Mayor Mike Walsh has named East Hartford Assistant Chief of Police Mack S. Hawkins as the town’s interim police chief. The appointment follows Chief Scott Sansom’s decision to leave the department to become Granby’s police chief Monday.

Chief Sansom led the East Hartford Police force for 9 years having been appointed by Walsh’s predecessor, former mayor Marcia Leclerc.

“It is with mixed emotions that I accepted the news from Chief Sansom, but there is no better candidate to fill his role other than Assistant Chief Hawkins,” stated Walsh in a press release issued Friday by his office. “Having been with the East Hartford Police Department for over a decade, Assistant Chief Hawkins has the knowledge and expertise to oversee the department and continue its success. I thank him for taking on the role of Interim Police Chief and continuing to move our police department forward.”

Born and raised in East Hartford, Assistant Chief Hawkins attended town schools then Howell Cheney Tech in Manchester where he studied automotive services, then Manchester Community College where he studied business administration.

In 1991 he joined the Hartford Police Dept. as a police cadet. Starting as a patrol officer, Hawkins rose to become a community service officer, then detective in the juvenile and intelligence divisions. He became an instructor in the Hartford Police Juvenile Law & Investigations departments. As a sergeant, he worked in the department’s patrol division, Hartford’s North Community Response division and HPD’s Intelligence division. He also supervised the cadet program and the department’s Disorder Control Team.

As a police sergeant in the Intelligence Division he supervised all dignitary details, oversaw narcotics and firearms investigations, and public corruption cases. Hawkins became a lieutenant and commanded the Hartford Police Major Crimes Division until his career bloomed further as he became Executive Commander for the Police Chief, overseeing Patrol, Support, and the Detective bureaus.

After 20 years in Hartford, Hawkins retired, joining the East Hartford Police in 2012. When Sansom followed Hawkins to East Hartford in 2014, being named police chief by former mayor Leclerc, he retained his HPD colleague Hawkins as his police commander. Sansom changed the command structure of the department, naming Hawkins Assistant Chief. Hawkins served as Sansom’s “right hand”, stated Mayor Walsh, helping to oversee many divisions in the 160-member-strong department.

Chief Sansom, Walsh added, brought East Hartford’s Police Department to “an unprecedented level of professional recognition” the mayor stated. The department underwent a three-year accreditation process and was recently awarded recognition by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (C.A.L.E.A.).

“Chief Sansom has served the town capably for a decade,” stated the mayor in making the announcement Friday. “He was instrumental in the Police Department achieving the CALEA accreditation, implementing an embedded social worker in the police department along with a host of other departmental improvements that make the East Hartford Police Department second to none in the state of Connecticut. For this, he has our appreciation and gratitude.”

Hawkins role could be short. Walsh is not running for a second term, and election day is Nov. 7. In naming Hawkins temporary chief Mayor Walsh noted it will be up to the next mayor to make a decision on the next permanent police chief.