Since when are the MBTA Transit Police allowed to make traffic stops on Huntington Avenue? Spotted at ~10:10, between South Huntington and Mission Hill (nowhere near a bus stop or any other MBTA property, and no buses or trolleys in sight, either): male and female officers from one of the "wagon" Transit Police units, inspecting the license of a driver and speaking to her.

A little background on how complicated Chapter 90 authority can be.

Right now, there are many police cruisers, both marked and unmarked, parked on Avenue Louis Pasteur. A large number are parked illegally, either in no-parking zones, bus stops, and even blocking crosswalks (in front of Boston Latin, a school zone.) This is an area where both the MBTA and MASCO run a large number of shuttles and need all the room they can get just make the turns. The State Police, Northborough, Danvers, and Boston were among the 'representatives' who showed up with marked cruisers. The unmarked cruisers and personal vehicles had various "I'm a cop" signs- raid jackets in windows, ticket books on dashboards, radios left in plain sight, or emergency lights.

They are attending a conference in Harvard Med's New Research Building, held by IACP, regarding Project Safe Neighborhoods. IACP is a police chief association, so there are probably a bunch of chiefs amongst these lawbreakers. Of note- there are multiple pay lots within 1-2 blocks, and public street parking within a few blocks.

Update: photos from twheaton. More welcome, especially showing plates and the signage showing they're illegally parked.

http://carlosmiller.com/2008/06/06/massachusetts-judge-drops-charges-against-terrorist-photographer/

He was a Russian. He had a camera. And he was photographing a natural gas tank.

So naturally police thought he was a terrorist.

Police in Lynn, Mass. became so suspicious of Stanislav Arkhipov, they not only arrested him on trespassing charges, they ended up contacting the State Anti-Terrorism Unit.

If this was covered here, I missed it ...

People hate what they fear

T safest in a decade??

Are these MBTA people for real?

The MBTA is nearly doubling the number of cash machines within its subway stations - and the cash-strapped transit agency will pick up an extra $226,400 a year in the process.

The T’s board of directors yesterday OK’d going ahead with leases with Bank of America, TD Banknorth and Select A Branch Inc., to put a total of 19 ATMs in stations, up from 10 that were previously provided by Citizens Bank under a prior contract.

Bank of America won with a $30,000 bid the right to place just one ATM in the busy Park Street station.

The JP police held their annual state of the district meeting last night. Abby attended and reports what went down.

Carpundit is walking home yesterday when he sees a seemingly empty Boston police cruiser in front of DeLuca's. Only it isn't:

... When I got close enough, I saw that the officer was in the car - sound asleep. The window was down, the car running, and he was slumped slightly to the right, head on chest, drooling just a little. This was in broad daylight, at commuter time, in front of a popular market. I went inside to buy my wine (and, I confess, a little goat cheese with garlic and herbs along with some Carr's crackers), chuckling.

When I came out, he was still there. What to do?

Naturally, being a man of action (and a former cop himself), Carpundit springs into action and actually does something (after first cursing himself for not having remembered to bring his digital camera with him).

You can read the entire Stern Commission report on Victoria Snelgrove's death.

Carpundit reads about the report and concludes two factors in particular contributed:

... Robert O'Toole was a hothead who shouldn't have been in that supervisory position that night; and the FN303 is a deadly force weapon that should not be used in crowd control. ...