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11/16/2016 07:30 AM“From the earliest time I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a policeman,” says long-time Branford resident and current Guilford Police Deputy Chief John “Jack” Dunn. “It’s something I love to do. It’s like when you hear an athlete saying, ‘I’m living the dream.’ I am living the dream.”
On Dec. 5, the Branford resident of 26 years, and 26-year veteran of Guilford Police Department (GPD), will be realizing another dream, as he begins his first day as chief of police for the town of Hull, Massachusetts.
Located just south of Boston, Hull is situated on a peninsula on the Atlantic.
“It’s right on the ocean and has a population of about 12,000 people for two square miles, but in the summer it goes up to about 35,000 plus the beach,” says Jack. “There’s a massive beach up there that a lot of tourists come to every year. They double the size of the force in the summer because there are so many people in town.”
As chief of Hull Police, Jack will oversee the department’s regular ranks of 30 sworn officers, which swells to 60 in the summer. By way of comparison, Guilford has 37 sworn police officers.
Jack was selected for Hull’s chief post from a pool of 54 applicants. The review process began in May and ended with a congratulatory call in mid-October. He’ll wrap up his work with GPD by Nov. 16 and then plans to move north to Hull with his wife, Sinead.
“There are still some people who don’t know I’m leaving, especially in Branford,” says Jack. “We’ve been living there since 1990 and we both love the town. My wife knows more people in Branford than I do, because she was a manager at Lenny’s Restaurant for 25 years, and now she’s been the manager of Dockside [Seafood & Grille] for five years. So she’s made a lot of connections with people in Branford, and she also loves Guilford. It’s going to be hard for us to leave.”
As Jack takes his leave from GPD, he brings to Hull decades of experience, service, and leadership that have made him a valuable asset.
The East Haven native was invited to join GPD as a patrol officer in 1990. Jack had just completed serving four years as a military policeman in the United States Air Force when he undertook the regional testing for municipal policing.
“Guilford was the first town to offer me a job, and I’ve stayed ever since. I’ve been very lucky here with my career. I’ve done every assignment you can do here command-wise, except the chief’s position, and it’s been great,” says Jack. “So leaving is going to be bittersweet. It’s just like family here—we’re here more than we are with our families. Some of these people I’ve known for over half my life, including the chief. He and I were partners in the [detective] bureau together. But I’m also looking forward to the opportunity and the excitement of becoming a chief in another Department.”
‘Out to Help’
For Jack, one of the best parts of being a police officer is helping others.
“Helping people makes me feel good,” says Jack. “A lot of times, people think we’re out there just to arrest people, but we’re not. We’re out there to help them. We’re problem solvers; we’re there to help them or to refer them to someone who can help.”
Jack says GPD has a particularly strong ethos of assistance, including reaching out to work with professionals in municipal programs such as Guilford Youth & Family Services and the Shoreline Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Task Force.
Jack entered GPD with an associate’s degree and went on to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees by attending University of New Haven for a number of years during his off-hours from work. Jack’s also received a great deal of support and mentorship within the department and has tried to pay it forward to newer members.
“A lot of people for who I was their training officer or supervisor now have moved up in the ranks, which is nice to see, especially when it’s people you kind of took under your wing...It’s nice to see them have the same kind of progression,” he says.
Looking back over his GPD career, several cases also stand out, including what came to be known as the Guilford Murders, four deaths caused by the same hand, resident Jonathan Mills. Mills was caught by police shortly after stabbing his aunt and two of her children to death in December 2000. He was subsequently tied to the strangulation death of 20 year-old Mindy Leigh, whose body was found at the Guilford Fairgrounds two months earlier.
“The homicides hit everybody pretty hard. It was right after Christmas when Jon Mills killed his aunt and two cousins. I was the Tactical Team commander that day, trying to locate him. Then that night, I was on the surveillance team that actually did find him, and called in more units to help effect the arrest,” says Jack. “We were all involved in that, the whole department came in for a 26- to 28-hour period. It made a lot people realize those kind of horrible things can happen, even in a small town.”
Jack was also a key member of the department’s detective unit, serving as a detective for three years and unit commander for 10 years.
“You really got to learn a lot as an investigator, handling the more serious crimes in town. You learned a lot about the kind of dark side of the shoreline,” says Jack.
Jack has also enjoyed helping GPD gain its Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) accreditation status, adding he’d like to help Hull Police Department earn CALEA accreditation.
The Dunns raised their three children in Branford (now 27, 23 and 19) and the Dunn’s oldest daughter now lives little more than 20 miles away in another Massachusetts town.
“We’re looking forward to moving up there,” says Jack. “It’s a challenge we’re all looking forward to, and hoping for the best.”