Sheriff
Hampden County Sheriff's Office
Ludlow, Massachusetts
Nick Cocchi began his career as a seasonal correctional officer with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office in 1993, working his way up the ladder over the years before being elected Sheriff. Since taking office in 2017, Sheriff Cocchi has expanded the department’s level of community engagement, including taking on the opioid epidemic head-on. He started a medication assisted treatment program to help people battling addiction and he opened a substance use disorder treatment facility to help people involuntarily committed by the courts under the state’s Section 35 law.
Behind the walls of the facilities he oversees, Sheriff Cocchi has taken evidence-based programing, education initiatives, career training and job placement to the next level. Career training has expanded to include the high-paying forestry profession as well as advanced manufacturing, helping Hampden County boast one of the lowest recidivism rates in the United States.
In the community, Sheriff Cocchi has uniformed deputy sheriffs engaging the public through community policing. He has also assigned uniformed staff to assist at the busiest homeless shelter in the county’s largest city during the coldest months to expand capacity, keeping more homeless people off the streets. During the most difficult parts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, he had staff helping every city and town in Hampden County with assistance ranging from the efforts of the Community Restitution staff to life-saving personal protective equipment.
Sheriff Cocchi earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in Government from Western New England University, as well as his Master’s in Business Administration from Elms College.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM