John O’Malley, deputy chief of police in Scarborough, retired last week after 30 years with the department, where colleagues say he made a lasting impact.
O’Malley Contributed / John O’Malley
“I don’t think that we have a single officer that hasn’t been impacted or influenced by John’s time with the department,” said Liam Gallagher, assistant town manager and director of human resources. “I think that reach really expanded beyond the department; he was certainly a presence in town hall, working with other departments.”
O’Malley is credited with keeping up with a Scarborough tradition of the police and fire departments working closely with one another.
“It’s been stated many times that the town of Scarborough has enjoyed a long history of collaboration between fire (and) police,” said Fire Chief Rich Kindelan at O’Malley’s retirement ceremony Feb. 4. “(It) has remained successful because of leaders such as you, Deputy O’Malley.”
O’Malley became a reserve officer with the Scarborough Police Department in April 1992. During that time, the then-25-year-old “had some health issues.”
“I was battling Hodgkin’s Disease,” O’Malley said in an interview with The Forecaster. “When I applied to be a full-time officer in ’93, I was just finishing my chemo and radiation. I was a pretty sickly looking kid.”
In order to become a full-time officer, O’Malley was required to pass a physical aptitude test, or PAT.
“I remember a kid 30 years ago,” former Police Chief Robbie Moulton said at the ceremony, pausing to fight back tears, “who wanted to be a cop so bad, that when he took his PATs, he had just been taking cancer treatments.
“Every couple laps on the run, (he) stopped to throw up, and gathered himself back up and continued to run,” Moulton said. “I think that was just an example, John, of the commitment you had to the profession.”
O’Malley’s successor as deputy chief, his longtime friend and colleague, David Grover, also emphasized O’Malley’s commitment.
“I knew, before John started here, that he brings a high level of commitment, determination and productivity to anything that he decides to do,” Grover said at the ceremony. “I realized that his work at Scarborough PD would be no different when I watched him, as Chief Moulton mentioned, train to prepare to take the physical (aptitude) test … he would not let that be an excuse for stopping him from succeeding.”
In November 1993, O’Malley passed the test and was hired as a full-time officer. He worked his way through the ranks from patrol officer to deputy chief in 2019.
O’Malley spent 22 years as a special enforcement supervisor and sergeant on a team that did “everything from traffic enforcement to shoveling the roof of the police department.”
“I led the motorcycle unit at the time and the honor guard,” he said, which included providing police escorts for Presidents George Bush and Barrack Obama.
O’Malley said his attraction to the Scarborough Police Department started while he was growing up in Portland.
“One of my best friends, the best man at my wedding, David Grover, got a job out there,” he said. “Once I got in the door, I found out that they were the finest group of individuals I met.”
Policing has changed a lot over his 30-year career, he said, and one of the biggest current challenges for officers is that they must be “a Jack of all trades.”
“They need to be able to deal with mental illness, they need to be able to deal with different levels of intoxication from different substances, they need to be able to handle the routine calls and need to be able to handle calls that they’ve never seen before,” he said.
O’Malley has been an adjunct instructor at Husson University since 2012. In his retirement, he plans to get more involved with the university and spend more time golfing and riding his motorcycle and golfing.
“It’s been an amazing 30 years,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for a better place to work.”
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