Meet District Attorney Rollins

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins is the chief law enforcement officer for Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop, Massachusetts. She is the first woman ever elected as District Attorney in Suffolk County and the first woman of color ever elected District Attorney in Massachusetts.

Since taking office in 2019, Rollins has implemented humane and data-supported policies that no longer criminalize mental health issues, substance use disorders, food and housing insecurities, and immigration status, instead focusing her limited resources on the most violent and serious crimes and keeping Suffolk County safe. Among some of her larger initiatives and policy implementations are her first in nation Discharge Integrity Team to help investigate officer involved shootings and allegations of excessive force. The DIT consists of a community member, a criminal defense attorney, a retired judge, and a member of law enforcement.  Rollins also created an Integrity Review Bureau that looks not only at post-conviction claims of actual innocence, but also reviews unconstitutional, unethical, and unjust convictions, as well as sentencing disparities. Over 240 years of wrongful convictions, and counting, have been overturned by her IRB. An attorney for over 20 years, Rollins previously worked as a federal prosecutor at the United States Attorney’s Office in Boston. She also served as General Counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and as Chief Legal Counsel for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Rollins was a Governor Deval Patrick appointee to the Judicial Nominating Commission and a past president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association. She has been honored as the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s Lawyer of the Year in 2018; The Boston Globe’s Bostonian of the Year and Emerge Massachusetts’ Woman of the Year in 2019; and one of the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Exceptional Leaders in 2020.