Police reduce training time so recruits on job earlier

More than 80 recruits now at the Boston Police Academy will hit the streets in late May, about a month earlier than had been planned, because Commissioner Edward F. Davis wants more officers on the streets as soon as possible, officials said yesterday.

Superintendent Robert Harrington, who oversees the department's Bureau of Professional Standards and Development, said police officials were already reviewing ways to tighten the academy's schedule before learning that Davis wanted recruits on the streets immediately.

"It's a convergence of a couple of things: One, the commissioner wants to bring more bodies on the street for summer time," said Harrington. "Months ago we looked at the recruit curriculum, [and] there was some feeling that some of the courses were repetitive."

Harrington said the reduced training time would not affect the safety of officers or the public and will make the academy curriculum more efficient, while also bringing much-needed officers to Boston before summer begins.

He said his staff will continue to review the curriculum , but he expects the academy schedule to be reduced permanently to several weeks less than the 30 weeks it had been.

Harrington said officials are considering how to weave more training into officer's schedules once they graduate from the academy and begin work.

"We're obviously interested in how officers handle themselves in court," Harrington said, citing one example of a nonessential subject cut from the curriculum.

Harrington said that when he graduated from the academy 24 years ago, the program was half as long as it is now.

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