Police Chief Selection Committee

Mission

The mission of the Police Chief Selection Committee (PCSC) is to participate in the screening and interview process for the next Chief of Police of the Princeton Police Department (PPD). The PCSC will work with the recruiting firm contracted by the Selectboard, Municipal Resources Inc. (MRI), and shall name up to 3 qualified finalists to be interviewed by the Princeton Selectboard.

The Police Chief Selection Committee shall consist of the following individuals:

• The Town Administrator (who will serve as the chair and non-voting member)
• The Chair of the Advisory Committee or their designee
• The Princeton Fire Chief or their designee
•  Up to five community members appointed by the Selectboard

Time Commitment and Qualifications

The PCSC will likely meet three to five times at a regularly scheduled time that is most convenient for all committee members. A full day session has been scheduled for Monday, November 14 when semi-finalists will be interviewed by the PCSC and asked to perform tasks by MRI at the Assessment Center. Materials will be distributed for review before each meeting.

Schedule

The PCSC shall be appointed on October 17, 2022, and complete the work detailed in this charge by December 1, 2022.

Police Chief Selection Process

• Applications are submitted to MRI (Municipal Resources Inc.) by Monday October 17. Complete. 
• The MRI team will review applications and resumes to cull out applicants that are not qualified. Complete
• Candidates that remain after the initial review will be interviewed by phone by the MRI team. Complete
• MRI will select 5 or more candidates to be interviewed by the Police Chief Selection Committee on the morning of November 14th as part of a “hybrid” assessment center managed by MRI. Complete. 
• The Selection Committee will receive resumes in advance of the interview day.  This information is confidential and is not public.  Names of the candidates are not made public and should not be discussed outside of the meetings. All meetings of the Police Chief Selection Committee will be held in Executive Session.   
• Each Committee member will likely have time to ask 2-3 questions of each candidate during the interviews on November 14th.  The Committee should meet in advance of the interview day to discuss the questions they plan to ask. On November 14th, each candidate will concurrently participate in an “Assessment Center” also managed by MRI.  Throughout the day, they will complete exercise designed to measure their competency in performing critical job tasks.  For one exercise during the afternoon session of the assessment, the Committee may choose to observe and/or participate (at their discretion/level of comfort) in an exercise administered by MRI.  
• After MRI independently scores candidate performance during the assessment, the Police Chief Selection Committee will meet with MRI and the TA to discuss their observations of the applicants’ performance.  The Committee will then recommend 2-3 candidates to forward to the Selectboard as finalists. At this point the names of the finalists will be made public. 
• The finalists will be interviewed by the Selectboard in Open Session.  The public may attend.  
• Once the Selectboard has identified their choice for Police Chief, the selected candidate will be given a “Conditional Offer of Employment.” Conditions will likely include background screening and pre-employment psych screening.  Contractual terms will be reviewed by the Town’s legal counsel before finalization.