Boston Police Department
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The Boston Police Department (BPD) has the primary responsibility for law enforcement and investigation within the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th largest department in the United States and is argued to be the oldest police department in the country.
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[edit] History
The first night watch was established in Boston in 1631 with an Officer and 6 Men. By 1635 the Watch consisted of property owning males over 16 who were required to take turns at the duty without pay. In 1703 pay in the sum of 35 shillings a month was set. In 1796, the Watch was reorganized and the watchmen carried a badge of office, a rattle, and a six-foot pole, painted blue and white with a hook on one end and a bill on the other. It was used to “hook” fleeing criminals, and the rounded “bill” end would have been used as a weapon. The rattle was a noise-making device used for calling for assistance.
In 1838 the Day Police was organized, having no connection with the Night Watch. It operated under the city marshal and six officers were appointed. In 1853, the Harbor Police was created in response to the increase in robberies of occupied vessels in the waters of Boston Harbor. They were furnished with rowboats and armed with Colt revolvers. This was the first unit furnished with firearms.
The formal founding date of the Boston Police Department is May of 1854, the Boston Watch and Day Police were disbanded, and the Boston Police department came into being. The old hook and bill, which had been in use for one hundred and fifty-four years, was replaced by a fourteen-inch club.
The Boston Police at that point constituted the first paid, professional police service in the United States, but its roots can be even further traced back to the 18th century and Boston's appointment of an "Inspector of Police." In 1854, the department was closely organized and modeled after Sir Robert Peel's (London) Metropolitan Police Service.
[edit] 1919 police strike
In 1919, the Boston Police went on strike, signaling a dramatic shift in traditional labor relations and views on the part of the police, who were unhappy with stagnant wages and poor working conditions. When Police Commissioner Edwin Curtis refused to allow the creation of a police union, 1,117 BPD officers went on strike. The city soon fell into riots and public chaos as over three-fourths of the department was no longer enforcing public peace. Governor Calvin Coolidge intervened to quash further chaos. Coolidge announced that the police did not have the right to strike against the public safety and brought in the state national guard to restore order to Boston. The strike was broken, permanently, when Coolidge hired entirely-new replacement police officers -- many of whom were returning servicemen from World War I -- and the former officers were refused re-entry into the department. Ironically, the new officers hired in the wake of the strike received higher salaries, more vacation days, and city-provided uniforms -- the very demands the original strikers were requesting. The BPD strike set a precedent for further movements to stymie police unionization around the country. Coolidge's intervention in the strike brought him national fame which, in turn, led to his nomination as Harding's running mate for Vice-President in the 1920 presidential election
[edit] Busing callout
In 1974, the BPD was involved in maintaining order during the public disturbance over court-ordered busing to racially-integrate Boston's public school system. Unrest was particularly focused around schools, requiring the BPD to increase patrols and maintain readiness for much of the mid-1970s.
[edit] Milestones
On August 23, 1995, the BPD became the first police agency in the world to send fingerprint images to the FBI electronically. The first set of fingerprints were for a suspect arrested for armed robbery. Within hours of the receipt of the fingerprints, the FBI determined that the suspect had a number of prior arrests, including one for assault with intent to kill.[1]
[edit] BPD today
The Boston Police Department currently has approximately 2,015 officers and 808 civilian personnel, with patrol services covering an area of 232.1 km² (89.6 mi²) and a population of 589,141. The BPD currently requires all employed officers hired since 1995 to live within Boston city-limits, a point that leads many within the department to call for pay raises to help officers meet the city's high cost of living. The BPD currently is divided into 11 neighborhood districts spread across the city, each supervised by a Captain.
The Boston Police Department is organized into bureaus under the Office of the Police Commissioner. The Chief of Staff, media liaisons and the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) also operate out of the Commissioner's office.
The Bureau of Field Services (BFS) consists of the 11 police districts and Special Operations. It is the largest bureau and it's main responsibility is tactical patrol and crime prevention. Superintendent Robert Dunford is the current head of the BFS.
The Bureau of Investigative Services (BIS) consists of the Homicide Unit, Drug Control Unit, Family Justice Center, the Youth Violence Strike Force (gang unit) and Forensic Science Division. Superintendent Paul Joyce is the current head of the BIS.
Other bureaus include the Bureau of Administrative Services, led by a civilian, Christopher Fox, and the Bureau of Training and Education led by Superintendent Charles Horsley.
The Boston Police rank structure is as follows:
Police Officer*/ Detective (*)***
Sergeant*/ Sergeant Detective***
Lieutenant*/ Lieutenant Detective***
Captain*/ Captain Detective***
Deputy Superintendent
Superintendent
Superintendent In Chief (This position is not always utilized.)
Commissioner
(*Promotions to these positions are granted through a civil service testing process.)
(**These are appointed civil service positions dependent on the last tested rank.)
(*** These Positions are on equal rank with the proceeding title and are job descriptions not Ranks)
Deputy Superintendents and above serve at the pleasure of the Police Commissioner and in the case of the Commissioner, the Mayor.
Boston's Police Commissioner was Kathleen O'Toole, the first woman to serve in that position, until she resigned from her commissionership on June 30, 2006 to take a new position as Inspector General of the Irish national police force, Garda Siochána. The acting commissioner was Albert Goslin.
Edward Davis just accepted the position as Boston Police Commissioner. He was Chief of Police in Lowell, MA prior to this appointment.
[edit] Merger
According to the Boston Globe, Mayor Menino is planning to merge the BPD and the Boston Municipal Police. He has already added the merger to the city's 2007 budget. This has prompted protest from the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association. The BPPA feels that the "Munis" are undertrained and should not merge with the BPD.
[edit] 2006 corruption case
In summer 2006, the department was rocked with scandal when officers Robert Pulido, Carlos Pizaro and Nelson Carrasquillo were arrested in Miami, Florida and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Pulido was also charged with hosting parties at which other BPD officers fraternized with drug dealers.
The scandal comes at a particularly bad time for the BPD, as Boston's homicide rates has increased drastically in 2006. The majority of these murders remain unsolved, a fact that many community leaders attribute to a lack of trust between the city's police and its residents.
