How Will the Next Police Chief be Chosen in Danvers?

The town’s next police chief will be chosen the same way as previous police chiefs have been chosen - Danvers is a civil service community.

“This is the way police chiefs have been selected for a long time,” said Danvers Town Manager Steve Bartha.

The civil service process was established through a statute in Massachusetts.

“Danvers opted in close to 100 years ago,” Bartha said.

Danvers Police Chief Neil F. Ouellette retired at the end of June. Patrick M. Ambrose, who has over 30 years on the department, is serving as the acting police chief.

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Bartha said the police chief job will be posted internally, and the civil service process will determine the candidate’s’ eligibility. The department currently has three lieutenants and one captain.

Massachusetts General Law Ch. 31, section 58, permits cities and towns to ask that residents be placed on entry-level police officer lists before non-residents. A resident is a person who has lived in the same city or town for the full year before the date of the examination. Your residence, for civil service purposes, is the place where you actually lived and intended as your permanent home.

Danvers is one of the communities in the state that currently have no upper age limit.

The town is one of the communities that has a reserve/intermittent (roster) list. An outside consultant will screen the candidates for police chief, and present the top three candidates to the town. The town manager said he anticipates that will happen in October.

“The town is not involved until the very end,” Bartha said.

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