When Tom Simeone of Yarmouth, Mass. was a child growing up in Natick in the 1950s, he always admired the large, 7-8’ tall wooden nutcrackers on display every holiday season at the Shoppers World store in Framingham.

Fast forward however many years, and the woodworking hobbyist decided, in retirement, to make one of his own. With that done, he found he still needed a creative outlet, so he decided to create a similarly large-scale mode of an officer for his local police department.

He has now built 28, delivered 27, and has four more in process in his workshop. They include figures for every police department on Cape Cod, the State Police barracks in Bourne, Yarmouth, and Martha’s Vineyard, and a handful of fire departments.

So when Simeone’s wife learned that he had received a request for a commission from Bristol, Rhode Island, she reacted with something like horror.

“So you’re going out of state now!?” she said, according to Simeone.

“About a year ago I came across a social media post of a wooden police officer that was built to promote community policing from a police department on the Cape and I asked Sgt. Brian Morse to reach out to Mr. Simeone to construct an officer for Bristol,” said Chief Kevin Lynch. “I thought it would be a great welcoming feature in the hallway of the station and to promote community events.”

Simeone traveled to Bristol and kindly volunteered his service. The paint was supplied by Baskins ACE hardware of White’s Path in Yarmouth and a flag patch was donated by Regency Police Supply in Hyannis.

“We reached out to Arnolds Lumber to price the lumber and when they heard about the project their manager insisted on donating all the materials for Mr. Simeone to construct Officer Bristol,” said Lynch. “Thank you to Arnolds Lumber.”

Additional assistance was provided by Susan McCarthy, Simeone’s sister-in-law, who painted Officer Bristol’s badges, Keith Magyar and Keith Harris, who assisted with construction, and Bob Nelson, a former Bristol resident and friend of Simeone who helped build Officer Bristol and traveled to town on Tuesday, Jan. 23 to help with delivery and assembly.

Officer Bristol is modeled after Officer Sean Gonsalves; when asked how that decision came about, Lynch laughed, “Well, just look at him.” At which point Officer Gonsalves quickly found some pressing police business to attend to, vanishing into an office.

Town Administrator and retired Deputy Chief Steven Contente arrived just in time for the unveiling.

“I think he’s going to bring a lot of smiles to faces and I think it would be a good idea if he visits the elementary schools,” Contente said.

Lynch agreed. “And we will find a way to make sure that he's displayed out on the 4th of July parade route this year…maybe work a traffic position and save the Town some money.”