Sergeant Farrell Honored, Menice Promoted at Dover Selectmen Meeting

Thursday's Dover Board of Selectmen meeting was a busy and joyous one for the Dover Police Department.

Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Farrell, who will be retiring at the end of the month, was honored by the Selectmen for his over 40 years of service as an officer of the law in Dover.

Selectmen Chair Carol Lisbon recognized Farrell as someone who “…has done incredible service to the town over the decades, who has stepped in as acting chief when we’ve needed an acting chief – and done a wonderful job.”

Dover Police Chief Peter McGowan was thankful to have worked with Farrell, especially during his time getting acclimated to his new position as Chief.

“It was an honor knowing Detective Sergeant Farrell throughout my career. I had the good fortune of working in the town where he lived and I had occasion to work with him on several occasions. Most recently as we transitioned from his position as Acting Chief to mine as Chief here in Dover and I can fervently and strongly say that a good portion of the success of the transition is due to Detective Sergeant Farrell’s preparation. And the way he handled everything was exceptional and I owe a lot of my success to him,” McGowan said.

“I appreciate everything he did for me and the department,” he said.

Farrell, who became a full-time officer in Dover in 1972, was presented a resolution from the Town of Dover by the Selectmen thanking him for his over 40 years of service.

“This was totally unexpected and I do appreciate it very much. Thank you all,” Farrell said.

“41 years, five months and 20 days, but who’s counting?” Farrell said jokingly. "If I could start it all over again tomorrow I would. I just absolutely love this job. And I came up on it purely by accident but it was one of the luckiest accidents that ever happened to me.”

“It’s been a great, great career and I tell my students in the police academy there’s no better way to make a living,” he said.

Officer Ryan Menice Promoted to Sergeant

Because of Farrell’s upcoming retirement, Dover Police Officer Ryan Menice was promoted to Sergeant at Thursday’s Selectmen meeting as well.

Menice, who attended the meeting with his family, went through testing and an assessment before being promoted to Sergeant.

“I am very pleased to recommend him as the next Sergeant for the Town of Dover, McGowan said.”

Menice started as a part-time officer at the department in 2003 and was promoted to a full-time officer in 2005.

“He has basically thrown himself into anything he possibly could in that time in the last eight years or so, just getting involved in everything from computers, to radios, to school resource officer to juvenile prosecutions. Whenever something came up that needed to be done Ryan was the first in line with his hand up saying ‘I’ll do it.’”

Selectmen James Dawley said with a smile, “Ryan congratulations and so much as we’ll miss Jeff you only have about 34 more years to fill those shoes.”

Several of Menice’s family members and fellow officers were on-hand to see him receive his promotion.

As is tradition in Dover, members of Menice’s family – his three children, Abigail, Ann Marie and William – helped him pin on his Sergeant’s badge.