By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — Ten policemen submitted applications for the vacant position of deputy chief before the deadline closed last week, officials said.

Citing the privacy of the applicants, Personnel Director Owen Bebeau declined to identify the contenders, but he said all are employees of the Woonsocket Police Department. The job is open only to current or retired city police officers who have attained the rank of lieutenant or captain.
The pool represents all but two of the eligible employees on the 101-member department, which includes three captains and nine lieutenants in various divisions, said Bebeau.
The move to fill the position comes just days after Mayor Susan D. Menard announced
that she would hire Major Tom Carey of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Police Department as the next chief of the department.. Officials have said that Carey, who was in the city this weekend to shop for a home, will be sworn in on Sept. 15. The job does not carry a residency requirement but Carey has said he wants to live here.
The positions for the WPD’s top brass have been vacant since early March, when Chief Michael L.A. Houle and Deputy Chief Richard A. Dubois resigned within days of each other. They turned in their badges after Houle’s ex-wife, former Patrolwoman Marsha Bish, told reporters the two officers made sure she got a job on the Woonsocket Police Department by tinkering with the scores on her qualifying exams. State Police Detective Lt. Eric L. Croce has been filling in as chief on a temporary basis since March 5.
Next to hiring the chief, the procedure for selecting the deputy chief is a comparatively stripped down affair.
Mayor Susan D. Menard says the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the International Brotherhood of Police Officers gives her the unilateral authority to appoint the next deputy chief from the pool of applicants. Minimally, Menard said, she would interview applicants she considers leading contenders. Although there is no requirement to pass or even take a test, Menard said she might introduce some type of qualifying trial into the selection process before she makes an appointment.
“I might ask them to fill out some written interrogatories, but it hasn’t been decided yet,” she said. “I just finished appointing a police chief.”
The minimum educational requirements, workplace skills and responsibilities of a prospective deputy chief are detailed in an official job description on file in the personnel office - last revised in February 2000 by a former personnel director. All that is needed to qualify for the position, according to the document, is a Rhode Island Driver’s License and a certificate of graduation from the 13-week Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy.
“Subject to the direction and control of the chief, the deputy chief is responsible for the supervision and control of all offices and is personally responsible for their efficiency and effectiveness as members of the department,” the documents says. “He performs various functions relating to the administration of the department as directed by the chief.”