MILFORD – Twelve years ago Fred Douglas had his work cut out for him.

Douglas was Milford’s new police chief, and an independent management study recommended sweeping changes in the department, saying it lacked leadership and suffered from infighting. It was Douglas’ responsibility to implement those changes, based upon 103 recommendations.

The chief and selectmen dealt with the majority of those recommendations, and Douglas believes, turned the department around.

Last week Douglas retired after 33 years in law enforcement, the last 12 as chief, and reflected on his early years as the town’s top police officer.

One of the most valuable results of following the recommendations was the department’s standard operating guidelines, a fat loose-leaf binder that is updated each year. Douglas calls it “the heartbeat of what we do,” and it is online in every officer’s cruiser.

“It tells every officer what he is expected to do in every situation,” he said, it has “everything from the department’s mission statement to guidelines on the use of cell phones, death notifications, booking procedures and handgun licenses.”

The 92-page report from Municipal Resources Inc. was also part of a drive to convince the community that the old police station on Elm Street “was totally inadequate,” Douglas said. “Now we have one that is state of the art and works very well for what we do.”

Of the 103 recommendations from MRI, Douglas and the Board of Selectmen decided that 16 were not practical to implement, including the one that said the department should be accredited. Selectmen and the chief decided seeking accreditation was not worthwhile, Douglas said. Because it so cost prohibitive, only the larger New Hampshire police departments take steps toward accreditation.

“It involved a lot of money,” and they weighed what they would get out of accreditation and the cost and decided not to, Douglas said.

He compared it to having a bachelor’s degree but not a master’s degree.

“I assure you, everything we do here is above average,” he said.

Douglas had no advice for the new chief, Michael Viola, who is scheduled to start on Aug. 1.

“He’s a professional and he’ll work his way through on his own,” and will have a wealth of information and support from the staff, said Douglas, who has not met his successor.

“I didn’t have that luxury” of staff support in the police department when I became chief. I had no one as a mentor,” although then-Town Administrator Lee Mayhew and Finance Director Katie Chambers were “extremely helpful” and so was Ruth Bolduc, the town’s Human Resources director and the selectmen.

The good, the bad

It’s not hard to remember the worst moments in his 33-year law enforcement career.

Within two years of his employment in Milford, he used deadly force against a man who had barricaded his family in his house.

“I was young and scared. At one point he left the house, shot at me. Several officers shot at him but I knew it was me” who shot him, Douglas said. The man survived and Douglas was assigned to stand guard at the hospital, but the next day Douglas was back on the job.

Today, after such an incident, an officer would have been put on administrative leave with pay, shielded from the media, and most importantly, said Douglas, provided psychological services.

“That was never offered to me,” he said. “I was on my own.”

A midnight drunk-driving accident on Route 101 that left three Conval High School teenagers dead, including one girl who died in his arms, remains Douglas’ most painful memory.

“I’ve never been able to forget her face. I will never forget it as long as I live,” and he also remembers how it tore apart the teens’ three families.

The young people were driving home after drinking soda at a Nashua dance, he said, when a vehicle hit their car.

Douglas who also remembers attending parole hearings for the driver, Daniel Berry, who was convicted of negligent homicide. In prison, Berry refused alcohol treatment, which extended his time from nine to 21 years, Douglas said.

Officer killed

The death of Brian Goulden, a 32-year-old Milford officer killed in an off-duty car crash in 2000, was another trauma – this one with the added pain of embarrassment.

“I was a young police chief. I’d never thought I’d have to deal” with a situation like that. “His wife was expecting, and the investigation found that he was intoxicated. I remember emptying his locker, and I swore I’d never do that again” and he let his officers know they would be held responsible for their off-duty conduct.

“I think the community knows that people make mistakes, but law enforcement needs to be held to a higher standard,” he said.

Public safety has always been Douglas’s top priority, one of the reasons he strongly opposed the recent repeal of the town’s firecracker ordinance, lobbied for safety improvements on Route 101, and has been a stickler about drivers keeping ice and snow off vehicle roofs.

There have been many good moments and many rewards over the years, including cards of thanks, some from people he didn’t know.

“A lot of people say they came from Massachusetts or New York or from the South and say they have never seen a police department as responsive as Milford’s,” he said, which he insists has much more to do with his staff and with the community than with him.

“Success or failure of a police department is related to the support of the citizens in general, and I was blessed that the community always supported” Milford’s police. “It’s a great town and I’m sure it will advance from here.”

Douglas, who is 58, says he will likely run for selectman next year in his home town of Lyndeborough, where there has been recent turmoil involving the police department and the selectmen.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 304, or kcleveland@
cabinet.com.