Police Chief Passes Torch to Deputy Chief

Portsmouth Police Chief Lou Ferland and Deputy Chief Stephen DuBois have a lot in common.

Both have spent their entire law enforcement careers in Portsmouth and both men worked their way up from patrol officers to the department's top leadership positions. Now Ferland is passing the torch to DuBois.

On Wednesday night, the Portsmouth Police Commission announced that Ferland will retire as police chief in September and that DuBois will succeed him. On Thursday morning, both men put the upcoming change into perspective in front of the Portsmouth Police Station.

"I just wanted to be able to explore some new opportunities that are not police related and I feel very comfortable and confident that Steve is ready to take over," said Ferland, 51, who will have served on the Portsmouth Police Department for 30 years when he retires in September. "It made the decision to retire that much easier."

But leaving the job is still hard for Ferland, who began his law enforcement career in Portsmouth in 1983 as a patrolman. He worked his way up to become deputy police chief in 2009 and then he became the police chief just a few days  later when former Police Chief Michael Magnant stepped down.

"I was deputy chief for nine days," Ferland recalled.

When asked what he will miss about being police chief, Ferland replied, "The people, the challenges, the leadership opportunities, knowing that I am trying to do something right for the community."

DuBois has been with the Portsmouth Police Department for 19 years after he, too, began his law enforcement career in 1993 as a patrolman and worked his way up. He also served as an auxiliary police officer in Portsmouth in 1991. He has served as deputy chief for three years and believes he is ready to lead the department.

"I'm up for the challenge," said DuBois, who is 41.

DuBois said he and Ferland placed great emphasis on the promotion and development of all the department's ranking officers. When they assumed the positions of chief and deputy chief three years ago, the department was in disarray because there were a great deal of retirements.

Ferland said he has spent the past three years trying to restore a stable succession structure to the police department so it would not experience what it did three years ago.

When asked what some of his top priorities will be as the new Portsmouth police chief, DuBois said getting a new police contract and continuing good training for all of the police officers are two of them.

He also wants to work toward implementing some of the findings that came out in the recent Police Department study in November, which include reorganizing the department's personnel structure and addressing issues such as future space needs.

"It will be a road map for things that I will be looking at," he said.

He will also work as well as he can with the City Council to get police budgets that will enable the department to provide the best police coverage possible in the city. "We'll present a budget that is going to give you the services you have right now and if the City Council gives us less money, we will make it work," DuBois said.

DuBois said Portsmouth is very fortunate that it has been able to keep crime in check since the 1980s when Portsmouth was a much tougher city than it is now.

"You never want to reach that tipping point you can't recover from," he said.

Ferland and DuBois said their families are very excited for them.

Ferland said his family is "greatly relieved" that he will be retiring soon. "The job of chief especially is one where you have to devote many hours to the job."

DuBois said his family is also very happy about his impending promotion, but they also understand that being police chief is not much different than being deputy chief because both positions involve such a commitment.

"When you're gone from this place, you're never really gone from it," said DuBois, because a police chief and deputy chief are always thinking about the department and the needs of the community.

Ferland said he has not made any decisions about what he might do after he retires. He has received some inquires to do some dog training because of his experience in that area and some private businesses have asked him to help out with some of their internal issues.

Ferland recently told the City Council that he just obtained a doctorate degree from Franklin Pierce College in leadership and he just completed a dissertation on the history of crime and punishment in Portsmouth that dated back 12,000 years to the Abenaki Indians to the present.

Ferland said he has all the confidence in the world that DuBois will serve the people of Portsmouth well as the new police chief. "He's a great communicator and he knows how to structure a budget," Ferland said.

DuBois said one of his important goals will be to help the police department and the men and women who wear the badge to keep moving forward.

"Cops are always looking to be better and never be satisfied with the status quo," he said.