By Craig Crosby
Kennebec Journal
MONMOUTH, Maine — The search for a new police chief ended right next door. Selectmen on Wednesday unanimously agreed to appoint Kevin Mulherin as the town’s top police officer. Mulherin, who is a lieutenant with the Auburn Police Department, has lived his entire life in nearby Leeds, except for the brief period when he lived in Monmouth.
“I think I can do a lot with the community, since I’m from there anyway,” said Mulherin.
Mulherin, 45, is scheduled to take over in Monmouth on April 18, said Town Manager Curtis Lunt. Mulherin will continue to work part time for the Auburn Police Department until his retirement in August, at which point he’ll go to work full time in Monmouth, Lunt said.
The town currently contracts with Kennebunk-based Central Intelligence to provide administration services for the Police Department. The contract calls for someone to be in the office 12 hours a week. Lunt said Mulherin will typically be in Monmouth more than 20 hours per week as he continues to work in Auburn.
Mulherin will be paid $54,000 annually once he begins working full time, Lunt said.
Mulherin will take over the position vacated by former chief Kevin Conger, who left the department at the end of January to become director of public safety at the University of Southern Maine.
Mulherin was selected from a group of 15 applicants from Maine and New Hampshire.
“We’re very pleased,” Lunt said. “We think he has the right experience for us and the right attitude.”
Mulherin, who is married and has three children -- one child is in high school and two are in college -- has been with the Auburn Police Department for 24 years. During that time, he has worked as a patrolman, criminal investigator and did a stint as an agent with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Mulherin has served in a supervisory capacity for more than a decade. He became a sergeant in the patrol division in 1998 and was bumped up to a captain in the criminal investigation division in 2001. He has been a lieutenant in the support services division since 2007, during which time he has overseen and assisted operations of the department, from cruiser maintenance and purchasing to budgeting. Mulherin was the captain of operations between 2005 and 2007, during which he oversaw all department operations in the absence of the chief and deputy chief.
Mulherin, who graduated with honors from Southern Maine Technical Center with an associate’s degree in law enforcement technology, has completed a host of other courses and specialized training and has been accepted for training at the FBI’s national academy.
Mulherin said his time in the criminal investigation division, in particular, taught him to reflect on how police do their job and how they could do it better.
“I’m an open-minded person,” Mulherin said. “I don’t make snap judgments.”
Lunt said Mulherin’s community involvement, which includes overseeing the Lewiston Regional Technical Center’s law enforcement program, volunteering for Special Olympics Maine, work on behalf of abused women and sexual assault victims, and his reputation for training young officers, helped set him apart from the other candidates.
“We want someone to set the example here,” Lunt said. “I think he can do that well.”
Mulherin believes he understands the dynamics of overseeing a small-town police department. He said people will always always know where he stands and what to expect from him.
“I’ve always had and always will have an open-door policy,” he said. “What you see is what you get. The people who work with me, who have worked with me, know who I am and what I am.”
Conger, who replaced former chief Robert Annese, was with Monmouth for just nine months before returning to the University of Southern Maine, where he had been a lieutenant prior to accepting the Monmouth post.
Annese served as Monmouth’s police chief for more than three years before resigning in February of 2010 after the state attorney general looked into allegations that Annese had misused his authority to find out who had rented a U.S. Post Office box being used to collect public sentiment on the Police Department. The attorney general determined there was not enough evidence to charge Annese.
The dustup came during a contentious police budget process, during which residents rejected five proposals over the course of five months, and there was discussion about shutting down the Police Department or joining forces with nearby Winthrop.
Tensions eased under Conger, who proved to be a popular chief with residents and town officials. Voters at the June 2010 town meeting approved this year’s budget by a wide margin.
Mulherin said he is anxious to get to know the town and for residents to get to know him.
“It’s a slower paced than what it is (in Auburn)”, he said. “You can get out into the community more that way. That’s what you need to do in a small town.”
Copyright 2011 Kennebec Journal