BY DARRELL HALEN
Joe Roark takes pride in the Pelham Police Department being a community-oriented force.
That won’t change when he becomes the department’s next leader, and he wants to expand ties to residents.
“I want to make sure we have community-based programs that touch all the segments, demographics of our town,” he said.
In particular, he’d like to start programs that help the elderly against fraud, telephone schemes and con men.
And he would like to see citizens academies, multi-week programs where officers teach residents about police work.
“That’s a program I think we can easily put in place,” he said.
Roark, 38, will become police chief on Friday, April 20. He succeeds Evan Haglund, who is leaving to become police chief in Topsfield, Mass.
“I think there will be some things that will be challenging and stimulating,” Roark said of his new job. “I’m very excited about it.”
He was unanimously chosen by selectmen as the best choice for chief out of 10 applicants for the job, according to selectmen chairman Ed Gleason.
Roark started as a patrolman in Pelham in 1996 and has worked his way up the ranks. He became the department’s first and only lieutenant in 2001 and was promoted to captain, his current position, in 2005.
Roark holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from University of Massachusetts Lowell, went through a police academy in Florida, and has a master’s degree in criminal justice administration from Western New England College.
Pelham’s police force is the only one he has worked for and he has remained in town 11 years, despite opportunities to work elsewhere.
“I felt like it was a department that was moving up,” he said. “I feel that every year I’ve been here we’ve gotten better. I live in Pelham. I think it’s a great town.”
He said he was fortunate that the two chiefs he served under used a merit-based promotion process.
“I started my career later in life,” Roark said. “I was 27 years old when I was hired as a patrolman.
So I think I had the life experience and maturity that some of the officers who start in their early 20s need time on the job to develop. Because I started a little bit later in life and had that worldly experience, I was able to move through the ranks a little bit more rapidly than others.”
Roark will oversee a department of 19 full-time officers, several part-time officers and civilian employees, and a budget of roughly $2.1 million.
“I’m going to evaluate some things when I first get started here,” he said. “Chief Haglund is leaving me an effective department, professional department. I’m going to evaluate a few things and maybe keep it going in the same direction with some of my own personal traits put on it. I don’t plan on any major changes in the near future.”
One of his goals is to conduct a town-wide survey to gauge the public’s opinions and expectations of the department. He will tailor job functions to public needs, he said.
And he also plans to survey employees to identify and solve any problems they’re having.
“I think I’m a hard worker,” Roark said. “I’m passionate. I feel like I have drive, and I also try to get the best out of everyone who’s around me, and, likewise, I want them to get the best out of me.”
Roark, a native of Chelmsford, Mass., is one of nine children. All his brothers work in law
enforcement, including his twin brother, John, who is a detective in Chelmsford.
Roark and his wife, Kerry, a special education teacher at Woodbury School in Salem, have a 2-year-old son, Colin.
As chief, he will earn a starting salary of $85,000.
Roark, who will be sworn in during a May 1 ceremony, said he wants his officers to strive to make their department the best it can be.
“I’m not talking about just getting by,” he said. “I want this to be the best police department in the area.”