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Waltham Newswatch, December 22, 2016
A Waltham cop went after Superintendent Drew Echelson at Wednesday’s school committee meeting.

WPD officer Paul Tracey said the superintendent was responsible for an incident at MacArthur Elementary last week in which “an unknown man was buzzed in the front door of a public elementary school.”

Tracey disagreed with the finding that there was no risk and argued that parents were notified too late. “The safety and security of the students and all the staff were compromised,” said the veteran cop.

Then things got personal.

“I get the sense that you don’t trust or are afraid of the police,” Tracey told the superintendent. “You called the chief of police on me this morning.”

Tracey then demanded Echelson’s resignation over the alleged breakdown of security.

School committee rules prevented members from responding to Tracey, as Mayor McCarthy explains at the end of the clip.

But not long after Tracey spoke, Echelson said, “There was no threat to the school.”

He defended the “appropriate and smart approach” from MacArthur officials, who used training from Waltham Police.

But there's a lot more to this story.

Back in 2011, Tracey was placed on an administrative leave for his involvement in a tenant dispute involving his friend and city councilor Paul Brasco. The Middlesex DA and Attorney General Martha Coakley declined to press charges.

But the city pursued Tracey over the matter, and ended up with egg on its face. In 2012, an arbitrator concluded there was no misconduct, overturned Tracey’s 15-day suspension and ordered the city to pay compensation for inappropriate administrative leave.

Undeterred, the city appealed the arbitrator’s decision and lost again in superior court.

Tracey sued the city in 2014.

More recently, Tracey’s wife Kristen, also a cop, was transferred from her role as a WHS school resource officer to normal police duty. In November, Echelson declined to comment on the move, saying it was a police matter.