Newton police chief retiring Jan. 2

Newton Police Chief John O'Brien announced last week that he is retiring. O'Brien, 59, became chief in January 2005, but has spent 36 years on the city's police force, officials said.

Jeremy Solomon, a spokesman for Mayor David Cohen, said "the mayor was grateful for Chief O'Brien for his three-and-a-half decades of service to our city. He inherited a department that had earned the safest city designation and he continued that level of excellence throughout his tenure, including a second safest city award for the city."

O'Brien's last day as the chief of police will be Jan. 2.

JOHN GUILFOIL