A local man who gave decades of service as a police officer has died.
According to an obituary, Steve Mello, a Fall River native, built a long career in campus law enforcement after earning a criminal justice degree from Bristol Community College. He began at UMass Dartmouth as an ISO, graduated from the MPTC Canton Regional Police Academy in 1995, and was then promoted to police officer.
Over more than three decades at UMass Dartmouth, he served as Crime Prevention Officer and later Clery Compliance Officer, focusing on public safety, prevention, and community outreach.
In 2007 he received the Real Hero Award from the Massachusetts Bay chapter of the American Red Cross. In 2013 he earned the Dennis Tucker Policing Excellence Award, later renamed the Tucker/Mello Award in his honor. In 2024, UMass Dartmouth presented him with its Legacy Award.
Service details were not publicly announced.
