Tilton sees lots of change in police personnel

TILTON — When Tilton police make their expected move to new headquarters in the next few weeks, the station won't be the only thing new to the department. The town is in the market for a new police chief and other top brass after a series of retirements and resignations late last month left the department with multiple vacancies.

Robert Cormier announced his retirement in late January after 39 years in law enforcement and nearly on 14 years with the town of Tilton. He became chief in 2008.

Selectmen quickly appointed Capt. Ryan Martin to be the interim chief. Martin initially accepted the job, then changed his mind the next day and went ahead with plans to retire, Town Administrator Jeannie Forrester said.

“He had has his paperwork in for a while,” Forrester said.

Lt. Nate Morrison also retired, Forrester said.

Forrester detailed some of the changes in a statement on the town's website: “Prior to those retirements, we saw one of our detectives, an officer, and a dispatcher accept positions at the Belknap County Sheriff's office; one of our other detectives accepted a similar position in Plymouth; and our Attorney Prosecutor accepted a position in Concord.”

Forrester said the retirements were not unexpected.

“What was unexpected was that everything would happen when it did.”

The resignations included Detective Sgt. Nate Buffington, who took the job in Plymouth, but not before the selectboard voted to sell him the town's polygraph equipment for $1,500, on the condition that the Tilton Police Department would get free polygraph services in the future.

Forrester said the town decided to put out a statement because “this board is very community oriented and our police chief is very community oriented.” She said selectboard members had “a sincere desire to communicate with the community about what was happening,” rather than have a vacuum exist “that would be filled with rumors and guesses.”

Forrester said the town has hired Municipal Resources Inc., of Meredith to conduct a search for a new chief at a salary of up to $99,000, and the town is also recruiting new officers and a full-time attorney prosecutor. The search for a chief is expected to take about three months, she said, and the town has brought in some part-time police officers to fill the void, with the expectation that a new chief will be allowed to build the department with his or her own hires.

“We've had a lot of interest outside of MRI” in the form of several calls from officers inquiring about the police chief opening. Forrester said.

Richard Mann, who was a captain on the Belmont police force until his retirement last fall, has been brought in as a civilian department administrator on an interim basis at a rate of $60 per hour for 36 hours a week, and the town has also hired an experienced interim prosecutor.

“I think they have a great plan moving forward,” Forrester said of the selectboard. “I'm confident we're going to build a police department everybody can continue to be proud of.”