MARSHFIELD, MASS. (WHDH) - Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares opened up in a newly released video about the violent arrest that led to his father’s death and how he went from “hating the police” to becoming fueled by his motivation to make a difference in the world as he climbed the ranks of law enforcement.
In the video shared by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, Tavares discussed the story of a brutal assault on his dad by police in 1997 that left him fatherless at a young age.
Officers were called to the chief’s childhood home after his father, Phil Tavares Sr., failed to immediately leave when his wife filed a restraining order against him.
“As a result, he was arrested, he was beaten, he was kicked in the abdomen and the face, his hair was pulled, his head was slammed off of a heater,” Tavares recalled in the video.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvmK6l8iJaA]
When Tavares went to bail his father out of jail the next morning, his injuries were so bad that he could not walk, see properly, or even put his belt through the loops of his pants.
Tavares Sr. was subsequently taken to the emergency on three occasions in the 48 hours that followed. On the fourth day after his release, he collapsed and died.
“He started coughing. He collapsed to his knees in front of my grandparents saying, ‘Help me, I can’t breath,'” Tavares recalled. “He died in their arms. No parent should ever see their child die.”
A medical examiner later ruled that the injuries Tavares Sr. suffered at the hands of police contributed to his death. Despite the ruling, the officers involved in his arrest were cleared following an investigation.
“My dad had never been in trouble with law enforcement in his life before that one event,” Tavares said. “It completely destroyed my entire family…I had to go the rest of my life without my father, my son doesn’t have a grandfather, and it angers me.”
After contemplating how he could seek justice for his father, Tavares said he “channeled his anger” to “create positive change from within.”
Tavares went on to earn a master’s degree in criminal justice administration and graduated from the FBI National Academy.
“I climbed the ranks to make a difference,” Tavares said.
Tavares first joined the Marshfield Police Department in 1988. Twenty-four years after telling his wife Jeanine Smith-Tavares that he’d become chief someday, his dream came true.
“My goal was to become the best that I could to lead a police department, to help the community, and to help people because that’s what police do,” Tavares said.
After remaining silent about his father’s death for 33 years, Tavares felt that it was necessary to hear from a perspective that was once anti-police but now pro-police, given the current landscape of America.
“I don’t think that this story has been told yet. The vast majority of police officers are doing the right thing every day,” Tavares said. “That’s the reason why they took the job.”
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