NEW IPSWICH — Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain said politics are at play when it comes to a committee charged with looking at regionalizing the police department, and Selectman Ben Cargill, who sits on the committee, said the chief isn’t entirely wrong.

“There are a couple of people on the committee who absolutely want to see the chief gone,” said Cargill. “But that’s not the reason this committee is looking at regionalization.”

In April, at the request of a resident, the selectmen formed a five-member committee to examine the idea of joining with another town or two to create a regional police department. Currently, New Ipswich has its own force led by Chamberlain, but neighboring Greenville and Temple regionalized their departments a few years back and the merger has been successful. So, over the last few months, the committee has been meeting with the public in New Ipswich, talking to other communities across the state about regionalization, even putting out feelers to towns to see if they’re interested in joining forces.

Last Tuesday, the committee issued its final report to the selectmen asking for a new charge — to formally ask other towns if they want to regionalize with New Ipswich. Cargill said the board has made a decision on whether to issue that charge.

Cargill said there are cost-savings to be had from regionalization, as well as potential improvement in police coverage.

But Chamberlain, an outspoken police chief who gained national attention for arresting illegal aliens in New Ipswich and charging them with trespassing, said the entire effort is “a backdoor attempt to eliminate my position.”

Chamberlain said that for the last eight of the 10 years he’s been in New Ipswich, there’s been a small, but vocal, group of people gunning for his job. Two years ago, that group put articles on a ballot that would make the police chief an elected position requiring that candidates be from New Ipswich. Chamberlain lives out of town and would not have qualified for the job, but that point was made moot when voters rejected that article.

Chamberlain said he believes that same group, which is angry at him because he enforces the law regardless of how long people have been in town or what their last name is, has simply changed tack and is pushing for regionalization, and he said that the constant assault on the Police Department has made it impossible for him to attract and retain quality personnel.

“This vocal minority is made up of people who are unhappy that we hold everybody to the same standards,” Chamberlain said. “They’re dissatisfied with my enforcement of the laws. Unfortunately, the decent people who go to work every day and live their lives aren’t aware of this minority.”

Cargill said it’s true that there are people in town, and on the committee, who dislike Chamberlain as chief, but said that’s not the reason he’s participating in the regionalization study.

“Simply put, the Police Department has a public relations problem in town,” Cargill said. “I have no problem with the chief. He’s very qualified for this job, very professional and he does a good job, but there’s definitely a PR problem and I’m not sure if that can be fixed or not.”

nfoster@newstote.com