MANCHESTER – With great regret, Mayor Kenneth Palmer reluctantly informed the Township Council that Police Chief Lisa Parker will leave the department after 32 “exceptional and honorable” years on June 30.
Palmer, who took office as mayor just a few months prior to Parker being sworn in as chief in March of 2015 said during the council meeting, “it is with mixed emotions that I recently accepted the retirement paperwork for Chief Parker.”
When she was sworn in as chief, she spoke with excitement and pride about the township’s police force – calling it one of the most well-respected law enforcement agencies in the state – and that she was proud to become the next leader of the department.
During the last six years, she oversaw the township’s new full-time EMS program which began in March 2020 and the beginning of the paid fire department this year.
Parker started her career on May 1, 1989 and rose to serve in various assignments in bureaus of the police force. She also started several different programs for the department.
“I hope everyone will have a chance to thank her for her service and she has without a doubt left the Manchester Township a better place than which she found it. We were fortunate to have her over the years serving not only as a police officer but every office she served within the department. She has done just about everything that you could do,” the mayor said.
Palmer noted that in the past couple of years “with the COVID I can tell you she spearheaded all the township response and made herself a COVID expert and we got through the pandemic through her leadership. I am eternally grateful to her for that and for many other reasons.”
She will be passing the reigns of leadership to Capt. Robert “Bobby” Dolan, a 29-year veteran of the township police department as the next chief.
