The initial review of applications from jobseekers hoping to be the next colonel and superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police is done and the search committee the governor formed more than 10 months ago is expected to begin interviews in the coming weeks.
The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security told the News Service that the six-person search committee will "conduct interviews of the most qualified candidates" who submitted an application by the Oct. 22 deadline "in the coming weeks." EOPSS did not say how many applications came in by that deadline.
The State Police has been under the leadership of Interim Col. John Mawn Jr. since Col. Christopher Mason retired last February.
Gov. Maura Healey, the first governor able to take advantage of a provision of the 2020 policing reform law allowing the State Police colonel to be hired from outside of the department's current ranks, said last year that she is looking for someone with "integrity and managerial competence" to lead the department on a more permanent basis.
A recruiting packet for the job, posted online by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said the next MSP superintendent (who holds the rank of colonel) will be charged with "spearheading a full top to bottom operational, organizational, and cultural assessment of the MSP," "developing a strategic and mission-driven vision based on national and international leading practices for the department’s continuous improvement in serving the public," "increasing diversity in the department’s membership, especially in the higher ranks," and "increasing community engagement with constituents beyond interactions connected with a law enforcement function."
Under Massachusetts law, the superintendent must have at least 10 years of full-time experience as a sworn law enforcement officer and no less than five years of full-time experience in a senior administrative or supervisory position in a police force or a military body with law enforcement responsibilities. They must also be or become certified by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, and must not smoke any tobacco product.
The job is expected to pay in the range of $275,000 to $300,000 a year, according to the IACP.
The six-person search committee named last March to work in partnership with IACP to look for the next MSP colonel is made up of Kevin Burke, who was Essex County district attorney and the secretary of public safety and security under Gov. Deval Patrick; former Gaming Commission member Gayle Cameron, who retired as the number-two leader of the New Jersey State Police; Molly Baldwin, the founder and CEO of the community organization Roca; Mass. Chiefs of Police Association Executive Director Mark Leahy, a retired police chief who served in Northborough and Suffield, Conn.; Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance Executive Director Liam Lowney; and former federal prosecutor and Cambridge police officer Natashia Tidwell, who is now a member of the litigation group at Mintz.
