A New Hampshire police chief walked home in his underwear. He had a point to make, he says.
"You want to walk out of your agency with your head held up high, which I should have been able to do."
This is not how Richard Lee pictured his retirement.
In his last duty as police chief in Croydon, New Hampshire, he gave his all to local leaders Tuesday night — that is, all of his uniform.
After the board of selectmen voted to dissolve the town’s one-man police force, Lee, who says he was blindsided by the motion, turned over the keys to his cruiser and his policeman blues.
He left the town offices, heading out into a snowstorm to start his six-mile walk home in his underwear and boots.
On the side of the road, Lee was twice offered rides by passersby, but he declined, he told Boston.com. He had a point to make.
“These guys don’t know how to do a thing because that was the wrong way to do it,” said Lee, whose law enforcement career has spanned over four decades. “I have no idea if what they did was illegal.”
This week’s vote is the latest development in a saga involving Croydon’s police department and town officials over the past year.
In March, Town Meeting voters opted to disband the department in favor of contracting services from nearby Newport — a vote later determined to be unlawful, according to The New Hampshire Union Leader. Amid a citizen’s petition, officials then held a non-binding Special Town Meeting vote in May where voters overwhelmingly supported keeping Lee on in the small town of 750.
“(The selectmen) have nothing, so what they did was disbanded the police department, which in effect I think still leaves me the police chief, I just don’t have any money and I can’t work,” Lee, who also served as town prosecutor in his role, said Wednesday.
He will be in touch with his attorney about the matter.
“If what they did was illegal and improper in any way, I’m suing the town,” he said. “I’ve had enough of this stuff.”
Without its one-man department, Croydon will rely on New Hampshire State Police to provide law enforcement services, according to Lee.
Selectmen could not be reached for comment Thursday morning. A phone number for town offices rang unanswered.
Board chairman Russell Edwards told the Valley News Wednesday the decision to dissolve the department “was an action based upon value for the cost of the department.”
State police already cover 81 percent of the incidents in Croydon, he said.
“Part of the discussion covered the fact that we didn’t feel we were getting the value of the money being paid to the chief versus what we have been paying for the state police coverage,” Edwards told NBC5.
A draft of the meeting minutes obtained by the news station indicates the motion to abolish the department passed unanimously. The board also voted to provide Lee with one month’s payment as a severance package.
The meeting kicked off at 6 p.m. with other discussions regarding well testing, ambulance services, and how Croydon can create its own town website, among other agenda items. Officials adjourned 37 minutes later.
Lee has concerns with handing full authority over to state police.
“The trooper can be there in five minutes or an hour and a half, you don’t know,” he said. “That’s the problem with not having a local officer.”
Lee got his career start in 1977, working retail security as a special police officer in Massachusetts, he said. He worked in Danvers for approximately a year before heading north for a job in Newport, New Hampshire.
He served Croydon since 2000, he said. He has no plans to return to law enforcement, regardless of whatever unfolds next, making his frigid walk home Tuesday night his first steps as a retired man.
“You want to walk out of your agency with your head held up high, which I should have been able to do,” he said.
Lee estimates he made it about three quarters of a mile before his wife picked him up. He said someone else had apparently called her, but, prior to that, he “absolutely” planned to go the full distance on his own.
He maintains that detractors of the department “got [the] ear of the selectboard.”
“I really feel sorry for the rest of the town, and I feel concerned for their safety,” Lee said.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com