- Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association
In alphabetical order by county, here are your 14 Massachusetts Sheriffs:
Sheriff Donna D. Buckley (Barnstable)
Barnstable County: Sheriff Donna D. Buckley has proudly served as Barnstable County Sheriff since January 4, 2023. Buckley is no stranger to the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office. She served as General Counsel before running for election. In her role as Sheriff, she believes it is her solemn responsibility to those who are incarcerated, their families, and the community to provide pathways to a better tomorrow.
Sheriff Thomas Bowler (Berkshire)
Berkshire County: Sheriff Thomas Bowler has been the Sheriff since 2010. Prior to becoming sheriff, he served for 24 years as a detective with the Pittsfield Police Department. During his time as Sheriff, he has started a number of programs including an Aquaponics Lab where inmates get to learn and help grow produce for the population, staff, and community.
Sheriff Paul Heroux (Bristol)
Bristol County: Sheriff Paul Heroux was elected Sheriff in 2022 and was sworn in as Sheriff in January 2023. Prior to being sheriff, Heroux was elected for three terms as Mayor of Attleboro from 2018 until 2022, and for three terms as State Representative from 2013 until 2017. Sheriff Heroux also worked in the Philadelphia Prison System as the chief statistician, as the director in research for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, and in Saudi Arabia, for the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies.
Sheriff Robert Ogden (Dukes)
Dukes County: Sheriff Robert Ogden has served as Sheriff of Dukes County since taking the oath and being sworn in on January 4, 2017. Prior to being elected as Sheriff, Bob acted as Director of the Drug Information Bureau for 22 years. As Sheriff, Ogden advocates tirelessly for the community, maintaining and enhancing the vital programs and services of the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Kevin F. Coppinger (Essex)
Essex County: Kevin F. Coppinger is the Sheriff of Essex County, having taken office in January 2017. Prior to becoming Sheriff, he served 33 years in law enforcement. His career began as a police officer in Lynnfield before transferring to the Lynn Police Department in 1985, where he moved up through the ranks to become Police Chief in 2009 and held that position until becoming Sheriff. He is committed to further professionalizing the Sheriff’s Office by improving staff skills, training, and accountability, expanding mental health services and medication assisted treatment to confront the opioid epidemic, and improving re-entry programs and community follow-up.
Sheriff Lori M. Streeter (Franklin)
Franklin County: Sheriff Lori M. Streeter was appointed as Interim Sheriff of Franklin County, Massachusetts by Governor Maura Healey in January 2025. She serves as the first female Sheriff to be appointed in this county’s history. With over 35 years of dedicated service at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and House of Corrections, she combines her decades of operational knowledge with a strong belief in treating incarcerated individuals with dignity and offering them real chances for change.
Sheriff Nick Cocchi (Hampden)
Hampden County: Nick Cocchi began his career as a seasonal correctional officer with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office in 1993, working his way up the ladder over the years before being elected Sheriff. Since taking office in 2017, Sheriff Cocchi has expanded the office's level of community engagement, including taking on the opioid epidemic head-on. He started a medication assisted treatment program to help people battling addiction and he opened a substance use disorder treatment facility to help people involuntarily committed by the courts under the state’s Section 35 law. Behind the walls of the facilities he oversees, Sheriff Cocchi has taken evidence-based programing, education initiatives, career training and job placement to the next level.
Sheriff Patrick J. Cahillane (Hampshire)
Hampshire County: Sheriff Patrick Cahillane was first elected in November 2016. With more than 40 years of public health and safety experience, Sheriff Cahillane has continued to evolve county correctional practices in accordance with state law and the desires of Hampshire County residents, all while navigating the shifting contours of the coronavirus pandemic. Under his progressive leadership, the Hampshire Sheriff’s Office has become one of the first facilities in the state to offer Medication-Assisted Treatment for opioid-use disorder (2018), and one of only a handful of county facilities nationwide to become its own federally licensed Opioid Treatment Program (2021).
Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian (Middlesex)
Middlesex County: Sheriff Peter Koutoujian has served as Sheriff of Middlesex County since 2011. As a prosecutor, legislator, professor, and law enforcement leader, Sheriff Koutoujian has worked on the leading issues in public safety and public health throughout his career. As Sheriff, Peter Koutoujian’s use of specialty units has reimagined the correctional landscape. By targeting treatment towards unique populations such as young adults and military veterans, these programs have directly and substantially reduced recidivism in their participants.
Sheriff James A. Perelman (Nantucket)
Nantucket County: Sheriff James A. Perelman was elected in November of 2010 and sworn into office on January 1, 2011. Sheriff Perelman has been a year round resident of Nantucket since 1970. The Nantucket Sheriff's Office has changed dramatically since January of 2010, when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts assumed funding obligation for the seven sheriffs serving in the remaining county governments. Sheriff Perelman maintains a close partnership with the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office which, by contract, provides incarceration for persons arrested and sentenced from the Nantucket District or Superior Court.
Sheriff Patrick W. McDermott (Norfolk)
Norfolk County: Patrick McDermott was elected Norfolk County Sheriff in 2020. Sheriff McDermott has a long history of public service in both government and non-profit work. Before being elected as sheriff, he served for 18 years as the Norfolk County Register of Probate. He has a proud record of public service, including three terms as Quincy City Councilor (1996-2002) focused on public safety, advocating for a greater commitment to community policing and improved emergency response capabilities as well as thriving and responsible economic development for his community. He served as a Legislative Aide for former State Representative Mike Bellotti (who later served as the Norfolk County Sheriff), State Representative John Rogers, and State Senator Michael Morrissey.
Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald, Jr. (Plymouth)
Plymouth County: Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald, Jr. was first elected in November 2004, and sworn into office by then Massachusetts Governor W. Mitt Romney on January 5, 2005. He is the 30th High Sheriff of the County of Plymouth, an office which dates back to 1692. Prior to being elected to what is, at Common Law, the County’s top law enforcement post, Sheriff McDonald served for almost 9 years as an Assistant District Attorney for Plymouth County. In 2017, the Sheriff was proud to receive the FBI Trilogy Award, upon his successful completion of the requisite specialized training in law enforcement supervision, management and command.
Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins (Suffolk)
Suffolk County: Steven W. Tompkins, a member of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office since 2002, was appointed to serve as the Sheriff on January 22nd, 2013 by Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. In November of 2014, he was elected to the office. As the Sheriff of Suffolk County, Tompkins manages all operations at the Suffolk County House of Correction, the Suffolk County Jail and the Civil Process Division. As the former Chief of External Affairs for the office, Sheriff Tompkins established sustainable partnerships with municipal agencies, neighborhood organizations, civic associations, local businesses and crime watch groups to increase community engagement in deterring youth crime and improving reentry programs. 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 allows inmates to hone those skills by renovating public lands and facilities throughout Suffolk County.
Sheriff Lew Evangelidis (Worcester)
Worcester County: Lew Evangelidis was elected Worcester County Sheriff in 2010. Since taking the oath of office, Sheriff Evangelidis remains committed to running the Sheriff’s Office based on two principles: professionalism and public safety. As Worcester County Sheriff, Evangelidis has implemented the highest hiring standards in corrections in the Commonwealth and thus ending the culture of politics and patronage at the jail. While overseeing the care, custody, and control of the Jail and House of Correction, Sheriff Evangelidis introduced new, comprehensive mental health, substance use, and reentry programming to help address the 90% of inmates who enter the facility and struggle with addiction. Additionally, Evangelidis implemented preventive youth programming through the creation of the Face2Face Drug and Alcohol Program and other community based initiatives.
