Joseph L. Ryan

Joseph L. Ryan Jr. was born on September 16, 1918, and spent his working life in the Billerica Police Department. A Joseph L. Ryan is listed among the department's special officers in 1941, and by 1948 he was a regular officer under Acting Chief John F. Trainor. In 1949 he was the department's sergeant. Like the chief, he was elected a constable each year and chosen by town meeting as a keeper of the lock-up and field driver.

When Trainor retired on January 31, 1956, after 37 years on the force, Sergeant Ryan became acting chief the next day, and the selectmen appointed him Chief of Police on June 23, 1956. His first annual report described a department of "a Chief, two sergeants, and fourteen patrolmen," three of them newly added by town meeting vote; new radio equipment with a main station and mobile units in two cruisers and the ambulance; and a river patrol begun in August 1956 "due to dangerous conditions on the Concord River." He chaired the town's committee on police women and in 1959 reported to town meeting for the Women's Traffic Supervisors' Committee.

In 1959 town meeting fixed the site of a new police station behind the Town Hall, and by 1963 Chief Ryan was giving school classes tours of the new building. He also served on the town's Recreation Commission. In 1975 town meeting approved his article for $4,500 to join a matching funds program with state and federal agencies through the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council.

He died in office on May 30, 1976, at 57, after twenty years as chief. The Special Town Meeting of June 8, 1976, stood in a moment of silence for "our beloved Chief of Police," and the 1976 Annual Report opened its municipal section with an In Memoriam page bearing his portrait. By 1979 the Recreation Department's youth basketball program was known as the Chief Joseph Ryan PAL Basketball League.

References

1. Report of the Police Department, 1941: special officers list including Joseph L. Ryan
2. Town officers, 1949: Police Department, John F. Trainor, Chief; Joseph L. Ryan, Sergeant
3. Annual town meeting 1954: Police Chief John F. Trainor and Joseph L. Ryan chosen Keepers of the Lock-up and Field Drivers
4. Town officers, 1956: Chief of Police John F. Trainor retired Jan. 31, 1956; Joseph L. Ryan appointed June 23, 1956
5. Report of the Police Department, 1956 (signed by Joseph L. Ryan, Chief of Police): appointment as acting chief, department strength, radios, river patrol
6. School report, 1963: tour of the new Police Station conducted by Chief Ryan
7. Annual town meeting 1975, Article 46, submitted by Chief of Police Joseph L. Ryan: Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council matching funds
8. Special Town Meeting, June 8, 1976: moment of silence for 'our beloved Chief of Police, Joseph L. Ryan'
9. Town Report 1976, In Memoriam: Joseph L. Ryan Jr., born Sept. 16, 1918, died May 30, 1976, Chief 1956-1976
10. Recreation Department report, 1979: the Chief Joseph Ryan PAL Basketball League