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The New Bedford Police Department will again have a deputy chief, after a years-long vacancy, and it’s a homegrown officer.
The appointment of Derek Belong on Monday comes nearly two years after the previous deputy chief, Adelino Sousa, retired. Belong will essentially oversee all day-to-day department operations, from patrol units and internal investigations to training and animal control.
The department has also created a new civilian position, chief of staff, which will be filled by Debra Piehl, a longtime crime analyst.
Belong has served the department for more than 22 years, most recently as one of the two assistant deputy chiefs, and then briefly as the acting chief last year until Police Chief Jason Thody was appointed.
In a call Monday, Thody told The Light that of all the candidates, Belong had the shortest learning curve: “He’s been extremely helpful since I got here… He’s got a lot of experience within this department.”
Belong has a master’s degree in criminal justice, which was a preferred requirement for the position. Privately, he runs a business with a retired New Bedford police officer, selling training and study guides for the civil service promotional exams.
Thody said he discussed his pick with the mayor, but that the mayor didn’t require Thody to run it by him.
Mayor Jon Mitchell in a statement said both appointments have “upgraded the department’s capacity to ensure public safety and maintain the public’s trust.”
“Deputy Chief Belong has excelled in every assignment over his career, including his recent status as Acting Chief,” Mitchell said.
Thody wrote in an email to the department Monday: “Ultimately, I selected the candidates whose experience and background best align with the immediate needs of these positions and who can step into the roles with the shortest transition period… These appointments position us well as we continue building a stronger, more efficient, and more service-oriented department.”
Between 2015 and 2025, Belong was the subject of two internal affairs investigations, but was more frequently the investigator and supervisor doling out discipline to officers who violated policies. Both cases against him were dismissed.
In 2022, then a captain, Belong and an officer had a verbal argument, and both allegedly threatened physical assault. The case was not sustained against either party. The investigator reported Belong apologized shortly after the incident and that the matter had been resolved between the two men.
Then in 2024, a civilian employee of the department alleged Belong made “inappropriate advances.” The city hired an outside firm to investigate, which exonerated Belong of the allegation, saying it did not find his communications to be improper.
Lorenzo Gonzalez, the police union president, did not immediately return a request for comment Monday evening on the appointments.
One officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as department policy bars members from speaking to the press, said they would have preferred an outsider, who might be more inclined to bring a new perspective and approach.
They said Belong has a reputation of being strict but fair, and said that they “hope he takes this department in a different direction” following internal issues revealed by outside consultants and a Boston Globe investigation last year.
The department received seven applications for the deputy chief position, listed in December.
Two sources told The Light that Capt. Nathaniel Rodriguez and Lt. Candido Trinidad also applied for the position, but department spokesperson Holly Huntoon and Thody declined to disclose further details on who applied and how many were internal candidates.
Rodriguez was one of the three finalists for the chief position, according to a city councilor.
Huntoon said Belong’s new salary is still being negotiated. He has been earning a $167,000 salary as assistant deputy chief. She said the department anticipates filling his assistant deputy position at a later time.
In July, Belong will attend the Senior Management Institute for Police, a three-week training program at Boston University hosted by the Police Executive Research Forum. It’s advertised as “preparing police executives for the challenges of today and tomorrow” and listed at nearly $12,000 to attend.
“Among the topics covered are diversity, political management, organizational change, managerial problem-solving, leadership communications, career planning, negotiation, the budgeting process, and media relations,” an info page reads.
Relatedly, the department’s other assistant deputy chief, Scott Carola, has been attending the Southern Police Institute’s administrative officers course at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, and will be there through May.
“I’m a firm believer in those trainings,” Thody said. “They really open your eyes to other ways of doing things.”
“One of the challenges here is there’s a lot of things that are ingrained,” Thody continued, approaches that can change or be made more “progressive” by training with academics and officers from cities across the country.
Thody said his goal is that the next chief comes from inside the department, and that training with national organizations helps toward that end.
Thody also taps civilian deputy
The chief on Monday also announced his pick for the civilian deputy position, formally the deputy director of administrative operations and informally his chief of staff.
Debra Piehl, a crime analyst who has trained law enforcement agencies on using data to direct operations and guide decision-making, will join the department either this month or next.
She will oversee budgets, grants, human resources, dispatch and communications, data collection and crime analysis, with a salary of about $131,000.
Piehl worked for the New York Police Department, where she set up its civilian crime analyst program; the Massachusetts State Police; and the Newton Police Department.
Thody is currently finalizing his selection for one more position: the public records administrator, who will process records requests from the public and press. That work for years has been fulfilled by the solicitor’s office in City Hall.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Does the city of New Bedford really need to spend money we don’t have for the position of chief of staff when we are short detectives?
In order to modernize and reform the department, yes.