By Steve Landwehr
HAMILTON — Interim Hamilton police Chief Robert Pomeroy knows it will take time, and plenty of it, before residents again have faith in their small town police force. And for some, he knows that day will never come.
"There are those who will never have that trust again, or have the same level of trust," Pomeroy said in an interview at the police station yesterday.
Despite that forbidding forecast, Pomeroy thinks this department can be salvaged, and he's seen some that couldn't be.
"I think we can come up with a get-well plan," he said.
Pomeroy, 54, was first hired by selectmen this summer to look into 18 specific allegations about various improprieties in the department.
In the course of his investigation, Pomeroy told selectmen he came across evidence that Cullen and Sgt. Donald Dupray falsified documents to obtain a state grant for computer equipment that wasn't purchased. The board subsequently put Cullen and Dupray on paid leave pending possible criminal investigations.
Cullen and eight other full-time officers also face possible criminal or civil charges for falsifying records to maintain their EMT certifications. Ten other officers on the force were also reprimanded for falsifying records.
The town was already searching for a replacement for Cullen, who is set to retire at the end of the month, and Pomeroy volunteered to stick around until someone is hired. He will be paid at a rate similar to Cullen, who earned about $102,000 last year.
Pomeroy is a career police officer, who began his career in the Plymouth House of Correction right out of college and a year later joined the Plymouth Police Department. He rose through the ranks from patrolman to captain and was named chief in 1992.
He recently retired and is running his own consulting business, advising communities like Hamilton that find problems in their police forces. For the past year, he has been an instructor with FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Associates, which provides training for command rank officers around the country.
The Plymouth resident promised selectmen he would spend an average of four days a week on the job here and said he has every confidence the department can run itself the other three.
Pomeroy adamantly maintains he won't be a candidate for the permanent chief's job — "I never planned on doing this" — but said he can help the department do some short-term things that will make the new chief's job easier.
"You can't minimize what happened here," Pomeroy said. "But on a range of terrible wrongdoings around the country, some of those departments aren't fixable, this one is."
Change will come by getting back to the basics, with professional standards training and strict adherence to the department's existing rules and regulations.
"No short cuts, no cutting corners."
While the department is nervous while it awaits possible further sanctions, Pomeroy said he's also been impressed that every officer he's spoken to has expressed a desire to right their ship.
"They are sincere about doing whatever it takes," he said.
Pomeroy said one small step that officers took Friday offers proof of that new mood. The officers voted not to have any representatives at Monday night's selectmen's meeting. Pomeroy applauded that decision, saying the presence of uniformed officers might intimidate some residents and prevent them from speaking.
Lieutenant Robert Nyland will handle the day-to-day operations of the department.
"He has stepped right up to the plate," Pomeroy said. "He's here on his day off today."
Pomeroy's management approach is a bit carrot and a bit stick.
"In any organization, I think employees need to know what to expect, and if you give them latitude to do their job, they'll often pleasantly surprise the boss," he said.
On the other hand, "You need good inspections as a follow-up," Pomeroy said, and if discipline is required, he'll mete it out.
He thinks it might be May before a new chief is hired, and he's willing to stay aboard until then and believes the department can turn itself around by then.
"I think the culture here can be changed very quickly."
But it will take longer than that, he said, to win the townspeople over.
