For Immediate Release

Monday, Aug. 28, 2019

Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: [email protected]

Gregory Gilmore Named New Blackstone Police Chief

BLACKSTONE — Gregory Gilmore was named the chief of the Blackstone Police Department late last month and has been working toward several short-term and long-term goals and initiatives to help move the department forward in the weeks and months to come.

Gilmore was appointed to chief by the Blackstone Board of Selectmen on Sept. 24., after serving as the department’s acting chief since April.

“It is an honor to be named chief of the Blackstone Police Department and I hope to continue to serve my community with the same dedication and professionalism that I have brought to work every day for nearly 20 years,” Chief Gilmore said.

Chief Gilmore, age 50, has spent his entire 19-year career in law enforcement with the Blackstone Police Department and began serving as a patrolman in 2000.

In 2002, he was promoted from patrolman to detective, where he investigated a wide variety of cases including drug, sexual assault, embezzlement and bank robbery cases.

In 2005, Gilmore was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In this role he was the second-in-command of the department and directly supervised all of the department’s sworn officers and civilian dispatchers. As a lieutenant, Gilmore also held several roles and responsibilities including, internal affairs investigator, training coordinator, use of force administrative review officer, grant supervisor, evidence control supervisor and public information officer.

He was named the department’s acting chief in April. Over the summer, former Chief Ross Atstupenas reached an agreement with town officials that included him stepping down from his position.

As the department’s new chief, Chief Gilmore has several short-term and long-term goals for the department including: hiring new officers to replace officers who have recently retired, instituting a new field training officer program, increasing interaction with senior residents through the town’s senior center, establishing a stronger police presence near the Rhode Island border, increasing drug awareness and prevention programs with students and re-establishing a working drug task force program within the department.

“These initiatives will help to increase our community policing efforts, bring our personnel levels back to where they need to be and improve the quality of the training our officers undergo,” Chief Gilmore said. “We also want to continue our efforts in focusing on the opioid epidemic and keeping drugs off of our streets and out of the hands of our youth.”

Throughout his career, Gilmore has received several honors and accolades for his work in traffic safety and narcotics enforcement. In 2011 and 2012, he received an award of excellence from the Executive Office of Public Safety’s Law Enforcement Challenge.

Gilmore received a Bachelor of Science in Criminology degree from Suffolk University in 1991 and earned a Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration from Western New England College in 2001. He graduated cum laude in from both schools.

Chief Gilmore is married to his wife Nanci and they have three children together, Carter, age 14, Shane, age 12 and Noelle, age 10. Chief Gilmore spends his free time coaching youth baseball, basketball and flag football.

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