It was standing room only at an Edgartown select board meeting Monday as family, friends and police officers gathered to celebrate the swearing-in of police chief Chris Dolby.
Mr. Dolby was born and raised in Edgartown, and he beamed as his daughters Ellie, 22, and Caroline, 18, pinned the gold badge to his chest, and the crowd cheered.
“This is such a special honor for me, and I will not let you down,” he said at the ceremony.
Mr. Dolby takes over from Bruce McNamee, who led the department since 2018 an retired in September. Mr. Dolby was named acting chief in October.
During his career, he has worn every badge for the Edgartown police department. He started as a traffic officer in 1990, when he was 18 years old.
Mr. Dolby said he has known since he was a kid that he wanted to work in community service. He used to spend his free time at the fire station where his father, Vietnam War veteran Mike Dolby, volunteered for 32 years and eventually became a captain.
His mother, Pam Dolby, was a volunteer EMT in town and served as the Edgartown town administrator for 12 years.
“The scanner was always on in our house . . . .” Mr. Dolby said at the ceremony. “Community service is my calling by default.”
But it is his grandfather, Ted Morgan, who inspires him most. Mr. Dolby said the two were close and Mr. Morgan, a decorated World War II veteran who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and served as an Edgartown selectman for many years, often spoke about the value of taking care of one another. Mr. Morgan died in 2019.
“This is his town,” Mr. Dolby said about his grandfather, in a subsequent interview. “I have to do my best to represent him.”
Mr. Dolby said he has several goals to improve the community’s safety, including educating people about cyber scams, which he said has become a frequent problem, particularly among the elderly. He also wants to find better ways to manage traffic downtown in the summer, and increase the hourly wage for officers to ensure both day and evening shifts are covered.
Addiction and mental health issues will be at the forefront, and Mr. Dolby has already been working to create a co-responder program with Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, where a mental health professional will accompany police officers on crisis calls.
“That’s a program that’s met with very successful results over on the mainland,” he said.
But his main goals for the department will be internal. Mr. Dolby said in recent years the department has become younger and training has grown exponentially.
“I first believe in showing by your own actions, how you’re doing things, how you conduct yourself,” he said. “Leading by example is the foundation for everything for me.”
An experience at the FBI Academy five years ago has had a lasting impact. Over 11 weeks there, he befriended 30 officers from around the world, an experience that gave him a global view of law enforcement. He said being with some of the best officers from departments in both big cities and small towns continues to help him think of creative solutions.
“I’m still in touch with those guys on a constant basis,” he said.
Keeping everyone safe is a partnership between the public and the police, Mr. Dolby feels, and having lived in town his whole life, he has seen first-hand how the community shows up for one another.
“It takes a village to raise a kid, and I am that kid,” he said.
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