METHUEN — The battleground for Methuen Detective Tracey Noonan is both public and private.
For the past several years, she has conducted, with tenacity and vigor, an investigation that led to the shutdown of at least nine illicit massage parlors with ties to human trafficking in the city.
Also in the past year, the 47-year-old mother was diagnosed and underwent surgery and treatment for breast cancer. She is one of two Methuen police officers currently battling breast cancer.
Police Chief Scott McNamara spoke of Noonan’s “story of relentless determination, quiet courage, and a level of compassion that changes lives” when she was named Methuen Police Officer of the Year earlier this month.
An Army National Guard veteran who served in Pakistan and a former New Hampshire county corrections officer, Noonan has been a Methuen police officer for 21 years.
“Over the past several years, Detective Noonan has led one of the most complex and most impactful investigations in our department’s recent history. She took on a network of illicit massage parlors operating right here in our city – businesses that were exploiting some of the most vulnerable people imaginable through human trafficking and sexual servitude,” McNamara said during the awards ceremony, held by the Methuen Exchange Club.
“This wasn’t a single operation or a quick case. It was years of painstaking work: cultivating sources, coordinating multi-agency operations, conducting countless hours of surveillance, interviewing victims with extraordinary care, and managing an avalanche of evidence,” McNamara continued.
Noonan never treated victims she encountered as a “case number, but as a human being deserving of dignity, safety, and a path forward.”
“Tracey connected them with services, followed up long after the reports were filed, and gave them hope when they had every reason to believe hope was gone. That balance – fierce enforcement paired with genuine compassion – is the gold standard of what we do, and Tracey lives it every single day,” McNamara said.
Earlier this year, after her friend and co-worker, Officer Gina Scanlon was diagnosed with breast cancer, Noonan said she scheduled her own mammogram. In June, she also found out she had breast cancer.
“Thank God I did it because of her,” said Noonan, who underwent surgery.
In an interview this week, Noonan said “she is trying to enjoy the present” and is buoyed by the incredible support she’s received from her co-workers and others in law enforcement.
“She showed up – for her cases, for her victims, for her colleagues – with the same steady resolve and quiet strength that has become her trademark,” McNamara said.
“Her colleagues have told me they didn’t even know the full extent of what she was going through until after the fact, because Tracey never made it about her. She just kept doing the job. And in doing so, she inspired everyone around her to be a little tougher, a little kinder, a little better.”
The investigation into the illicit spas was essentially a “probe into an organized crime network.” She stressed those employed in the spas, victims, are not there because they enjoy the work. Yet, “this life is a lot better than where they came from,” she said.
“They are difficult cases to investigate and that’s why it takes so long … You have to attack it from all different angles,” she said, noting none the spas “would be able to pay the rent if they were just doing massages.”
Noonan was a military police officer in the Army National Guard. She wanted to be a police officer because she bores easily and her job “is rarely boring.” She also likes “the sense of a job well done,” she said.
“That’s what I strive for … And if I am doing a good job then it makes my bosses look good too,” she said.
Mayor D.J. Beauregard said Noonan’s “outstanding work spans every corner of our community, from protecting residents and solving complex cases to her tireless efforts in the fight to eradicate human trafficking from Methuen’s neighborhoods.”
“Her dedication, professionalism and compassion make Methuen safer and stronger everyday,” Beauregard said.
McNamara said Noonan is not Methuen Police Officer of the Year “because she chased recognition.”
“She chased justice quietly, consistently, and at great personal cost. She does the work simply because it is the right thing to do. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the very definition of heroism,” the chief said.
Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter/X @EagleTribJlll and Threads at jillyharma.