GORHAM — Michael Nault, who worked his way up through the ranks of the Gorham Police Department from patrol officer to lieutenant, has been promoted to deputy chief.

Nault on Nov. 14 was sworn in by his mother-in-law, retired Town Clerk Connie Loughran, at a ceremony at the municipal center.

As deputy chief, Nault will oversee the department’s Criminal Investigation Division and Professional Standards, which includes accreditation and policy review. He will also serve as the department’s training coordinator and be responsible for crisis response planning, he said in an email this week.

Nault joined both the Gorham and Scarborough police departments as a reserve officer in 1993 after earning a criminology degree at the University of Southern Maine in 1992. He was hired as a full-time patrol officer in Gorham in 1996, promoted to patrol sergeant in 2005 and became the lieutenant three years ago.

The town’s population boom is the biggest change he’s seen since his patrol officer days, he said.

“Because of this, our calls for service have increased, but our patrol officer numbers have not increased in many years,” he said.

Gorham’s population jumped up to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate of 17,651 last year from 11,856 in 1990, representing a 48.9% increase in three decades. The department has 11 patrol officers, according to the town’s current budget booklet.

The department, Nault said, also has expanded the number of school resource officers to three. They include one each at the high school and middle school with another assigned to the elementary schools.

“The connection that these officers are making on a daily basis are building vital bridges between the schools, police and the community,” he said.

He has witnessed technology changes through the years, too.

“When I first started all we had in our cruisers was a two-way radio and a radar unit. Today, the officers have those items along with laptops, watchguard video recording systems and more equipment/tools that are carried on their person,” Nault said.

Nault is a member of the department’s honor guard and once served as supervisor when the town had its own dispatch service.

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