The West Roxbury / Roslindale Rotary Club last week presented Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley with the Paul Harris Award for excellence in public and community service.

Conley accepted the award on behalf of Suffolk County prosecutors, whom he commended for their tireless work on behalf of victims, their families, and their communities. Prosecutors, he said, have no access to overtime pay and are barred from performing legal work to supplement their incomes.

“I only wish our state budget would allow me to hire more of them or pay them what they really deserve,” he said. “I wish [being a prosecutor] was a career path more young people could afford to take.”

The award is named after Paul P. Harris, the founder of Rotary International. The organization is committed to the ideals of service, ethics, and goodwill.

“They’re ideals my parents, who are here tonight, instilled in me from a very young age,” Conley told attendees at the West Roxbury Elks Hall. “They’re ideals I embrace as a prosecutor and ideals I demand from every member of my office.”

Conley spoke of his decision to reform eyewitness identification procedures after dismissing cases against men who had unfairly or wrongly convicted in the years before he took office.

“There was no doubt that some of the reforms would make our jobs as prosecutors more difficult,” he said. “But I considered my father, who labored with his hands for decades so I could get a world-class legal education. I considered my mother, who raised me to respect the law and trust in those who enforced it. What would they have thought if I sacrificed the values they taught me, just to make my job easier?”

In the end, those reforms prompted defense attorneys and independent academic experts alike to proclaim Suffolk County’s measures as “the gold standard” for eyewitness identification procedures nationwide.

“I’ve seen the criminal justice system inside and out, and I’m still convinced that state prosecutors are the best and soundest long-term investment of a public-safety dollar,” he said. “It’s with them in mind, and with their best interests at heart, that I humbly accept this award.”