It was a family affair in the Fred B. Morgan Jr. meeting room at the Edgartown town hall on Monday this week when David Rossi was sworn in as town police chief. Dan Rossi, who is the West Tisbury police chief, had first honors of pinning the badge on his younger brother. And the room was filled with extended family members as well, many of them from the Island’s close knit law enforcement community. The Dukes County sheriff was there, along with police chiefs from Chilmark, Aquinnah and Tisbury.

The new chief and father of three fought back tears that sprang to his eyes over the moment at hand, somehow making him all the more likeable.

There has been criticism over the way the Edgartown selectmen chose to handle the search for the town’s next police chief after Antone Bettencourt announced early this year that he would retire. And it is true that they took an unconventional, deliberately closed-circuit approach. Rather than conducting a broad search, the selectmen appointed Jack Collins, an attorney and longtime labor counsel to Island towns who is also a specialist in law enforcement, as interim chief, asking him to perform an internal review with an eye toward recommending who would make the best candidate for chief.

The end result by now is well known — in addition to recommending that Mr. Rossi, a fifty-five-year-old patrolman and school resource officer, be promoted to the top slot, Mr. Collins also recommended that Det. Sgt. Chris Dolby be promoted to lieutenant, a position that has been unfilled in the department for some time. Mr. Collins has also provided the town with a lengthy report from his internal review with recommendations.

Should the town have cast a wider net before deciding the best candidate was already here? Probably. But surely a key job qualification for any small town chief would be proven commitment to the community, something Chief Rossi has in abundance. The Edgartown police department needs leadership, not a shake-up. And both the selectmen and the new chief will be under pressure to prove that his ascension from the rank and file to the top spot was well considered.

Dave Rossi steps into the job at a time when police officers all around the country — big city and small town cops alike — are under scrutiny following the recent high-profile incidents in Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, and Staten Island, N.Y. A new national debate is unfolding on community policing and the use of force.

“Edgartown is no Ferguson,” Chief Rossi told the Gazette in a candid interview this week, adding: “But the training for us all is the same . . . . Nobody knows all they need to know. I certainly don’t.”

The recommendations for improvements to the Edgartown police department contained in Mr. Collins’ report will serve as a good starting point for Chief Rossi, who is clearly approaching his new assignment with appropriate humility. By his second day on the job, he’d signed up for three training courses.

That alone should be enough for even the Monday morning quarterbacks to wish Chief Rossi well as he joins the top ranks of Island law enforcement.