HATFIELD — The town’s next police chief has nearly 30 years experience policing in small towns, a trait that the Select Board said set him apart from the other experienced finalist for the post.
The board on Tuesday tapped Hatfield Police Lt. Michael Dekoschak to be the department’s next chief, effective July 1. Current Police Chief Thomas Osley is retiring on June 30.
The Select Board’s two current members — Brian Moriarty and Edmund Jaworski — picked Dekoschak Tuesday night, and the town will now enter into contract negotiations with him, Moriarty said.
“He seemed very excited and very appreciative, and now it’s just a matter of working out the details,” Moriarty said Wednesday, adding the contract should be sewn up by the end of next week.
Dekoschak was among about 40 applicants for the job. A selection committee winnowed the list down to two finalists, and the Select Board interviewed the finalists, Dekoschak and Police Sgt. John Delaney, a 35-year veteran in the Springfield Police Department, last week.
The department has three full-time officers, including the chief, and nine part-time officers.
Dekoschak wrote in a cover letter that he has worked as a police officer since 1988, completing part-time stints in Ashfield, Charlemont and Shelburne and working full-time in Buckland. He joined the Hatfield police in 2011 and rose from sergeant to lieutenant.
“In this role, I regularly supervise staff, deal with disciplinary issues and see to the day-to-day workings of the Police Department where the Chief deems necessary,” Dekoschak wrote in his letter. “I am an absolute proponent of community based policing and believe in what I do.”
In Buckland, Dekoschak wrote that he was acting chief-in-charge in the chief’s absence, and served as assistant emergency management director and incident commander during Hurricane Irene in 2011.
In a brief interview Wednesday, Dekoschak said he is “very pleased” with the Select Board’s decision. He said he is satisfied with how the department is run right now, but one change he would like to see are shift adjustments that would allow “better coverage using the same amount of money we have budgeted to us,” he said.
In his cover letter to the Select Board, Delaney highlighted his experience as a supervisor in different department divisions in the Springfield, adding he has made 5,000 arrests in his career, investigated murders, violent crimes, accidents, property damage and assaults.
He also wrote that he was supervisor of the Springfield Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit for two years, leading a team of officers that made almost 2,000 arrests and took 150 guns off the streets without one citizen complaint.
“I am a supervisor who is patient with a calm demeanor under pressure and I lead by example,” he wrote in his letter.
When asked what separated Dekoschak from Delaney, Moriarty said it was Dekoschak’s experience working in smaller departments.
“Both were very well qualified and Sgt. Delaney has an awful lot of experience coming from a larger city,” Moriarty said. “It had a lot to do with Lt. Dekoschak’s familiarity and experience with a smaller type of police department in a smaller community.”
“His demeanor seemed to fit the town of Hatfield well,” he added.
Jack Suntrup can be reached at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.