A seasoned commissioner

BOSTON MAYOR Thomas Menino has tapped Lowell Police Superintendent Edward Davis, a law enforcement manager with a national reputation for innovation in neighborhood policing, to lead the Boston Police Department. Now Menino and members of his inner circle need to give Davis the latitude he needs to do the job.

Davis, 50, rose through the ranks of the Lowell Police Department. But he is familiar with Boston's policing challenges through a leadership role in the state's Major City Police Chiefs Association. Former Boston Police commissioners have sought his counsel. But there is significant difference between commanding Lowell's 244-member department and one nearly 10 times that size. The staffing of some police districts in Boston's high-crime neighborhoods is nearly the size of Lowell's entire department. And the police unions in Boston could prove 10 times more difficult at the collective-bargaining table. In Lowell, for example, some detectives do outreach work, as part of their regular shifts, to ex-offenders returning to the community. It's an effective and efficient way to provide job and healthcare information to former inmates. In Boston, however, such a reform could be the stuff of collective-bargaining nightmares.

Davis likes to delegate to members of his command staff, as did former police commissioner Kathleen O'Toole, who left in July after a rocky, 2 1/2-year tenure. Her example showed how hands-off police managers in Boston often find themselves defenseless. O'Toole couldn't decide whom to pick as a second -in-command, which exposed the department to internecine conflicts between commanders of the uniformed force and the investigative bureau. Similar indecision could sink Davis. Menino, a decidedly hands-on mayor, is especially likely to intervene in matters involving the politically muscular police union. The mayor's slowness in approving a civilian review board for the police department was a response, in part, to the police union's resistance.

The Boston police are struggling with spikes in shootings, unimpressive arrest rates, witness intimidation and allegations of drug-related corruption on the part of three officers. Davis looks like a good choice to address such issues. In Lowell, he instituted conversations with minority groups that led to solid cooperation with the police. Davis also specializes in crime-trend analysis and deployment. The dual strategy has worked well in Lowell, where violent crime has fallen by more than 50 percent over his 12-year tenure. It can work in Boston, too, if the new commissioner is given the freedom he needs to lead the department in new directions free of mayoral meddling.