BATH — Deputy Police Chief Robert Savary retired last week after 27 years with the Bath Police Department.
“Bath PD has been great for me, I’ve been very fortunate,” Savary said Friday. “I’ve been lucky enough to go into the patrol division and do that for 11 years, move up to the sergeant rank and from there, into the criminal investigation division.”
Bath Deputy Police Chief Robert Savary retired Thursday after 27 years with the department. Courtesy Bath Police Department
Savary said he always tried to treat people with respect. He put himself out there within the community by coaching youth football for 11 years. He admits he’s wondered at times how much of an impact he had.
One of the students he coached 20 years ago while at Morse High School, Chuck Reece, would later join another local police department. When that job didn’t work out, Savary encouraged him to apply to Bath Police Department. Reece is still with the department.
Savery said Reece credited him with helping make him the man and coach he is today.
“That was pretty powerful,” Savary said. “My eyes did water up.”
Savary ran the department’s small detective unit before moving to the administrative side of law enforcement.
Cases involving child victims were the toughest.
“When you can make a good case and put someone in prison for it, that gives you a sense that you’re doing the right thing and know that maybe they’re not going to be able to victimize someone else,” he said.
He started a new job this week as a management analyst at the Navy’s Supervisor of Shipbuilding in Bath, which oversees the building of Navy ships at Bath Iron Works.
Savary said he will investigate alleged misconduct, mismanagement and be on the lookout for government waste and fraud.
“I’m pretty excited,” he said.
Savary, 50, graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a criminology degree and started his law enforcement career at Bath Police Department in 1992.
“A police career very well done that has been carried out by a person like Bob who was fully dedicated to the profession is always a source of inspiration,” Bath Police Chief Michael Field wrote in an email Friday.
Savary expects Field to promote someone within the department to the position of deputy chief soon.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.