Hopkinton's Select Board will sit down Tuesday with three finalists vying to become the town's next police chief, a job that has been filled on an interim basis since June. The candidates are Hopkinton interim chief Scott van Raalten and two Westborough Police Department lieutenants, Greg Schipporeit and Cliff Luce, each bringing more than two decades of law enforcement experience to the table.
The interviews mark a key step in a search that began with 20 applicants, according to Hopkinton Independent. One candidate later withdrew, narrowing the pool to 19 before a Police Chief Screening Committee of residents and town employees — assembled to ensure public input in the hiring process — winnowed the list down to the three finalists set to appear before the Select Board.
Three Paths to the Chief's Office
Van Raalten has spent his entire career with the Hopkinton Police Department, joining in 2001 and working his way through roles as patrol officer, detective, senior administrative sergeant, detective sergeant and lieutenant before being named deputy chief in December 2024. He has served as interim chief since former chief Joseph Bennett retired on June 30, 2026, after 35 years with the department, nearly all of it in Hopkinton, as reported by MetroWest Daily News. Van Raalten is also a lawyer and a member of the Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. bars, as well as the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, per the same report.
Luce began his policing career in Brookfield before serving in Warren, then joined the Westborough Police Department in 2007. He has been a police officer since 2000 and rose through the ranks in Westborough, becoming patrol sergeant in 2018, detective sergeant in 2021 and lieutenant in 2022, according to the outlet's account. He has served in both patrol and administrative lieutenant roles and has been with the Westborough department since 2007, per Hopkinton Independent.
Schipporeit's Colorado-to-Westborough Journey
Schipporeit has been a police officer since 2005, spending years as a patrol agent in Lakewood, Colorado, until 2017 before joining the Westborough Police Department as a patrol officer in July 2018. He served as sergeant from 2021 through 2024 before his promotion to lieutenant, according to the same MetroWest Daily News report. In Westborough, he has also served as the department's accreditation manager, tracking and communicating state Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission certifications for the department and its officers.
All three finalists share more than 20 years of policing experience, though their career paths diverge sharply between one department and two, the Hopkinton Independent reports. Whoever is ultimately chosen will replace Bennett, who had served as Hopkinton's police chief since 2020 after joining the department in 1993.
What's Scheduled for Tuesday
The Select Board meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hopkinton Town Hall, with the police chief finalist interviews set to start at 7 p.m., per MetroWest Daily News. An earlier update from eHop had indicated in July that finalists were expected to appear before the board by the end of August, a timeline that ultimately stretched into November as the screening process continued.
