With nearly ¾ of all members casting a vote, the president of the State Police union has been replaced.

The State Police Association of Massachusetts, or SPAM, Election Committee reported on the union’s public-facing communications website that Brian Williams, a member of the certification unit of the State Police Standards and Training division, had won election as the association’s president. He will replace Patrick McNamara, who had served as president for two years.

A total of 1,540 votes were cast out of the eligible pool of 2,078, representing a 74% turnout by Association members, according to the results page. Williams earned 764 votes to McNamara’s 650. Peter Levesque came in third with 112 votes.

SPAM Vice President Luke Bonin kept his seat with 1,107 votes to challenger Seth Peterson’s 388. Secretary Matthew Kane ran unopposed so kept his seat. Conversely, Treasurer Christopher Donahue, with 575 votes, lost his seat to challenger Brendan Murphy’s 934 votes.

Williams, in a letter to the union’s members on why he was running for president, stated that “The morale in our Department and our Association is in a steady decline. Our professional
relationships have suffered, and the Department continuously violates our contractual rights.”

“We have fallen for the “free lunch and longer recess” campaign too many times, it is time to elect representatives who are going to represent the interests of the Association rather than their own,” he added.

McNamara, in his own letter, said that over the two years he has served as president, the association “has met the challenges of our times.”

“We weathered the storm and came out even stronger. We were able to settle a contentious contract with retroactive pay, raise our detail rate, update contractual language such as bereavement leave and family and medical leave, create detainee observation protocols, etc.,” he wrote, highlighting a recent contract agreement that provided a more than 8% cost of living adjustment.

Both letters highlighted a planned fight for more education incentive for the association’s members.

McNamara, according to his letter, was assigned to the State Police’s Norwell barracks, had served on the MSP Special Tactics and Operations Team (STOP), and had served as an MSP detective in Plymouth county. Prior to joining the State Police, he was a Plymouth Police officer, a commissioned officer in the state Army National Guard and had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division. He served as the union’s vice president from 2020 to 2022.

Williams, according to his letter, spent a decade in the MSP’s Division of Field Services before transferring to the Division of Investigative Services as a member of the Firearms Identification Section before finally transferring to his current post. He served as SPAM Barracks Representative at all his assignments except for one and had previously been a member of the executive board. The former U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran wrote that he is on track to receiving his law degree from Massachusetts School of Law this month.