Capt. Joseph Cordeiro has been named as the new police chief for the City of New Bedford.

Councillor-at-Large Debora Coelho, who chairs the City Council's Public Safety Committee, welcomed the appointment, saying she knew Cordeiro before she became an elected official calling him a man who was always engaged in the community.

"When I was a community leader, he was very active, very involved, he's very personable, and I'm also very excited that he's definitely the first choice within the department," said Coelho "so they took the next police chief from the New Bedford Police Department and that's commendable."

Coelho said that Cordeiro's higher rank of Captain and his reputation among people in the community were two of the major factor in choosing him over the other remaining candidate, Lt. Richard Netinho.

"Capt. Cordeiro is a Captain, so he was highest in the ranks," said Coelho "also, it's more of like the community really knows him, if you go around the community people are going to ask do you know Capt. Cordeiro, they're going to say 'yeah.'"

Cordeiro, and newly appointed Deputy Chief, Captain Paul Oliveira, are scheduled to formally sworn in on Thursday.

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