EAST PROVIDENCE — Setting aside any lingering speculation about his standing, East Providence Police Chief Christopher Parella, in conjunction with the office of Mayor Bob DaSilva, formally announced his retirement on Monday, Feb. 11.
Chief Parella’s last day in the position will be Friday, Feb. 15. Per City Charter and pending an appointment of the mayor, Deputy Chief/Major William Nebus will take over the role on an interim basis.
The Bristol native and city resident leaves after serving four years and eight months as the commander of the EPPD. He was an East Providence Police Officer for just over 28 years, sworn into duty in November of 1990. He held every rank available, except corporal, and notably as well spent the last sixth months of 2018 serving the dual role of chief and acting city manager.
“I have 28-and-a-half years on the job and I’m about to turn 57 in a couple of months and I just finished the six months over at City Hall, and I said, you know, I enjoyed it. It was all consuming doing both jobs, but I enjoyed it. But I think I’m at the point in my life now where I want to try some different things. I got to do some different things there (City Hall) that I don’t typically get to do. I enjoyed it, but I think it’s time to try something different. And I want to leave time for the next chapter in my life while I still have this passion, this energy,” Chief Parella said during an interview Monday afternoon in his office at EPPD headquarters.
As for the timing of his retirement, the chief dispelled perception it was due to any conflict with Mr. DaSilva, inaugurated as the city’s first elected mayor early last month.
“It has nothing to do with the mayor coming in here. I can tell you that,” Chief Parella explained. “He’s been completely gracious. I have a good relationship with him personally as well as professionally. We worked very well together during the transition period, which was a very long time. It was like eight weeks. We worked very well together. He was a complete gentlemen.”
The thought of stepping aside wasn’t something that just occurred. The chief said he’s been tinkering with the notion for quite a while. His time as city manager interrupted the process. He only began reconsidering his status upon returning to his EPPD duties solely some six weeks ago.
“So I was thinking about it very seriously a year ago and I started to work towards that goal, but then City Hall came up,” Chief Parella explained. “And I really resisted that assignment at first, but when I went there I was all-consumed with doing the two jobs, so that kind of put me off track. So when I got back here and I started to decompress, I thought this is the perfect time to move on. Plus, I knew I was going to go very soon anyway, so this allows for the new mayor and a new chief to work together from the beginning.”
The chief departs the post on far different terms than when he inherited it. He was elevated to the job by then-city manager Paul Lemont initially on an interim basis in June of 2014 as a replacement for the embattled Joseph Tavares. A month later, Mr. Lemont made his promotion permanent.
“When I took over things were not good here,” Chief Parella reflected. “There was a lot of outside interference. There were a lot of perceptions, allegations being made between different parties, and it wasn’t good. When I took over, I vowed that everything we did would be in the interest of the ‘patch’ and nothing else. I told our guys, you don’t need to commit your loyalty to me as a person, but I need you to commit it to the patch. Commit it to the rank. And if we all do that, if we all come together, we can put this place back on the tracks, and we did it. People here stepped up. The command staff has been outstanding.”
The chief pointed to what he believed were some of his notable accomplishments from structural updates to securing three collective bargaining agreements with the officers’ union to initiating a lateral entry program to bring in experienced officers from other jurisdictions, to streamlining the department’s administrative process and to the diversification of the EPPD ranks to better reflect the community it serves.
“There were numerous organization changes I wanted to make, and we were able to accomplish a lot of that through the collective bargaining agreements. I give the union a lot of credit for that. And Paul Lemont allowed us to do that,” Chief Parella said. “It was a long difficult process, but at the end of the day we changed the organizational structure of this entire agency, how we deploy, more continuity, more unity of command. It’s been great, very successful and I give a lot of credit to the unions.”
He continued, “And we started to diversify under Chief Tavares. I have to credit him for that. He kind of opened the door for that. Everything used to be done at City Hall. We took recruitment here when he was here, and after that we were able to seize on that, build off of that to diversify the ranks greatly, which I’m extremely proud of.”
Another aspect of his tenure the chief chose to highlight was the lack of any conflict with the community or his cops.
“As I leave here, in nearly five years as chief, there’s not one outstanding grievance, there is not one outstanding civilian complaint about our officers’ treatment of the public. There is not one racial profiling complaint from civilians. And there’s also not a single complaint from within the department for disparate treatment,” Chief Parella said. “That’s almost unheard of for the fifth largest city in the state, a very active police department to not have any of these complaints. I’m extremely proud of that, and that comes from the men and women, the sergeants and the lieutenants, the professional standards unit. It comes from having these quality people supervise day-to-day, and I’m very proud of that.
“And I’m also very proud about, and we’ve issued a significant amount of discipline, but not one single disciplinary action went to a Bill of Rights hearing and only one even went to an arbitration. And that’s a credit to the union, who looks at itself with as much accountability as I do. This union cares as much about the service we provide as management does, and that’s big.”
As for any unfinished business, Chief Parella pointed to the ongoing attempt to create a fourth division for administrative matters, which when completed will oversee the department’s office of professional standards, internal affairs, recruitment and accreditation.
He accepted, as well, there were “many” valid critiques of his time in charge. In retrospect, he said he felt he did not properly amplify the efforts of the EPPD rank-and-file on a regular basis.
“From my own point of view, I don’t think I promoted enough the quality of this department and part of that is we have incredible support from this community,” the chief said. “Honestly, I don’t think any other department has it better. There may be some as good, none have as much support from the constituents. Maybe that’s why I didn’t do it enough, but I didn’t do enough to promote it like I should have.
“I’m real to myself. I understand there are things,” he continued. “This is a big deal to me, and I mean this because I don’t think every other chief benefits from this. So when I took over there were a lot of disadvantages. I’m so proud of our reputation throughout the state now. I’m proud of people who go out there every day and represent us. I’m very lucky.”
Chief Parella gave further credit to the community for letting his officers do their jobs effectively.
“It takes a village to police. And I know that sounds cliche, but there’s no greater truth in any profession,” he said. “Because you don’t police the people. They allow you to police them. You police together with them. That’s how we do it, with the support of this community. It’s not us alone who do it. It’s a shared responsibility.”
In the end, like any other top official, history will be the judge of his tenure, whether or not he left the department in a better place than when he began. Chief Parella believes it is, that his stewardship of the East Providence Police Department will be reflected upon well.
“I’m confident that we are,” the chief said. “We were always very capable. And a lot of what happened, once it gets into the media it’s more perception than reality. Our commitment to the people, nothing changed really. But the morale was bad. I feel now we’re in a better place. We’re more organized. I’m confident that it’s a better place. The next person hopefully will put their personal touch on it, but I feel very good about what I’m leaving behind.”

— A retirement ceremony to honor outgoing Chief Parella will be held on Friday, Feb. 15, at noon at East Providence City Hall. The public is invited to attend.