LAWRENCE — Police officer Michael Simard in 2003 was appointed as the lead detective on the city’s auto insurance fraud task force.
A decade later, 2,000 people had been charged, nearly 500 in Lawrence alone, and 13 cities reported a cumulative savings of $1 billion in auto insurance premiums.
“We made such an impact on that cottage industry,” said Simard on the auto fraud crackdown work.
After a 30-year career, Simard said he’s proud of the work he and others affiliated with the task force accomplished. But he said it wasn’t those investigations and convictions he considers highlights of his time at Lawrence Police Department.
For Simard, who recently retired at the rank of sergeant, the pinnacle of his policing career was working patrol, the gritty day-to-day, ever-changing assignments with the public.
Patrol, he said, “is where we are all soldiers and we are fighting crime. It is very rewarding,” said Simard, 61, noting he forged many valuable relationships through that assignment.
“Patrol is the hardest part of policing and that’s where my heart is … you are right there with the public and can make a difference in someone’s life,” he said.
Police are there to help people, not just arrest people, Simard said.
Simard grew up in South Lawrence. One of four children, his family lived in the Beacon projects and later moved to a four tenement house at Andover and Foster streets. He served 4 1/2 years in the Air Force and took the civil service exam when he returned home.
He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children, Alyssa, 17, and 14-year-old twins, Adriana and Christian.
On the evening of March 20, Simard’s final shift, the Police Department wished him well in a final radio broadcast.
His longtime co-worker and friend, Lt. Carl Trombly, was one of the officers there that Friday night.
“Mike Simard is one of the finest officers and officials I have ever worked with,” Trombly said. “His dedication to the citizens of Lawrence and his fellow law enforcement brothers and sisters cannot be challenged. Mike was never afraid to get his hands dirty but did so with a compassion unparalleled.”
He said Simard “was known for his tenacious dedication to getting to the bottom of a case…whether it was involving insurance fraud, a grandmother being bamboozled by some scam, or one of the hundreds of missing juveniles he travelled all over New England to locate.
“The only thing he is known for more than his exceptional police work or his pursuit of justice when dealing with rampant corruption was his daily incessant dad jokes that were made even funnier when he followed one up with two words, ‘stupid right?’”
There are a thousand stories that could be told about Simard, Trombly said.
“Whether you picture Mike tackling someone on an illegal motorcycle, standing there stoic in his honor guard uniform representing us at our lowest times, or spending five minutes with a witness pretending to be a sketch artist only to reveal his drawing was a stick figure holding a gun,” he said.
“We can all agree that he will be missed and absolutely have pride that you are leaving this place better than when you got here.”
Simard, who is serving his third term as a Methuen city councilor, will also start work on April 1 as a police officer at Merrimack College in North Andover.
Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter/X @EagleTribJill and Threads at jillyharma.