The Last Day of Paul Gauvin As Fall River’s Police Chief

I sat down with Fall River Police Chief Paul Gauvin earlier this week. I asked him to sit for an off-the-record interview to help me get his perspective on the announcement that he would be stepping away as Chief. He agreed, but told me the interview had to be limited to only an hour, as he had somewhere to be. We met at a local Starbucks where we sat and talked for over three hours.

But after we were done, I asked him if he would allow me to come see him today, on what would be his last day in his role. Per his agreement with Mayor Paul Coogan, Gauvin would be taking a leave of absence from Tuesday, October 15th until January, when he would return as a Captain. With Monday being a holiday, and Interim Chief Kelly Furtado starting her role Tuesday morning, Gavin alerted me that Friday would indeed be his last day. He agreed to meet with me at the station.

I arrived and Gauvin was downstairs, dressed in a blue suit holding a coffee and a bag from Dunkin. We headed to the elevator, and we passed a detective on our way up, who exchanged hellos with Gauvin. We got to his office, passing other staff on the way, who said hello. Things were pleasant.

I have met with Paul several times since last year and my observation is that he has a lot of pride. Even today, on his last day as chief, he was calm, cool and collected. At ease, even. Considering the circumstances on his departure, his demeanor was very professional.

I asked him how his morning started. He admitted that he hadn’t slept well. When I asked what he was thinking when he was getting dressed for the day, he paused and struggled to get the words out.

“I had a hard time taking my badge off my shirt. That was hard.”

He rebounded quickly, saying he continued on his morning of getting the day started and driving his daughter to school.

“What did you listen to as you drove in this morning?” I asked him.

He laughed and said that it was a song his daughter picked for him and that I couldn’t print it in this article but take my word for it, the rap anthem was a good fit for Gauvin on his last drive in as Chief.

My previous sit downs and phone calls with Gauvin were often long. He’s very wordy and always wants to give context to his responses to my questions. Simple one-word answers are not his style, but for this last interview, I told him I didn’t want him to give me context, just feeling. I shot off questions and told him he could only respond with one sentence.

What one thing do you regret during your time as Chief?

I regret that I did not fill a provisional Lieutenant position.

What would you say was your greatest accomplishment?

That we added body-worn cameras to the department.

What was your worst day on the job as Chief?

Any time I had to fire someone. No matter the circumstance. It was very hard. I lost sleep over it every time.

Most memorable day or best day?

There were too many. I can’t name just one. I have had some very memorable conversations with good people here. I will always remember those.

How would you sum up your time as Chief?

We did more with less.

Then I asked him what time he would be leaving the station today and he looked at the clock and said he had a few more things to do, but that he expected it would be around 11:30 AM or so. I asked him what he was going to do when he left, and he paused.

“I hadn’t thought of that” he said. Tears welled up in his eyes. He took a deep breath and asked for a moment. As I waited for him to gather himself, I realized that Paul Gauvin has probably never stopped working towards anything since the day he got on the department.

“Since I met with the Mayor, and we came to this agreement for me to step down, I have essentially been focused on preparing for the transition. I haven’t thought about what I would do when I was done with that.”

But that transition, or the one he wanted, never happened. Interim Chief Furtado has been out of the building for the past few days and is not expected to return until next Tuesday, once Gauvin is gone. Gauvin says that he asked a staff member to connect with Furtado to set up a time for a meeting to discuss what he said are important matters that will remain once he is gone, but Furtado chose not to meet with Gauvin.

Instead, Gauvin prepared a letter for Furtado, detailing information he would have liked to discuss face to face. I asked him if we could head into his office and take a photo and he was reluctant, but agreed.

The room was sparce, save for some binders and the computer. The walls were empty. On the desk Gauvin had left some documents for Furtado and the letter he had written her. On top: a key to his office and his badge.

I could not read the whole letter, but I was able to read the closing message he left for Furtado:

“Despite any hard feelings for what my family had to endure, I wish you luck. My primary focus has always been the betterment of this department. My loyalty to this place is unwavering and when I return, you can expect no less.”

Gauvin’s departure comes after the patrolman and supervisor unions conducted a confidence vote on Gauvin, with both unions releasing statements indicating that the majority of members had a ‘no confidence’ vote in the Chief. The union representatives then met with Mayor Coogan and according to some, pressured the Mayor to take action.

I reminded Gauvin that back when I first heard about the vote being taken, I called him, and he downplayed the move. He told me it was nothing more than a vote, but it led to him stepping away. Did he see it coming?

“I argued for a clause in my contract when I took over as Chief that allowed me to revert back to Captain if something went down, so yes, I always knew that something like this could happen.”

We talked a little, but not much, about the effort to oust him from leadership and I won’t detail too much of it here, but from Gauvin’s perspective, it was nothing short of a political coup.

“It was a coup” he said with confidence.

“Listen, being Chief in this city is a sport. Today, there are people who won, and nobody likes to lose. The national average for someone in the role of Chief is 3 – 5 years, that’s all. Here, we all know, politics is fickle.”

Gauvin said that it’s going to take time for him to come to terms with what has happened. Earlier this week, we talked numbers and he’s confident that from a financial standpoint, he has left the department better than when he started. He’s confident in his leadership and backs that up with Mayor Coogan never giving him any type of negative performance review, telling him, according to Gauvin, he was ‘doing a great job’.

Gauvin had no plans to step down as Chief and at 51, had hoped to end his career at the top. But he told me this morning that sometimes, things don’t go your way, no matter how you plan for the future.

“For me, the silver lining is this is a life lesson for my children. How to model behavior when you don’t get what you want. I am leaving, not exactly on my own terms, but with dignity and some class. I will tell my kids, you don’t let people beat you up, but you can act a certain way in these circumstances, and I hope I am making them proud.”

As Gauvin walked me out, we stopped in the hallway outside his office to take a look at the photos of Fall River Police Chief’s of the past. Gauvin’s will hang down the end, the latest in a not-so-long line of department leadership through the years.

“My picture will hang there very soon.”