CHRISTOPHER LEWIS served his first day Monday as the new chief of police for the Topsham Police Department.
After nine years serving as the second in command, Christopher Lewis served his first day Monday as the new chief of police for the Topsham Police Department.
Town Manager Cornell Knight said he announced the appointment at the Board of Selectmen meeting Thursday and informed Lewis of the decision Wednesday.
Knight said he requested Lewis’ resume and interviewed Lewis, who was the only applicant for the position. Since former police chief Timothy Young left the department on May 4, Lewis has served as interim police chief and done a good job, Knight said.
Knight also cited Lewis’ experience since he joined the department in 1999. Lewis has served as a patrol officer, a school resource officer and has been a lieutenant with the Topsham Police Department since 2003. He has a degree in criminology from Florida State University, and Knight said Lewis is a qualified instructor in firearms, Tasers and is a certified Maine Criminal Justice Academy instructor.
Given his multiple qualifications and experience, Knight said, “I’m very confident in the appointment of him” as chief.
With a salary of approximately $57,000 as lieutenant, Lewis will now have a salary of $70,000 as chief.
According to his resume, after obtaining his bachelor of science in criminology from Florida State in 1993, Lewis obtained a basic law enforcement certification in 1994 from Lively Criminal Justice Academy in Havana, Fla. He worked from 1994 to 1999 as a deputy sheriff for the Highlands County Sheriff ’s Department, where starting in 1996 he served as a field training officer. He has specialized training in public safety executive command training, as a DARE instructor, an internal affairs investigator, in grant management training, crime scene processing, sex crimes investigations and is crisis intervention certified — in addition to other qualifications Knight noted.
Lewis said Monday a lot went through his mind when he was told about his new appointment.
“What went through my mind was what a privilege it was to be able to be told that the town manager has confidence in not only my managerial ability but my decisionmaking skills and the ability to lead the department,” Lewis said. “It was a surprise and I didn’t know what the process or procedure was going to be, so when he told me he had made the decision, in my mind it was just an honor, again, to be promoted to chief, to have the ability to work with not only the town manager but other department heads to continue in the capacity I’ve been as acting chief, and really looking forward to continuing.”
Even before he told Knight he’d pursue the chief ’s position, Lewis said he had to make sure he was ready for that next challenge “not only in my career but for the town and for this agency as well. It is a big step and there is a lot of responsibility, and I had to think long and hard and make sure I was ready for the next challenge.”
As chief, Lewis said his first goal is to fill the open full-time patrol officer position so the department can begin to run at full capacity. He’ll also have to look at the promotional process for the lieutenant position that he leaves behind.
Additionally, “I would like to increase the efficiency of the agency and the capacity of the way we are working internally,” and change some of the day-to-day workings of the department. “We need to increase our resources as far as technology,” Lewis said. “I’m going to work on replacing some of these computers which in this day and age affects the efficiency of the department,” such as when officers can’t finish their work without stopping to have the computer fixed.
“I believe in training opportunities and I believe in giving officers the opportunity to advance their knowledge, which will again make them stronger officers and increase their capacity for handling not only difference scenarios, but just handling their cases a little differently with an increase in knowledge,” Lewis said.
Born and raised in Miami, Fla., Lewis along with his wife and oldest daughter moved from the Sunshine State to Maine in 1999 for a life change. He found a difference in the volume of complaints, and it’s not that the job is any different as far as “you’re there to enforce laws and deal with people. A major difference was just the time you had where you can really learn the people that live in town and get a feel for the town itself, and you really get to know who the people are that you’re here to provide services for.”
“And the first snow obviously was extremely eyeopening, and working in conditions where the temperatures fall below zero as opposed to a heat index of 110,” Lewis added.
He doesn’t regret going into law enforcement or leaving Florida for Maine, where his now 15-year-old daughter and 10-year-old twins (one boy and one girl) he says get to experience things he never did, such as the change of seasons. He doesn’t miss the alligator and snake calls — or the fire ants like the ones he stepped on one night while chasing a subject through an orange grove.
His kids, he said, put his promotion in its proper perspective when they asked him what it means.
“I told them, ‘This means I make the rules.’ And my 10- year-old little girl looked at me and said, ‘Not at home you don’t.’ And I said, that’s my life right there. OK, a 10-yearold just brought me down to an even playing field.”
Life changes can occur, but Lewis said Monday he’s come to enjoy Topsham and, “I have no plans of going anywhere, as long as the town will have me and I want to continue on here and make my career here, not only for the town but this department, however long that will be.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
