
Grafton Police Chief Normand Crepeau retired from the force on Friday, Oct. 4.
GRAFTON – Normand Crepeau held the radio as the room fell quiet.
The message came from the Grafton Police Department, where he had been chief for nearly 20 years.
It was the “final call,” thanking the chief for his years of service.
It was a little after 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, and Crepeau had just signed off after more than four decades in uniform.
He handed the radio back to his successor, Chief Neil Minardi, and thanked those who gathered at the senior center for their support.
“I’ve been very lucky,” he said, crediting his officers and town administration for making his job “easy.”
Soon after, Crepeau and his wife, Paulette, were given a police escort home.
The newly retired chief brought home citations from the Select Board and the State House, a clock, a watch, a baton, a rocking chair and plenty of well wishes.
“He is such a strong advocate for the community,” said state Sen. Michael Moore.
“Crepeau always led the way with his leadership,” said Loring Barrett Jr., executive director of the Central Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
Looking back
A few days before, Crepeau sat in his office at police headquarters, recalling how he became Grafton’s chief.
Crepeau had been a member of the police department in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, for 23 years. Having family in Blackstone, he first got to know Grafton by going to the weekly flea market with his father.
When he first became Grafton’s chief in 2006, Crepeau had 18 officers. There are now 24, he said, but “you can never have enough officers.” He said that in the past, if there was one incident or accident, “it could tie up the entire shift.”
He’s seen the town grow over the past 20 years.
“There’s more than 20,000 residents, with apartments coming,” he said.
Crepeau said the biggest challenge in town has been traffic.
“We have no dedicated traffic division,” he said.
Through it all, Crepeau said he and the department have “tried to be transparent,” whether it’s making police logs available in print and online, or bringing National Night Out to town.
“Police work is police work,” he said.
Now that he’s retired (for the second time), Crepeau said he plans to take some time off.
He remains a director for the Central Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, and he recently received lifetime membership to the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
As for the weekly column he’s written for the past several years, Crepeau said it will be “up to his successor” whether it will continue.