ABOUT STEVE

Steven W. Tompkins, a member of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department since 2002, was appointed to serve as the Sheriff of Suffolk County on January 22nd, 2013 by Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, and was elected in November of 2014.

As the Sheriff of Suffolk County, Tompkins manages all operations at the Suffolk County House of Correction, the Nashua Street Jail and the Civil Process Division. In addition to providing care, custody and rehabilitative support for inmates and pre–trial detainees, Tompkins also oversees a management, security and administrative staff of over 1,000.

Sheriff Tompkins created the innovative “Common Ground Institute,” a vocational training and re–entry program that teaches marketable vocation skills in a classroom setting, and he created the “Choice Program” which sends trained officers into the schools of Boston, Chelsea, Winthrop and Revere to deliver on the program’s mission of helping young people to make positive choices for future success while reinforcing the theme of respect for oneself and for others around them. He also created the PEACE Unit, which provides specialized programming for the 18 to 25 year old male population; the OASIS Program, which offers advanced addiction recovery services; and the Summer Enrichment Program, an external outreach endeavor that gives Suffolk County high school juniors and seniors who are interested in careers in the criminal justice and law enforcement sector the opportunity to intern at the Sheriff’s Office and gain valuable experience in a law enforcement setting, with presentations and visits from and to professional law enforcement and criminal justice agencies across Massachusetts.  

Sheriff Tompkins is the President of the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association – his second time serving in this capacity – and is an engaged community leader and respected advocate, currently serving as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Roxbury Community College and as the Vice President of Region 1 for NOBLE (National Organization of Law Enforcement Executives). He previously served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Roxbury Community College; was the inaugural President of the Massachusetts Chapter of NOBLE; and completed a three-year term as a member of the prestigious Emerging Adult Justice Learning Community at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2011, Tompkins was appointed by Governor Patrick to serve as a Board member of the Boston Finance Commission. Sheriff Tompkins also serves on the Foundation Board and formerly served as chair of the Community Service Board for the Dimock Center, a Roxbury-based community health center that provides convenient access to quality medical and mental health care and human services. The Sheriff previously served as the Dimock Center’s Director of Marketing and Public Affairs prior to joining the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department.