Buddy C to ABC6: Chafee Will Tap O’Donnell
ABC6 reported the following “Breaking News” item shortly after noon today. Assuming this to be true, what do we know about Marshal O’Donnell?
United States Marshal Steven O’Donnell will be named the next head of the Rhode Island State Police.
ABC6 Chief Political Analyst Buddy Cianci says the announcement will occur this week.
O’Donnell, formerly the second-in-command with the State Police, was sworn in as the US Marshal in November of 2009. He had served with the State Police since 1986 and risen to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Prior to that, he was a patrolman with the North Kingstown Police Department and a correctional officer with the RI Department of Corrections. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia. …
Update
Numerous outlets are reporting that it will be Marshal O’Donnell. Mike Stanton has a lengthy article in the ProJo about events that made a replacement necessary as well as a run-down of the nominee’s career. And it looks like WPRO (source: Buddy Cianci again) was the first to report this development yesterday morning.
The Governor’s office has called a press conference for today at 3:30 to formally announce the governor’s choice.
It would be a good choice.
O’Donnell has no negatives and retired only recently as second in command of the RISP,and stayed in law enforcement,so he’s not going to have to play catch up like maybe someone who retired a long time back might.