When former police chief Paul Gauvin was clearing out his office this fall, he thought he was coming back in a few months as a captain. But because of the items he left behind, the former chief was fired instead.
Along with office junk like paper clips and push pins, Gauvin left a knife and a bullet in his desk, which he told investigators was just leftover stuff. The new chief, Kelly Furtado, saw it as a veiled threat.
“That’s, ‘Oh, you’re a backstabber,’” Furtado told an investigator. “‘You’re going to get a bullet.’”
Fall River’s mayor, Paul Coogan, ultimately agreed with her after reviewing a 90-page report produced by a firm he hired to look into a wide range of allegations that colleagues brought against Gauvin after he stepped down as chief in October.
Coogan said his other major concern was a box of guns Gauvin left in his locker, which belonged to a family friend of Gauvin’s. The former chief said he was planning to dispose of the guns through the department’s gun buyback program. Gauvin said he forgot about the guns and left the box in the back of his locker for close to 15 years.
Coogan said the mistakes were serious enough to fire Gauvin.
The Fall River Police Department has now churned through four police chiefs in five years, leaving a department that recently suffered excessive force and improper drug handling scandals without stable leadership.
Furtado, the mayor’s latest pick, might not last very long either. At a City Council meeting last week, councilors pushed back on Coogan’s effort to appoint her permanently.
During a heated discussion over the matter, City Councilor Shawn Cadime said the former chief was pushed out unfairly.
He said Furtado has been fishing for any possible infraction she could use to fire Gauvin. Shortly after she took over, police officers looked into Gauvin’s timecards and found mistakes and wrote him up for taking home a framed picture from his old office.
Cadime, a personal friend of Gauvin’s, said the termination fits into a toxic culture at the Fall River Police Department, where officers band together to push out chiefs who try to hold them accountable.
“It’s whatever clique you are in,” Cadime said. “So the clique that can get some power outs the other chief.”
Cadime called on the mayor to launch a search committee that might rise above these politics, and maybe find a chief from outside Fall River.
A majority of city councilors seemed to agree with Cadime. The council voted 5-4 to block Furtado’s permanent appointment.
Still, in an interview on Monday, the mayor said he’s not committed to naming a selection committee or leading a nationwide search for candidates.
“I would say we put an ad out and see what we get,” Coogan said. “I mean, if somebody wants to apply from Spokane, Washington, I’m not going to throw it in the barrel.”
Coogan appointed Furtado to another 90-day term as interim chief this week, which he can extend for up to 60 days. Coogan said his priority right now is improving morale among the department’s rank and file.
“What I like is her connection with the guys,” Coogan said.
Gauvin is widely expected to sue the department for wrongful termination. Under the law, the city could owe him millions of dollars if he wins his case.
