SWAMPSCOTT — The town is getting closer to hiring a new police chief and a new police officer.
The top-two candidates for the police-chief position have been identified, said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. He intends to interview the candidates in the next couple of weeks and make a recommendation to the Select Board on who would be the best fit for the community.
“This is an exciting time, certainly prodigious,” said Fitzgerald. “We are about to hire the first police chief outside of the civil service, so we had an opportunity to evaluate and look at candidates who otherwise (we) would never have had a chance to review and see.”
Fitzgerald said that the pool of candidates was “absolutely extraordinary,” and included individuals from both the East and West Coast, individuals with advanced degrees and doctorates and experience working in cities with populations of 500,000 and in smaller communities. All candidates experienced complex situations that influenced their perspectives, the town administrator said.
A group of community representatives helped the town vet the process, Fitzgerald said, and ensure that there was a good representation of community stakeholders to advance the recommendation for appointment.
The finalists made the cut through a series of phone interviews, written essays and a day-long-assessment held at the Swampscott Public Library. The screening committee included Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis, members of clergy, a member of the Swampscott Unites, Respects, Embraces (S.U.R.E.) organization, members of the small-business community and other residents of Swampscott, said Fitzgerald.
Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI), which was hired to coordinate and officially announce the search for a police chief in November 2021, concurred with the recommendations.
“The technical team at MRI felt that we had two very strong candidates,” Fitzgerald said.
The town administrator will also be interviewing three candidates to hire a new police officer and fill one of the two current vacancies in the Police Department.
