The Select Board unanimously approved the promotion of two police officers and a new hire for the Police Department at its most recent meeting.
Officer Tim Morley will be promoted from patrol officer to sergeant and Sgt. Jason Conrad will be promoted to lieutenant, both effective May 1. Christian Hennigar will join the department in May as well.
Police Chief Dennis King presented his recommendations to the board Monday, which was his first opportunity to recommend promotions since he took over as chief.
King said that the process involved, for the first time in the department’s history, an assessment center as well as a written exam. Education experience also weighed into the promotion ranking system.
The assessment center and written exam each counted for 40% of the ranking, while education experience counted for 20%.
King said that both Morley and Conrad finished at the top of the civil service promotional list at the end of the process. After conducting one-on-one interviews with the officers, he said at the meeting that they were “welcome promotions and welcome candidates for promotion.”
Morley, a Marblehead native, graduated from St. John’s Prep in 2000 and Norwich University in 2005. He returned to school to obtain his master’s degree in homeland security from Endicott College.
A United States Army veteran, Morley served in the infantry, reaching the rank of second lieutenant. He was deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Morley then became a full-time officer in town in 2012.
“In my capacity in the last few years as I’ve got to know him, very active in our citizens police academy, coffee with a cop, and making extra efforts around community engagement and the like, which I think is a great trait and often underestimated,” King said.
Conrad, also a lifelong resident, graduated from Marblehead High School in 1994 and the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1998. Conrad received a master’s degree from Salem State University in 2013.
He became a permanent intermittent in 1999, moving to a full-time officer in 2001. He was then promoted to sergeant in 2007, serving as commander of the midnight shift for the majority of that span.
King also noted that before coming to Marblehead, he had the opportunity to work with Conrad in some capacity during his time in Salem. He added that Conrad has been involved with “a number of nontraditional jurisdictional collaborations outside of the department,” including the North Shore Drug Task Force and youth violence programs.
King also thanked all participants in the promotion process.
“I appreciate everybody that does it, is willing to move to that next level,” King said. “It’s a big shift in your commitment to the department, so everybody that participated, I really do appreciate that. This is a really good group and I’m fortunate to have that down at the department.”
Select Board member Moses Grader said that he was “totally impressed with Officer Conrad and Officer Morley’s depth of educational effort and length of service and going above and beyond.”
Another lifelong resident, Hennigar emerged as the top choice from a pool of candidates after going through the civil service hiring process.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what Christian can do to be a really valued member of the department,” King said.
Hennigar is a Marblehead High graduate and is currently finishing his degree at Norwich University. He spent the last six months working in the Essex County Sheriff’s Department. Hennigar will be a conditional officer at first, as there are additional processes and requirements he must go through before becoming a full-sworn officer.
However, King said that he believes in Hennigar and is “confident that he will be able to do all of that.”