When Stanley “Rusty” Bell talks about his time as Clinton’s police chief, his stories have a common thread — hugs.

When Bell got a call about an overdose a few years ago, he responded in plain clothes, which he almost always did. When the victim’s father saw him at the scene, he asked Bell, “Are you Rusty?” When Bell said yes, the man hugged him — that’s just his reputation.

“I believe that people are comfortable in a personal crisis if they know somebody that’s there, and they’re not trying to be all ‘police,'” Bell said. “They’re connecting with them on a human level.”

In 2024, when Bell arrested Richard Hatt after he killed a man in Waterville by shooting him 13 times, Hatt asked him for a hug. Bell has known Hatt since he was a child, and he thinks most police officers wouldn’t have done it. But he hugged Hatt.

It’s not that Hatt doesn’t deserve his 45-year sentence, Bell said, but in that moment he still wanted to treat him like a human.

Bell said this approach doesn’t make sense to everyone, and he gets that. He’s been called unprofessional for his department’s satirical Facebook page and he knows some people see him as old fashioned. But the most important thing for Bell was always making sure people know he’s there.

In 2024, after two Clinton residents died by suicide, Bell posted his personal cellphone number on the department’s Facebook page. He wanted to make sure everyone in town had someone to talk to.

He’s the same way with his officers. Bell said he refers to them as his kids, because “there’s nobody there that I couldn’t be the dad to.”

Not everyone knows how to respond when Bell tells them he loves them, Bell said. Especially young people.

“They’re a little confused,” Bell said. “They’re trying to sort out what male love means.”

Now, after 10 years in the role, Bell stepped down as chief at the end of June. Now, he’s taking on a new position, at his officers’ request: chaplain.

“They didn’t want to lose that piece of mentoring on a personal level,” Bell said. He didn’t think twice about taking the job.

As chaplain, Bell will offer his love and help officers process what they’ve seen. He’ll do the same for the fire department, and eventually, Bell said, the role will be sort of like town chaplain. Residents have already reached out.

Bell will go through the state’s certified police chaplain program in October, but his job started right away. Bell said from the outside it’ll look like nothing changed.

Town residents can still expect to see Bell, probably wearing a Christmas shirt off-season, responding to calls and offering support. But he let his official police certification go, so he can “just step back and be dad” now.

While Bell has been settling in as chaplain, former Lt. Roger Smith said he’s had a smooth transition to being Clinton’s full-time chief. But he knows he has big shoes to fill.

It was Smith who first asked Bell to stay on in a chaplain role, recognizing Bell’s talent for connecting with people.

“He has this very unique way of being a police chief,” Smith said. “He did it with love and caring, and he was very community oriented.”

Smith wants to keep the community focus Bell fostered in the department, but he’s excited to bring his own skills to the role as well.

Smith has spent nine years at the Clinton Police Department, and has worked in law enforcement since 2009. He has a strong rapport with community members, and thinks his relative youth — he’s 42, Bell is 65 — will help him lead.

Smith has worked as a firefighter and an EMT, and in a correctional facility. He’s taken FBI leadership classes and spent years as a sergeant and lieutenant. Smith said this variety will also help him in the role.

To get started, Smith is excited to shift his department’s focus to being proactive. In traffic enforcement, for example, this wouldn’t necessarily mean giving out more tickets, he said, but being more visible as officers in the community and on the roads.

Smith said he’s never been one to bark orders, and he’d always prefer to work with people to get a job done. In a small and very busy department — Clinton gets more than 10,000 calls a year — he thinks this strategy will work well.

Smith is the only supervisor in the department right now, and he said his hands are full wearing many hats. But he wants to make himself as available to residents as Bell was. He has office hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Tuesday through Thursday, but if anyone needs him on a weekend, or even at 1 a.m., Smith said he’ll be there.

When asked how people can get in touch with Bell now that he’s chaplain, he laughed.

“Everybody has Rusty’s number,” Bell said. “And if they don’t, they know somebody that does.”

But calling the police department works too.