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Hampden faces compressed window to replace police chief; board to explore interim chief and search firms
Summary
The town's chief is retiring in mid-July, the sergeant is retiring in early July, and the board agreed to explore having the current chief serve as interim and to task the town administrator with identifying search firms and options for a permanent replacement.
Select Board members discussed a tight timeline to replace the Hampden police chief after the chief announced a July retirement and the current sergeant gave notice for early July.
Board members said the short window between the sergeant's retirement and the chief's departure would make a permanent hire difficult and that an interim chief would give the town time to run a deliberate search. The board asked the town administrator to present options for interim coverage and to identify chief-search firms and their time and cost estimates.
The board noted an advantage if the current chief, identified in the meeting as Scott, agreed to serve as interim because that could reduce short-term disruption; at the same time, members said interim service would require negotiation because of retirement-hour limits and pension rules. The board also discussed internal promotion pathways: a temporary chain of command among existing sergeants and officers while a search proceeds.
Board members asked staff to reach out to potential interims and to provide a list of candidate search firms and expected timelines so they could decide whether to recruit externally or pursue in-house promotion. Members emphasized they wanted a long-term hire — "someone who wants to make a career out of this" — rather than a short-term stopgap.
Other operational needs flagged during the discussion included succession for the detective position, IT replacements in the department and planning for a replacement vehicle.
