Interviews with candidates to fill the vacant position of police chief will begin on Monday, April 25, and continue through the week, Freeport Town Manager Peter Joseph said.

Joseph said he hopes to have a recommendation to the Town Council for someone to succeed longtime Police Chief Jerry Schofield by mid to late May. Joseph, department heads, the police union and the Maine Chiefs of Police Association are working together on the first round of interviews, Joseph said.

Schofield, 63, retired on March 26 following 28 years as Freeport’s police chief. He began with the department as a patrol officer in 1976. Schofield was earning $92,514.

Lt. Susan Nourse, who has worked closely with Schofield for many years, is the acting police chief.

“We have a level of experience there that can run the department,” Joseph said, “so there’s no rush. We have to make sure we do the process right and thoughtfully.”

Joseph said he is pleased with the field of approximately 20 candidates.

“We have lots of qualified candidates,” he said. “We’re advertising no particular salary, but we expect it to be in that ballpark. Jerry’s salary was ‘middle of the road’ of police chiefs in the area, according to a survey.”

Though Freeport might pose a particular challenge because it is such a retail center, Joseph said there remains the prevalent residential side to the police chief’s job.

“It’s not just worrying about policing the downtown, although organized shoplifting is a problem,” he said.

Replacing Schofield, in particular, poses a different challenge.

“Even keel’s a good way to describe him,” Joseph said. “He was cool-headed – neutral and impartial and fair.”

Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, said that the association will do what it can to help Freeport with this important choice.

“We’re not going to pick a police chief, but we will suggest to them a couple final names,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz noted the differences in such a search since the time Schofield became police chief in 1988.

“Chiefs, of course, need leadership qualities and current information on case law,” he said. “They need to deal with personnel issues, have knowledge of community policing and getting along with the public – communications skills. And they have to protect their officers. Training is a big issue.”

Right on the heels of the quest to replace Schofield, the town also will be conducting a search for someone to take the place of longtime Fire Chief Darrel Fournier, who retires on May 6. He has been fire chief since 1983.

Joseph said that the town has the job opening posted, and he is working with Judy Hawley, the town’s personel director, to get moving in that search. Hopes are for a new fire chief to be on board by mid-late June, Joseph said.

The logo of the Freeport Police Department.