"Municipal Protective Service" is a police agency that patrols properties owned and controlled by the City of Boston. It is also known as the Boston Municipal Protective Services Department (BMPS). Before the establishment of that agency, there was the Boston Municipal Police (Munis or BMP). The primary responsibility of the agency is to enforce all laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and ordinances of the City of Boston on and within all properties owned and operated by the City of Boston. It is an agency of Boston's Property & Construction Management Department.
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The formal founding date of the Boston Municipal Police is 1979. The department was created so the former Public Facilities Department (now known as Property Management) could have a fully functional police force to respond to alarms in schools and other City buildings when the City was experiencing many problems due to the busing situation. The department at its origin consisted of unarmed officers; over time, the department consisted of both unarmed (site officers) and armed officers (patrol and superior officers). Boston Municipal Police was dissolved on January 1, 2007, at 12:00 a.m.[1] On the same day, it was replaced by the "Boston Municipal Protective Services." It is currently an unarmed police force.
The Municipal police patrol officers had jurisdiction city wide and were sworn Special Police Officers under Boston Police Department Rule 400A with full police powers. Now as the Boston Municipal Protective Service, the officers are limited to patrolling specific "sites" located throughout the City, but still hold full police powers and are licensed as Special Police Officers despite being unarmed. Their authority is derived from the Boston Police Commissioner. The main agencies and departments serviced by BMPS include the following city owned assets:
In Mid-2006, Mayor Thomas M. Menino organized a merger of the Boston Police and the Boston Municipal police (which was really not a "merger" in the true sense of the word; the so-called "merger" was actually an opportunity granted to the Boston Municipal patrol officers to apply to the Boston Police Department as lateral transfers, although employment was not a guarantee). This prompted protest from the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association. The BPPA felt that the "Munis" were under trained and should not have been merged with the BPD. This is in contrary to the fact that all Municipal Police Officers have the same exact training as Boston Police Officers. Up to 60% of Municipal Police Officers have graduated from the Boston Police Academy. Despite the BPPA's objections, the Munis who passed a vigorous background check, medical & psychological exam, as well as a physical agility test were transferred to the Boston Police Department December 31, 2006. There were only 33 who were transferred to the BPD. On January 1, 2007, the rest of the Munis were either laid off or allowed to reapply to the City's Municipal Protective Services Department as site officers.