The Police Department will soon welcome its new leader after the City Council voted on February 17 to approve Braintree Police Chief Timothy V. Cohoon as Newton’s next Police Chief.
“I am thrilled that Chief Cohoon will be joining the City’s police department,” Mayor Marc Laredo told Fig City News immediately after the vote. “He’s an exceptionally well qualified police chief.”
Almost two weeks before the 19 councilors present voted unanimously for Cohoon (with five absent), the 30-year law enforcement veteran had spoken at length with the Public Safety and Transportation Committee on February 4.
Several Councilors grilled Cohoon on constituents’ concerns, including how the Newton Police should handle encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); the hiring and retaining of new officers; traffic enforcement; quality-of-life problems; and how police respond to mental health crises, among other issues.
Drawing on his decades of experience, Cohoon gave no-nonsense answers about the challenging problems.
He said that at this time, police chiefs in Massachusetts are in the process of coming up with “best practices” on what they are and are not allowed to do when interacting with federal authorities like ICE.
“We don’t have a lot of guidance right now,” he said, as Fig City News previously reported.
Cohoon also offered practical suggestions on how the City might be able to increase the size of its police force by making the onboarding process easier. (Mayor Laredo noted in one of his community “listening sessions” last week that it is challenging to recruit officers for the Police Department, which currently has about 10 vacancies.)
Laredo first announced Cohoon as his choice for Police Chief in a January 12 email, stating that he and former Mayor Ruthanne Fuller jointly selected Cohoon to succeed Chief George McMains.
As previously reported, State Representative Richard Wells (D – 7th Norfolk), who was Police Chief in Milton and has known Cohoon throughout Cohoon’s entire career, told Fig City News, “Newton is very lucky to have Chief Cohoon. He’s very smart, diligent, and hardworking. He understands all aspects of 21st century policing, from the human aspects to the technology. He brings a wealth of background, experience, and leadership. He’s a humble guy. He’s caring. This is a big win for the residents of Newton.”
Cohoon will start work on Monday, February 23 and his swearing-in ceremony will be on Wednesday, March 4 at 2PM in the War Memorial Auditorium of City Hall.
Ed. Note: We updated this article to include Chief Cohoon’s start date and swearing-in ceremony.
