SWAMPSCOTT — After months of meetings and engagement with the community, interim Police Chief David Kurz virtually announced plans to turn over the position to the town’s next chief on Friday.
Kurz is serving as Swampscott’s interim chief through a contract with New Hampshire-based Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI), an organization with which the town has engaged to help support some of the recruitment and coordination for the police chief search.
The search for the next chief included three community meetings to gain input and feedback in order to help develop some of the skill sets and traits the community appears to be looking for in the next chief.
“I will say that’s really one of the positive things about me being here is that we can do this, because it’s not common … to be able to get that much detail and engagement with the community and setting up some of these desirable qualities for the next candidate,” Kurz said.
Through this process, Kurz and the town have put together a profile statement for the position, including a profile of the community and the department, the budget and the town’s demographics ― which will be posted online nationwide on Friday ― for the candidates to look at.
After this, Kurz said they will go through the resumes received, and he will work with Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald to create a number of essay questions.
These questions will help narrow the group down to people they believe have the right qualifications for the position.
“Many of these questions will be based on some of the community engagement that we’ve had,” Kurz said.
After that will be telephone interviews to narrow it down even further, and then a smaller group will be determined to come in for a community assessment, which will include exercises determined by Kurz and Fitzgerald.
“I can assure the Swampscott community that they will be engaged and be asked to be involved with that process,” Kurz said. “Hopefully, we can give you some candidates that are qualified to be your next police chief.”
After that process, Fitzgerald will determine who to make an offer to, and then MRI will assist in doing the negotiations and background on the final candidates.
“It’s a solid process and it’s proven itself well in many communities,” Kurz said. “I’m really pleased to say that with my being here, having those three community meetings, it’s been that much more insightful and allowed us to be a little more fine tuning.”
In addition to searching for a new chief, Kurz and Police Capt. Joe Cable have developed a selection process for new hires, since the town recently left the civil-service system.
This process is based on best practices and will also engage the community in identifying the candidates, similar to the process for selecting the chief, and has been approved by legal counsel.
“Part of the selection process will include citizens to be on the oral board process, so it’s designed to be not only transparent, but make sure that the community has some input on finding people who they want to serve,” Kurz said.
For the hiring process of a new officer, Kurz said, he and Cable are working with a company that has several processes for a written test.
After the written test, potential hires will have to undergo a physical agility test — which is needed to get into the states’ police academies — and then they will have to go in front of an oral board.
“Hopefully we will be able to make some recommendations to the town administrator for a conditional offer of employment,” Kurz said.
The Swampscott Fire Department, under the leadership of Chief Graham Archer, is also implementing a similar process for new hires.
“It is important to share that both Chief Kurz and Chief Archer have taken steps to reach out to different groups and populations that have not been represented in some of the application pools and so we’ve been looking at different universities and different programs in different communities that really would have individuals that would likely be a great area for recruitment,” Fitzgerald said. “I think that’s exciting for the town but also for the departments. We have individuals that are ready to go off and serve as liaisons in ambassadors really seeking individuals to wear these uniforms.”
