Call & Times

Uxbridge names new police chief

- By JOSEPH FITZGERALD jfitzgeral­d@woonsocket­call.com

UXBRIDGE – A 30-year veteran of the Manchester, Connecticu­t Police Department is the new police chief in Uxbridge.

Uxbridge Town Manager Angeline Ellison announced Monday that Marc Montminy has been hired for the $110,000- a-year position. He succeeds former Police Chief Jeffrey A. Lourie, who left in February to become chief of police in Westboroug­h. Overseeing the department since Lourie’s departure has been acting Chief Sgt. Timothy Burke.

Montminy’s first day on the job will be Sept. 12 and he will be officially sworn in on Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. in the lower Town Hall.

“We look forward to Chief Montminy’s guidance as we continue to provide the best possible service to our residents,” the department said in a statement. “Chief Montminy will be closing out a distinguis­hed career with the men and women of the Manchester, CT. Police Department and starting his next chapter with us in September.”

Montminy, 54, a Rhode Island native who was born in Cumberland, was a town police officer in Manchester for almost 30 years. Hired by that department in 1989l, he held patrol and administra­tive positions before being named chief in 2009.

Montminy is credited with helping to computeriz­e department records and other data systems and presided over the installati­on of a new

digital dispatch center that opened in 2013.

The chief also became a sought-after speaker on active shooting scenarios after a gunman shot and killed eight co-workers and then committed suicide at Hartford Distributo­rs on Aug. 3, 2010. In 2016, Montminy co-founded Operation HOPE (Heroin/Opioid Prevention & Education Initiative), a local response to the increase in overdoses from heroin, fentanyl and other opiates. The program is meant to move addicts into treatment rather than jail.

Montminy has an associate’s degree from Manchester

Community College; a Bachelor’s degree from Charter Oak State College; and a Master’s degree in public administra­tion from the University of Baltimore.

He also completed profession­al developmen­t programs at the Police School of Staff and Command at Northweste­rn University in Evanston, Illinois, and the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Ellison said she chose Montminy based on his experience, his commitment to law enforcemen­t, his temperamen­t and his longevity in Manchester.

Lourie was Uxbridge’s chief since 2013. He served as a detective lieutenant in Auburn before being appointed as Uxbridge’s chief of police. When Lourie was appointed to the $132,000 a year Uxbridge job in 2013, it was the first time in the history of the department that someone from outside the department had been chosen as chief.

Lourie is widely credited with bolstering the department’s community policing program, expanding the department’s presence on social media and bringing in the department’s first K9.

 ??  ?? Marc Montminy
Marc Montminy

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