Law enforcement veteran Charlie Dennis will take over as Hanover Police Chief this June, filling the vacancy left by former chief Nicholas Giaccone’s retirement in October, town manager Julia Griffin announced in a release yesterday.
The search began in early November, she said, after Giaccone retired due to a stroke. Captain Frank Moran has served as acting police chief in the interim.
Dennis’s nearly 30 years of law enforcement experience, combined with his affability and professional insight, set him apart from the 64 other candidates contending for the position, Griffin said.
“He’ll be the kind of chief who will walk down Main Street and talk with people,” Griffin said. “The type who will walk across campus and engage in conversation.”
She also called him articulate, bright, kind and thoughtful. During the selection process, she said, Dennis’s confidence and professionalism won over the six-person interview panel.
Dennis currently leads the police department in Reidsville, North Carolina, and has worked in departments across the country, but Hanover will be his first college town.
He has also worked in Texas, Arizona and Idaho, in places ranging from a suburban metropolis of over 230,000 to a rural town of around 2,500.
Dennis began his law enforcement career in 1984 in Garland, Texas and then moved to Idaho in 2001, where he worked in county government. He served as the Chief Deputy for the Boundary County Sheriff’s department in Bonners Ferry for four years and then as Undersheriff for the Bonner County Sheriff’s department in Sandpoint for three years. Dennis later ran the Page, Arizona, police department for four years.
Griffin said the selection committee, which included Safety and Security director Harry Kinne, was particularly interested in his experience dealing with alcohol and with designing effective methods of enforcement, since the Hanover Police Department commonly encounters alcohol-related incidents.
Both Griffin and Dennis mentioned his past job in Arizona, where tensions exist between city establishments that serve alcohol and the neighboring Navajo reservation, which is dry.
“He’s someone who’s come in with sensitivity around law enforcement,” Griffin said. “It’s helpful to have an understanding of the alcohol enforcement world, the prevention world and the support world.”
Dealing with sexual assault should accompany an understanding of alcohol, Griffin added.
She added that the selection committee was pleased that Dennis had experience working with racially diverse populations, noting that it is a perspective not often seen in northern New Hampshire.
Dennis did not name any specific challenges he is anticipating in his new job, but did say he anticipated working closely with Safety and Security.
He said he and Kinne “clicked” well together.
“We’ll see what we can do to help Dartmouth be crime-free,” Dennis said.
Griffin said Dennis’s record of introducing innovative law enforcement techniques will be an asset to Hanover.
Dennis, who said his breadth of experience will help him as police chief, said he was first drawn to Hanover by its “quaint” New England community, which grew on him as he progressed through the interview process and met the town manager, town department heads and business owners.
He also cited the long tenures of Griffin and Giaccone as indications of Hanover’s desirability.
“It looked like it would be a great place to not only live but also work,” Dennis said.
Dennis earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from California Coast University and attended the FBI National Academy and the FBI Command College.
He is an active member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, amongst other state and national law enforcement organizations.
Dennis finishes in North Carolina on May 21, and will start in Hanover the first or second week of June.
