New Bedford Mayor: 'Cast a Wide Net' to Find Next Police Chief

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — Now that New Bedford Police Chief Paul Oliveira has announced his impending retirement this spring, Mayor Jon Mitchell said he plans to “cast a wide net” to find the new chief, including going outside of the department.

Oliveira announced on February 18 that he plans to step down after 32 years on the police force and just about four years as chief on May 3, 2025.

Oliveira did not give a reason why he is retiring despite signing a new three-year contract last summer, but in his weekly appearance on WBSM’s SouthCoast Now with Chris McCarthy, Mayor Mitchell pointed to the “generous pension system” for the police department.

“When people hit their mid-50s, they don’t make much less,” Mitchell said, noting Oliveira is one of only three people left in the department from the 29 that graduated with Oliveira from the police academy.

To find New Bedford’s next police chief, Mitchell said although internal candidates will be considered, he is also willing to look outside the city to find the right person, similar to the search in 2016 that led to the appointment of NBPD Captain Joseph Cordeiro as chief.

Mitchell told McCarthy his mandate will be to “find the best person for the job, zero limitation.”

“As much as I think we’ve got a lot of talented people in the city government, including the police department, we don't have a monopoly on talent,” Mitchell said. “The default is usually to hire from within, but we shouldn’t limit ourselves.”

Mitchell said he plans to put together a “screening committee of sorts” composed of people with “different perspectives, different life experiences, different viewpoints about policing” that will help with the search, and that committee will make a recommendation to Mitchell.

“They’ll make a recommendation, but the mayor makes the decision, and then the chief is subject to confirmation by the city council, as all the department heads are,” he said.

When Oliveira was appointed chief in 2021, he was already acting police chief after serving as deputy chief under Cordeiro, and there was no nationwide search.

“After Joe retired, I was familiar with Paul’s work, and I thought Paul was ready to do it,” Mitchell said. “He was the deputy chief, so he was the No. 2.”

Currently, the New Bedford Police Department does not have a deputy chief. However, it does have two assistant deputy chiefs in Scott Carola and Derek Belong.

“Internal candidates have to understand being chief is a different job,” Mitchell said. “We’re looking for people who have demonstrated that they have the capacity to grow into being an effective leader of the entire department.”

Mitchell also said he isn’t putting a hard deadline on when to find the new chief, even if Oliveira’s retirement is just months away.

“To find somebody requires some level of marketing and outreach, both internally and externally, and what we hope to do is have somebody in there who can jump right on in,” Mitchell said. “I’m not going to hire somebody just because we’ve set some deadline and we’re going to take the last man or woman standing.”