New Bedford Mayor Mitchell announces new city police chief

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WLNE) — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell announced the appointment of a new city police chief Tuesday.

Jason Thody, previously chief of the Hartford Police Department, will take over the role from retiring New Bedford Police Chief Paul Oliveira.

Oliveira retired from the department in May, with Derek Belong serving as acting chief.

Thody had a 28-year tenure working for the City of Hartford.

While the mayor has said Oliveira’s retirement was planned all along, it coincided with a Boston Globe series that suggested New Bedford police had been handling narcotics investigations unethically.

On Tuesday, the mayor said the series did not play a role in his search or hiring.

“The decision on who to hire as chief was done strictly on who would be the best person to lead the department,” Mitchell said. “It isn’t in response to any media reports or anything like that.”

Thody also spoke at the event, and said one of his priorities will be learning as much as he can about “The Whaling City.”

“First and foremost, getting to know the department, I’m going to start doing some of that today, and I’ll be back to do that in the weeks to come, and getting to know the community, getting to know the businesses, getting to know the other department heads,” Thody said. “Just making myself available, making sure people have my number, making sure people know how to get a hold of me and starting to shed the stigma of being an outsider, I want to be an insider as soon as possible.”

ABC6 asked Thody about the ‘no confidence’ vote he received from the Hartford police union, and he attributed it to the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, which he said were a difficult time to navigate.