Healey picks Geoffrey Noble as new Massachusetts colonel

Noble called the appointment a “true honor.”

“The hardworking men and women of the State Police show up every day to keep the people of Massachusetts safe, and they deserve a leader who is accessible, transparent, and committed to the highest standards of integrity and excellence,” he said.

He faces a tall task, bringing a culture of reform to a department dogged by scandals that have shaken public faith in the department and eroded morale, critics said. In recent years, a dozen troopers have been convicted of overtime fraud, and others were indicted in an alleged bribery scheme involving commercial driver’s licenses. The former head of the troopers union was convicted of taking kickbacks.

Most recently, the department disciplined a trooper who had been the lead investigator in the high-profile Karen Read murder case after testimony revealed that he had sent crude and degrading text messages about Read to friends, family, and supervisors, raising questions about his impartiality .

The effort to choose a new leader follows the retirement in February 2023 of former colonel Christopher Mason, who himself had pledged to reform the force. The agency has had an interim leader for more than a year and a half.

The Rev. John Taylor, chief chaplain for the New Jersey State Police, said he worked with Noble on community efforts in Trenton, where Taylor is a pastor at the Friendship Baptist Church. He described Noble as an honest, straightforward man whose vision of law enforcement includes working with the community. Noble served on a task force with Taylor in Trenton that sought to introduce young people to police officers through initiatives such as swimming lessons.

“One thing I liked about him was if he was working with the young people, if they wanted to go into law enforcement, fine, but if not, he still wanted them to leave there with a good perspective,” Taylor said.

Noble is “no nonsense,” Taylor said, and, if there’s a problem, “he’s not going to deny what’s in front of him.”

The State Police department has more than 3,000 sworn and civilian employees and a budget of $500 million. Troopers patrol state roads and provide a range of specialized and investigatory duties across the state.

In selecting Noble, Healey used new powers granted by the state’s 2020 police reform law to go outside the department’s ranks for its new leader. Critics had promised such a move, saying the cultural changes the agency needs can only come from someone with a fresh perspective.

Noble’s appointment shows “our leadership is recognizing that police need to do something different,” said Sophia Hall of the legal advocacy group Lawyers for Civil Rights. “Reform sometimes means introducing new players, new system, new policies.”

Retired State Police Major Dennis Galvin, president of the Massachusetts Association for Professional Law Enforcement, said he appreciated that Noble is from a large department that would have likely had to grapple with issues of police reform.

Galvin added that the key question now is going to be how Noble and Healey work together, and how much latitude and support she gives reform efforts.

“This is going to be a test of the governor,” Galvin said. “How important does she see State Police reforms?”

Noble graduated from Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket, RI, before attending Seton Hall University. His LinkedIn page says he served as a New Jersey state trooper from 1995 through January 2022, rising to second in command of the department before his retirement. Since then, he’s worked as a regional president for Inter-Con Security Systems.

Healey’s administration touted Noble’s leadership experience running the daily operations of a department that’s larger than the Massachusetts State Police, with a focus on its implementation of professional standards. The administration also said Noble was assigned to take over management of the New Jersey state crime laboratories, which had been roiled by scandal that resulted in thousands of cases being dismissed. Noble, the administration said, made policy changes that eliminated a backlog of 17,000 cases.

Massachusetts’ crime labs have similarly been embroiled in scandals involving both malfeasance and inefficiency, such as the Annie Dookhan case, in which a lab worker was convicted of submitting false test results.

In New Jersey, Noble also was the commander of the team responsible for investigating the use of deadly force by police, and that the “New Jersey Gun Crime Protocol,” the state’s violent-crime reduction strategy, which led to a drop in police shootings, Healey’s office said.

Noble will make $246,566 a year, plus a signing bonus of $5,000; he will also be eligible for annual performance bonuses of up to 18 percent of his base salary beginning next July, the governor’s office said.

The search for a new colonel was led by a six-member committee appointed by the governor, and included veteran law enforcement administrators, police oversight experts, and the founder of the antiviolence nonprofit Roca.

Healey also considered several internal candidates, including current interim Colonel John E. Mawn Jr. In a statement Wednesday, Mawn congratulated Noble and praised Healey for appointing him.

“In this moment when the department’s success is so closely linked to Geoff Noble’s success, I will do everything I can to support him, and ask every member of the State Police to do the same,” Mawn said.

State Police Association of Massachusetts president Brian Williams said the members of the troopers union “look forward to working together and welcome the opportunity to build a strong relationship with him and his leadership team.”

Retired New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Colonel Jeanne Hengemuehle, who worked with and for Noble for years, said her former boss is “a man of high integrity with a profound sense of empathy.”

“He puts people in positions to succeed,” Hengemuehle said. “If I could go back and be a trooper again and go up to Massachusetts and work for Geoff again, I would.”

Shelley Murphy of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

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Sean Cotter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @cotterreporter.