Chief Roger Beaupre, right, is pictured receiving this year’s Employee of the Year Award from City Manager James Bennett in April 2022. Beaupre notified Bennett of his plan to retire Jan. 25 after 51 years with the Biddeford Police Department. Courtesy photo

BIDDEFORD — Born and raised in Biddeford, Police Chief Roger Beaupre has served his home community for decades. On Jan. 25, his 51 year tenure with the Police Department will come to an end. He will continue working to his final day on the job. In a Jan. 6 letter to City Manager James Bennett notifying him of his intention to retire, Beaupre wrote  that Wednesday, Jan. 25 ” will also be my last official working day as the Chief of Police.”

In his letter, Beaupre wrote, “I joined BPD as a patrol officer and was promoted to every departmental rank, culminating as Chief of Police for the last forty-two years. I have had a gratifying and challenging career that has allowed me to grow and evolve the Department into the professional and progressive Agency it is today. Upon my retirement, I will have completed fifty-one (51) years of service with the Biddeford Police Department. I served under 13 Mayors, 121 individual City Council members, 5 City Managers, and 27 Police Commission Members.”

He has “mixed emotions” upon the impending end of his long career, Beaupre wrote.

“I leave a career that I love, and I hold the utmost respect for the men and women of this Agency,” he said. “The members of this Agency are passionately committed to serving the public with professionalism, compassion, dedication, integrity, and loyalty.”

In a Nov. 19 Courier article by Tammy Wells when the Police Department marked Beaupre’s 50 year anniversary with the department, Beaupre said “I knew when I was 15 that I wanted to be a police officer.”

After high school, the Beaupre joined the U.S. Air Force, and served as a security police officer supervising a crew of 15 before coming home, finishing his hitch in 3 years, 8 months, and, 26 days, he said.

He applied to the Biddeford Police Department and was hired. About 10 years later, he was named chief.

In the Nov. 19 article, Beaupre said his concern from day one was training and education — when he arrived at Biddeford Police Department, none was available, he said, and so he was glad to have had law enforcement training in the military.

When state law changed, mandating that law enforcement officers undergo training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy — Beaupre attended in 1972, one of the first few Biddeford officers to do so, he said.

Eventually he went to college, earning an undergraduate degree in criminal justice from the University of Southern Maine and graduating magna cum laude, with minors in English and sociology. In 1978, he earned a master’s degree in business administration through Nasson College and continued to take classes in labor and management and the like. He earned both degrees while working full-time for the BPD.

In his letter, he said he has given the city such advanced notice of his intention to retire to give ample time to find the best qualified person to succeed him.

Beaupre also gave advice in the search for a new chief.

“I urge that my successor be selected from an existing Agency member,” Beaupre wrote. “My vision is that the chosen successor continue and expand the current programs that serve the Community’s varied and very complex needs. I hope that the City and my successor remain committed to maintaining the Agency’s national accreditation under CALEA, the Gold Standard of Public Safety. Additionally, attention must be given to Department’s staffing levels to ensure it keeps pace with the continued growth and diversity of the City.”