Mattapan police commander to retire - to job at Harvard

By adamg on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 5:30pm

Capt. James Claiborne, who currently heads up Boston Police's B-3 district (Mattapan and parts of Dorchester and Roxbury), is retiring at the end of the month - and will take a job as deputy chief of the Harvard University Police Department.

In a statement, Harvard University says Claiborne and retired Cambridge Police Superintendent Michael Giacoppo will both serve as deputy chiefs and help the university make policing improvements proposed in a report by former Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph Martin.

"His background with community policing, his management experience and his experience working with Boston-area universities will be an asset to the Department," Harvard says.

Neighborhoods:

Mattapan

Free tagging:

Harvard University

Boston Police Department

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Comments

Do you think he has the

By NotWhitey on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 6:01pm.

Do you think he has the experience to deal with Muffy and Chad?

Harvard hired him after

By Haviland on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 6:22pm.

Harvard hired him after being told howincredibly Ramadi before the surge dangerous their campus was in that recent safety survey.

He can probably deal with Justin's buddies

By Jonas Prang on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 6:23pm.

Maybe not with Buffy and Chad, but he can certainly with Justin Cosby's buddies.

Claiborne and College Kids

By Cynic on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 9:07pm.

It's a fascinating choice. Claiborne has been, for a long time now, the most important black member of the BPD. He rose to serve as Superintendent of Field Services from 1993-2000, before Paul Evans - for reasons known to him alone - busted him back down to his civil service rank of Captain. When Evans left, Claiborne was widely touted as the next commissioner, and was a finalist for the job. O'Toole bumped him back up to head of Field Services, and openly mused about giving him the top uniformed slot. As the Globe put it then:

Claiborne is the rare police commander who has managed to maintain popularity with officers of all races and ranks, as well as with the neighborhoods he has served. Even the leadership of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association, which seldom has good things to say about police brass, considers Claiborne a "cop's cop" who has the potential to boost morale and performance in the department.

But then came the 2004 ALCS, and the tragic death of Victoria Snelgrove. Claiborne was the man in charge that night, and an investigating commission laid some of the blame at his feet, for inadequate preparation and oversight. On the one hand, that was justified -the buck stopped with him. On the other, most of what went wrong that night was the direct responsibility of the operations commander on the scene, Deputy Inspector Robert O'Toole - a man who thought pursuing confrontational tactics, shooting people with pellet guns, and personally involving himself in operations he commanded was a good idea. O'Toole never ran any of that past Claiborne. Even if the clear procedures that the commission recommended had been in place, it's unclear that they would have curbed O'Toole.

But that's water under the bridge. Claiborne got bounced back to Captain, where he's continued to be popular in the precincts he's commanded. And now, with Menino heading to yet-another term, he's evidently decided his shot at Commissioner or Superintendent-in-Chief has passed for good.

On balance, it's a remarkably good hire for Harvard - an officer of proven talent and national stature, willing to work at the deputy level. But there is the cruel irony that he's best known for presiding over an incident in which police overreacted to college students, with tragic consequences.