The city council held a special meeting Monday night to mark the promotion of two members of the Chelsea Police Department as well as the swearing in of xxx new officers. John Noftle was promoted to lieutenant, and David Delaney was promoted to sergeant. “It’s always a happy day, and as some of you know, today was a busy day,” said Police Chief Keith Houghton.
“So, as our officers are being sworn in tonight, I just want to give you a recap of the last couple of weeks. We had an officer seriously injured affecting a mental health case that started off as that and ending up being a very volatile situation. “He’s doing the best that he can, but he is suffering a very traumatic injury.” Houghton added that within an hour on Monday, police responded to two separate shootings.
“I watched the officers in action, chasing armed individuals to alleys, through backyards without due regard for their own life and safety, but for the safety of everyone here tonight,” said the chief. “I am very proud and honored to be the police chief today seeing the professionalism.”
Houghton said that the swearing in of officers is the best part of his job. Delaney was unable to attend Monday night’s ceremony because his wife gave birth on Sunday. “We have the honor of promoting a new lieutenant, John Noftle,” said Houghton. “John has been an instrumental part of this department, since my promotion to chief two years ago, I always tell now Lt. Noftle I always call him more than anybody on this job. He was the fixer, he was handling parking issues, traffic issues, cruisers breaking down, handling the tunnel closings, all these thankless jobs where all you hear is the bad news, you never hear the good.
“He always handled it with dignity; he’s a mild man of God, and he’s going to be an unbelievable supervisor.” The new officers sworn in included Alex Cabassa, a former Winthrop officer who Houghton said has deep Chelsea ties and Marcus Atkins, who worked for the Lynn Police Department. There are also four new officers who are in the final stages of their field training program, including Oscar Lopez, Darien Lavino, Sulmy Urrutia, and Christopher Marroquin. Houghton said the six new officers are reflective of the community. “We are really recruiting more females, which is important as we move forward, and I’m really proud of all six,” said Houghton.