Top 11 of 2011: Fall From Grace

Top 11 of 2011: Fall From Grace

He took leadership in Providence on a gust of fresh air, and his tenure promised--and delivered--reform. The irony that his departure would be linked to a scandal was not lost on residents, who shook their heads at the rise--and fall--of Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman.

Esserman took over the Providence Police Department in 2003, when new Mayor David Cicilline sought to clean up the PPD's reputation of favoritism and corruption. The chief with an Ivy League degree but who'd

never walked the beat put up impressive results in Providence, bringing in "clean classes" of new officers, bulking up community policing, and cutting the overall crime rate in the capital city for three years in a row.

Esserman, who had a reputation for brusqueness, survived the transfer of power from Cicilline to Angel Taveras in 2011, but the winds were blowing more strongly against the chief. In February, the Providence police union issued a no-confidence vote in Esserman over his behavior toward a subordinate. But it was a party at the Chief's East Side home involving underage drinking that made Esserman's holding on to his post untenable.

Unable to keep the story from breaking open, Esserman resigned in June. By November, his former employer, the town of New Haven, CT, gave the chief its top law enforcement job.