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| The Chief HATES having his picture taken |
By Will Collette
When I sat down with Police Chief
Jack Shippee a few days ago, he had 23 hours left (but hey, who’s counting?)
before the start of his retirement. Just about every passer-by asked the same
question, “how much longer, Chief ?”
Now that he had more than 30 years of service, including his
four years in the Air Force, simple arithmetic drove his decision to retire.
The Chief told me that, in the best interests of his family,
it made sense to do it now. Chief Shippee cited changes in the pension system
that kick in on July 1, including a five-year look-back that would cut his
pension rate, as well as higher premiums for health insurance.
He dismissed any political basis for his decision: “It’s economics, not politics…In the years
I’ve been here, I’ve worked under every Town Administrator Charlestown
With one son at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (studying computer program and game development) and another college-bound, the economic choices were all the more compelling. “I might have left earlier when the first round of pension cuts were made, but now it’s really necessary.”
I looked into Chief Shippee’s history and was impressed.
Even though he has been Chief only since 2009, he has been a fixture on the Charlestown Police since 1982, when he started out as a part-time patrolman.
Jack Shippee is a Rhode Island
native who was raised in North Providence . At
age 17, without a high school diploma, he joined the Air Force and served for
four years. That’s where he says he “grew up.” Before they could accept him,
the Air Force set young Jack Shippee up with a GED program
He was decorated for valor by the Charlestown Police in 1990
and was cited again in 1998 with the U.S.
Attorney’s Office Law Enforcement Award.
A life-long learner, he took night courses and earned a
Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Boston
University and graduated from the FBI National
Academy
Chief Shippee said that he believed a good leader “must lead by example” and said that
this is how he always strived to lead.
I asked the Chief about the process for replacing him as
Chief. He said that this will, of course, be up to the search and selection
committee and the Town Council, and expressed confidence that they would make
the right decision.
The two lead contenders from inside the Department, current
Acting Chief Lt. Michael Paliotta and Lt. Patrick McMahon, each have strong
supporters within the CPD and within Town Government.
I asked when was the last time Charlestown hired a Police Chief from outside
the CPD ranks. Chief Shippee said the last time was 1987 when the town hired
Mike Brady from Narragansett.
We talked at length about Charlestown and how he has seen it change
over the years. Chief Shippee said he has always been a firm believer in community
policing where officers feel and act as part of the community. But over the
years, as the town has grown, that has become harder.
Only five of the eighteen CPD officers are able to live in Charlestown . Chief
Shippee himself lives in Westerly .
The Chief plans to spend the summer with his sons Ben and
Jason and wife Patty. After the summer, he may start working on another
project. But at age 52 and a distinguished career, he has a lot of options,
including simply enjoying an early retirement (something I can certainly
appreciate)
Also on Monday night’s Town Council agenda is a “consent
agenda” approval for a town contract with SenSys, one of the two vendors who
submitted proposals to install red light cameras.
Chief Shippee, a supporter of the red light camera concept,
said he was concerned about the associated costs. Even with the “cost
neutrality” pledge by the vendors that Charlestown will pay nothing for the
system even if they fail to generate enough income to break-even, Chief Shippee
said “it sounds too good to be true.”
He said the town needed to make absolutely sure that it is
well-protected from liability if the system doesn’t generate enough tickets to
break even. The town also needs to make sure that the liability for the system,
even if that liability is going to be forgiven, doesn’t hurt the town’s bond
rating.
He said that the number of red-light running tickets the
system would generate to break even is pretty high. Further, he said that since
the whole point of the system was to deter
red-light running, he would expect the number of tickets to go down during the
course of the three-year contract. “Then
we’ll (the town) have to evaluate the money to see if the town, or the company,
will continue it.”
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| "The Tank" |
My first story on Chief Shippee covered the “Charlestown
Tank,” which I think in all fairness should be named after the Chief (Chief
Shippee said, no, no, don’t do that, because he had actually been trying to
give the Tank away).
Through the Charlestown Tank story, I learned that Chief
Shippee used his remarkable talent for hustling stuff to save town taxpayers
many thousands of dollars.
In addition to getting the Charlestown Tank (actually an
armored personnel carrier) for free, the Chief
also hustled up a couple of military surplus Humvees, ATV bikes, the
harbormaster’s boat and even office furniture. He even worked a deal with Cox
that ended up getting the town police station its radio tower and all the works
for free. I really wish he had put a wind turbine up there or an “Eat at the
Nordic Lodge” banner.
I asked the Chief if, as part of the transition process, he
planned to leave behind a file or notebook with his free stuff secrets. “You mean my contacts?” he asked, “let’s just say that if somebody has a need,
they should call me.”
I hope that whoever the next Charlestown Chief of Police
will be, that this person will have Jack Shippee’s mix of serious dedication to
police work and a wicked sense of humor.
For example, if you get an e-mail from him via his smart
phone, near the top of the text, it reads, “Sent
from my Verizon Wireless CrackBerry.”
I almost fell out of my chair when he told me the story
about how he got those military surplus Humvees serviced recently – a story
that, unfortunately, I can’t repeat.
You should read the wry answers Chief Shippee gave the
Westerly Sun recently when they subjected him to that usually corny Sunday
feature, “In the Easy Chair.” When he was asked to name the most recent
book he read, Chief Shippee said “Ship for
Brains; Cruise Confidential,” by Brian David Bruns.”
After my interview, Chief
Shippee e-mailed me with this last thought I will use to close this article: he wrote “One
question not asked; "what will I miss most about the job?" I was
given some wonderful opportunities over the years. I have met some really
decent people and did things I never thought were possible. I worked with some
of the best people and developed life long friendships with people in this
town. I will miss daily interaction with many of the residents as well as Town
Hall Staff and members of the police department.