A wake was held on Thursday for the first-ever woman officer to hold a supervisory role at the Brockton Police Department. Brockton police Sgt. Tracy (Harrington) Barbas died from brain cancer on Monday. She was just 42.
BROCKTON – A procession composed of more than 200 police officers, firefighters and state troopers marched down Belmont Street, lining up in the freezing cold to pay respects to the life of the first-ever female police supervisor for city.
A wake was held for Brockton police Sgt. Tracy Barbas on Thursday night, drawing a massive crowd of colleagues, who walked in a procession from the Arnone School to the Russell & Pica Funeral Home. The police officers, including at least 10 fellow women on the force, and others slowly filed into the building, with everyone saluting Barbas, who spent nearly 20 years on the force up until her death on Monday this week. Barbas, who died from brain cancer, was just 42 years old.
Brockton Police Chief John Crowley and Mayor Bill Carpenter led the procession.
"It was an incredible show of caring and solidarity from our law enforcement brothers," said Crowley, reached afterward. "That's the nature of our job. We try to stay together."
Crowley said Barbas was always a caring police officer who had a straightforward approach to the job. Before joining the force in 1999, she was also a telephone dispatcher for the department, Crowley said.
"She died too young," Crowley said. "She'll be sorely missed."
When Barbas was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2012, she was the first woman to ever becoming a supervising officer at the Brockton Police Department. Since then, one other woman has reached that rank, Carpenter said previously, with about 15 police women on the Brockton Police Department currently.
At the time of her promotion, under former mayor Linda Balzotti, Barbas was known as Tracy Harrington. Her father is James Harrington, the former mayor of Brockton.
“I hope I can make the rest of the female officers proud,” said Barbas, speaking to The Enterprise at the time of her groundbreaking promotion. “I’m going to do my best to pave the way for all the girls who come after me.”
Reached earlier this week, former mayor Harrington said he and his wife, Karen, are very proud of their daughter's life and accomplishments. Barbas is also survived by her husband, Christopher Barbas; her siblings, James Harrington Jr., Patrick Harrington and Shannon Harrington; in addition to six nephews and nieces.
"Her mother and I are extremely proud of her," Harrington told The Enterprise. "It's going to be a huge loss. She had a short life but she accomplished many of the things that she wanted to do. We're happy that she's ot suffering anymore, and want to thank everyone for outpouring of sympathy toward us."