Dighton community outraged over police chief selection process

DIGHTON, Mass. (WLNE) — During Wednesday night’s Dighton selectmen meeting, there was an overwhelming outpouring of support for Acting Police Chief George Nichols to become the next chief of the Dighton Police Department.

Nichols’s wife was emotional at the podium.

“I am not here to criticize you for not hiring him,” Kim Nichols said. “I am here to tell you, you have made our lives a living hell for eight months.”

“You made him do essay questions twice,” Nichols continued. “He’s done multiple interviews, outsiders have come in, they’ve done it once. Is that how you treat someone with all this respect? You should be ashamed, beyond ashamed.”

Selectman Chair Peter Caron briefly took responsibility for how town officials went about choosing Fairhaven Sergeant Timothy Souza as the only finalist for the job, adding that the board will look at a new process for hiring.

“There is a process that we have to finish,” Caron said. “Like I said, we errored in what we had done up until today and we will take a look at this and we will go forward with this.”

“Unfortunately its not going to happen next week,” Caron added. “I promise you that George will be given a fair hearing, and if he passes with the input from tonight, we’ll make him the next police chief.”

Residents said the current process has already affected morale.

“Don’t be foolish and hire an outside person,” a resident said. “You’re going to pay for it in the end. We have an acting chief who is doing a great job.”

Selectman Leonard Hull made two separate motions during the meeting to discuss promoting Nichols as chief of police.

Neither motion was seconded and, needless to say, the crowd was outraged.

“That motion doesn’t pass because we can’t put it on next week. We haven’t even discussed it amongst ourselves,” Caron said. “Again, you can’t yell over each other.”