New Beacon Police Chief Confirmed

City adds members to Fjord Trail committee

Lt. Tom Figlia was unanimously confirmed by the City Council on Monday (May 20) as Beacon’s next police chief. 

He will assume the job on June 10. Sands Frost, who has been chief since 2020 and spent nearly 41 years with the department, will retire on June 14, so the two will overlap for a week. 

Figlia was hired in 2006 and promoted to lieutenant in 2018. He oversaw the introduction of body cameras for officers in 2018 and, beginning in 2017, led a project to review and rewrite department policies. He is also in charge of internal investigations.

During a May 13 workshop, Council Member Molly Rhodes asked Figlia if any recommendations by the Police Advisory Committee, which disbanded last year, still need to be addressed. The nine-member committee was created in 2021 in response to a state mandate to municipalities to review law enforcement policies and procedures.  

Figlia said he wants to continue analyzing data, such as the statistics gathered through traffic enforcement, to inform policing and how the department deploys its resources. 

Mayor Lee Kyriacou said Wednesday that he, Frost and Figlia attended the advisory committee’s final meeting. It agreed that its work was complete, Kyriacou said, but left two follow-up items for the officers: (1) deciding whether Beacon should participate in a county-run youth police academy in addition to one run by the city (which has included two participants who later joined the department) and (2) reviewing monthly and annual data that is to be released publicly.

The department will focus on its own Youth Police Academy and will provide the City Council with an annual report that would include reported crime, department  activity and other statistics of public concern, Figlia said.