Retired Salem Chief Named Interim Police Chief in Peabody

Peabody Police Chief Robert Champagne is finally, finally retiring from the job.

Mayor Ted Bettencourt announced Thursday afternoon that retired Salem Police Chief Robert St. Pierre would be taking over the Peabody department as Interim Chief in Champagne's stead later this month.

Champagne, a Peabody native, retired this summer after 37 years on the force (25 as Chief), but has stayed on for several months while an interim chief was sought and while state lawmakers signed off on the city's petition to remove the chief's job from Civil Service.

Bettencourt had said upfront he wanted to hire an experienced retired chief for that role rather than make a temporary promotion.

"We have a world class police department in Peabody made up of a great number of outstanding law enforcement professionals, Bettencourt said in an announcement. "I believe Chief St. Pierre's background, specifically his experience with professional evaluation and the assessment center process, will prove beneficial as we transition to a permanent police chief."

Bettencourt noted St. Pierre has served as a consultant since 1990 in the selection of six Bay State chiefs utilizing assessment centers via the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Those communities included Springfield, South Weymouth, Malden and North Reading.

Since first pushing for the change earlier this year, Bettencourt argued that removing the chief's position from Civil Service would allow greater flexibility to find the best person for the job and give him more latitude in assessing that person's performance and effectiveness.

The City Council supported that move this past spring and state lawmakers gave their final approval in July.

“The Police Chief is an extremely important position particularly in a city like Peabody,” Bettencourt said Thursday. “The Chief plays a role in every facet of the community and I want to make sure we have the best person in place going forward.”

So in addition to their given names, the two retired chiefs share a few things in common as well -- they both led their neighboring hometown police departments for a quarter century during the same era, Champagne has one more year of active service than Pierre and both men served in the military.

St. Pierre served in the Marines while Champagne served with the Air Force during the Vietnam War. St. Pierre, 65, was appointed to the Salem Police Department in 1974; Champagne, 64, was first appointed to the Peabody force in 1975.

“I am pleased that the Mayor has selected such a fine professional police officer as Bob St. Pierre as interim Police Chief,” said Champagne Thursday. “Once again I extend my great thanks to the fine officers who have served in the past and who continue to serve the city of Peabody.”

St. Pierre retired in 2009 after 36 years on the Salem force, but has remained active in different aspects of law enforcement -- he was called upon in 2010 to conduct an internal investigation at the Salisbury Police Department and spent several months from 2011 to 2012 as the interim police chief at Salem State University, his Alma mater.

Bettencourt said St. Pierre will report for duty on Nov. 18.