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Marblehead needed two police officers. The Police Department sent notices to 41 names off the civil service eligible list, 12 of them Marblehead residents. Eight people responded to say they might be interested. Two submitted a completed application.
Police Chief Dennis King told the Select Board on Aug. 26 that he expects to bring one of those two forward soon and considers the applicant outstanding. That still leaves the department a position short, with an academy class King is targeting for late October and a hiring process he said runs about a year from first request to an officer on the street.
“So 41 names go out. Two applications,” King said.
The Board voted that night to authorize the Police Department to work with the Massachusetts Human Resources Division, evaluate and pursue the agreement required for participation in the state’s civil service hybrid hiring program and establish a Marblehead Local Public Safety Register. Select Board Chair Dan Fox made the motion. It drew a second and passed on a voice vote with no dissent recorded.
The vote does not put a register in place. It authorizes the department to ask for one, and the state has several steps of its own before Marblehead could post a job through it.
Marblehead stays inside civil service
King’s request, which he put to the Board in an Aug. 11 letter, applies to entry-level hiring only. “This is only for initial hires. This isn’t for promotions,” he said. The law that created local registers bars their use above entry level.
The town would keep its place in civil service, and the traditional eligible list would remain available. Marblehead could still call for a list, as it did this summer. King’s letter says the hybrid model would not remove the Police Department from civil service, and that candidates appointed through a local register would remain subject to civil service requirements, background investigations, medical and psychological standards, training requirements and merit-based selection.
In his letter, King argued that examination cycles do not always line up with a department’s immediate staffing needs, and that someone who wants to work in Marblehead may not be reachable on the list the town happens to have. A few vacancies, he wrote, affect staffing, overtime, specialty assignments and consistent service.
Interest in the job has thinned over roughly the past decade, King told the Board, while municipalities compete for a smaller pool. A local register would change where applicants come from. The department could recruit through its website, social media, career fairs and other outreach, and consider people who never sat for a Marblehead exam, including officers already trained and certified elsewhere.
What the 50% cap actually counts
The option is new. The Legislature created it in 2024, with the authority taking effect Nov. 20 of that year, and amended it in 2025. The provision is scheduled to be repealed Jan. 1, 2035, unless lawmakers act before then.
It comes with a limit. Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 31, Section 59D, appointments through a local register, combined with any through a cadet program, may not exceed 50% of an appointing authority’s overall entry-level police and firefighter appointments during the term of the agreement. That share is measured against entry-level appointments in that window, not against the department’s roster, and Marblehead has not said how many it expects to make.
King illustrated it for the Board with round numbers: 20 hires, 10 each way. That was an example, not a projection.
Officers hired off a local register are civil service employees. Select Board member Jim Zisson pressed that point, and King confirmed that someone brought in that way enters the system with the same protections.
The state also requires a written policy before any hiring happens, covering basic merit principles, recruitment of diverse candidates and safeguards against nepotism, patronage and favoritism. The Human Resources Division must approve it. Agreements generally run five years. King said he has already drafted Marblehead’s, built around fairness, equity and merit.
Salem is on the state list; Marblehead is not
Fifty-nine police departments had local registers as of the state’s June 25 update. Salem is one of them, and King cited it as a nearby department that has recruited successfully this way. He also named Stoneham; the state’s list does not include it.
Select Board member Moses Grader asked how a local register gets filled in the first place. King pointed to advertising and direct recruiting. Select Board member Rossana Ferrante asked whether he saw a downside. “You know, there isn’t,” King said, arguing that the town could simply call for the traditional list whenever it produced enough candidates.
Select Board member Erin Noonan said civil service has value but limits local choice.
King told the Board the wider pool could include someone holding an equivalent out-of-state certification. State rules are narrower. The service-based route covers officers now serving in Massachusetts as salaried officers certified by the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. An out-of-state applicant would more likely need a recent academy graduation approved by the Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee, or a waiver.
None of that fills the second slot. Marblehead has to request participation, execute the standard agreement and clear its policy before it can advertise a single job off a local register. In the meantime King has one candidate, one vacancy and an academy class starting near the end of October.
