Hey, there! Log in / Register

Bloody stupid hell: Boston school security guards can't communicate directly with police

The Globe reports Boston School Police, who do not have guns, but who, of course, want them, have a radio system that cannot communicate directly with actual Boston Police - which has its own dedicated school unit. In an emergency today, school guards would have to call their own dispatcher, who would then contact Boston Police.

Neighborhoods: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

that's all!

up
Voting closed 0

It sounds like the union is trying to negotiate better equipment and radios. Isn't that a good thing?

up
Voting closed 0

Just give them the equipment they need.

up
Voting closed 0

The problem: we have all these separate police forces, mostly due to unions, political favors, etc.

It's completely idiotic that we have a:
-Boston Municipal Police
-Boston Housing Police
-Boston Park rangers (Boston Police won't handle problems in a park; I've tried in the past)

...AND Boston Police Department.

BPA thinks that patrolling our projects, schools, or city buildings is beneath them (just like they think issuing parking tickets or traffic violations other than speeding are beneath them.) Political hacks want jobs for their friends and families that don't require any training.

So, BPA stands in the way of dissolving the various barely-a-rent-a-cop "police", as do whatever union represents the rentacops, because they don't want to be held accountable to the standards of an actual professional force, or have to fulfill the training requirements, or be subject the same hiring policies.

Call up your buddy in Boston Public Schools and you've got a job as a cop. Can't do that if BPD takes over school security, now can you?

up
Voting closed 0

Although City Hall has some sort of special police force with I think is a last bastion of municipal officers.

And you forgot the State Police who get to patrol the parkways, State Beaches, and State properties within different cities.

And the Transit police.

I don't think the BPA would be opposed to extra work in the schools, but I think you save money in the long run if a seperate school "police" is assigned to schools. Arming them means more training and liablity.

up
Voting closed 1

Is what they call the security guards who run the X-ray machines at City Hall and shoo people away from the electric-vehicle charging stations on Cambridge Street. They may not have guns, but don't make them take out their batons.

Doesn't the Housing Authority have their own force?

up
Voting closed 0

I am.amazed that whoever wrote these comments did so witthout any facts.It is a wonder you wanted to remain anonymous...complaining about Municipal police when there have not been any for several years? Your comments were filled with incorrect statements. The school police are a very professional organization who stop so many incidents from happening by developing relationships with the students in the

up
Voting closed 0

What do unions have to do with this?

Dr. Johnson is right when she says that we probably don't need more guns in our kids' schools, but she doesn't acknowledge in her statement that there's an urgent need for school security to have radio contact with Boston police and EMS.

up
Voting closed 0

We don't need more guns in the schools, the kids bring enough of them in already. Is there something I'm not getting about arming the police? Would it be that shocking to see police carrying guns? I wouldn't think anyone would even notice, really. I've always been a believer that it's better to have it and not need it

up
Voting closed 1

We do hear of them getting caught with guns from time to time, but it would be interesting to know where you are getting your "data".

Freeper links and rumors spread in anti-public school communities don't count.

Oh, and one reason to not have armed cops? Fairly easy to disarm a cop in a crowded hallway or student event.

up
Voting closed 0

You ask for data and yet you state that is easy to disarm a cop in a crowded hallway. Would you please provide any evidence for a cop being disarmed in a crowded hallway.

up
Voting closed 0

Try "cop loses gun". Now ... think about the consequences of that in a school situation multiplied by that many more guns if we have a bunch of people packing who may or may not be fully trained in their use and proper holstering.

Nice try to derail ... your turn to supply some factual evidence that "ZOMG BOSTON SCHOOLS ARE CHOCK FULL OF HIGH CALIBER WEAPONS BROUGHT BY STUDENTS ON A DAILY BASIS!!!!". I'm sick of seeing that accusation without the least shred of credible evidence behind it.

And get yerself a login.

up
Voting closed 0

Try "boston handgun public school" and you'll come up with this in the first two pages:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/201...

and

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/05/27/teen-arreste...

and

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/10/25/student-arre...

and

"Data come from a randomly sampled survey conducted in 2008 of over 1,700 high school students in Boston, MA. Over 5% of students reported carrying a gun, 9% of boys and 2% of girls." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21146203)

That's actual data from an actual study, and the best you can do is suggest that the school police who are trained like any other police department "may or may not be fully trained in their use and proper handling." Um uh derp citation please!

up
Voting closed 0

That is all.

up
Voting closed 0

Yes, blame the unions that gave us the middle class, 40 hour work weeks, holidays, stopped child labor, etc,etc,etc.

You should be thanking unons for all they have done.

Though unions protect the bad seeds and should also bend at times they also protect many hard working men and women in this country - try not ot forget that.

up
Voting closed 1

in the last 30years?

up
Voting closed 0

Boston school police, a unit of 55 officers and 20 supervisors, cover all middle and high schools around the city and operate on a $3.9 million ­annual budget.

The NRA spends that much a year on paper clips!

up
Voting closed 0

They're very nice paper clips.

up
Voting closed 0

They hold 100 rounds.

up
Voting closed 1

2.75 officers per supervisors? And they can't afford radios? Good grief!

up
Voting closed 0

Every little thing needs to be run by a separate agency that refuses to cooperate with anyone else. Just because.

up
Voting closed 0

That tendency is not unique to Massachusetts.

up
Voting closed 0

...but nobody does it better.

up
Voting closed 0

I would not expect a private, unarmed security force to have access to real police radios. So why can't they just call 911 when they need to summon the cavalry?

up
Voting closed 0

They're municipal employees.

up
Voting closed 0

This is actually a tough subject. How much time is actually saved between direct radio access and a 911 call? Do you want non-department personnel having access to department radios? I can see problems there. Can you put a radio in the principal's office?

Guns are another matter. Shootings are so rare in schools that I don't see the point. On the other hand, many cities already have armed cops in their building without problem. When post office building were being shot up by disgruntled employees, no one thought to arm mailmen, so there you go.

up
Voting closed 0