Report of General Membership Meeting:

“IF YOU WANT CHANGE: BE CHANGE!”   

A Message from Former Boston Police Commissioner Bill Gross and Superintendent Frank Mancini, MAPLE’s Guest Speakers.

            In an electrifying and inspiring presentation to the 15th MAPLE General Membership meeting, former key members of the Boston Police senior leadership cadre, Commissioner Bill Gross and Superintendent Frank Mancini, outlined both the science and the art of authentic police reform.   Superintendent Mancini led off the joint presentation with a call to political leaders to respect the “operational independence” of the police officials leading their departments.  He said that police leaders are better trained and educated and can more effectively assess situations and deploy resources than political leaders.   Mancini said that political leaders would never be foolish enough to tell an engineer or a physician how to do their jobs, yet, they appear to have no reservations about doing so with the police.    

The former superintendent, now college professor, said that “city hall” will always want to call the shots and there will always be a strong tendency to use the police to achieve political not professional goals. Mancini recalled that as head of Boston Police Internal Affairs, he would get calls from city hall to “fire a particular officer by the end of the week”. This would require him to pushback because the officer had rights to an investigation, legal protection and a hearing before any action could be taken. Conversely, his unit would review background investigations for prospective recruits. He said that he found candidates with bad records, lacking the qualifications seeking appointment sponsored by someone at city hall. This forced him to also push back to protect the department’s standards. This did not always sit well with some political figures but Mancini made it clear that if it is not done, a leader’s professional reputation will lose credibility.

            Mancini repeatedly underscored the theme, that police leaders must preserve professional goals and standards, even if it meant standing up against their appointing authorities.  He quoted British police reformer Sir Robert Peel, who said that the police “must be committed to the rule of law.” Mancini said that policing must move away from “opinion” based decision making to that based on “data”.  The former superintendent cited a policy statement from the “Police Federation of England. The statement read: “operational decisions must remain independent”.

            Examples were offered where political decisions negatively impacted community safety and security.  The New York Police Department has been chronically underfunded.  It is currently at 29K officers. The crime rate has skyrocketed. The department’s full complement requires 40K.   In Oakland CA the NAACP led protests against defunding the police.  Mancini noted that both Portland Oregon and Minneapolis Minnesota, after supporting radical defunding policies, were now backing off.  He warned that cutting police presence and effectiveness in neighborhoods hurts the poor and the elderly because the rich will always be able to buy their own protection.

            Former Commissioner Gross, batting cleanup, drove all runners home when he outlined his recipe for successful leadership.  He said that it begins with “knowing your people”, not just the people in your department, but those in the neighborhood; the children and the old folks.  Gross pointed to Mayor Menino and Commissioner Davis as his sponsors and mentors. He noted that Menino was a very community-oriented mayor and he saw how the people responded to that.   Always a man of the community, the Commissioner found the “village concept” very easy to adopt because it was the way he had always conducted himself.  He said that it was important to get to know everyone and to offer them fair, effective service with empathy, sympathy, care and respect.   Gross noted that if you do that, when the political figures and the “tragedy vultures” (TVs) descend upon you, it will be the people who will have your back.

            The Commissioner shared his humor and humanness with the members relating his experience of coming from Maryland as young fellow in 1975 to Boston during the height of busing.  He recalled going out to play football in his Roxbury neighborhood on St. Patrick’s day.  He came to play, sporting an all green outfit, surprised at the strong pushback he received. He humorously quipped that he “thought everyone wore green on Saint Patrick’s Day in Boston”.  When the opportunity came to join the Boston Police in 1985 many of his associates told him not to do it.   His response was: “ if you want change; be change”.  He passed the academy and then served throughout the city in various assignments but said the neighborhoods were always his focus and concern. He described his approach as “village policing” which he says is the essence of 21st Century Policing.  Reflecting upon his career he said that he had to contend with racism, patronage, nepotism but he also found good people of all backgrounds willing to do the right thing to make things better and it was with them that he decided to “hitch his wagon.” 

After completing the presentations, President Galvin commended both men and expressed his pleasure at Commissioner Gross’s attendance and participation. Galvin stated that he had tried to contact Gross for years. He quipped that now that he had him in the meeting he wasn’t going to let him get away. Galvin asked for a motion to extend an invitation to Commissioner Gross to join MAPLE. The motion was made and seconded and it passed on a unanimous vote. The commissioner responded by saying “I’m in” and he joined on the spot. Galvin said that MAPLE was honored to have him as a member. Superintendent Frank Mancini is currently a member and serves on the Board of Directors. It was through his efforts that Commissioner Gross appeared at this meeting.