BPD wives get helping hand from hubbies
Pair promoted to lieutenant
Promotions to lieutenant for Donna Gavin and Beth Leary will mean more prestige, but it won’t alter the dynamic with the cop husbands they met on the job — they’ve always been unofficially in charge.
“She’s above me, she outranks me now,” Sgt. Billy Gavin told the Herald. “I don’t think anything’s changed.”
Donna’s husband and Beth’s husband, Mike Leary, a patrolman, each pinned their wife’s badge on them at the Boston police promotion ceremony yesterday. Thirty-five other BPD members were also promoted to ranks from sergeant to captain.
As Billy pinned on Donna’s badge, Superintendent-in-Chief William G. Gross joked that Billy would soon be given new orders: “Doing the dishes.”
But attaining the new ranks wasn’t something both women did lightly. Preparing for the lieutenants’ exam took months of studying at home and in seminars, Beth Leary said, taking up time that is already scarce.
Both Beth Leary and Donna Gavin were working different shifts than their husbands while they studied, and the stress took its toll.
“He was ready to kill me, he thought I was studying too much,” said Beth Leary. “I had my eye on the ball, I was very focused.”
Her husband said she “put a lot of effort into it, it was welldeserved.”
Mike Leary proudly added his wife topped the written exam portion of the test.
Billy Gavin joked his main assistance to Donna’s studying was simple: “I didn’t bother her.”
But Donna Gavin said her husband’s ability to listen has been important support for her while studying and while on the job. She’s headed BPD’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit for five years and said having a fellow cop who knows the ups and downs of the job for a husband made the hard days easier.
“You know, sometimes things are stressful,” she said. “I’ve worked in investigations and sometimes it’s challenging and there are sad stories, but it’s nice to go home to a welcoming hand.”
Donna Gavin has been a cop for 30 years and Billy, 33, and the pair has been supporting each other for three decades, going back to when they met as a cadet and a “dirty old guy,” Billy Gavin joked.
And the Gavins know the Learys through Beth Leary’s father, a former policeman who worked with Billy Gavin. Mike Leary, a cop since 1991, and Beth, who joined the force in 2004, married in 2012.
The Learys met while working in the same district and started dating, “got close and got married,” Mike Leary said. And while they have weekends together, the week is another story.
While the Gavins will soon be on the same shift, Beth Leary will continue to work the midnight shift that she’s been on for years, while Mike works days.
Beth said she didn’t mind paying her dues as a new lieutenant, but is looking forward to being on the same schedule as her husband.
“I eventually hope to get a day job down the line,” she added, “when my turn comes.”