Davis will add more homicide detectives

Offering the first details of his vision for the Boston Police Department as it confronts a wave of violent crime, new Commissioner Edward F. Davis said he will substantially increase the size of the homicide unit, make it more racially diverse, and reduce detectives' other duties in a bid to solve more slayings.

"It will substantially increase our resources in response to a homicide scene," Davis said in an interview with Globe, previewing plans that he will further detail in the coming days. "We've really focused our attention on homicides and shootings. This is a step in that direction."

Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the commissioner plans to bolster the current pool of 22 homicide detectives by at least 25 percent.

Davis said he hopes the changes will improve the department's clearance rate, the proportion of cases in which suspects are identified and arrested the same year as the homicide.

The unit cleared 38 percent of the 74 homicides last year and 29 percent of the 75 committed in 2005, when Boston hit a 10-year high . Those rates are far lower than the 70 percent cleared in 2002. According to the FBI, about 62 percent of homicide cases nationwide were cleared in 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available.

Community leaders say the low clearance rate has fostered a culture of lawlessness in which unsolved slayings breed more slayings as killers see they can literally get away with murder.

"We need results," said the Rev. Miniard Culpepper , a Dorchester minister who fasted after one of his parishioners, Jahmol Norfleet , was gunned down Nov. 28. Norfleet, a former gang leader, helped preserve a truce between gangs.

"When you don't see the consequences for yourself or anyone you know, you just go and do it again," Culpepper said.

Police have arrested a 19-year-old Everett man who they say had two guns in his car linked to Norfleet's shooting, but no one has been charged with the killing.

Davis said he will make the homicide unit -- now comprising 15 white detectives, six of whom are black and one of whom is Hispanic -- more diverse because more minority detectives will increase trust in the Police Department and help solve cases.

The commissioner is also freeing homicide detectives from other duties so they can focus on solving cases. Now, they also respond to arsons and unattended deaths, and are responsible for complex and time-consuming investigations when a police officer is involved in a shooting. Davis said he will shift those assignments to other officers and will also increase the help district detectives provide homicide investigators.

"Our aim is . . . to better focus the investigators' caseloads on homicides," Davis said.

The new commissioner, who has vowed to increase community policing in Boston, also outlined other changes on his agenda, including:

Overhauling training for recruits, officers, and commanders, including having them listen to residents who have been victims of police harassment.

Raising more money from the business community to better fund and advertise the department's anonymous crime tips hotline.

Ordering all members of the command staff to patrol in districts on Fridays to improve communication between management and beat cops.

Increasing the presence of motorcycle, bicycle, and other high-visibility patrols in neighborhoods plagued by gun violence.

Davis said he is experimenting with that strategy in the Bowdoin Street and Geneva Avenue area of Dorchester, where Jason Fernandes , 14, was slain on New Year's Day, a killing that remains unsolved.

"If the numbers drop there, then we're going to apply it to other hot spot areas in the community," Davis said.

A source familiar with the commissioner's agenda said Davis plans to make a department-wide announcement supporting the gang truce, signed last summer between the H-Block gang in Roxbury and the rival Heath Street gang in Jamaica Plain, and encouraging more agreements like it.

A police official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans have not been publicly announced said the commissioner also intends to increase oversight of district captains by having them report to deputy superintendents who will be responsible for parts of the city.

Davis, 50, has been to at least six community meetings since taking over last month after 12 years as the top cop in Lowell.

At a meeting with South End residents on Wednesday, Davis told them that he is considering whether to assign gang unit officers to public housing developments so they can build relationships with residents while also increasing enforcement.

The commissioner also said he will boost patrols in the area around Jackson Square and Bromley-Heath, especially in the evening hours when children are riding the bus home, in response to the unsolved slaying of 13-year-old Luis Gerena on Jan. 12.

At the meeting, Davis was confronted by a young man who grew up in the Villa Victoria housing development. Calvin Feliciano, director of constituent services for City Councilor Felix D. Arroyo , told Davis he was routinely harassed by police as a teenager. Feliciano said he was stopped by police as many as eight times a day.

"Our parents would come out crying because they'd want to know why their kids have their pants down and a police officer is searching them while they were just walking down the street because they fit some kind of description," Feliciano told Davis in front of a crowd of about 100.

Davis responded by inviting Feliciano to talk to recruits at the police academy and by giving residents his phone number so they can call him directly if they experience such harassment.

Davis said he would not rest until he changes the department's culture so that it fully embraces community policing, with every officer making an effort to get to know residents.

"It's gonna take time to retool an organization of 2,100 people," Davis said in the interview. "You have to give us a chance."

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.