Leading with Experience: Dover's New Police Chief David Terlemezian

In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with David Terlemezian, Dover's newly appointed Chief of Police. Terlemezian, who has served the Dover Police Department for nearly 30 years, discusses his journey from patrol officer to chief, sharing how his career path evolved after starting as an economics major at UNH and discovering his passion for law enforcement through an internship with the New Hampshire State Police.

Chief Terlemezian addresses the challenges of modern policing, including national narratives about law enforcement and maintaining officer morale. He emphasizes that Dover's police department benefits from strong community support due to professionalism, quality training, and effective hiring practices. With nearly 100 employees, including about 50 sworn officers, the department has hired 19 officers between 2020 and 2023, creating a need for enhanced training programs to address experience gaps.

The new chief outlines his priorities, including conducting individual meetings with every department employee and implementing brief "primer trainings" on essential skills. He explains the rigorous hiring process for new officers, which typically takes about a year from initial testing through academy graduation and field training. Terlemezian also discusses the importance of specialized assignments within the department as both recruitment and retention tools, allowing officers to develop varied careers within the organization. He stresses that policing is fundamentally about human service, noting that in a community of 34,000 residents, officers frequently interact with the same individuals in different capacities over time.

In This Week in Dover History, we learn about the launch of Dover's innovative "Bag and Tag" program on Oct. 7, 1991, which dramatically reduced residential waste by more than half while increasing recycling rates above 50%. The program, pioneered by citizens like Earl Goodwin and Councilor Gary Gilmore, became a model for other New England communities and will transition to automated carts in 2027.