staff, harbor patrol, and — crucially — a fleet of seasonal community service officers (CSOs) in the summer.
If you do the math, that’s about 3.1 police officers per 1,000 year-round residents. That’s well above the national average of 2.4 per 1,000. On paper, Nantucket looks well-covered.
But the numbers flip as soon as the ferries start arriving. If the island jumps to 60,000 people in mid-July, that ratio plummets to less than one officer per 1,400 residents. For context, that’s thinner than most big cities — and those cities don’t have to cover beaches, harbors, or a population that triples in six weeks.
Nantucket Police: Quick Facts
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43 full-time sworn officers
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11 dispatch staff
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7 administrative staff
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5 Harbormaster division
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40+ seasonal CSOs (summer)
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Annual budget: ~$6.6 million
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15–25 patrol vehicles (SUVs, cruisers, unmarked units)
Summer Staffing: The Resort Town Model
Nantucket doesn’t hire dozens of additional sworn officers for the summer. Instead, like most coastal towns, it leans on seasonal support. CSOs handle traffic, parking, beach patrol, and crowd control. Lifeguards and dock staff cover the waterfront. This frees the sworn officers for patrols, investigations, and emergencies.
It’s a strategy built for flexibility — and for keeping costs down during the off-season, when the island empties out. But it also means that, on the busiest nights, there might be as few as 8–12 sworn officers patrolling an island packed with tens of thousands of people.
How Does Nantucket Compare?
Nantucket’s seasonal predicament isn’t unique, but the way it handles it is. Here’s how the island stacks up against other classic coastal resort towns:
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Officers per 1,000 Residents: Resort Towns vs. National Average
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Nantucket: 3.1
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Provincetown: 7+ (very high due to small base)
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Ogunquit: 10+ (extreme ratio)
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Kennebunkport: 3.5
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U.S. average: 2.4
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Of course, all those ratios collapse in summer. Suddenly, a department that looks big on paper is stretched razor-thin in the sand, at the docks, and on Main Street.
Crime on the Island: Not Just the Numbers
Nantucket isn’t a high-crime place. In a recent year, the island saw about 165 reported crimes: 30 violent, 135 property. That’s about 11 crimes per 1,000 residents — lower than the national average by roughly 15 percent.
Most incidents are property crimes: theft, burglary, the occasional stolen car. Violent crime is rare, and the island has gone years at a time without a single murder or robbery. But those numbers are tricky, because they’re measured against the year-round population, not the summer reality.
Nantucket Crime by the Numbers (Recent Year):
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165 total reported crimes
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30 violent crimes (mostly assaults)
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135 property crimes (theft, burglary, vehicle theft)
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0 murders, 0 robberies
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Summer Shifts: Crime and Calls for Service
What really changes in summer isn’t the raw crime rate — it’s the type of policing required. Alcohol-related incidents spike. Traffic complaints pile up. Beach patrols, large events, bar crowds, and missing persons calls all surge with the population.
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For example, drunk-driving arrests often double in July and August. The island’s police see more crowd management, more medical calls, and more late-night incidents tied to nightlife and tourism.
Seasonal Crime Trends:
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Winter: Low call volume, fewer property crimes, quieter nights
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Summer: More theft, alcohol/drug incidents, traffic problems, crowd control, and medical calls
Parallel Stories, Different Scales
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Provincetown has a similar tourism-driven rhythm: 3,000 residents, but 60,000+ on peak weekends. Crime remains low, with most issues tied to nightlife and crowd management.
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Newport, RI operates more like a small city, with larger events, a bigger police force (80+ officers), and crime patterns closer to urban environments.
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Ogunquit and Kennebunkport in Maine are small but see their own summer swells. Ogunquit’s officer-to-resident ratio is among the highest in the country, but that’s mostly on paper — summer turns that into one officer for every few thousand people.
The Island Factor: No Backup, No Margin for Error
Nantucket’s position in the Atlantic changes the equation. Help from other departments isn’t just a radio call away — it’s a ferry ride or a flight. If something big happens (a major accident, a violent incident, a missing person), Nantucket’s force is the first and, for a while, the only line of response.
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That means the department has to be ready for almost anything, even if it only happens a few days a year.
Who’s On Patrol?
The department may have 40+ officers on the roster, but after you account for shifts, vacations, training, and desk duty, the number of officers on the street at any given time is a fraction of that. On the busiest summer nights, the island might be relying on a dozen officers — or less — to keep the peace for a small city.
Nantucket spends about $6.6 million a year on its police department — $504 per resident, one of the highest per-capita rates in the country. But that budget isn’t just policing for 14,000 people; it’s for the tens of thousands who flood the island every summer.
The police department historically relied on dashboard cameras in patrol cruisers, but in 2022 the town approved a $494,000 contract to equip officers with body-worn cameras integrated with their cruiser video systems.
The cameras automatically activate during events such as traffic stops or when emergency lights are turned on, creating a digital record of police encounters. Like many departments across Massachusetts, Nantucket adopted the technology in recent years as body cameras increasingly became standard practice in law enforcement.
Calls for Service: What the Numbers Miss
Reported crimes are only part of the job. Calls for service — medical assists, traffic incidents, lost property, public safety checks — spike in summer and can overwhelm the department. In resort towns, these calls can outnumber actual crimes by 10 to 1.
Nantucket isn’t unique in facing summer surges — but its isolation, reliance on seasonal staff, and the sheer scale of its population swing make it a revealing case study.
Across coastal New England and Maine, the story is the same: police forces built for small-town life that must suddenly manage a festival’s worth of people, every weekend, all summer long.
The real question isn’t just how many officers you have. It’s how you adapt when your town transforms — and how you keep policing effective, safe, and fair when the numbers on both sides of the equation are moving targets.
- Dominick Costanzo
Lead Editorial Advisor
3/11/26
Chiefs of the Nantucket Police Department
Jody D. Kasper — 2024–Present
Appointed in 2024 after serving as chief of the Northampton, Massachusetts Police Department. First woman to lead the Nantucket Police Department.
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William “Bill” Pittman — 2004–2023
One of the longest-serving chiefs in Nantucket history. Oversaw modernization of the department, expansion of seasonal policing programs, and installation of cruiser cameras.​
Randy Norris — c. 1994–2004
Longtime island officer who rose through the ranks. Served during a period when Nantucket’s summer population and tourism economy expanded significantly.
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Robert McNeil — c. 1980s–1994
Career Nantucket officer who served as chief during the 1980s and early 1990s as the island’s policing demands began shifting with increased tourism and development.
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Donald Buckley — c. 1970s–1980s
Chief during a period when Nantucket was transitioning from a quieter off-season island community toward a larger tourism destination.
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​Earlier Chiefs and Marshals​
Before the modern department structure, Nantucket’s law enforcement leader was sometimes called Town Marshal or Chief of Police.
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Henry C. Worth — early 20th century
Served as police chief during the early 1900s when Nantucket was a small but active port community.
Charles H. Robinson — late 19th / early 20th century
Served as chief or town marshal during the late 1800s, when the island’s policing structure was smaller and more informal.