Colonel Anthony J. Roberson, Chief of Police
Colonel Anthony J. Roberson serves as the 19th Chief of Police of the Central Falls Police Department, providing strategic leadership focused on public safety, community trust, and prevention-based policing.
Chief Roberson began his law enforcement career in 2002 with the Providence Police Department, where he held a range of operational, investigative, and supervisory roles, including Patrol Sergeant, Detective in the Investigative Division, School Resource Officer, and Commanding Officer of the Records Bureau. He also served as a Juvenile Hearing Board liaison and instructed on cultural competency in the police academy.
A nationally recognized law enforcement leader, Chief Roberson is the first law enforcement officer in Rhode Island to receive the U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing. He has also been recognized with the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the NAACP Medgar Evers Award, induction into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hall of Fame for the City of Providence, the State of Rhode Island’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Special Recognition Award, recognition from the Rhode Island Police Chiefs’ Association for Community Policing, and by the Women’s Resource Center as one of the region’s “Men Who Make a Difference.”
Chief Roberson is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff & Command. He has completed executive education through Harvard Kennedy School, where he earned an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership, as well as Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Cornell University’s Women in Leadership program, the University of Louisville’s Southern Police Institute Chief Executive Program, the FBI-LEEDA Five Star Chief Executive Institute, and the New England Public Safety Command Academy.
He holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership, a Post-Master’s degree in Education, a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Bellevue University. Chief Roberson is a published author on school safety, with research indexed in the U.S. Department of Education’s ERIC and later published in the Journal of School Safety, the official publication of the National Association of School Resource Officers. He is also the first sworn member of the department to have his doctoral research formally archived in the FBI Library.
In 2023, Chief Roberson was appointed to the Rhode Island Police Officers Commission on Standards and Training. He has led several community initiatives, including the Handshake Initiative, Bicycle Summer Safety Program, and Leading Ladies Initiative, focused on youth engagement and strengthening police-community relationships. In addition to his role as Chief, he serves as an adjunct professor and sits on the Boards of Directors for the YMCA and the Nonviolence Institute.