Dartmouth Police Officer Joseph Vieira can add another title to his name: President of the Massachusetts Police Association.

Vieira was officially sworn in Thursday at a ceremony at the Allendale Country Club. 

Vieira, 59, has lived in Dartmouth his entire life and has served on the Dartmouth Police Department for 38 years. He is the association’s 86th president and the third from Dartmouth, following in the footsteps of Lt. Ken Cotta and Capt. Tom Soares.

Vieira was sworn in by retired Judge Lance Garth, who spoke of Vieira’s people skills. 

“He can go to a home in a time of turmoil and defuse it as best he can,’’ Garth said. “He’s a great communicator.’’

Being a police officer, Vieira said, makes him “part of a brotherhood.’’

He made a commitment to his fellow association members — who he described as “our team, there’s no individual in this organization, it’s a team’’ — that “I will move this organization ahead in 2022 and beyond.’’

The organization provides legislative support to the state’s 17,000 full-time and retired police officers. “We have police officers’ backs,’’ he said.

Vieira spoke against police officers losing their jobs for opting against Covid-19 vaccinations. “Last year, they were heroes,’’ he said of the work police officers did at the height of the pandemic. “This year they’re being fired. That’s wrong. That has to stop.’’

He said that, in the wake of calls for police reform, people need to remember that Massachusetts is “second to none’’ in training and educating police officers. 

Vieira became emotional at times when he talked about being the son of two immigrants from Portugal. 

“My parents worked hard their entire lives to raise the three of us and make sure we didn’t go without,’’ he said. 

And now, he said, “all three of us have master’s degrees,’’ he said of his sisters Mary Sweet, who retired as chief probation officer for Bristol County, and Zelda Halstead, a retired teacher in the Dartmouth schools, and himself. 

“We did pretty good for three kids from Bliss Corner,’’ he said.