For Gary Gaskell, the town of Pembroke is the embodiment of home. He feels a deep and abiding love for his community, whether he’s at the safety center overseeing the police department or at his house spending time with family.
As he prepares to retire as police chief at the end of 2025 and pass on leadership to Lieutenant Dawn Shea — who will be the first-ever female head of the department — Gaskell finds himself looking back on his 28-year career in law enforcement.
“I’m probably most proud of the people I work with and the people I serve in the town,” he said. “My family, I could not have done what I have done, and as long as I’ve done it, without the support of my family.”
His father, Owen Gaskell, had a multi-decade career as a police officer. Growing up, Gaskell oscillated between following in his father’s footsteps or forging a career entirely of his own building houses or working as a mechanic. A series of law enforcement-related classes he took in college in Florida, however, convinced him of his calling.
“It’s not an easy job that we do,” he said. “We see things that most people don’t. We do things without fear for ourselves. We, as police officers, have a desire to make things better. I think everybody does. But it’s for safety, it’s for the betterment of lives.”
Gaskell came back to New Hampshire after college and began at the Pembroke Police Department, where he served for five years before moving to Hooksett to join his dad. But he continued living in Pembroke throughout, and the town kept beckoning to him. Eventually, he rejoined the department, where he has spent a total of 23 years and served for the past three-and-a-half as chief.
The police chiefs he’s worked under have influenced his growth, he said, listing Thomas Iverson, Wayne Cheney, Scott Lane and Dwayne Gilman as major influences in his career.
Gaskell’s successor, Shea, views him as a similar mentor along her own professional trajectory.
“We have had a tremendous working relationship. He is a phenomenal police officer, and he has been a phenomenal chief,” she said.
Shea will officially become the department’s police chief in the new year. She said the past three years working with Gaskell have been the best of her career.
A Merrimack native, she got her start as a police officer in her hometown before joining Pembroke’s department, where she spent ten years. Her path first crossed with Gaskell when he returned from Hooksett. Although Shea ultimately shifted to Bow and then to Allenstown, she and Gaskell kept in touch, and when he became chief, she returned to the department as his lieutenant.
She has learned everything she possibly could from him over the last few years and feels ready to step into his shoes. Shea views the role as being a “steward” of the Pembroke Police Department.
“This agency existed long before we were here, and it’s going to exist long after we are here,” said Shea, who lives in Deerfield but views Pembroke as another home. “Our job is to keep it safe, to make sure that we don’t do any damage to it and that we leave it better than we found it. I know that’s been Chief Gaskell’s goal, and I very much agree with that, and that will also be my goal.”
Shea also hopes to grow the department’s technological capabilities to better facilitate “interoperability” across agencies, to find new ways to attract and retain staff long-term and to promote mental health and well-being among members of the department.
“This is a hard profession, and police officers — first responders in general — but police officers see things and do things that the public does not see and they do not understand, and it’s just the nature of the job,” she said.
Becoming the town’s first female police chief feels incredibly meaningful to her, especially considering all the previous chiefs who, like Gaskell, shaped her career.
“Everybody’s kind of had a part in where I am right now,” she said. “And to be able to do a little something to make history here is really cool. I’m certainly not the first female police chief in the state of New Hampshire. We have a lot of them, and they’re all phenomenal. But to be able to take up that little sliver of history and have been given the opportunity to even come back to Pembroke and finish my career here has been huge for me.”