She's right woman to advance the BPD
Let's try to get past the gender thing.
Yes, Kathleen
O'Toole is the first female police commissioner in
But acclamations about firsts turn into slurs when the allegation is that gender was the reason Mayor Thomas Menino this week picked her for the job. She disagrees. "I feel confident the mayor selected me because of my credentials," she says, and she's almost certainly right.
O'Toole's name
surfaced immediately after Police Commissioner Paul Evans announced he would be
leaving. O'Toole has spent most of her working life in law enforcement. Once a
And in the real world of cops and robbers, it's not O'Toole's gender that matters, but rather this: What kind of commissioner will she make?
One, she hopes, who inspires instead of dictates.
The hallmarks of O'Toole's managerial style are communication, participation and planning. She tries not to come to a problem with preconceptions. Instead, she investigates, involving as many as possible in her decision-making.
In the last few days, she has done just that. At an interview, she quickly ticks off a list of those she has already met with earlier in the day, from officers at the B-2 station to a group of Latino business leaders. This is more than symbolic, she stresses. It's the way she works. "If you can inspire people rather than order them around, an organization can accomplish so much more," she says.
Without
question, the department faces some tough issues: labor relations, public order and community policing. Management and its unions are
at odds, with cops angry that they are without contracts. In the aftermath of
the Super Bowl, a riot near
After she was named commissioner, O'Toole quickly made contact with the aggrieved unions. She has a lot of friends from her days on the force and there is a camaraderie born of experience. "I understand my role as a manager," she says, "but I haven't forgotten where I came from."
She also vows a full investigation into the events surrounding the post-Super Bowl chaos: "I hope we can learn from that terrible tragedy." The department needs to. The upcoming Democratic National Convention, for example, poses genuine security challenges. "We need to plan, plan, plan," O'Toole says. That means developing crisis scenarios in advance that can be executed as needed.
She also emphasizes her support for community policing. She remembers with little affection the days when, as an officer, she would zip from place to place responding to 911 calls. Community policing instead focuses on building relationships with local groups and residents and involving them in the process of peacekeeping. "You need to work at it day in and day out," she says. Yet whether the system is broken, just needs improvement or something else, she's not prepared to say - and for good reason. She means it when she says she wants to hear from others.
There are other issues as well. She plans soon to name her top command staff. Also on the short list for commissioner was James Claiborne, a well-respected captain in the department. Some in the black community are bitterly disappointed, having hoped for the first African-American commissioner. Yet the two of them, O'Toole says, are "close professional friends" and they spoke the day she was appointed. "My hope is that he will play a significant role going forward," she says.
Moreover, the department has been losing personnel. Staffing is down a few hundred from its one-time high, and O'Toole has already heard complaints about a lack of resources. O'Toole has a reputation as someone who can get the resources she needs, but she also underscores the need to operate "more effectively and more efficiently." She may have to. The city is short of money, largely due to state aid cutbacks.
Yet while the challenges are there, the department is fundamentally in good shape. Crime is low, the city is safe and cops have a good relationship with residents. But O'Toole knows she can't rest on those laurels. "Policing," she says, "is always a work in progress."
Talk back to Tom Keane at TomKeane@TomKeane.com.