Retired Quincy Police Chief Adam Yates exemplifies what it means to be community minded, accepting a new position as interim transit director after just six weeks of retirement.

Yates knew he wanted to be a police officer from a very young age and nothing was going to stop him from making this dream a reality. He graduated from Quincy Senior High School in 1994 and joined the United States Marine Corps afterwards, serving for four years before returning home and applying to become a police officer.

Quincy Police Department requires candidates to be 21 years of age at appointment which ultimately led Yates to seek structure and discipline until he met the age requirement.

Yates enjoyed his time in the military as a communications center operator but still wanted to be a cop, changing job fields within the Marine Corps was not a possibility for him, so when his time was up he got out and moved back to Quincy to continue chasing the childhood aspirations of becoming a police officer.

Yates initially enrolled at John Wood Community College when he returned as he waited for the application process to proceed at which point he had to withdraw to get hired and go to the police academy.

Now that his career had begun, Yates quickly established himself as a police officer, after about five years with the department he was in a detective role and decided to continue his education finishing up his associates degree in 2007 from John Wood.

Yates took on many roles within the Quincy Police Department during his career starting as a patrol officer then becoming a street crimes officer then a detective for five years. Yates was promoted to sergeant in 2010 and took on the role of patrol sergeant which he did for eight years. He then took on a new role as the administrative assistance sergeant which he did for about 18 months before a deputy chief position opened up.

At this point Yates had a difficult decision to make on whether to pursue the next position or not, which he ultimately decided to put his name in the hat and take a chance which he got selected for and served in for the next two years.

When Police Chief Rob Copley decided to retire from QPD, Yates was selected and then appointed as chief in June of 2022 until retiring in 2026. Copley is currently director of security at Quincy University.

“Overall, I’m just very satisfied with my opportunity, both with the military and police department,” Yates said.

Yates is also in a band called Prospect Road which has had a significantly positive impact on him and has given him an opportunity to destress and just have fun over the entirety of his career as a police officer.