Dover Board Of Selectmen Approve Appointment Of New Police Chief

The Dover Board of Selectmen voted unanimously, Thursday night, to approve the appointment of Dover's new police chief.

Peter McGowan, who currently serves as the chief of police in Millis, was one of two candidates interviewed by the selectmen Thursday night and was approved by all three selectmen to become Dover's new chief.

McGowan currently serves as the police chief of Millis where he has been chief for over six years and worked his way up the ranks.

“My career started in Millis as a part-time officer and dispatcher,” McGowan said in his interview with the selectmen.

The selectmen asked why he would want to make the change to Dover when he is already the chief in Millis.

“I think of it as kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity. This job doesn’t come up quite a bit. The last chief had it for probably close to fifteen years, the chief before him was either close to that or longer,” McGowan said. “I can foresee myself retiring out of Dover.”

“The department is structured in such a way that I would like to have it structured in Millis, but haven’t had any luck getting there,” said McGowan.

The other candidate for the job was captain John Stankiewicz of the Longmeadow Police Department.

The selectmen said that they were pleased with both candidates who were chosen by the Police Chief Search Committee.

“Either one is going to be really, really good,” said selectmen James Dawley.

“Both candidates came out very strong," selectmen Carol Lisbon said.

In the end they felt that McGowan's experience of already being a police chief and having worked in such close proximity to Dover would make the transition all the more easy.

“There’s something about having somebody who has already been a police chief come in and be able to hit the ground running in a way that sometimes those who have yet to achieve that level of leadership can do,” Lisbon said.

“If there’s one thing that sets the two gentlemen apart it’s that,” said Dawley.

“Speaking towards small towns where there is not a lot of crime I think the biggest challenge and the biggest area that needs attention and work is to make sure that the officers are trained and ready for whatever happens. When you have periods of inactivity or periods of time when you don’t have a lot of incidents you have to make sure the officers, when something does happen, that they're ready to go,” said McGowan.

The selectmen asked the candidates what role the officers should play in a community with such a small crime rate.

“Another benefit of Dover is that the officers are allowed to be more proactive than reactive. They’re not running from call to call. They don’t have three or four calls stacked up, just running and writing reports. They’re out, they’re members of the community, they’re involved,” McGowan said.

McGowan said that Dover is similar to Millis is a lot of ways. The Millis Police Department shares the same building with the fire department and they use one dispatcher, similar to how Dover's station is run.

McGowan said if selected for the job he would get to know all of his officers and let them know what to expect of him.

“I would probably start off by just identifying myself to each officer, letting them know my style and my expectations and give them an opportunity to let me know what they need from their particular job. What their goals are, what their strengths are, what their interests are,” said McGowan.

Selectmen chair Joseph Melican said, “I move the board vote to appoint Peter McGowan to the position of chief of police of the town of Dover." McGowan's appointment is contingent upon contract negotiations, physical and psychological examinations, and a background check.