By Michelle Kim

GOFFSTOWN – Police Chief Michael French recently announced he’ll be retiring from the post he’s held for nine years, ending a 34-year law enforcement career spent in Goffstown.

On April 1, French will go back to being a regular Goffstown citizen and can look forward to nights uninterrupted by midnight phone calls.

“Someone very wise once said ‘you would know when it was time,’” said French. “I know it’s time, personally and professionally, to move on.”

French said his decision to retire is a personal one and has little to do with outside considerations such as the budgeting process.

“He will definitely be missed,” said Town Administrator Sue Desruisseaux. “It’s going to be hard to fill his shoes.”

“The chief has the utmost respect of the board,” said John Caprio, chairman of the Board of Selectmen. “His level of professionalism and integrity are at the highest level. That kind of person is hard to lose.”

Caprio said French approached the board several weeks ago about his retirement.

French began his career in the Goffstown Police Department in 1973 as a dispatcher and worked his way up, becoming a K-9 handler, field training officer, head of the juvenile division, was in charge of investigations and eventually became Goffstown’s sixth police chief in 1999.

French, 52, is the third generation in his family to go into law enforcement; both his father and grandfather were in the Manchester Police Department.

He’s also served as a president of the Northern New England Police Accreditation Coalition and is a nationally recognized assessor for the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

French said some of his proudest accomplishments include recruiting and retaining good people, expanding community policing concepts, re-establishing a K-9 program and establishing the Community Emergency Response Team.

Selectman Phil D’Avanza recalled French’s instrumental role in bringing about international accreditation to the department in 1992, the first in New Hampshire to achieve this distinction, before he was chief.

“He’s just carried that level of competency through,” said D’Avanza.

Susan Jutras, director of the Goffstown CERT team, who worked closely over the last five years with French in his roles as emergency management director, described him as an all-around good guy and hard worker.

“I find he’s very fair. When there’s a job to be done, he gets it done.”

French said some of the challenges his successor would face include dealing with the increased calls for service and amount of traffic flowing through the community, being able to continue to recruit and retain quality individuals, the rise of identity theft crime and being able to meet the needs of the community with existing staffing.

In his retirement announcement, French expressed a desire to see the selection process remain in-house, saying there were several members of the department who embraced the community policing style and would be excellent leaders.

Caprio said the board has not yet discussed how it will approach the recruitment and selection process but would probably do so in the near future.

French said that while he won’t miss getting midnight calls and the tragedies and sadness that law enforcement is exposed to, he would miss the people that he works with.

“I have had the opportunity to work with the best people in law enforcement who definitely know what service to the public means,” he said. “The members of this community are first-rate, and the town of Goffstown is fortunate to have them.”

He said he looks forward to spending quality time with his friends and family, including his wife, children and grandchild, and having some downtime.

“Fishing would be nice,” he said.

He said he has no future plans except to continue as resident director of Exceptional Citizen’s Week, a summer camp for the developmentally disabled.