The Chief Change is Here

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There’s something to said for being given lots of runway to prepare for a transition to a new successor in an important community position.  A long runway means few surprises and even fewer disruptions.

This has been the case with Essex Police Chief Peter Silva, who has steadily held his post since 2006 and will retire next week.  Silva will hand the reins to long-time colleague and friend, Sergeant Paul Francis, who was tapped for the position after Silva announced his retirement last year.  By spring, Francis signed his employment contract with little fanfare at a regular Board of Selectmen meeting.

It’s arguable this transition didn’t begin last year.  In fact, Silva and Francis have been flying in formation for much of the past twenty years, in many ways preparing for this very moment.  Paul Francis has been involved with every major public safety initiative on the force, often playing critical leadership roles.  

Last year, the Essex Police Department successfully navigated the Massachusetts Police Accreditation process, joining a select club of few — less than ten percent of the entire state’s municipalities — to achieve accreditation.  This important milestone was achieved under the management of Paul Francis, with support from Silva. 

In fact, there is an extensive list of important public safety programs that Francis has either supported or managed, all the while working side-by-side with Chief Peter Silva. “Now it’s his turn,” said Silva happily, in support of his colleague.

A native of Beverly, Peter Silva, 55, graduated from Beverly High School in 1982.  Growing up, he always wanted to be a policeman (“I was the kid patrolling the neighborhood on a bicycle,” he said, laughing) and set his focus on getting there. Silva first became an emergency medical technician in Wenham, volunteering until a job on the town’s auxiliary police force came up. From there, Silva said, he worked his way into being a reserve officer, covering shifts for two years.  In 1988, he joined the force in Essex under then-Chief of Police David Harrell, having graduated from the police academy in May 1988, and he has worked there ever since. Along the way, Silva secured a B.A. and a master’s degree in Criminal Justice.  In 2005, he was named Police Chief and Harbormaster (Harrell had also held that double police chief-and-harbormaster role).

“It’s been a little bit like a fairy tale, an honor to be able to run a department like this,” said Silva. “The secret is to surround yourself with good people.”

And he has surrounded himself with good people.  Silva and his team have made public safety a truly community affair.  Some of the initiatives might feel deceptively light and fun (“Cake and Senior Time” — “CAST” for short —comes to mind).  Another is the kids-oriented trading card game devised by Silva called “PETE” (“Police Educational Trading Card Experience”), which is as successful as it is creative.  In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Silva wanted to ensure kids in Essex would have a personal connection to the department and the local officers in town.  He designed trading cards just like the professional baseball team cards, complete with pictures and statistics, both professional and personal. Silva’s reads, in part, “[He] plays guitar and drums … [and] Chicago and Styx are his favorite bands.”  Silva and Francis made correctly identifying officers into a game, one with prizes (real ones, like a ride-on motorized replica of an Essex Police SUV). Not surprisingly, it’s become one of the most popular programs for kids at Essex Elementary School.

Make no mistake: these programs that look like fun work, big time, because they engage the community — from kids to seniors.  

So do the countless others that have been initiated under Silva’s watch, such as the town’s identity theft program (geared especially towards seniors, who can lack the technical savvy needed to track identity theft online) or the vehicle etching program (which involves inscribing automotive VIN numbers directly onto car windows, in order to make vehicles less valuable to criminals).

Paul Francis has a back story that — perhaps not surprisingly — reads somewhat like Silva’s.  At 58, Francis is a native of Gloucester. He and his wife Kelly have two children, a 15-year-old daughter and a 28-year-old son, who is a new father to one-year-old boys, making Kelly and Paul “double” grandparents.  

Francis began his police career in a similar way to Silva, starting on the Saugus Auxiliary Police Department as a way in the door. “Even when I was young, I wanted to be a police officer,” he said.  His break came in 1995 when Manchester started an auxiliary department and Harrell brought him over to Essex, where Francis became a full-time officer in 1997.

And no doubt, these last 12 months since Silva announced his retirement formalized the passing of the torch. There will be a proper send off for Chief Silva on Tuesday, July 30at Woodman’s of Essex. The next day will be for goodbyes.

Upon his promotion, Francis will be immediately greeted with a long to-do list.  There are big community events immediately facing him, including the bicentennial fireworks on August 9, a town celebratory parade the next day, and the annual car show and bike rodeo, two programs that seem to get bigger and bigger every year.  

These won’t deter Francis from immediately starting on initiatives that are important to him, such as restructuring the department’s budget — with a focus on streamlining roles for the department of nine full-time officers and 10 reserve offices.  As part of this, Francis will promote two members of the force, one to replace his former role and another to begin in a newly created position. He will take the same community approach that he learned working with Silva and will work on improving communication with the town, via a new community liaison role within the department. Communication, Francis said, is a critical tool in dealing with challenges within town, such as traffic. Then, of course, there’s the new public safety facility on John Wise Avenue, which after more than ten years is finally nearing its final step of approval through a special town meeting in the fall.

And for Silva, what’s on his docket?  Well, his immediate plan is no plan. He wants to take time to decompress with his wife of 26 years, Diane.  He will, he said, wake up every morning, “have breakfast, grab a newspaper and relax.” (That’s a pretty good plan.). But Silva doesn’t appear to be going far.  Those who flip to the back of the official Chief Peter G. Silva trading card will learn that Silva currently plays the guitar (a 12-string) and drums in a band (appropriately called, in light of his retirement, “Uncharted Waters”).  They’re rumored to playing a gig next month here as part of the town’s bicentennial celebration.

As for the evolution from “colleague” to simply, “friend,” Silva says he and Francis will be just fine.  As they say, “it’s all over but the dining,” and these two have already planned weekly lunches at The Village Restaurant.

If you see them, stop and say hi.

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