New Bedford’s Police Chief Joseph Cordeiro announced Thursday that he plans to retire within three weeks.
New Bedford’s deputy chief, Paul Oliveira, will take over for Cordeiro on April 25.
“Under his leadership, New Bedford became a safer city,” said Mayor Jon Mitchell. “The decline in both violent and property crimes during his tenure were among the steepest in the country. At the core of his success was his focus on relational policing. He has emphasized that police build legitimacy and reduce crime by fostering strong working relationships with residents and community groups.”
The 56-year-old said that his pension was structured so that he earns just a fraction more working than he would if he retired. He cited that as one of the main factors in his decision.
Cordeiro was born in the Azores in 1964. He joined the police department in 1986 after befriending officers who visited the donut shop where he worked.
Cordeiro became the city’s first Portuguese immigrant to serve as police chief in 2016. During his five years leading the department, Cordeiro took an untraditional approach to policing. He implemented annual training to teach cops how to meditate. He sought additional discretion to fire officers found guilty of misconduct. And last summer, he marched with protesters to the spot where New Bedford police officers fatally shot 15-year-old Malcolm Gracia in 2012.
“Being an agent for change certainly doesn’t make me popular, but we do have quite a few people internally that have seen the benefit of it and have embraced it,” Cordeiro said.
But Cordeiro has also faced criticism from those seeking to reform the police department. The local NAACP branch has joined Gracia’s attorney, Donald Brisson, in calling on New Bedford’s police leadership to admit their role in an alleged cover-up of the circumstances that led to Gracia’s death.
The fifteen-year-old was shot following a “meet and greet” encounter with police officers who say Gracia stabbed one of them with a knife.
“Cordeiro had an opportunity to maybe right some wrongs and make some changes to come out publicly and acknowledge that many of the things that were published were not true,” Brisson said. “It’s never ever too late to do the right thing, and I don’t think he did the right thing when it came to Malcolm’s case.”
Cordeiro was still a captain at the time of Gracia’s death. He said he had no role in the shooting or the subsequent internal investigations. After becoming chief, Cordeiro said he made an effort to make amends with protesters.
“2020 was a contentious year across the country for racial tension,” Cordeiro said. “And here in New Bedford, I think it was about 21 days straight that we had protests without incident. I was out there every day, I talked with the leaders. I even marched with them.”
“That, my friend, I would submit to you is success,” he said.
Looking back on his career, Cordeiro said he tried to embrace diversion programs while remaining tough on crime. He said he sought to address the traumas that lead people toward drugs and violence, rather than focusing exclusively on the aftermath.
“We are not going to arrest our way out of the opioid crisis, nor are we going to arrest our way out of crime in this country,” Cordeiro said. “However, I do believe violent criminals need to be arrested and detained until we can start addressing the underlying causes.”
Mayor Mitchell appointed Cordeiro to the police department’s top job in May 2016. Cordeiro had most recently served as commander of the department’s downtown station after graduating through a variety of roles handling sexual assault, domestic violence, organized crime, narcotics, traffic and animal control.
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org.
