John J. Partington Public Safety Building Dedication

The Following is an article that appeared in "The Times" Saturday, 31 May 2008

By VINAYA SAKSENA
CUMBERLAND — The building otherwise known as the Cumberland Police Station will be renamed this weekend after a native son who became a well-known, well-respected law enforcement official in Rhode Island and nationwide.

In a ceremony slated for 2 p.m. Sunday, the town will officially rename its police station the John J. Partington Public Safety Building, in honor of the former police chief who passed away two years ago after nearly five eventful decades in law enforcement.

“Partington was a true professional,” said Cumberland Police Sgt. Paul Brown. “I mean, he showed it every day he came to work. He had a way of getting the officers together and getting the job done. Partington is a cop’s cop, and he had a wealth of knowledge.”

Partington died Feb. 9, 2006, at the age of 77. He began his career in law enforcement as a Cumberland patrolman in 1955, leaving that job for a position as a deputy U.S. marshal under then-U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1962.

His early service with the marshals included work with the IRS focusing on organized crime. His efforts with Robert Kennedy to establish the federal witness protection program in the late 1960s gained Partington national recognition. Partington helped protect organized crime figures during the early days of the program. He was interviewed for an ABC News 20/20 report in the 1980s about his experiences sheltering Joseph Barboza, a Boston-based hit man, and other mob informants. Partington was featured in multiple TV news shows and books, including the biography of mobster Vinnie Teresa.

His work as a deputy U.S. marshal led to Partington’s appointment as U.S. marshal for the District of Rhode Island in 1979, a position he held until shortly before his return to the Cumberland Police Department as chief on Jan. 22, 1982. Partington held that post until the 1990s, when he took on a new challenge as public safety commissioner in Providence. In that job, he oversaw both the police and fire departments.

Local police said this week that Partington was sorely missed during the latter period. Capt. James Coyne, who served as dispatcher under Partington toward the end of his tenure, remembered the former chief as both a personable boss and a forward-thinking leader.

“He was a genuinely nice guy,” Coyne said, adding, “he did community policing before it was community policing.”
According to police on the job at the time, Partington was at least partially responsible for initiating the Crime Stoppers program, which encourages those with information about a crime to call it in anonymously, for a possible reward of $1,000.

Those who served under him remember such efforts as central to building durable community relationships. For example, Capt. Christine Crocker recalled that Partington started the annual pre-graduation celebration for high school grads now known as Grad Night, in an effort to curb the underage drinking that he saw hurting or even killing soon-to-be grads the night before.

“He definitely believed in the youth in this town,” Crocker said. “I think he did change their attitude. Kids weren’t giving us the finger, they were stopping and talking to us.”

Crocker added that Partington was a major factor in her joining the force. His open-mindedness, she said, helped shake any stereotypes of police departments being boys’ clubs.

“Female officers were still a new phenomenon,” Crocker recalled. “But he took a stand. I might not be a police officer if it weren’t for him.”