After serving as Andover’s Police Chief for over twenty-one years, Glenn Laramie has announced his retirement. Laramie’s last day will be November 15.

Sitting in his no frills office at the police station, Laramie reflected on the changes he has seen since joining the department as a part-time patrolman in 1994. At the time, he was a full-time patrolman for the Franklin Police Department and was also working part-time in a couple of other area towns as a patrolman. Andover’s part-time Police Chief worked with Laramie in Franklin and convinced him to help out in Andover. Not long after, he resigned and Laramie was appointed by the selectmen to take his place.

Laramie began his law enforcement career in 1974 when he joined the Franklin Police Department as a part-time patrolman. In 1982, he was hired full time. He also worked for Merrimack County as a Corrections Officer. A skilled mechanic, Laramie also worked as a fleet mechanic for the Dead River Company for 20 years.

During his tenure with the department, Laramie has seen a lot of changes. The police station was a fourteen-foot square one room building beside the fire station. The one room served as office, booking room, interview room and patrol room. There was Laramie and two part-time officers. They had very little equipment and made do with what they had.

Today the department has a much larger building that has a separate booking room, two offices equipped with computers for report writing and other administrative functions, and even a restroom! Laramie credits the townspeople who came together to help build the station with volunteer labor and donations. The police vehicles are now properly equipped and fit for duty.

After his first Andover Fourth of July as police chief, Laramie realized that policies and procedures were needed to make sure the town’s largest event was handled in a professional manner. Today there is a book outlining how traffic, crowd management and other details of the event are to be handled. Staff from other departments who come in to assist are provided with these materials so that everyone is working together.

Laramie has nothing but praise for his staff. Today there is one full- time and three part-time officers. The full-time position was funded initially by a COPS grant which Laramie applied for and won. All of the officers are fully certified and have many years of law enforcement experience. He is proud of the level of professionalism that the department has achieved.

Select board members Victoria Mishcon and Jim Delaney had nothing but praise for Laramie and the work he has done in modernizing the department and the level of professionalism that has been achieved, while holding the budget to a very reasonable level. Town manager Marj Roy agreed with their sentiments and stated that it had always been a pleasure to work with Chief Laramie.

Laramie admits that police work is more suitable for younger men and although he may look for some part-time work to keep busy, he is looking forward to spending more time in Florida during the winter months and not being tied down by the responsibility of being a police chief!