Sarah Harris Named Chatham’s Deputy Police Chief

CHATHAM – The new Deputy Chief of the Chatham Police Department is Lieutenant Sarah Harris, the first woman to hold that position on the town's police force. 

Harris is no stranger to firsts, having also been the first female lieutenant and first female detective on the force, but she is quick to add that, like other officers, she has had to earn each position. 

 Harris grew up in Prospect, Conn., a town too small to have a police department. Unlike others who may have been inspired by a family members' uniformed service, Harris did not have those connections. 

 Instead, as the oldest of five children, she found that she liked problem solving and helping others. "While I enjoyed math and science in school, I knew I worked best with people," she said. While in school she worked for a while as a lifeguard and wound up feeling most useful when she was listening to and helping people. 

 After she graduated from Westfield State University in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a minor in sociology, she still wasn't quite sure what direction that would take. She worked briefly in college policing for Worcester State University and Bridgewater State. 

 By 2000 she was "looking to work for a town," she said. Harris had done some security work on Nantucket during college and enjoyed the area. Her husband Marc had visited Cape Cod growing up and "it seemed like a great place to start a career and a family," she recalled recently. 

 "I recall completing my second interview in Chatham, being offered the job, driving to the Lighthouse excited about the adventure that lay ahead and wondering how anyone could have a bad day here. Naive but ready to serve," she wrote in an email. "I feel lucky Chatham chose me." 

 Her 26 years of town service include a wide variety of patrol, court and investigation assignments, providing her with the experience essential for her new position. Promoted to detective in 2009 and to sergeant in 2010, Harris has held almost every position and assignment within the department. She was promoted to lieutenant in 2024. 

 In addition to the work challenges, her time in the department included "working years of midnights to be able to raise my three kids," she said. The Chatham police force is more diverse now, she said, with four female officers. 

 Among other assignments, she has served as a Citizens Police Academy instructor and as the police department representative on the Chatham Elderly Working Group. She also serves as a member of the Cape Cod Law Enforcement Council's Human Trafficking Enforcement Team. 

 Harris earned a master's degree in criminal justice from Curry College and is a graduate of the Reserve/Intermittent Massachusetts Police Academy, the Special State Police Academy and the Massachusetts Police Training Committee Full Time Academy (MPTC). She is a member of FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (FBI LEEDA) and the Massachusetts Association of Women in Law Enforcement.

 Harris knows that many people are not fully aware of what the police department does from "CPR to tree cutting to weapons control...being prepared takes a lot. There is so much we do they don't realize, and with restrictions and protocols, people can think it's easy," she said. "There's a lot that we do to make it look easy."

 She is grateful to the town for the support they provide to the department and its members. "The town is great at thanking us!" she said, adding, "I can't say enough about it. I've never looked to go anywhere else."