— Sgt. Robert Frye
ON THE NIGHT SHIFT
“ EVERY TIME YOU SAY,‘ I’ VE SEEN IT ALL,’ THE CITY SAYS,‘ OH YEAH?’ AND IT THROWS ANOTHER THING AT YOU.”
— Sgt. Robert Frye
officer. His first job was in North Smithfield, but he stayed for only a year before transferring to his hometown department.“ I didn’ t like it,” he says.“ You have cops here who have six months on the job who have more experience than a guy with five years on the job in a small town.”
The shift is the first stop for new officers, and most appear to be in their twenties, barely a few years into their careers. These officers have come of age at a time when the role of police in society has been called into question, a shift Frye says is evident in their changing mentalities. He serves as the use-of-force instructor for the department, heading up trainings intended to reduce altercations and injuries.“ More training and experience makes you a better cop, and we need to be better cops than we were before,” he says. Back at the station, Silin Windham, Charlee Seymour and Bethany Boisclair manage the phones in dispatch. 911 dispatchers put calls through to the three women, who then relay instructions to officers on the road. It’ s an unseen role, made all the more difficult because often the end result remains unknown.“ For me, it’ s honestly the calls with kids,” Seymour says.“ No matter what type of call, those are the ones that get me.”
Frye, too, has calls he’ d rather forget. Despite the challenges, he has no intention of moving on to a different city. The streets he patrols, he explains, are the same ones where his wife and kids live, and the job means something.“ The city humbles you,” he says.
86 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026