The swearing-in of seven new Swampscott Police officers and two new firefighters at this week’s Select Board meeting wrapped up the Town’s nearly two-year challenge to find and hire qualified police candidates outside of the civil-service system.
In September, Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald and Police Chief Ruben Quesada promised the Swampscott Police Union that the Town would ramp up its candidate search after a months-long hiring process involving a 60-candidate pool resulted in a conditional offer being extended to just one candidate.
Kicking off the swearing-in ceremony, Quesada said that the four women and three men joining the Police Department are indicative of the Town’s strides toward a more diverse police force.
Quesada said the Swampscott Police Department now comprises 13% female officers and 16% Hispanic or Latino officers, and that the department hired its first African-American candidate in the Town’s history.
“This past hiring around, we set clear goals and objectives to find the most qualified, most diverse, and most well-rounded individuals with the lived experiences that are greatly needed in today’s law-enforcement profession. It’s because of the exceptional men and women of the Swampscott Police Department that we not only met our goals, but we exceeded them and we made Swampscott Police history,” Quesada said.
Wednesday evening’s ceremony occurred three years after Swampscott departed from the civil-service system. In an interview with The Item on Thursday, Fitzgerald said that while the police-hiring process has not been easy since leaving civil service, the end result — a highly qualified and diverse department — was worth the challenges along the way.
“It’s been the most difficult thing that I’ve ever done in my career, to support leaving civil service. It has been incredibly challenging, but I’m extraordinarily proud that the results speak for themselves,” Fitzgerald said. “While almost every community across the country is struggling with hiring police officers, for some remarkable reason we figured it out.”
Before Swampscott Police officers Nicolas Cruz, Samuel Harrell, Nicole Magee, Angelica Noble, Joan Pena, John Posada, and Briana Sanchez and firefighters Santiago Garcia and Jonathan Tibbo were sworn in during Wednesday’s ceremony, Quesada, who was hired as chief in 2022, said that he thought Swampscott’s new hiring system could be used as an exemplar for communities across Massachusetts.
“While I wasn’t here when we exited civil service, I am ecstatic not to be bound by it,” Quesada said. “Even the largest police departments in the Commonwealth cannot find the kind of formula for success that we found here.”
