It has been a busy summer for Marblehead’s retired police chief Robert Picariello, who worked at last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and is headed to the Democratic Convention in Chicago on Aug. 17. Picariello, who still lives in town, now works with FirstNet, a nationwide communications network dedicated to first responders.
“My job is to help ensure that the network is stable and solid and that first responders have a good network for emergencies and planned events like the DNC and RNC,” Picariello told the Current.
“We’ve been planning with the RNC and DNC for a year,” he explained. “We put in place all kinds of back-ups, if for some reason something were to go sideways. We have the ability to give first responders a network, even when everything else has gone wrong.”
After serving as Marblehead’s top cop for 35 years, Picariello retired in 2021. The next year, he started as a FirstNet Response Operations Group chief in New England.
Picariello describes FirstNet as being in the “what if” business.
“We’ll put out big satellite trucks with giant antennas on them, so if the wire line that feeds the cell towers gets cut for some reason — whether it be a storm or a guy digging a hole digs up the wire, or someone doing a bad thing, which we know can happen — we have these satellite assets that will produce cell service for first responders,” he said.
In addition to political conventions, FirstNet provides support at events from the Super Bowl and Lollapalooza to local Strawberry Festivals.
“Anything you can think of where lots and lots of people go,” Picariello said.
He enjoyed the GOP convention, even though things were tense after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
“Everybody was shocked by it, but it didn’t really didn’t change our posture much,” he said. “We always plan for the worst possible thing that could happen.”
Picariello is looking forward to Chicago, although it could be more challenging.
“It’s a bigger, more sprawling city,” he said. “It causes us to support various venues that are more spread out. It doesn’t change what we do. It just makes the plan a little different.”
After decades on the beat in Marblehead, Picariello is enjoying his new career.
“You know, I love it,” he said. “We’re all former first responders or military. They teach us the network stuff, but what we know from our careers in our previous jobs is what they can’t teach us. We interact with the first responders on the ground. We understand what they need. It helps a tremendous amount to have the experience I had for 35 years. I get to bring some of my old career and learn new stuff.”
And being at the conventions has been a great experience, he said.
“It was awesome watching democracy happen and being able to be on the sidelines,” he said. “It reaffirms why this country is great.”
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist.
