Fall River’s Mayor Switches Police Chiefs
Under Pressure From Unions

Kelly Furtado becomes the first woman in the city’s history to lead the department

Kelly Furtado gave her first remarks as police chief at a news conference attended by close to 50 police officers.
Kelly Furtado gave her first remarks as police chief at a news conference attended by close to 50 police officers.
Ben Berke/The Public’s Radio
1 min read
Share
Kelly Furtado gave her first remarks as police chief at a news conference attended by close to 50 police officers.
Kelly Furtado gave her first remarks as police chief at a news conference attended by close to 50 police officers.
Ben Berke/The Public’s Radio
Fall River’s Mayor Switches Police Chiefs
Under Pressure From Unions
Copy

As Mayor Paul Coogan weighed four internal candidates for police chief of Fall River, Massachusetts, he said Kelly Furtado emerged as a popular choice among the department’s rank and file.

Furtado comes from a police family: her father, husband and son have all served as Fall River police officers. She had also worked alongside the mayor at the city’s high school as a school resource officer while Coogan was still a vice principal.

On Oct. 8, Coogan announced Furtado as his latest pick to lead the police department — his fifth police chief in just five years — at a news conference that emphasized her groundbreaking role as the first woman in Fall River’s history to hold the position. In a short speech, Furtado vowed to make officers feel more valued on the job.

“I want to foster collaboration and teamwork, something that’s been missing in recent years,” she said.

Furtado’s remarks, delivered to a room of a few reporters and close to 50 police officers who crowded into the press conference to signal their support, appeared to reference the outgoing chief, Paul Gauvin. The city’s police unions recently announced a vote of no confidence against Gauvin, who promptly reached an agreement with the mayor to step down.

In an interview, the mayor acknowledged that the votes prompted him to reconsider whether Gauvin belonged in the position long term.

“The key to this,” Coogan said, “is that you cannot have a department that’s not cooperating with the chief.”

The city’s police unions did not issue any public statements explaining their disapproval. Instead, Coogan said the unions privately showed him a press release they planned to share if he did not take action.

“The things that they highlighted or talked about were respect, lack of communication, honesty — personal characteristics that are very tough to define in a job evaluation,” Coogan said.

This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.

President Trump has already cut over 1,200 positions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and agency leaders have been told to cut another 1,100 positions, according to a former administrator
Critics of the nomination of Dr. Michael Reuter say the podiatric surgeon doesn’t have the experience needed to serve on the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council
“As much as authors are being hurt and are on the front lines being threatened, as much as educators and librarians and all of these other adults are being threatened, ultimately one of the most important populations in our country is being affected – and they are the young people from whom these books are being taken away”
President Trump’s crackdown on campus protesters reflects longstanding fault lines in American politics
‘People want to see the real me and know what I’m doing when I’m recording’