Three New Officers Join the Melrose Police Department

On Wednesday morning, I had the pleasure of swearing in three new police officers for the Melrose Police Department. Although they are new to the department, they are not new to Melrose—two of them were born here and the other has lived here for years. Here’s a little bit about each one:

Officer Alex Barranco

Officer Alexander Barranco joined the Melrose Police Department in order to help the community and particularly our youth. Barranco’s career objective is to “work as a law enforcement officer with a committed team utilizing tactical excellence in maintaining a safe living environment. With this goal in mind, I hope to change lives by eliminating negative influences that result in reoccurring crime.” 

Prior to coming to the Melrose Police Department, Barranco was a sergeant and field training officer in the public safety department of the Cambridge Health Alliance. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Westfield State University and earned his Masters in Criminal Justice from UMass Lowell. He is trained as an EMT and a Special State Police Officer, and he also has done incident training with FEMA.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Officer Barranco said that he had looked up to police officers in the area when he was a child: “I grew up in the Hesseltine area, and I used to play basketball there, and a couple times a couple of the police officers came up there and played basketball with us. I thought that was pretty cool.” He is looking forward to working with youth and setting a good example for them to follow. “Giving back to the community you grew up in is a pretty cool thing,” he said.

Officer Sean Morris

Officer Sean Morris grew up in Melrose (his father, Tim Morris, is the Melrose High School football coach), and he also had many coaches who were police officers. This was a big influence on his career choice, because he realized he wanted to be just like them. Morris graduated from Saint Anselm College in May 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. Prior to coming to the Melrose Police Deprtment, Morris was a correctional officer at the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office in Billerica, and he did internships at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives and volunteered with the Trial Court Community Service Program at Cambridge Court. 

Like the other new officers, Morris has been working a variety of different shifts since April 11. “We’ve done a little of each,” he said, “some shifts where I’m on the desk, some on dispatch, and other shifts we’re on the street. I got a good taste of the three shifts here in town, and the differences between the day shift, the evening shift, and the overnight shift, and the types of calls that come in.” At least initially, he will focus on community policing. “In everything we do, it helps when the citizens respond well to us and we have a working relationship with the citizens,” he said.

Officer Michael Maloney

Officer Michael Maloney grew up in Everett but is now a Melrose resident.

Maloney attended North Shore Community College and is currently enrolled in Salem State University’s online program. He has been a member of the Massachusetts National Guard since 2014, and he also has worked for several private security companies. Like Officers Barranco and Morris, he had many coaches who were police officers when he was growing up. “When you see a police officer outside of the uniform and you actually get to know that person — that was one of the driving factors of why I wanted to be a police officer,” he said. “You don’t even realize it, and then one day you see them in uniform and they are just regular people, trying to do the job and trying to help people.” 

With his military background, Maloney is interested in possibly being part of a SWAT team, but for now, he says, “I’m just looking forward to learning the basics. Every day we’ve had so far has been different, and every day has been a challenge.” In particular, he enjoys working the evening shifts because that is a busy time. “You’re going from call to call,” he said. “You’re constantly doing something. That is very good because you get into a flow, you start learning new things, and that makes you a better police officer.”

Note: Melrose High School student and Mayor’s Office intern Michael Hunt contributed to this post.