Michael D. Silva serves as a Tucson Police Department Assistant Chief of Police, overseeing the Analysis, Engagement and Oversight Bureau. Assistant Chief Silva hails from Tucson, but has spent a good portion of his professional life in pursuits outside of Arizona. After graduating from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration, Assistant Chief Silva earned a commission as a military police officer in the United States Air Force. During his service, Assistant Chief Silva commanded both security and law enforcement specialists tasked with air base ground defense as well as general installation law enforcement. While attached to the B-2 stealth bomber, Assistant Chief Silva also served as the base Emergency Services Team Leader (SWAT), where he provided command, control and advanced training for a team of specially selected personnel capable of neutralizing special threats. In his final assignment, Assistant Chief Silva took a special duty posting to U.S. Southern Command Air Forces, where he worked as an operations cell officer in support of the U.S. counter-drug mission in Central and South America.
Following his time in the military, Assistant Chief Silva enrolled once again at the University of Arizona, earning his law degree. While in law school, Assistant Chief Silva worked in a number of interesting positions. Those included posts with the Arizona Office of Homeland Security, the Criminal Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the office of Federal District Court Judge Frank R. Zapata and the Washington D.C. office of Senator John McCain. After law school, Assistant Chief Silva spent several years working in private practice as a civil litigator, focusing primarily on liability issues. Following private practice, Assistant Chief Silva worked as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the City of Tucson Attorney’s Office before being selected as a Tucson Police Department Legal Advisor, where he served for six years until being named as the department’s first civilian Chief of Staff. Assistant Chief Silva remained Chief of Staff for two years before being promoted to a professional staff assistant chief in 2019.