Sergeant Christopher Mears will be sworn-in during the Ogden Town Board meeting Wednesday, June 10. Mears is a 20-year veteran of the Police Department and will replace Chief Douglas Nordquist who served in the position for 11 years and with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office for 30 years.
“I’m stepping into the biggest of shoes,” Sergeant Mears says, “Chief Nordquist did a phenomenal job developing the culture at the police department. He’s a hard person to follow.”
Sergeant Mears says Chief Nordquist brought everyone in the department together and also brought the department together with the community and with other departments in the town.
“It’s hard to think about going into work and him not being there,” Sergeant Mears says. “I’m really excited to get started, but I will really miss Chief Nordquist.”
Sergeant Mears has spent most of his 20 years – 17 to be exact – working on the night shift and also served as a K-9 officer for a couple of years, he says.
In 2009, he attended the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, for ten weeks.
“It was one of the highlights of my career so far,” Sergeant Mears says. The professional development course included training in areas such as leadership, communications, forensic science and even behavioral science.
Chief Nordquist has been working with Sergeant Mears to prepare him to step into the roll of chief.
“He has made me as ready as I can be,” Sergeant Mears says. “I will be modeling Chief Nordquist’s behavior. He’s gotten me ready and I’m really excited to get in there.”
Ogden Town Supervisor Gay Lenhard says she is confident the community will be very receptive to Mears’ leadership and community involvement.
“I’m very excited about working with our new chief, Chris Mears,” Supervisor Lenhard says. “I have known him for the past 20 years and am impressed with his devotion to our community. I know that he is anxious to have the opportunity to interact with our residents and business owners.”
Sergeant Mears says he has lived in the village the entire time he has worked for the department and he and his family feel very much a part of the community.
“I feel it’s an asset, I really do,” he observes about knowing the people he serves both professionally and personally. “It’s a big help, you see people as people. If you know a person’s background you can be more fair.”
He notes that Ogden/Spencerport community is known for the cooperation between both town and village governments as well as the community’s emergency services. “You would be hard-pressed to find two municipalities that work so well together,” he says.
He adds that he doesn’t plan any major changes to the department. “The ship is sailing very well now,” he says, but notes that law enforcement problems on the national level will likely have an impact here at some point. He foresees officers with body-worn cameras, for example.
“Video taping of police is a benefit to both sides,” Sergeant Mears says. “It encourages law enforcement to act more reasonably.”
He says the police department will continue to keep close ties to the community with officers visible outside of patrol cars, walking the village and at various events.
“When they get out of their cars and talk to people, everybody benefits,” Sergeant Mears says.
