City announces Greenfield police chief retiring

GREENFIELD — City leadership has announced that Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. is retiring from his position, effective Friday, Feb. 16.

Deputy Police Chief William Gordon will assume responsibilities as acting/provisional police chief, in adherence to his preexisting employment contract, effective Saturday, Feb. 17.

A brief statement from the Mayor’s Office notes that Keith Barnicle, who is chief of staff, is serving as acting mayor in the absence of Ginny Desorgher. Desorgher will return Monday, Feb. 19, and the Mayor’s Office has no additional comments at this time.

The city received a letter confirming Haigh’s retirement on Thursday, Feb. 15.

Haigh has faced public criticism over the past couple of years in the wake of a May 6, 2022, jury verdict in Hampshire County Superior Court that found that he and the Greenfield Police Department racially discriminated against former Officer Patrick Buchanan, the department’s only Black officer at the time, when he was originally denied a promotion in 2014, and then again in late 2020.

Following the verdict, Haigh was placed on paid administrative leave for about four months, but was then reinstated by then-Mayor Roxann Wedegartner in September 2022. Some residents, including some that gathered to protest outside Greenfield City Hall in advance of a City Council meeting that summer, called for Haigh to be fired following the jury’s verdict.

An Orange native, Haigh was hired as Greenfield’s police chief in October 2013 under the leadership of Mayor William Martin. He had previously served as Orange’s police chief and began his career in law enforcement as a patrolman in Greenfield in 1999.

This story is breaking and will be updated with more information as it is available.