A ceremony was held in Pembroke for Police Chief Rick Wall, who retired after 37 years with the department.
Wall joined the Pembroke Police Department in 1983 as an unpaid auxiliary officer, and was eventually hired in 1986. He was appointed as Chief in 2012. On Friday, numerous people gathered at Town Hall to wish him well.
“Just the people showing up is unbelievable,” said Wall. “My family, my community, my coworkers, my chiefs – it’s beautiful.”
With more free time, Wall was asked what he’s going to do next.
“I’d like to say I’m going to Disney, but because of COVID, we’re not doing that,” Wall laughed. “We’re just going to get in touch with family and go back to the basics.”
Through a long career, Wall said he’s most proud of the members of the police department, and a community policing approach they’ve embraced.
“When you look at the caliber of people in this department, they’re the best. Absolutely the best. The things that they do that aren’t considered conventional policing. The outreach that they do, and they all volunteer to go out and do the after-visits. They connect people with mental health services. They go out on Halloween and try to do as much public safety and community policing as possible – not because they’re told to do it, they know it’s the right thing to do and they want to do it,” said Wall. “I’m very proud of this department.”
The Pembroke Select Board appointed Lieutenant Richard MacDonald to serve as Interim Police Chief.
He served with Wall for 22 years in the department, and says Wall helped change his view of policing.
“It’s about building bridges with the community, having these relationships. Especially today with the optics going on in the world,” said MacDonald. “The fact that the community knows us better and understands what we do, I think that’s been instrumental for me going forward.”
Wall says there’s a bright future ahead for the police department.
“Being part of Pembroke, growing up in Pembroke, and always keeping that, is kind of what has guided me. It’s easy to sell to myself the things that we should be doing. It’s easy to sell to the officers because they know you believe in it. Working with these people and having them take that next step – we’re in great hands,” said Wall. “That’s probably the best part about this whole thing is, you’ve done what you can do, and move out of the way, let the next people take over because they’re ready.”
