WOODSTOCK — A Woodstock native and current sergeant is the next chief of the Woodstock Police Department.
Woodstock Municipal Manager Eric Duffy and the Village Board of Trustees announced the selection of Joseph Swanson, who first joined the Woodstock Police Department as a part-time officer in 2000 while attending the University of Southern Maine, according to a news release from the town. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science and joined the department full time in 2007. In 2013 he was promoted to corporal and he’s been a sergeant since 2014.
Swanson succeeds Robbie Blish who has served as chief since 2011 and is set to retire this month. He served as chair of the Woodstock Selectboard until late May, when he took leave to apply for the police chief job, according a June story in the Vermont Standard.
Swanson, the son of late town manager Phil Swanson, served in the Vermont Army National Guard from 2005-2012 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Franklin Pierce University. This June, Swanson was was named the “Law Enforcement Officer of the Year” by the American Legion Department of Vermont, according to a news release from the Woodstock Police Department.