By Charlie McKenna
masslive.com
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to follow and signup for notifications!
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — North Andover’s embattled police chief asked the town’s governing body to put him on leave Thursday to allow for a complete investigation of his conduct and decision-making, according to a letter he sent the Select Board that was provided to MassLive.
Town Manager Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues confirmed the board voted to place Chief Charles Gray on leave during an executive session at its Thursday night meeting.
| DOWNLOAD:Governing AI in policing — What law enforcement leaders need to know
Gray’s leave from the department comes after two unions representing North Andover police officers declared they no longer had confidence in his leadership. He has served as police chief since 2016.
The no-confidence vote was taken in the wake of former North Andover Police Officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons‘ acquittal on an assault with a dangerous weapon charge last month. Her lawyers have since indicated they intend to file a lawsuit against the town.
In his letter, Gray said he had the “utmost confidence that a thorough and impartial investigation will exonerate me of the allegations made and will confirm the appropriateness of my conduct and decision-making.”
“Out of an abundance of caution and in order to avoid even an appearance of influencing the investigation, I also suggest that I be placed on administrative leave pending the conclusion of the investigation,” the letter reads.
The charge against Fitzsimmons was related to an incident from June 2025 during which she was shot by a colleague who was serving her a restraining order taken out by her then-fiancé.
Prosecutors accused Fitzsimmons of pulling out a gun and trying to fire it at the officer. During her trial, she testified that she pointed the gun at her own head in an attempt to take her own life.
The unions’ statement announcing the vote cited a “recent publicized case” involving multiple officers as an example of Gray’s “pattern of leadership failures,” but did not reference Fitzsimmons by name. Members of the unions could not endure the police chief’s “corrosive and incompetent leadership,” they said.
“We can no longer remain silent while operating under a toxic culture of vindictiveness and professional stagnation,” the statement reads. “This vote is not about wages, benefits or other traditional labor issues — it is the unavoidable consequence of years of failed leadership, no leadership, and outright inaction.”
The unions also highlighted what they described as a failure by Gray to obtain body-worn cameras for officers and accused the chief of dragging his feet on the implementation of a comprehensive policy governing officer-involved shootings.
The lack of body-worn cameras for officers was a sticking point in the Fitzsimmons case and was highlighted by Judge Jeffrey T. Karp when he acquitted her.
“Perhaps the commonwealth could have easily met its burden if the officers had been wearing body cameras,” Karp said.
In a statement earlier this month, Gray blamed “startup and program maintenance costs” for keeping body-worn cameras “out of reach” for the department. He indicated it was a priority for the town in its coming budget season.
In 2021, Massachusetts established a Law Enforcement Body-Worn Camera Program, which allows police departments to apply for state grant money to either create a body-worn camera program in their departments or expand an existing one.
The program doled out grant funds to departments for five years until it ended in 2026.
North Andover never applied for or received grant funding through that program or any other, a spokesman confirmed. The department did receive funds through the American Rescue Plan Act, which were used for pole and street cameras.
Earlier this month, the police department’s Facebook page was used to comment on a post from a user named “Gator Boy,” who shared an NBC10 Boston news story about Fitzsimmons’ plans to sue. The comment read “In other shocking news!”
The department blamed the post on a former employee and briefly took down its entire Facebook page.
Trending
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Company News
