NORWICH — Former Norwich Police Chief Wade Cochran took a job at the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, according to a news release from the DMV.

Cochran, a Waterford, Vt., resident, has been named DMV enforcement and safety director, the news release said last week. He will start his new job next week.

Cochran held the Norwich job for just nine months before resigning in late July. During those months, Cochran advocated for increasing officer wages and benefits and urged the Selectboard to increase the department’s budget to hire additional police officers.

Cochran was selected for the DMV post, in which he will lead 29 sworn officers and 14 civilian staff members, in part due to “his leadership experience and forward thinking about the use of modern policing, transparency, and collaboration with mental-health and other agencies, private partners and other first responders to support the changing enforcement environment,” according to the release.

Before coming to Norwich, Cochran spent more than 17 years at the Montpelier Police Department. He previously worked at Barre City and Hardwick police departments.

Matthew Romei, the former chief of Vermont’s Capitol Police Department, became Norwich’s new interim chief of police last week.