Community Corner
Wayland Police Officers Union Endorses David Solet For District Attorney
He is challenging incumbent District Attorney Marian Ryan in the Sept. 1 primary.
WAYLAND, MA — A police officers' union in Wayland has endorsed a candidate in the Democratic primary for Middlesex County district attorney.
NEPBA Local 176 has endorsed David Solet, citing his prosecution experience and work on the 2011 Lauren Astley murder case in Wayland in a Wednesday announcement. Solet is challenging incumbent District Attorney Marian Ryan in the Sept. 1 primary.
“We are choosing to back Dave because we have seen his commitment to justice firsthand,” NEPBA Local 176 President David Fors said. “His relentless dedication during the 2011 Lauren Astley murder case here in Wayland showed us how tirelessly he fights for victims and their families.”
The Wayland union joins more than 30 public safety unions and organizations supporting Solet, according to his campaign.
Solet said he would prioritize prosecuting repeat violent offenders, gun trafficking organizations and crimes targeting older residents, according to the union. He has also pledged to modernize the district attorney’s office to address cyberbullying, cryptocurrency scams, cybersecurity threats and child exploitation involving artificial intelligence.
“Receiving this endorsement from an organization representing the men and women of Wayland who wear the uniform is humbling,” Solet said in the announcement. “These people know who I am and what I’ve done as a prosecutor, and they have confidence in what I will do in the future.”
Solet has worked as a prosecutor for 24 years, including in the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office’s Special Investigations Unit. He later became the first chief of its Cyber Protection Unit and served as the first chief of the Middlesex County Cold Case Homicide Unit from 2019 to 2025, according to his campaign.
He was named the county’s 2025 Prosecutor of the Year, the campaign said.
Solet is a Harvard Law School graduate, a former chief legal counsel to the Massachusetts secretary of public safety and a major in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He lives in Cambridge and has two daughters.
