With his wife Sharon pinning his new chief of police badge on his chest, it became official: Michael Abel is the new head of the New Ipswich Police Department.
Abel swore his oath of office on Tuesday, during the regular meeting of the Select Board, while many of his fellow officers from around the region were in attendance.
Selectman Bert Hamill praised Abel’s performance in the role as interim chief so far, particularly his recent recruitment of officers to bring the department back from what was, at one point this summer, a one-man show.
“He’s done a miraculous job,” Hamill said. “He’s pulled the department back from the brink. He deserves this position 100 percent.”
“He’s given us every reason to be optimistic for the future,” said Selectman Jason Somero.
Abel, a native of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, moved to New Hampshire in 2003. An avid outdoorsman and fisher and hunter, he said he was very familiar with New Hampshire from various camping and fishing trips, and had fallen in love with New Hampshire.
Currently a resident of Lyndeborough, he initially moved to Francestown, where he joined the Francestown Fire Department as an EMT and firefighter.
Abel said it was only as an adult that he became interested in policing as a career. He had served as an EMT and on the Mount Wachusett Ski Patrol, and said the pace of being an emergency responder appealed greatly.
“I like that each day offered something new, and that I wasn’t in a cubicle somewhere. On Ski Patrol, I met people all the time who became friends. I knew being a police officer would allow me to do the same thing,” Abel said. “I knew it would offer a variety of tasks. As I say, my office is 30 square miles, which is about the size of New Ipswich. That’s the ultimate freedom, not being stuck behind four walls.”
Through relationships he developed as a firefighter, Abel spoke with officers in the Francestown Police Department, and went on some ride-alongs, before he was offered a job as a patrolman in 2005.
“Here I am, almost 17 years later,” Abel said.
Abel spent the longest portion of his career as a full-time officer in Wilton, where he was given some responsibilities as an on-call officer and an investigator in some in-depth cases. When an opening in New Ipswich came up for a supervisory role in 2016, he was ready for the new challenge, and came on the force as a Sergeant and then Lieutenant.
When former Police Chief Tim Carpenter announced his intent to retire in June, Abel said he and Carpenter, who had been his mentor, had conversations about whether Abel would be willing to step up to lead the department. He decided he was ready for the role, though he knew it came with challenges.
The New Ipswich Police Department lost several of its members this summer, as they moved from the area or left the force for other careers or other departments. By July, when Abel had taken on the role of Interim Police Chief, there was a period of time when he was the only full-time officer left on the force.
Rebuilding the department was priority number one.
Strides have already been made in that direction, Abel said. A former New Ipswich police officer who had initially joined another force returned to the New Ipswich Department, and another officer has recently completed the police academy and will finish his field training hours by October 1. Another hire is currently going through the full-time police academy, and is expected to graduate by mid-December.
Abel is also interviewing potential hires for the other two empty positions.
The department has also hired a full-time administrative assistant to fill the position left empty by the former assistant’s retirement this summer. Kelly St. Pierre, who is currently the administrative assistant for the Wilton Police Department, is expected to start mid-October.
“We’ve made really good strides since June,” Abel said. “At one point, I was the last man standing, and now we have four employees and an assistant. We’ve made a lot of progress in a few months.”
Along with recruitment, Abel is also faced with the eventual replacement of police facilities. The department currently operates out of rented office space. The space was meant to be temporary after the department moved out of Building No. 2, located behind the town offices, due to a persistent mold issue, but the department has continued to operate out of the space for more than a decade now.
In the past several years, the town has made an effort to produce a plan for an alternate police station, including purchasing and renovating the existing department, or building a new station on the site of Building No. 2.
Though plans exist for a stand-alone station, Abel said it’s currently not the town’s intention to put those plans before voters in March.
“There’s more discussion going on, currently, and we’re looking at all the options,” Abel said. “There has been support from the Board of Selectmen, and they realize this space is not adequate for a police department.”
There needs to be further education of the public and more clarity on the breakdown of the potential cost of the building, Abel said, and the next year, he hopes to hold multiple public hearings to educate the public on the inadequacies of the current department and what the new department might look like.
Abel said he does stand behind the current plan for a stand-alone station behind the town offices, but said he would also support a safety complex with space for a new Fire Department, as well.