This article by John Lippman was first published in the Valley News on Feb. 5.
NORWICH — Hoping to stabilize a department where leadership has been in flux, the town has named its interim police chief to the job permanently and is looking to him to rebuild a law enforcement agency that has been depleted of officers.
Matthew Romei, who joined the Norwich Police Department in August as interim chief, had the “interim” title replaced by “permanent” on Monday to bring the department back up to its full complement of four sworn officers. The department has been functioning with only two officers — Romei and a sergeant — since patrol officer Anna Ingraham, now with the Royalton Police Department, left in November.
“We had a number of interviews with qualified candidates but at the end of the day it really came down to Chief Romei’s experience,” Norwich Town Manager Brennen Duffy, who made the decision to hire Romei and to whom the police chief reports, told the Valley News on Monday.
“We had a chance to look at him closely during the interim period and he had a chance to experience the town for six months,” Duffy said. “He has the track record and is a very thoughtful and professional individual, the kind of leader I want to begin rebuilding and create stability in the department.”
Romei — pronounced rome-ee-eye — came to Norwich from Montpelier where he had been chief of Vermont’s Capitol Police Department for the prior six years.
“Now that we have a permanent chief, I think that’s going to help us with our recruitment,” Duffy said.
The short-handed department has hampered policing in town, according to Romei. For the year ending June 30, 2023, Norwich police responded to a total of 1,312 calls for service. But in 2022, police responded to nearly three-times as many calls. Romei attributed the decrease to not having a full complement of officers on hand.
“That means we’re not doing the traffic stops, not catching the DUI’s, the things that are public safety concerns,” said Romei, who likened the past six months of running an understaffed department to “just keeping the wheels on.”
Romei, who doesn’t have a contract with the town, will earn an annual salary of $99,425 per year, Duffy said.
Romei said he will be looking to hire two more full-time police officers to bring the department back up to its full complement of four sworn officers, although he allowed that is a challenge while the town is still negotiating a new union contract. In Norwich, both the police officers and public works department workers are represented by the New England Police Benevolent Association. The previous agreement expired last June.
(Norwich Police also is looking to hire a second school crossing guard for a few hours a week to help long-time guard Demo Sofronas).
In May 2023, Romei left the Capitol Police Department in Montpelier under somewhat opaque circumstances. Three months later, he was hired as interim chief in Norwich, replacing Wade Cochran, who resigned after just nine months on the job in order to take a job as safety director of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
In January, the Rutland Herald reported that Cochran had been suspended from his job at the DMV and put on paid leave “pending an unspecified external investigation.”
Prior to coming to Norwich, Cochran had spent 17 years on the Montpelier Police Force — including on the Vermont Drug Task Force and the FBI Task Force — and previously had served on the Barre and Hardwick police departments.
An Alabama native, Romei first came to Vermont to attend Norwich University in Northfield, where he earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees, according to a news release issued by Norwich on Monday. He worked for emergency response agencies in Alabama before returning to Vermont to work with the Capitol Police.
Romei’s “depth of experience and connections with law enforcement in Vermont will benefit our town and assist him as he builds the department. We look forward to working with him,” Marcia Calloway, chairwoman of the Norwich Selectboard, said in the news release.
Romei, responding to a question of whether he had recently been served with notice from the operator of the food services at the state capitol that he had a large unpaid balance owed for meals during his time working with the Capitol Police, acknowledged that he had recently been served civilly by sheriff deputies.
“I don’t think it’s any great secret that people have debts,” said Romei, adding “we’re on track to pay it off.”
“In spite of having several forms of communication available to them, they chose to send a letter by the sheriff’s department (where) I know everybody,” Romei said. “If they wanted to make a point … OK, whatever. It probably cost them a whole lot more than a phone call or stamp.”
There will be a meet-and-greet with Romei at the Norwich Public Safety Building on Hazen Street from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 22.
