SWAMPSCOTT — Police Chief Ron Madigan will retire effective July 15, the town announced Wednesday.
Madigan, who will turn 65 later this year, is required as a public safety officer to retire at that age by state law.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve my hometown,” Madigan said in Wednesday night’s Select Board meeting. “I’d really like to thank the entire town of Swampscott for all its support and friendship. Swampscott is a wonderful place and I’ve enjoyed being a part of it for all these years.”
Madigan joined the force in 1980, becoming a full-time officer two years later. He was appointed chief in 2001, and oversaw the accreditation of the department in 2018.
“You are one of the kindest, gentlest, most thoughtful and open-minded individuals that I’ve had a chance to work with in town government,” Board Chair Peter Spellios told Madigan during the meeting. “You also don’t hesitate to make sure that you and the entire department hold yourselves acceptable and work to be better, and you recognize the importance of that.”
Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald recognized that the town and the police department have had a difficult year, alluding to a December incident where a Black Lives Matter activist was arrested in town and an independent report showed that the related investigation was mishandled. However, he noted that Madigan did the best he could dealing with those issues.
“I could not imagine how things would have turned out without the extraordinary leadership of Chief Madigan,” he said.
The town has contracted with Municipal Resources, Inc., the same consulting firm that wrote the report investigating the department, to appoint retired Chief David Kurz of Durham, N.H. as the department’s interim police administrator effective July 6 while the town conducts the search for a new chief and Madigan transitions out of the department.
Kurz has more than 40 years of law-enforcement experience and is a contributing author cited in former President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force Report designed to strengthen community policing within the United States. He is a graduate of the
FBI National Academy and has been an instructor for the International Association of Chiefs of Police leadership courses. He is also regarded as an expert on police accreditation.
“(Chief Madigan and I) were talking about getting into police work when we were young men and we both had the same idea that we wanted to make a difference,” Kurz said. “I look forward to following in his footsteps.”
The new chief will be the town’s first hire since leaving the civil service hiring system. Fitzgerald said that the process, which he expected to take at least six months, will incorporate input from community groups and stakeholders.
