NEWBURYPORT — Grateful to have been there for city residents during the good – but especially the bad times – Newburyport police Officer Kevin Martin handed in his badge on Monday and retired after 26 years on the job.
“I have a tremendous amount of love and gratitude for the Newburyport Police Department and the city of Newburyport,” he said. “The men and women I’ve worked with in the police and fire departments worked as a team. I think we provided community protection and support that any city and town would be very, very much proud of.”
City Marshal Matthew Simons said he had the pleasure of working with the 62-year-old Martin throughout his own career.
“He started a year before I did and his love of policework and helping people was just evident to anybody who knew him,” he said. “This job takes a toll on people but Kevin would tell his brother and sister officers that, ‘You’ve just got to come in and have an attitude of gratitude.’ That was kind of the mantra he lived by and he set the example for everyone else.”
Martin spent 40 years in law enforcement, the last 26 years and four months of which were serving as a Newburyport police officer.
A native of Southern California, the off-hours trumpet player began his policing career with the Los Angeles Police Department in July 1985.
While serving with the LAPD, Martin said he was directly involved in the 1992 riots there. A wildfire and flood near his home, as well as the 6.7-magnitude Northridge earthquake soon after in 1994, prompted he and his then-wife, Julie, to look into moving back to her home state of Massachusetts.
“All this happened in a 2½-year time period and the earthquake ended up damaging our house,” he said. “You throw in all of the regular traffic, smog, violence and all the other nonsense that you have to deal with there and my wife said she wanted to go home.”
Interestingly enough, Martin said the wide expansive beach on Plum Island reminded him of the flat vistas of the San Fernando Valley. So the couple moved to Newburyport.
“We loved the wide openness of things,” he said. “We also thought Newburyport was a nice town and a good place to raise our daughter.”
In the mid-1990s, Martin went to work investigating fraud for the state Bureau of Special Investigations, while also serving on a violent felony task force for the state police. In early 1999, he was sworn in as a full-time officer in Newburyport.
He said the times when he could save a life were the most impactful for him.
“Whether it was someone having a heart attack, involved in a horrific car accident or overdosing on heroin or fentanyl being there to help at that stage in their lives was probably the more memorable times in my life,” he said. “It was those moments of saving people’s lives that were the most impactful for me.”
Recalling a time when he responded to the Port Plaza parking lot for a person threatening to harm himself, Martin said he was able to talk the man down before getting him help.
“It was a year later when he actually came up to me at Market Basket and told me he wanted to thank me because I was the one who saved his life that night,” he said. “He had gotten himself some help and was doing much better.”
A member of the police department’s critical incident stress management team for many years, Martin also functioned, he said, as “kind of a psychological first aid” for his co-workers who found themselves in a traumatic situation like an officer-involved shooting or suicide.
“We helped them get through a difficult time in their lives,” he said.
Helping others, according to Martin, is what makes someone a good human being. And helping is what police officers do.
Whether it was working on a detail or covering for an absent officer, Martin was always ready to assist, according to Simons.
“His work never suffered because of the amount of hours he worked,” he said. “He was always an asset to the department’s many facets and you can see that from all the comments rolling in on Facebook.”
Martin was also known among his peers at police headquarters for wearing his bulletproof vest, even while working the dispatch desk.
“He was an officer of routine and I can’t think of a safer habit to have,” Simons said.
A recent knee injury while working at home forced Martin to hang up his vest a little sooner than he wanted.
Although he spent many years living in the city, Martin said he’s moved on. But he also said he will be spending a lot of his retirement playing trumpet and singing on the North Shore in his band, The Rule of 3 Experience.
“My true love is music,” he said. “I’ve been playing for over 50 years and my primary love is jazz. So I’m hoping to do a lot more musically.”
Martin also expects to work the occasional roadside detail, directing traffic.
“I’ll still be around, so anyone who wants to reach out and say, ‘Hi,’ you’re welcome to,” he said.
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.