City of Beaufort announces police chief finalists. Here’s who they are and a timeline
Beaufort’s top administrator has revealed his three finalists for the city’s police chief job.
City manager Bill Prokop said Tuesday night that interim Beaufort Police Chief Dale McDorman, and candidates from Savannah, Ga., and Maryland are the final three people being considered for the city’s top law enforcement position.
Patrick Grossman, acting police chief in Frederick, Maryland, and Savannah Police Department Capt. Ben Herron are the other two finalists, Prokop said. A fourth candidate from Virginia dropped out. The city administrator said he planned to interview the three men within a week and then make a decision.
“We had a good cross section of people who interviewed these people, who will be bringing them forward,” Prokop told the City Council on Tuesday. “I think the finalists are really good examples (of) experienced people that keep our goals of community policing in the forefront.”
About 25 people applied for the position from eight states, Prokop said. The chief oversees a department of 44 officers and four staff members.
The city said in a news release last week that finalists had been selected but didn’t identify the candidates. State law says that when three or fewer candidates are being considered, records related to their application be made public.
City attorney Bill Harvey and Prokop said last week that finalists were not official last week and therefore weren’t identified. Harvey said the city would comply with an open-records request by The Beaufort Gazette and The Island Packet when the finalists were determined.
An initial group of applicants was interviewed by video conference. A select group then met with a panel of about 15 community members and City Council, including mayoral candidates Mike Sutton and Councilman Stephen Murray.
Grossman, who has been with Frederick since 1997 according to a local news report, announced his retirement from the Maryland department in September, effective Friday, according to the report. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and has a bachelor’s degree in public administration and master’s in administrative science, both from Farleigh Dickinson University, the city said in a release Wednesday.
Herron has worked for Savannah’s police department since 1988, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Savannah State University and a master’s in public administration from Columbus State University, the city release said.
McDorman has been with the Beaufort agency since 1995 and its deputy chief since 2010. Before that, he was a sheriff’s deputy and a law enforcement officer in the U.S. Air Force. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Columbia College.
He stepped into the interim role after the death of Chief Matthew Clancy in July.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 9:23 AM.
