‘Emotional’ Decision for Duval

John Duval, Concord’s police chief, and an employee of the force for more than 27 years, leaves the beat Friday and will start a new challenge – head of security at Concord Hospital.

Duval recently described his resignation from the department as a “personal and family decision,” with an opportunity to make “a broader career” move that will allow him to focus his efforts on security and preparedness for the hospital. In an interview, where he was clearly still choked up about leaving the job he had worked tirelessly to obtain, Duval admitted the emotion was getting to him on both a personal and professional level.

“Concord is my home, it’s where I live … it’s very personal … an emotional decision … the city, the department, the work that we do, it’s a cooperative effort,” he said, “and I feel on some levels there’s things that need to be done that I would like to shepherd through but I won’t be in a position to do that.”

Duval said there had been other jobs he could have taken along the way so the decision wasn’t about wanting to leave the Concord Police Department. He said the future position at Concord Hospital was “an extension” of his work with the police department. He called it “a community within a community,” with about 3,000 employees and patients and visitors converging in one area at once, while at the same time, making sure everyone is secure.

“It’s everybody of Concord and everybody of the Concord region that, at one point in time or another, may have an opportunity to go to (while) impacting safety and security, in a different way," he said. But still, in many ways, working with the Concord Police Department. We’re not silos.”

The police department and the hospital have been working together on a “code silver drill,” in the unlikely event that someone came into the hospital with a weapon. The drill is set to commence in March 2014, with the two organizations working together to ensure that the hospital is prepared for such a horrific event.

“In many ways, my hands and my interest and my work will be in furtherance of preparedness,” he said, “while at the same time, not living in fear but creating an environment of awareness. I think security in 2013 and moving forward, that’s where it’s going to be … enlightened, informed citizens, not living in fear, but knowing what they can do as individuals to be prepared for something to happen … I think that’s where the strength of security is going to be.”

Duval said whether it was an active shooter scene, a special operations unit, or anything else, the issue was to be prepared for anything. He said continuing efforts to train police officers for unlikely situations were a part of that strategy; so should the individual in the unlikely event they experience something tragic. Duval said schools “are doing a great job” advancing the security mindset with administrators, parents, and kids.

“We’ve come a long way since 9-11, and other tragedies across the country, natural disasters, a lot of things … communities and agencies working together to respond quickly and efficiently …” he said.

Duval said he first wanted to work in law enforcement after an incident in his teens when living in Manchester. He was walking by a closed diner and saw someone inside the establishment with a flashlight at the register. The person ducked down when he walked by and Duval went to a payphone and called police. After that, a beat officer reported to the scene and seeing that there was a problem, called backup. Four people were pulled out of the diner and arrested. The story was in the newspaper the next day. After that incident, Duval knew what he wanted to do in life.

“There’s was something about that energy that I liked, that I enjoyed, and I said, ‘you know what, I think this would be something I’d be interested in,’” he said.

Duval joined the Air Force for six years after high school, working in nuclear weapons security and training instruction, and then went into law enforcement. After his service, he applied for work in Concord and was hired in 1986, and has been with the department ever since.

During that time, there wasn’t a single remarkable or memorable case that stood out to him when asked. Duval said though, working with others who made cases, as a team, and did so to a conviction, was most rewarding.

“I’ve had the benefit of working with some very talented police officers,” he said. “It was my honor to work (with them).”

Duval said working in the schools and being officer friendly in the community in the 1980s, including the Patch the Pony program, a stranger awareness program, was rewarding. The police would bring a real horse to the event and would tell kids to stay away from strangers. Working in the community and preparing both police staff and those in the private and public sector were some of the activities and policies he was proud of during his time as chief.

Duval said despite leaving the department, he will continue volunteering on boards like Riverbend Community Mental Health and would seek other initiatives in the community although he hasn’t identified exactly what roles he would like to be involved in. He assumed that the hospital would want him to be involved in other projects in the community in his role as head of security.

Last week, Bradley Osgood, a current deputy chief, was named interim chief starting on Dec. 20.