BELFAST, Maine — Two years after taking the helm of the Belfast Police Department, Chief Gerry Lincoln announced he will retire later this month.
Lincoln, of Dixmont, has led the department through challenges posed both by the coronavirus pandemic and occasional periods of social unrest such as last winter, when tensions escalated around public protests in the city.
He’ll be missed, city officials said.
“During Gerry Lincoln’s tenure as the chief of the Belfast Police Department, the city and the department have endured some troubled times,” Belfast City Councilor Neal Harkness said. “We have been fortunate to have a leader as efficient and thoughtful as Chief Lincoln in command.”
The chief has been with the Belfast Police Department since 2017. Before that, he spent nearly a decade working for the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, during which time he served as a school resource and a detective.
Prior to his police work, Lincoln served in the U.S. Air Force for about a quarter century. He flew KC-135 refueler planes out of Bangor, among other responsibilities. While in the military, he broke the sound barrier, flew fighter jets to the North Pole and logged a lot of time in “flying gas stations” that refueled other military planes in mid-air.
Lincoln was the deputy chief of the Belfast police department prior to being appointed chief in January 2020. At that time, the police department was in the midst of a staffing shortage and the chief worked to hire new police officers to fill vacant positions and bring new energy to the city.
It was a generational transition, city officials said, and Lincoln navigated it well.
“He quickly invested his efforts into transforming the department,” Mackenzie Barnhart, the communications assistant for the city of Belfast, said this week. “He saw a team of young and eager officers that provided a great potential for the department to grow and address the needs of the Belfast community.”
Efforts Thursday to speak with Lincoln about his upcoming retirement were not immediately successful.
City councilors described the chief’s leadership style as community-oriented, calm and professional.
“Under his leadership … we have seen many examples of innovative and compassionate policing,” City Councilor Brenda Bonneville said. “I wish Chief Lincoln the best in his future endeavors.”