Chief Mazzie caps 32-year career retiring as Everett’s top cop

By Neil Zolot

After 32 years as an Everett police officer, the last 20 as chief, Steven Mazzie is retiring from the force this summer at age 56. “I’m not sure what I’ll be doing,” he said of the future after that. “Given all my years, hopefully I’ll be playing some type of role in the city, but I want to decompress.”

He also wants to spend time with his older parents and possible travel.

When Mazzie started out there were 89 officers in the Everett Police Department. Now there are 126, although there were still under 100 in 2023 due to economic issues that prevented hirings. He said the growth in the force reflects “a growing city.”

Everett has not only grown but changed demographically, at least in part. “It’s always been a blue-collar, working-class city, but it was more stable in terms of families staying here,” Mazzie said. “Families were more stable and more people knew each other. Since then, there have been waves of immigrants and more languages are spoken in the city. You have to break down languages and cultures to find out how to serve people.”

Many years ago, there were over 100 officers, many of them walking beats before officers started patrolling in cars and automated phone systems were put in place.

Mazzie’s family’s history with the Everett Police Department goes back to those bygone days and if anyone can be said of being born to be a police officer, it’s him.

Grandfather Adolph joined in 1926 and retired in 1965. “He was a walking beat cop and knew everybody,” Mazzie said.

His father, Adolph Jr., now 92, served from 1957 to 1986, overlapping with his father. Mazzie’s mother Joanne is 87.

Chief Mazzie’s tenure did not overlap with his father’s, but his brothers John and Paul’s did. Both joined in the mid-1980s and served over 30 years.

His sister Regina also served from 1989 to 2021, married a Revere police officer and was Everett’s first female sergeant.

“Policing was always an interest, but my dad didn’t force any of us into it,” Mazzie remembers. “Everyone gravitated towards the field. Like a lot of young men, I idolized my dad and saw the relationships he had with people. It stayed in my mind.”

That may have led him to minor in Criminal Justice at UMass Amherst following graduation from Pope John High School in 1985, which he attended due to budget cuts at Everett High.

“Policing in the family will probably stop with me,” he said.

In a law enforcement related development at the City Council meeting Monday, January 22, the members voted to send a letter to the Boston City Council related to that body’s December rejection of a $13.3 million anti-terrorism grant from the Dept. of Homeland Security, to which Everett is a party. The item, sponsored by Councillor At-Large Stephanie Smith, requested the Boston City Council to reconsider their vote, with Ward 3 Councillor Anthony DiPierro added as co-sponsor in discussion.

Boston is the lead community on the grant but Everett, among other communities, could benefit from the grant that “would fund planning, exercises, training and operational needs that will help prevent, respond and recover from threats or acts of terrorism, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive incidents,” as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu informed her City Council. “I urge your honorable body to adopt this so Boston may accept the funds and expend them for the purposes for which they are granted.”

It did not, however, the result of a 6-6 vote that constituted the measure failing, with dissenting new councillors asking for more transparency.

The funds are for the communities in the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region, including Everett and bordering nearby communities such as Cambridge, Chelsea, Revere and Somerville, to be used for things like radio equipment, explosive detecting dogs and vehicles for police and fire departments.

Since then, Boston City Councillor Ed Flynn has asked Wu to resubmit it and acceptance is expected.

Mazzie said there are other sources of aid, however. “Everett will be fine,” he feels. “We can get a piece of that from our own initiatives.”

He added dealing with terrorism represents another change he’s seen over the years. “When I became an officer, I was thinking about the traditional things officers do,” he said. “You never thought about dealing with terrorism, but it’s all changed. We’ve had to deal with the issue and now it’s a normal part of the business.”