Al Donovan retired as the Chief of Police for the town of Tewksbury in December of 2009. He served in that capacity from December of 2003 to December of 2009. He was employed at the Tewksbury Police Department, Tewksbury, Massachusetts for twenty-five years on a full-time basis and served as a Reserve Police Officer in Tewksbury for eight years prior to that. Prior to his full-time tenure with Tewksbury, he worked with the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department for six years. His background includes serving as a union official with both organizations, holding a variety of elected positions for more than twenty-two years. Mr. Donovan holds a M. Ed, with a major in Criminal Justice Administration from Antioch University in 1980 and a BA in Law Enforcement from Boston State College.
Al Donovan started the consulting firm, A.P.D. Management Consultants in 1998, and has been conducting seminars on a wide variety of management and supervisory subjects, which are specific to law enforcement. Specializing in how these subjects impact law enforcement supervisory and management personnel in their daily activities, he has conducted seminars in the following areas: Management Rights, Accountability & Discipline, Internal Investigations, 1st Line Supervisors Rights & Responsibilities, Law Enforcement Evaluations, Dealing with Disgruntled Employees, Risk Management in Law Enforcement, Implementing Discipline, Massachusetts Police Reform, Compliance with Police Reform, How to prepare for your Assessment Center Test and Performance Evaluations in Law Enforcement.
Al Donovan is a graduate of the FBI National Academy (211th session) and was certified as an instructor by the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council. Mr. Donovan is also a graduate of the NYPD Internal Affairs Program (2006). Mr. Donovan has instructed supervisory classes at several police academies and was an instructor for the Massachusetts Police Leadership Institute which was an advanced supervisor/management school sponsored by the University of Lowell. He possesses a unique perspective on supervisory and management problems and concerns, having been a police administrator, a union representative and an experienced investigator who has investigated hundreds of police misconduct cases.
Retired Chief Donovan was a ‘Subject Matter Expert” for the Massachusetts Human Resources Division ‘Civil Service’ and was the Chairman of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Committee on Civil Service.
Since 2009 Chief Donovan has been a principal in several companies including; APD Management Inc., Integrity Testing LLC and Police Assessment Center Training. He has trained over 5,000.00 law enforcement professionals in several states and continues to provide consultant services to a great deal of law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts. His expertise and experience in the areas of Internal Affairs and employee misconduct investigations and Assessment Center Testing procedures provide him with a unique background and provide him with credentials to teach management and supervisory subjects in the law enforcement profession.
In his capacity as director of Integrity Testing LLC, retired Chief Donovan has been responsible for Writing and Developing test material and conducting over 80 Assessment Center Promotional Test for various Police and Fire Departments in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over the last seven years. He has personally developed and written over 350 exercises which have been used in Public Safety Assessment Center Test in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.