Mark Foley praised as leader who always loves a challenge. Meet Swansea's new police chief.

SWANSEA — When word got out earlier this spring that Mark Foley had been appointed chief of the Swansea Police Department, his phone was besieged with texts.

Many of those texts, from old football teammates and co-workers past and present, not only congratulated Foley but praised him for being a leader.

Now more than a month into his elevation to chief, succeeding the retired Marc Haslam, the former Case High School and UMass Dartmouth football lineman has found his new job challenging and satisfying and educational. He's also doing, in a sense, double duty as his replacement as lieutenant had not, as of this writing, been hired.

“Obviously I have a lot to learn and there are a lot of new challenges,” Foley, 48, said recently from his Swansea PD office. “Thank God we have a good police department, good officers. I actually love a challenge.”

“I have a whole notebook where I've written down a lot of things I want to do. I jot them down. It's a lot of journaling.”

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Nearly three-decade career in law enforcement

Foley is a 26-year veteran of the Swansea PD and most recently served as lieutenant where he was also the department's firearms licensing officer. Foley's resume also features eight years as a SWAT operator for the Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (SEMLEC) and he is a certified Municipal Police Training Committee instructor.

Foley started his law enforcement career with the now-defunct reserve police program in 1998. He was a patrolman from 2000-2012, served as a sergeant and patrol supervisor from 2012-2023, before being promoted to lieutenant in 2023.

“I was on a lot of high-risk calls,” Foley said. “And I was always finding myself leading our officers through these calls.”

Under Foley's leadership, the department has already staged an active-shooter simulation at Joseph Case High School. He said he wants to help officers to be prepared for such high-pressure situations, and the key is training and mental repetition, training the brain to know it has already been through the many scenarios an officer may face.

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Foley earned a master's degree in criminal justice from Anna Maria College, where his thesis was on scenario-based training.

Goals as Swansea's new top cop

“I'm interested in not just making myself better, but helping to make others better,” he said. “Training is so important. It's paramount to everything.”

Foley said he would very much like to get a training simulator for his department.

Another goal, Foley said, is getting his officers more involved in the community. In elder affairs, in opioid reach-out. In other areas.

“This community really supports us,” he said. “I'm tied to this community something fierce. And this police department is like a child to me."

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Longtime Swansea police veteran ready to tackle new role as chief