MANCHESTER, NH – One of the first objectives Chief Nick Willard outlined, after taking over as chief of police, was developing a more responsive system of outreach for children traumatized by violence or abuse.
It was an issue near and dear to his heart, not only as a career police officer who’d seen the worst of the worst, but because of his own vulnerabilities, as an “invisible” victim of domestic strife.
Willard is open about his own early experiences as a child – police visits to his home in Maine were not uncommon. Willard remembers wondering why the local police didn’t do more to help, whenever his father’s alcohol-fueled outbursts brought law enforcement to his door.
“I came from a hard-scrabbled life, and didn’t grow up in the most perfect of situations for a child, even though the lessons I learned growing up are the things I want to change currently,” said Willard, during an interview in October of 2015 about his first 100 days as chief.
“Back then, domestic violence was seen differently, so police would come to a home and leave, maybe tell a parent to take a walk. What I remember most growing up in a very poor family was just how the cops looked at you, and made you feel less than worthy. That contempt that I felt in the way they looked at me – I didn’t care for police officers as a kid because of that. It wasn’t until I was in the military and became a military policeman that I changed my thinking, and thought maybe there was another way to be a cop,” says Willard. “I didn’t feel compassion from police officers as a kid.”
Now he is in a position to see that “another way to be a cop” is standard operating procedure, and that things on his watch go differently. One of the first things Willard did as chief was initiate a child advocate position through an AmeriCorps grant.
And that initiative has led to the groundbreaking ACERT program – Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team – a rapid response team developed cooperatively by Project LAUNCH Local Program Director Lara Quiroga from Manchester Community Health Center; Jessica Sugrue, President of the YWCA NH; Lt. Nicole Ledoux and Lt. Paul Thompson from Manchester Police Department.
Willard has also, more than once, been unapologetically critical of lapses in vital state services specific to cases involving Manchester Police investigations, where children were endangered, or lost, due to abuse – including the Sept. 2015 death of Sadence Willott, a toddler who was already involved with state DCYF services at the time of her death.
For those reasons, and many more, Child Advocacy Center of Hillsborough County chose Willard as this year’s recipient of the annual R.J. Finlay Service to Children Award, given each year to honor an individual who has shown exceptional dedication to children.
Willard was selected because he “stands out” for his “unwavering support of the CAC movement,” citing among other things the annual MPD Beards for Bucks fundraiser launched in 2015, which raises money for the Hillsborough County CAC. Even more, Willard was honored for his “consistent efforts to educate” other members of law enforcement, elected officials and the public on the CAC movement and how forensic interviews done at the CAC not only help law enforcement and prosecutors in their pursuit of justice for child victims, but also how the CAC works to help survivors of childhood abuse heal – and move forward in life.
