Committee Names Three Finalists—Two From In-House—for Post of Haverhill Police Chief

Committee Names Three Finalists—Two From In-House—for Post of Haverhill Police Chief

By WHAV Staff

Selection of Haverhill’s next police chief is nearing the finish line with two Haverhill senior officers and a Lawrence captain emerging as finalists.

Haverhill Deputy Police Chief Stephen J. Doherty Jr. and Capt. Robert P. Pistone and Lawrence Police Capt. Maurice Aguiler were named finalists by a police chief interview committee Wednesday. Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini said his interview committee, comprised of both members with police hiring experience and community leaders, screened the top five candidates.

“The consensus was that these three should be advanced to be finalists,” the mayor told WHAV.

Fiorentini said the final pick now falls to him with the help of Haverhill native and former Hampton, N.H., Police Chief William Wrenn, and consultant Alan Gould, a retired Rye, N.H., police chief and town manager, and interim Salem, N.H., police chief.

Doherty, a 26-year veteran of the Haverhill department, was sworn in as deputy police chief in May. He has worked in a supervisory or management capacity for 16 of his approximately 26 years in law enforcement and has headed Haverhill’s Police Investigative Division since 2018. He was a Haverhill patrol officer from 1998 to 2004.

Pistone joined the department in July 2000 as a patrolman and was formally promoted to captain in August of 2018. He was a Groveland reserve police officer for two years before that. Pistone was also one of 232 law enforcement officers who graduated from the FBI National Academy Program at Quantico, Va. The training included modern crime-solving techniques, advanced communications and leadership training, among other topics.

Aguiler, a 22-year veteran of the Lawrence Police Department, was sworn in last fall by then-Mayor Daniel Rivera as Lawrence’s first Latino captain. He served in the U.S. Air Force and is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War. Aguiler later obtained his associate degree in Criminal Justice from Northern Essex Community College, his bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from UMass. Lowell and juris doctor from the Massachusetts School of Law.

Besides Wrenn and Gould, those serving on the screening committee were Haverhill Health and Inspectional Services Director Richard MacDonald who is also a former Duxbury town manager; Haverhill City Solicitor William D. Cox Jr.; Kalister Green-Byrd, a former Haverhill Housing Authority commissioner and community volunteer; Lynda Brown, head of the Highlands Neighborhood Group and head of Haverhill Brightside, a community and neighborhood beautification group; Manuel Matias, representative of the Haverhill Latino Coalition; Irene Haley, president and CEO of the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce; Eliza Espinal, a Haverhill resident and volunteer assistant in the Lawrence Deputy Police Chief’s office; and Haverhill schools’ Assistant Superintendent Michael J. Pfifferling.