Paul Tucker
We sat down with Paul Tucker, candidate for Essex County District Attorney in the Democratic primary race on September 6. Tucker is a native of Salem and was in law enforcement in the Salem City Police Department for 32 years, the last five as Chief of Police. He’s been State Representative for the last eight years.
A: Well, to start with, my whole adult life has been in public service. For 32 years I served in the Salem Police Department, the majority of that time I ran a Detective Division and in the last five years there as Chief of Police. For the last eight years, I have worked as a State Representative in Boston. Along the way, I secured a law degree and have been active in higher education, serving as a professor at Salem State, at North Shore Community College for 20 years, and at Endicott College for 12 years.
I decided to run when Essex District Attorney John Blodgett announced his retirement. In the end, I believe my experience lines up perfectly with the job of a district attorney, which isn’t simply about securing convictions and incarcerating people. It’s much more. It’s about justice, which frankly in many cases is about keeping people out of the system and trying to get better outcomes for them, which really is about better outcomes for society.
Yes. When I took over as police chief in 2009, one of the first things I did was create a unit I called the “Community Impact Unit” in which police officers were backed up by two mental health clinicians. The idea wasn’t to replace the police, but to complement the work that they were doing around de-escalation. Today, that unit has really become the model for lots of police departments, not only in Massachusetts, but throughout New England. I realized that arresting as many people as we can, and incarcerate as many people as we can, is simply not the solution. Frankly I think the entire country, for decades, has missed the rehabilitation piece. We missed the treatment piece, we missed the education piece and only focused on a punishment-based system.
I think the whole defund the police movement for me as a non-starter. I believe it's about building relationships. It's about working with folks in the community outside the realm of law enforcement. Certainly, law enforcement is part of the job. For instance, during my tenure we took over an abandoned city owned building in Salem and, under the police department guidance and with many partners, we created a community center staffed by police officers, community leaders and recreation leaders. It was one of those successes where we could show we could make a difference.
The bill you’re referring to is called Police Officer Standards and Training, where we put minimum requirements a police officer had to have before they work the street. On the positive side, this is about licensing of police officers. In this state, we licensed barbers, electricians, plumbers, aestheticians … but no licensing for police officers. And in some cases, police officers were being terminated and they were turning up in other communities. And some of those folks should not have had the honor and the privilege to wear the badge. With Police Officer Standards and Training you could be pulled over in any part of the state and see that officer’s name, and look them up. You can see their background, their disciplinary history. It’s a transparent system designed to make sure we
have good solid, strong professional men and women in policing.
That said, we do need to find the best way to address those seasonal officers and see if we can help the small towns while also ensuring we still have good robust standards in terms of selection, hiring, training promotion.
When I was first elected, I wanted to expose myself to something totally new, so I volunteered for the Education Committee. I ended up on that committee for six years and finished as the vice chair! I led the effort behind the Student Opportunity Act and it's really transformed education. I’ve also served on the Judiciary Committee. I was able to work on criminal justice reform over six years. And Massachusetts has some bragging rights. We have the lowest incarceration rate in the nation. We’re also Number One in terms of the lowest gun violence rate in the nation. I was also the statewide co-chair on a special commission on juvenile and adolescent crime. I've been involved in developing prison re-entry programs and done a lot of work on reforming solitary confinement in prisons, which really needs reform.
It is. I'm in my 22nd year as an attorney, and I have 32 years in law enforcement and eight years at the State House behind me. What I've done, and what I've seen, has really led me to this moment. And I think if we look nationally, there's been a reckoning on racial justice. And there's been a reckoning on making sure that we support good police officers and take officers out of the criminal justice system who do not deserve to wear the badge. The District Attorney’s office has a tremendous role here with the use of discretion. On whether somebody is charged or not. On whether someone should be given an opportunity to be diverted from the system. And frankly, I think that I bring good judgment to doing that. The DA has such an incredible pulpit to call these things out and to make good decisions with integrity. One of the things that I would do every day, as District Attorney, is to work to not only to restore, but to keep the faith that people have in the system, that it's working for everybody, not just a selective few. And those aren't just slogans. Those aren't just words. That's something I've dedicated my entire professional life to.
I've worked with the DA’s office now in my 32 years as a police officer, I worked on over 1,000 cases as part of the prosecution team from arrest of verdict. There isn't a lot I haven't done. I've seen this firsthand. I've been in every court at every level, I know that I have the experience to do it. I have the vision to do it. I've been an innovator. I did it as a police chief. And I would do it now. I just think now is the time. There's not a minute to waste.
I appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity.
We edited this Q&A for length and readability. To hear the full conversation with Paul Tucker, go to The Cricket’s Sidecar podcast, available on all podcasting platforms. Next week we’ll feature written introductions from all candidates running in the 5th Essex State Rep—Ann-Margaret Ferrante, Nathaniel Mulcahy, and Ashley Sullivan. And write us at news@thericket.com.
