When you’re a kid, you’re often told your parents know best. There was even an old TV show called “Father Knows Best.” In Jeromy Grniet’s case, it turned out his grandmother may have known best. 

An Oxford High School graduate, Grniet is a “Pirate through and through.” What he was going to be when he grew up, however, wasn’t quite in focus when he attended Worcester State University. It was his grandmother who one day told him that the deadline for the police officer’s civil service exam had been extended, and she thought he should give it a try. 

“I don’t think you’re the type who wants to sit at a desk all your life,” Grniet recalled her saying. So, he did. And he passed. In December 1998, Grniet was one of nine who were appointed as permanent intermittent police officers in Oxford. About four years later, in 2002, the town hired him full-time. 

Twenty-seven years later, in June 2026, Grniet, a near lifelong resident of Oxford whose parents moved the family there from Worcester, was named Chief of Police, succeeding former Chief Mike Daniels,

The YankeeXpress had the opportunity recently to sit with Grniet in his office, talk policing, tour the station, and watch him interact with his officers. Over the course of a little over an hour, a few things became crystal clear: Grniet loves his town. He loves his family (his parents still live in town, and he and his wife have raised three boys). And he absolutely loves his job. 

From how he talked about the chiefs under whom he has served, including Charles Noyes, who first recommended hiring him many years ago, to the praise he lavished on his current crop of 23 officers, the passion was evident, the energy, even after nearly three decades in uniform, palpable. 

All of that was on display as he answered a wide range of questions from a reporter, who among other things learned that the new chief’s biggest wish when he ultimately retires is for one opportunity to wind the clock in the tower at Oxford Town Hall. 

What are your top priorities for the Oxford Police Department? We’ve been taking off like a rocket these last two to three years. We’re in rebuild. My goals for the next six to nine months are to rebuild the rank structure. We’re pursuing accreditation, which is important. Another goal is to get our detective and investigations positions allocated. We have 23 personnel. We had a staffing study conducted. It came back that we needed five additional positions. We’re working toward that. We got one, a full-time School Resource Officer, which is up and running. 

Is there a growing disconnect between how police do their jobs and how public views policing? In my job interview, they asked me what I felt would be challenging to me. I challenge every police chief to insulate their police department, support everybody inside, and insulate them from political opinions. We are going to do our job. No matter who’s on the other end of the phone, no matter what your political views are, if you pick up the phone and call us, we’re going to respond to you. As police, you deal with five percent of the public, 95 percent of the time. We’re here for the 100 percent of the public. The 95 percent you’re not hearing from are satisfied, happy, and supportive, and care about the police department. They understand what we have to go through to support them. Maybe the loudest voices get heard, but that’s a small percentage. 

What are your thoughts on a Civilian Review Board? Absolutely. I think it would be a red flag if you said, ‘Oh, no, we don’t want to do that.’ If civilians are educated on what their job is and what our job is, and collectively they take a look at things, sure. We’re completely transparent. 

Do you support having a mental health professional responding to 911 calls? We are working on a licensed mental health pilot program. Officers have to wear multiple hats. What we’ve done recently … is look at a four-town pilot, with Auburn, Charlton, Oxford and Leicester. We’re looking into getting the grant money for a shared mental health worker. The officer will always have to still go to a call. The policy is for officers to facilitate and de-escalate and get to the point where the mental health worker can come in and do their job in a safe setting. 

Would you support using Flock cameras in Oxford? It’s been presented but we do not have them. I’d have to look at where and to what level. AI is here. We do have a nice AI camera system for our own safety. I look at it from a standpoint of an investigative tool for us. I do understand there are perfectly law-abiding citizens who aren’t for it. I get why they’re not for it. It’s always been that in a public place you don’t have a right to privacy. Basically, when you go out, you’ve always been subject to filming and recording. 

Is there anything you wish the public could understand better about what police deal with on a daily basis? It’s hard for people to take the uniform off and see that we’re human. We do make mistakes, but we have high standards for ourselves. But you have to take that uniform off and see us as that father, that son, that mother, that brother, that sister. Our officers are just like you. If we can connect like that, and we don’t think we’re better than anybody else … I tell officers to think about what if, whether you’re making a stop or answering a call, the whole world is watching you at that moment? What is their expectation? That’s your job, to fulfill that expectation of how you should perform your job.

What is something people don’t know about you? I’m a big golfer. I have three boys, so my big thing is if I can get together a Father’s Day foursome. Growing up, my dad was a motorhead. He built hot rods. He’d be in the garage. I’d be handing wrenches to him, and he’d be working on something he got out of the junk yard. Even to this day, I have an older car my dad passed down that we work on together when we can. I love old, vintage stuff. Old cars, old sports stuff. I love going to the flea market. I’m a big history person. 

Throughout the interview, Grniet appeared relaxed and at ease, a man thoroughly comfortable with the new job title bestowed upon him. He smiled frequently, and when he was asked about mental health workers responding to 911 calls, he swiveled in his chair to the desk behind him, picked up a report he had been reviewing earlier, and grinned again, pleased to reveal to his questioner that a program was already in the works. There was an obvious reverence for the job and the career he has had, which was apparent when he talked about the previous chiefs. 

The lasting impression came when Grniet took his guest into another room, where two on-duty officers and an off-duty officer, Robert Picard, sat at their stations. Officer Larry Carlberg, originally from North Carolina, stood up immediately and extended his hand. He and Grniet chatted a bit, as did Officer Daniel Cavic, before Cavic and Carlberg hurried out the door in response to a call on Old Worcester Road. 

As the chief made his way back to his office, he praised all three officers and the department in general.

“We have a great team right now. We really do,” he said. “There’s so much camaraderie right now with new people coming in.”

Grniet was told that it seems like his grandmother was right with her suggestion all those years ago.

“Yeah,” he said. “She was.”