With the job now posted online, the work of the Police Chief Screening Committee is officially under way.
The goal is to have a selection made by early spring, according to former Select Board member Roy Epstein.
“We’ll see if that’s feasible, but that’s the goal because it really makes sense to make the selection with the current Select Board,” said Epstein. “Through February and the first part of March, the Select Board is going to be part of the review … if we went beyond March, and past the election, we wouldn’t have the benefit of any of that, so it makes sense to finish this up (by the end of March).”
The search for a new police chief follows the resignation in August of former Police Chief James MacIsaac, who had been with the department in various roles since 1990. The Select Board appointed then-Assistant Police Chief Mark Hurley as the interim chief. Hurley’s appointment was effective Aug. 25.
In October, John Parow of John Parow Consulting & Associates was selected from the two bids received by the town. The Select Board agreed to a contract of $11,800, making Parow’s firm the low bidder. The one competitor, Municipal Resources Inc. (MRI), submitted a $13,700 bid.
Six people representing different demographics of Belmont, plus an area police chief, were recently named to serve on the screening committee. Those individuals include former Select Board member Roy Epstein, Belmont Against Racism President Didier Moise, Council on Aging representative Mark Paolillo, resident Mauro Lance, Town Administrator Patrice Garvin, and Superintendent Jill Geiser. The committee also includes Burlington Police Chief Thomas Browne.
“Policing has changed when I look back over the course of my career,” said Browne, who will have 33 years in policing this March. “It’s changed probably most visibly since 2020 … There’s definitely been some changes over the past five or six years that any chief has to pay attention to.”
Browne was referring both to George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who died at the hands of police in 2020, as well as the creation of the Massachusetts POST Commission, which was established in 2020 as part of criminal justice reform legislation enacted in 2020.
In addition to police reform, Browne said a new chief would also have to be prepared to put in the effort when it comes to recruiting.
“When I first got on the job, I tested with over 400 applicants,” he recalled. “In Burlington, 35 to 37 candidates apply. … It’s a drastic change in the amount of people who want to do the job. That’s going to be a challenge for any police chief going forward.”
He speculated it’s partly a generational difference, but also potentially the changing public perception of policing.
Epstein said the seven-member committee would be following a rubric to evaluate candidates.
In particular, it’s focusing on significant management experience … more than just managing a shift, but handling a police department budget and interfacing with the community,” he said. In Belmont, the chief doesn’t have a support staff like there might be in other times, so they’ve got to have some significant administrative skills, analysis skills, and budget preparation skills.”
Ultimately, after an internal screening process, the committee will recommend two to four candidates as finalists to forward to the Select Board, at which point the names of the finalists will be made public.
Finalists will be interviewed publicly by the Select Board, which will be the final step in the decision-making process.
