There was no crime on Gosnold Wednesday, a day much like any other. The only difference, this time it’s official.

“No incidents whatsoever,” announced the town’s first ever police chief, George Isabel. “There is nothing to report. The one problem was the rain, but there was no police action on that.”

Before Mr. Isabel there was no police chief’s uniform, no dedicated police telephone line — no police department for Cuttyhunk and the trail of other tiny islands of Gosnold, the seventh town that, with the Vineyard, makes up Dukes County.

Indeed, law enforcement is such a new concept to the town that Mr. Isabel, on his first day on the job, felt the need to hold an informational meeting for the public on some of its finer points.

It was a popular session — Mr. Isabel’s head count was between 30 and 40, impressive on an Island with just 27 year-round residents.

“It was a big turnout, nice to see,” said the chief.

He led a discussion about the laws relating to marijuana and social hosting, and tackled underage drinking.

“We had received a complaint about that,” he said of the latter. “And marijuana, that’s everywhere, it does happen and parents need to know it’s not legal.” Mr. Isabel, 59, is a retired Somerset patrolmen and has worked for several years as a part-time officer on Cuttyhunk. Born in Fall River, he began fishing on the island with his father during the summers at 18 and has been a charter fishing captain on the island part-time for 35 years.

He worked his final years as a Somerset police officer while commuting from the tiny island; when he retired from the force a few years ago he moved to the island full-time and began policing Cuttyhunk.

He now has a deputy in John Camara and an official jurisdiction. To his northeast are the Elizabeth Islands, dots of privately owned land leading back towards Woods Hole.

To the east is Penikese, formerly home to a leper colony and today the site of a reform school with around 10 year-round students. Mr. Isabel plans to meet with the faculty in the near future.

He has never heard of any trouble on the privately-owned Nashawena, where a handful of ascetic residents are rumored to use horses for transport and chamber pots for convenience, or on any of the other islands. But if there is any, the longtime charter captain is ready for it. Of Penikese, he estimated:

“I can be there in five minutes.”

Contacted recently by the Gazette as part of a weekly police report, Mr. Isabel related a few incidents in which the police had been lately involved.

“There was a case of a car stolen and driven to another part of the island,” he said. “And there was some malicious mischief. Some kids went down to the marina and pulled out the power. And they untied all the dock lines, foolish things like that. They want to brag to their friends about it.”

This all happened on the weekend?

“No this is over the past roughly five years,” he clarified. “For anything serious you’d have to go back at least 20 plus years.”

There was an accidental death on the west end of the island, and in 1985, a woman shot herself in the foot with a revolver. This was also ruled accidental, confirmed Mr. Isabel.

Still, an official police presence was something the town decided, at the annual town meeting in May, that it finally needed.

“I told the town you have some potential liability issues, you can’t continue this way,” said the chief.“I guess it just clicked; there are a lot more people staying here now. There’s 12,000 in the summer. I’ve never seen so many children in all my life.”

Underage drinking and unpermitted cars top a list of Mr. Isabel’s concerns. Though the most popular vehicles on Cuttyhunk are golf carts, there are about a dozen cars, all of which came over by barge and won’t leave, he said, unless it’s to go to the scrap heap.

Though Mr. Isabel’s first day on salary was Wednesday, he was officially sworn in last month by town leaders.

“It wasn’t a fancy ceremony. But it was a unanimous vote by the board of selectmen,” he said.

As for communication, both Mr. Isabel and Mr. Camara are now equipped with 911 pagers; there is a Web site (gosnoldpd.org) and a phone line (508-990-7408). And after hours Mr. Isabel can always be reached physically.

“You have to remember this is a small place. There’ll be someone knocking on my door,” he said.