HARTFORD — In another departure at the Hartford Police Department, Robert Cormier, interim director of police services, has left the department to become chief of police in Belfast, Maine, the town announced Thursday.
Cormier, who came to Hartford last year after retiring as chief of police in Tilton, N.H., in 2021, had been overseeing administration of the department since former Deputy Chief Brad Vail left to become police chief in Barre, Vt., in February.
Acting Lieutenant Connie Kelley, a 23-year veteran and the department’s third-longest-serving member, has been named acting police chief while the search continues to find a new permanent police chief, Tracy Yarlott-Davis, Hartford’s town manager, said in a message posted Thursday afternoon on the town’s Facebook page.
Kelley, of Corinth, joined the Hartford Police Department in 1999 and spent 13 years as a patrol officer and 10 years as a sergeant — where she was in charge of recruitment and hiring — before being promoted recently to acting lieutenant.
“I want to stress I’m acting chief,” Kelley told the Valley News on Thursday, adding that she is on the committee to find a new police chief and is not actively interested in the position.
The 23-member Hartford Police Department is currently down six positions, including both a permanent police chief and deputy police chief and four patrol officers. Kelley said that three new patrol officers are expected to join the department after they have completed their training at the Vermont Police Academy in July.
Yarlott-Davis said the Hartford police chief’s job is “currently open for applicants” and the town ”anticipate(s) that search concluding this summer.”
