Early this month, the Harvard Police Department welcomed Officer Walter Evans III to its ranks. “Everybody here has been amazing,” Evans said of his reception in the department. He replaces Officer Dean Barbera, who now practices law in Westford.
A native New Englander, Evans said in an interview he was born in Boston and grew up in Billerica. He has worked as a police officer for 20 years, beginning in 2005 with the UMass Police Department, where he worked first at the Lowell campus and later at UMass Boston. In 2016 he changed to a town police job, joining the Bolton Police Department, where he stayed for eight years. At that point, he said, he wanted to try something new for a while, so he left police work for a little over a year. “But I found my heart was still in law enforcement,” he explained, and that brought him to Harvard.
Evans’ past work experience has included being a field training officer for Bolton and also supervisor for commercial vehicle enforcement. He has experience with drones and plans to complete his certification in that field with additional training next month.
Describing how he is learning his way around Harvard, Evans said, “I believe in getting out and talking to people. The people are nice.”
