May 21, 2015

The Kennett Township supervisors dispensed with regular business efficiently at Wednesday night’s meeting so they could focus on the reason for the standing-room-only crowd: a sendoff for Police Chief Albert J. McCarthy, who was receiving his retirement badge after 42 years of police work.

Supervisors’ Chairman Scudder G. Stevens read a tribute that gave an overview of McCarthy’s background and accomplishments, and he praised him for always being “firm, fair, and consistent.” He said McCarthy spent 34 years in Kennett Square Borough, 19 as chief, before moving to Kennett Township in 2007.

At the time, Kennett Township did not have a department, and McCarthy assisted the township in creating one: “a one-man show” until Officer Lydell Nolt, now the acting chief, joined the department in 2012, Stevens said.

“Not only was he [McCarthy] the chief of police, but he also filled in as needed … the road crew, an electrician, or a maintenance man,” Stevens noted, eliciting laughter from the audience.

Stevens said McCarthy started the first Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in the Kennett school district in 1989, which he administered until 2009, interacting positively with hundreds of students. “He followed the maxim: The best way to keep power is to share it, and the best way to influence is to listen,” Stevens said.

He added that one of the nicest comments he heard recently was that McCarthy remains essentially the same person he was when he began his police career. “He wears his life and professional accomplishments with grace and honor,” Stevens said. “Let’s hope that we can all say that when our time comes.”

McCarthy – one of two of his parents’ 12 children who pursued police work – said that although his father wasn’t in law enforcement, he laid the foundation for what would become his son’s focus on community policing. McCarthy said shortly after he began working as a police officer, he came home elated because he had made seven arrests that day: four adults and three juveniles. His father didn’t share his excitement.

Later, when pressed for the reason, McCarthy said his father wondered what would happen to the defendants when they returned back to the streets of their community, and he also expressed concern about the teens and what might be missing from their lives. “That’s really where my philosophy about policing came from,” McCarthy said.

Joking that Wawa coffee sales “went down 10 percent” when he stopped working recently, he said people often approached him there and asked for help with various issues. “That’s really what it’s all about,” he said. “I consider being a police officer an honor and a privilege.”

McCarthy, who has two sons, a niece, and a nephew who became police officers, said he appreciated the support he received over the years from government officials as well as the community. “I’m really honored by who’s here,” he said, surveying the crowd, which included many members of law-enforcement.

But McCarthy singled out his non-uniformed partner for special recognition: his wife, Cheryl. “I can’t say enough,” he said, citing her invaluable assistance over the years.

On a somber note, McCarthy said Kennett Square Officers Richard Posey and William Davis, who influenced him to join the Kennett Square department, never strayed far from his thoughts. The day before McCarthy started the job 42 years ago, Posey and Davis missed a time check, and McCarthy was one of the people who offered to look for them.

When McCarthy returned to the police station after an unsuccessful search, he saw state troopers with their guns drawn – and then the indelible image of his friends’ bodies, he said. They had been assassinated by a member of the infamous Johnston gang.

Recalling an incident that generated a happier ending, McCarthy said a beautiful woman who identified herself as “Chunky Tuna” approached him recently. She said she wanted to thank McCarthy for words of encouragement he had given her in middle school when she was being ridiculed about her weight. She’s now about to get her master’s degree.

“You never know where a couple of words will go,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy, whose remarks generated a standing ovation, did not address whether his decision to retire was influenced by a car accident last month, the second time in less than four years that he rear-ended another vehicle.

Lt. Richard H. D’Ambrosio, who heads the Avondale barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, said McCarthy was not cited for the April 13 crash because he likely suffered a momentary seizure caused by a previous brain injury, the reason attributed to the crash in 2011.

D’Ambrosio said he hoped McCarthy’s career would not be defined by the accidents, and he said the barracks wished him a long and happy retirement. “In reality, Chief McCarthy gave more to this community than a 100 men ever could,” D’Ambrosio said.

Many people in the audience agreed. Bill Gallagher, a partner in the MacElree Harvey law firm, said he met McCarthy early in their respective careers when Gallagher was working as an assistant public defender. “He’s straight up, and that’s a rare commodity,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher, a Kennett Township resident, called the police department McCarthy set up “the best thing that’s happened to this township.”

Bill Shelton, a Kennett Township resident who works with the Chester County Crime Victims’ Center, said McCarthy would be receiving recognition from that organization at a later date. “You were a community police officer before they coined the phrase,” he said to McCarthy.

During the reception that followed the formal presentation, McCarthy said he did not yet have plans for the future, beyond working on home maintenance. He acknowledged that he had been approached by a number of organizations seeking him as a volunteer.

“I’m not going away,” he said. “I’ll be around, and I’m sure I’ll find other ways to serve.”