Former chief resigns Seabrook job

By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — If Bill Baker could have his way, he’d be back in a Laconia Police Department uniform.

Baker, who stepped down as Laconia’s police chief in August 2002 to pursue an opportunity with the Department of Justice’s international policing program, last week resigned his post as chief of the Seabrook Police Department after less than six months on the job.

Baker on Tuesday said he’d love to return to the City on the Lakes.

"That would be great," Baker said to the suggestion that he might be in Laconia, in uniform, for Bike Week.

"I’m only half kidding that I might come and beg to do some part-time work in the city. It was a fun place to live and work," he said.

Baker said he left Laconia — a move "which I’ve regretted every day by the way," he noted — due to the needs of being able to better provide for his two daughters, one of whom was ill at the time of his departing the LPD for the DOJ.

At Justice, Baker said, he "spent a wonderful year" working in Tajikistan, among other places, before the needs of his family again compelled him to return to the Granite State.

"So I came back to this community (Seabrook) which seemed to have some department issues and community issues which I thought were right up my alley and we made some pretty substantial accomplishments in the first 60 days," said Baker. "But it was really clear that there was a group of people who were really anxious to have the deputy chief become the police chief."

That group included two of the town’s three selectmen, he said, who at their meeting last week "rejected every major proposal that I put forward, including my interest in having Seabrook join the regional drug task force, and while not the only issue, that made it clear that I did not have the support of the executive branch of local government."

Baker said he told the selectmen that while he wouldn’t stand in their way of elevating the deputy chief, he also couldn’t do "what I’m paid to do with both hands tied behind my back so I talked to the town manager (Tom Welch), who’s been a huge supporter, and reluctantly decided to step aside."

Baker’s resignation has touched off a furor in Seabrook, according to published accounts in the April 30 edition of The Daily News (of Newburyport, Mass.) which reported that residents of the community have begun a petition campaign to have the selectmen rescind their vote against joining the regional drug task force and also to have the selectmen give Baker "an apology for the manner in which he (Baker) was treated."

The petition, said The Daily News, credits Baker with making huge strides in combating Seabrook’s heroin abuse problem, and calls his resignation "a giant step backwards for our town. We ask that you not accept his resignation and allow the chief to do his job."

The chief thanked Welch, who was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, as well as the police union and citizens of Seabrook for their support.

There were "no hard feelings," he said. "I’m not mad at anyone. I assume there’s a place out there someplace waiting for what I have to offer. In the meantime, I will slow the pace a bit and enjoy Seabrook beach and maybe come back to Laconia as a part-time policeman."

In Laconia, Baker became a lightning rod for criticism, when in 2002, he took on problems associated with Bike Week.

Baker referred to several property owners in The Weirs as "profiteers" who made money off the event while turning a blind eye to the fact that it generates a number of public safety issues for his and other agencies while also saddling the city with debt for providing municipal services.

He earned the ire of the Hells Angels, who had been involved in several violent incidents that year with other motorcycle gangs, by trying unsuccessfully to deny them vending permits for Bike Week.

But Baker also had won the respect, trust and admiration of many Laconians, particularly the increasing number of refugees from around the world who call the city home, for his efforts to create the city’s Human Relations Committee to deal with issues of diversity.

He was also widely commended for his very high public profile in the community, his accessibility and interaction with citizens and police officers — Baker would frequently go on patrol after the end of his regular business day — and for helping to restore the LPD’s morale.

An attorney, and the former Commissioner of Public Safety in Massachusetts as well as the chief of police in the communities of Southboro and Sutton, Mass., Baker said while he looks forward to the possibility of coming back to Laconia, the town of Seabrook was one up on the city in at least recognizing and honestly confronting the problems that it faced.

Asked about the proliferation of heroin in Seabrook, Baker called it "indescribable."

"I can’t leave my office without running into a situation where I could make an arrest myself," he said, "and unlike the supporters of Bike Week, it’s interesting that this community has welcomed exposing the problem and rallied around the proposed solutions to solve the problems. No one’s saying that talking about the problems is giving the community a black eye."