Hopkinton has chosen a new Police Chief, Lt. David Palmer of the RI State Police. If you recall, our current chief announced his retirement in July and has been taking vacation ever since, with our Town Manager (who I believe used to be a chief somewhere in northern RI) serving as interim. Palmer is stationed in the Scituate barracks and has served in the RISP for 25 years. As a trooper, he also served as the interim chief of the RI Capitol Police and interim chief of the North Providence Police. Coming to Hopkinton will probably be quite a change for Palmer, his most recent job with the RISP was management of the State Police Major Crimes Unit. Before being promoted to Lieutenant, he served as a detective with the RISP where he worked with drug-sniffing dogs and narcotics investigations. He will begin in January, when Chief Scuncio officially retires.
Palmer appears to be well respected within administrative circles, being called upon repeatedly to fill in leadership gaps. Hopefully he will serve us well. I should point out that like Scuncio, as a retired RI trooper, he will receive a pension for his RISP service and will also be eligible for a pension for Hopkinton service. I do hope the Town Council can keep the new chief out of the union. Despite being the top manager of the Hopkinton PD, Scuncio was a member of the union (the only chief in the state to belong to a departmental police union) and was entitled to all the protections the union provided.
January 1, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Apparently I have admirers at the Chariho Times. After I published this on 11/23, the Chariho Times stole my title and most of my article. Well, they say imitation is the highest form of flattery.
http://www.ricentral.com/content/hopkinton-has-new-sheriff-town