Department History
Newmarket’s Police Department has employed a police department since the late 1800s. In the early years, Newmarket was a thriving manufacturing town and employed a part-time force to police the community. One of the original officers was John Andrew Gordon who was appointed as a part-time officer at the age of 25 in 1894. Officer Gordon remained on the force and was appointed part-time Chief of Police in 1927. Gordon became the Departments's first full-time member and its first full-time Police Chief in 1937, a post he held until his retirement at the age of 87 in 1956. His service to the community is unsurpassed! He was a police officer for 60 years and the department's chief for 29 years!
The department’s first police cruiser arrived in the 1940s. The police station was located in the basement of the old Town Hall, which was located on Main Street across from the present location of the Post Office. The Newmarket Municipal Court was held in a backroom behind the police department for many years until its last presiding justice H. Russell McGuirk retired in the late 1980s. The Municipal Court was dissolved at the direction of the State Legislature and Newmarket was incorporated into the jurisdiction of the Exeter District Court.
The department’s growth rate mirrored the community’s and grew quite gradually from its inception in the 1800s to the 1960s. In 1987 the Town Hall burned and the police department was destroyed. Thanks to the efforts of the local fire department much of the department’s records were saved. The police department moved temporarily over the next eight years to the St. Mary’s school building and later to the Newmarket Water Works building on Packers Falls Road. In January 1995 the department moved into its permanent headquarters at 70 Exeter Street. Today the department boasts a full-time staff of 20 sworn and unsworn personnel and a part-time staff of five.
Newmarket's Police Chiefs
- John Andrew Gordon - Newmarket's First Police Chief: 1927-1956
- John Valliere: 1956-1963
- William G. Ball:1963-1966
- Paul Gahan: 1966, 1967-1991
- Kerryl Clement: 1992-1994
- Charles Reynolds (Interim): 1994
- Rodney Collins: 1994-2004
- Kevin P. Cyr: 2005-2016
- Kyle D. True: 2016 - 2021
- Gregory A. Jordan: 2021 - Present