Hanover Police Chief Charlie Dennis has begun to settle into the position after his first two weeks as department head.
He said he plans to use his 28 years of experience in law enforcement to strengthen the relationship between the town and the College.
Dennis said he plans to meet with police officers and department staff over the next 90 days to understand the direction in which the department should move.
“It’s about building relationships and partnerships,” he said. “Every community is a little different, but the common denominator is human beings.”
Town manager Julia Griffin, who oversaw the search that selected Dennis, said that the committee was drawn to Dennis because he is familiar with the sort of community-building strategies required in a small town like Hanover.
In contrast, she said, police officers in urban areas with high levels of crime often cannot engage in “community-policing,” which focuses on fostering ties and relationships within a community. Instead, she said, they often have a “pretty black-and-white approach” to law enforcement.
“There is this very fine line that a police chief needs to be able to cross all the time,” she said. “There’s the important law enforcement role that is first and foremost their obligation, but there is also the caregiving role that a police chief has to play. Hanover is the sort of community that expects that from their police chief.”
Drawn to a career in law enforcement by his love of problem-solving and helping others, Dennis cites those same principles of relationship-building as the necessary components of effective crime-fighting and the sort of customer service that he believes a police department should provide.
Dennis served as the police chief of Reidsville, North Carolina for 18 months before coming to Hanover. As chief, he oversaw more than 50 officers and an annual budget of $4.5 million, the Union Leader reported.
He was also responsible for a major overhaul of the department’s evidence room after an internal audit under the previous chief found that evidence from over 46 cases, spanning a decade, had gone missing..
Prior to serving as police chief in Reidsville, Dennis held the same position in Page, Arizona for four years until it was eliminated following budget cuts.
Reidsville Interim Police Chief Ronnie Ellison, who worked closely with Dennis, characterized him as open-minded in his role.
Dennis interacted well with the local community, his former colleague said, and did not hesitate to solicit input.
“People kind of gravitated toward him because he’s that type of person,” Ellison said. “He always let me do my job, and he embraced my ideas.”
Griffin, who supervises the police chief and other department heads as town manager, said that Dennis will engage with local trends and issues, such as recent discussions at the College centered around sexual assault and binge-drinking.
She acknowledged, however, that the first six months usually involve a “steep learning curve” for new officials in any town.
Dennis’s experiences with issues of high alcohol consumption around Page will help him to adapt to the unique challenges of serving in a college town, Griffin said.
Safety and Security director Harry Kinne, who interviewed candidates, said that Dennis’s leadership style make him a “good fit” for the position and will boost the close working relationship between Hanover and the College.
“We’re a small town. We’re very intertwined,” Kinne said. “There’s a lot of interaction and interdependency.”
Dennis received the job offer in late April after a five-month nationwide search following the October retirement of former Chief Nicholas Giaccone.
Dennis said that he was attracted to Hanover due to the area’s sense of community and because his wife has family based in New England.
The search had a pool of more than 60 candidates. Griffin said Dennis stood out among the applicants because of his extensive community outreach efforts.
