WINDSOR — Chief Jen Frank is trading maple trees for palm trees.

The Windsor police chief and former top cop in Norwich is leaving the Upper Valley for Florida, where she will head up the police department in Milton, a city of 11,000 people in the panhandle.

The move marks a significant step up for the Windsor police chief, who will helm a force double the size in a sunbelt city with a rapidly growing population.

“I have a big heart for the Windsor community. This is a very special place. I am not leaving here because I am unhappy. I am leaving because I have a incredible opportunity and with the benefit that we are in a great spot with a fully staffed, very professional agency,” Frank told the Valley News on Tuesday.

Frank, 48, was selected following a national search and a full day of interviews with city officials and community leaders last month, said Ed Spears, Milton city manager.

“The biggest thing that stood out for me is Chief Frank’s commitment to community policing and community engagement, policing through nontraditional means,” Spears told the Valley News on Tuesday.

He cited the Windsor reduction in violent crime during Franks’ tenure and the National Leadership in Community Policing award the department won in 2023.

Spears said he also had been impressed by her educational background — Frank has a doctoral degree from Plymouth State University — that is “specific to her field in law enforcement.”

“That weighed heavily with me,” he said.

The Milton police department has 20 sworn police officers, twice as many as Windsor, according to Frank. She said when dispatches and “civilian staff” are added, Milton’s department is more than three times the size of Windsor’s.

Another factor making Frank’s move to Florida appealing is that she will be closer family. It’s where Frank was born and spent her “early education years.”

“My parents live on the east coast and my children live on the west coast and my two granddaughters also live on the west coast, which is a natural draw,” she said.

Frank, who begins her job in Milton on April 21, started out as a social studies teacher in New Hampshire before transitioning into law enforcement with the Plymouth State college security office in 2006. She joined the Windsor police as a detective in 2015 and four years later was lured away to become police chief in Norwich, succeeding the retiring Doug Robinson.

Frank then was hired back to head the Windsor department in 2021 during the pandemic.

Besides emphasizing community policing, Frank rebuilt the department roster, which had six full-time officers when she joined, back up to its full complement of 10 officers.

Windsor Town Manager Tom Marsh said that bringing Frank back to Windsor to succeed Bill Sampson was “what we needed at the time.”

“Jen’s whole approach ... is exactly the right fit,” he said.

Although Marsh said he wasn’t expecting Frank to leave, he also acknowledged “I didn’t expect her to retire here.”

Frank said she is looking forward to the challenges in running a much larger department in a municipality whose population of about 11,000 is five-times the size of Windsor’s 2,138.

Milton is “the fourth fastest-growing small city in Florida. In the past three years, they’ve grown by 1,200 people annually each year. There are four military bases within 30 minutes. These kinds of things bring with it unique opportunities.”

Marsh said he is first going to draw on “local and regional resources” to find candidates to succeed Frank. If that “proves not to be fruitful” he said he will expand the search nationally.

Once he has it down to three candidates — the town manager has discretion to hire the police chief — Marsh will present them to the Selectboard to get their input.

Marsh said he hopes to have a new police chief hired by June.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.