By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

During this week’s Board of Aldermen meeting, the City will be taking some time to recognize the outstanding service provided by Interim Police Chief Michael Cabral during the past year. Along with his deputies, Paul Upton and Charles Femino, Michael has steered the department ably through a year that was far too eventful.

Now, I don’t want to write everything I plan on saying tomorrow night before I get to say it, but I do want to shine a light on one of the more remarkable aspects of Michael Cabral’s stewardship of the Police Department: his availability to the community.

One of the main goals for our Police Department is to have our officers do more community policing. The idea is for them to get out on their feet and into our local neighborhoods, building trust and relationships with the people they protect and serve.

And during the past year he has been, in every sense of the term, a Community Police Chief. At events large and small, he has stopped by and been accessible to our residents. I have lost count of how many times during the past year I have seen Chief Cabral at a gathering, talking among a group of people.

Actually, the Chief usually is listening, the other people generally are doing the talking. He does a lot of listening, which is an often overlooked trait of an excellent civil servant. It may not get a lot of press, but it means a lot to the people of this city that their Police Chief is a good-natured person willing to take the time to meet them and listen to what they have to say.

That is how you build trust with residents and how you forge the bonds necessary to make Somerville a safer city.

In a nutshell, that is community policing at its best. Michael Cabral has been a model for what we hope to see from every officer on the force and I know he will be an invaluable resource to incoming Chief Thomas Pasquarello as the department takes its next steps toward being more deeply embedded and involved in our neighborhoods.

When you get past the scary and dramatic moments that punctuate police work, what really makes a difference is a police force that invests itself in working with the community, just the way Michael Cabral has done for the past year. His commitment to this city has been superlative and we are all better off for having a man among us who so fully embodies the best attributes of what it means to be a true civil servant.