WINDSOR — Forgoing a formal search, Windsor Town Manager Tom Marsh has tapped Weathersfield Police Chief Bill Daniels to be Windsor’s next police chief.

 But some residents aren’t pleased with how it happened or who was hired.

Marsh announced this week that he had hired Daniels to succeed Jen Frank, who is departing to take a job as police chief at a town in northern Florida.

Daniels will begin work May 1 with a six-month probationary period under a three-year contract and $120,000 annual salary.

The quick move by Marsh, who under town charter has sole authority to hire all department heads, came less than six weeks after Frank, 48, gave notice of her resignation. It also comes less than a week following a special Selectboard session where some residents — including Selectboard member and Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer — voiced disappointment that Marsh did not cast a wider net for candidates.

Daniels, 53, a Springfield, Vt., resident, is hardly a stranger in Windsor. The neighboring town police departments have worked closely together, frequently back each other up in a pinch and, their respective chiefs say, share a similar “community policing” philosophy.

Moving to the next town over nonetheless is a big step up for Daniels, who grew up in New York’s Hudson River Valley, “spent a few years in Boston” and moved to Vermont in the early 2000s. As Weathersfield’s police chief, Daniels oversees only one other full-time police officer and two part-time officers, and manages a budget of about $390,000.

Windsor’s police department, in contrast, has 10 full-time officers, three part-time officers, an administrative assistant and $1.1 million budget.

Besides the opportunity to run a much bigger agency, Daniels said on Thursday he is “really looking forward to get back to community policing which I didn’t get to do (in Weathersfield) because of the size of our town.” (Weathersfield’s population is 2,842 compared to 3,359 for Windsor, according to 2020 census data).

Daniels defined community policing as “being out in the public and meeting people, so they can come up and talk to you and bring any concerns that might not come to your attention, going into the schools and be a part of the activities they do. If people see your face, become familiar with it, they’re able to have a close relationship with you.”

Still, some residents questioned the choice of Daniels, who despite a glowing recommendation from the Weathersfield town manager and support of Frank, has a black mark in his past by having pleaded guilty to violating a court order not to contact his estranged wife after he was charged with domestic violence when he was a police officer in Springfield, Vt., in 2007.

The assault charge was later dropped, according to a news report at the time, and there is no longer a record of Daniel’s Vermont court case, suggesting it has been expunged or sealed.

In an interview on Wednesday, Daniels said that following an internal investigation he was allowed to return to work, calling it “an incident that happened a long time ago and doesn’t reflect who I am today.”

Still, some residents protested hiring Daniels as police chief when they learned who the town manager had in mind for the job.

“We can do better,” Shannon Smith, a Windsor resident, said at the Selectboard meeting on March 19, arguing that hiring a chief with Daniels’ history might make victims of domestic violence hesitant to call police.

“I just don’t know what we would be saying to the community to choose somebody like that,” Smith said.

On Tuesday, Marsh said he was aware of concerns in the community over the process of selecting a new police chief and hiring Daniels to fill the position.

But the strong recommendations of Frank and endorsements from former Vermont state trooper and current Windsor School Resource Officer Paul Favreau, Weathersfield Town Manager Brandon Gulnick and others — made him confident in his choice.

Daniels has passed muster and vetting multiple times in the nearly two decades since the domestic incident when he was an 18-month rookie on the Springfield police force, according to Marsh.

“When it comes down to it, I don’t know how you (can’t) respect the Springfield Police Department, respect the Weathersfield Selectboard, respect Jen Frank, respect Paul Favreau who’s got over 30 years in law enforcement and they say, ‘We understand what happened, not the rumors of what happened, and we look forward to having him being a part of our community,’ ” Marsh said.

Favreau, in a video recorded presentation announcing Daniels’ hiring on the Windsor On Air public streaming platform, said that when Windsor police are short staffed “we don’t even have to ask for help. Before we even get to the scene, he’s on site already to help us out … all the guys here at Windsor are just excited” about Daniels joining the department.

Frank called Daniels “a leader. He’s an individual that people look for advice, for questions, and for the best way to try to handle a situation, whether it be an individual in the community or other officers in the area.”

Despite the praise and assurances, however, some in Windsor believe Marsh should have opened up the process to invite other candidates from outside to apply — as the town of Plainfield recently did when earlier this year it hired a new police chief, Erik Gutsfeld, a 25-year veteran with the Rocky Hill, Conn., police department.

Palmer, appearing remotely at the Selectboard meeting from Louisville, Ky., where he is attending an advance training program for senior law enforcement personnel, called on Marsh to conduct a “competitive and fair and a comprehensive hiring process,” citing Plainfield’s recent national search as an example. Skipping such an undertaking “goes against national best practice” as set by Vermont League of Cities and Towns and Vermont Department of Public Safety in regard to the steps municipalities should follow in hiring a police chief, Palmer said.

Recognizing Daniels “may be the person” most qualified to be Windsor’s police chief, Palmer nonetheless argued that such a determination should be made after thoroughly weighing multiple candidates against each other.

“To sit here with a straight face and to say that we’re doing the best for the town of Windsor is a lie,” Palmer claimed. “We should be ashamed of ourselves to think that this (is the) way to conduct a search for a chief executive law enforcement officer for a town.”

Marsh said he understands the criticism — and is willing to take the heat — of not opening up the process to consider other candidates.

Nonetheless, he is confident Daniels is the best and right choice for job, especially in light of where he sees the police department now stands compared to where it was when he became town manager more than 13 years — and three police chiefs — ago.

“Every time a position like this comes up there are different objectives,” Marsh explained, and his goal this time is “continuing the progress” that Frank, the former police chief in Norwich, made in strengthening the department during her four years as chief. (Before going to Norwich, Frank was a Windsor police detective).

Marsh believes that Daniels will continue Frank’s legacy of community policing through his deep knowledge of the area and its people.

“We need somebody who is familiar with not just our community but the Upper Valley and policing in the Upper Valley,” Marsh said.

After “determining pretty quickly” there wasn’t a candidate yet among Windsor’s 10-officer police force, Marsh said he and Frank next looked at who they thought would be the best person “within commuting distance.” And, given Daniels’ nearly 20 years of experience in Weathersfield and Springfield, reputation among his colleagues in policing and his familiarity with Windsor and neighboring towns, the choice seemed obvious.

Asked by Marsh in the video recorded announcement to comment on Daniels’ “integrity and leadership,” Gulnick, the Weathersfield town manager, responded enthusiastically.

Daniels “has always fostered strong collaborative relationships with our department heads, staff and residents. And overall Chief Daniels has upheld the highest levels of integrity and policing standards in our community,” Gulnick said.

Daniels said he had not been aware before the March 19 special Selectboard session about pushback against his hiring.

“If there are any concerns, I have an open door policy. You can definitely come and talk to me about it,” Daniels said, adding that “I just hope that people give me the opportunity to prove that my goal is moving forward and to expand on Chief Frank’s leadership of the police department.”

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.