Top cop bullet points released
Think you could be Boston’s new top cop?
The Wu administration has put out a job description for police commissioner and is encouraging people to apply for what has been a $250,000-a-year gig atop the $400 million department — and the description doesn’t mention policing experience all that much.
Mayor Michelle Wu’s search commission also announced the hiring of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit consulting firm for police departments, to field applications and assist in the process.
“We are seeking a leader who can lead the City’s police department in this new era for public safety,” the city wrote in its posting.
There are few specifically hard-line quantitative metrics. They essentially boil down to: “a four-year college degree, progressively responsible command-level experience in policing in an urban community, and knowledge of best practices in policing.”
The city adds, “We are open to candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, including candidates with reform-centered leadership experience and/ or backgrounds in public health or government settings on the municipal, state, or national level.”
The job description focuses much more on desired qualities of an
applicant, such as the “passion, skills, and cultural competencies to serve as a ‘bridge-builder’ between the Department and Boston, fostering trust and strong, long-lasting relationships with Boston’s diverse neighborhoods.”
Many of the bullet points start with how the city is looking for someone with “a willingness” or “a commitment” to diversity, the safety of LGBT residents, “reimagining public safety policies, embrace crime reduction and anti-violence initiatives,” or “anti-racist principles and practices, including actively mitigating and eliminating the use of excessive force and oppressive police tactics in interactions with communities and people of color,” to name a few.
The posting also talks about experience making changes “with a large, complex institution” rather than specifically a police department.
Boston police commissioners technically have five-year terms, though cops periodically come and go during them, rending that somewhat meaningless. One’s currently wrapping up; it’s a term started by William Evans, who then gave way to William Gross, who passed the torch to Dennis White — who quickly was fired after old allegations of domestic abuse surfaced. In the last full year that there was a police commissioner, Gross made $250,000 as a base salary.
The department hasn’t had an active commissioner in 14 months. That’s when White was placed on leave just days after he took over from Gross, kicking off a months-long process that ended in his firing.