Big-city incentive leaves local police forces short
Boston's strategy of luring police hires from suburban departments has left a dozen area communities scrambling to fill positions. The exodus occurs at a time when towns are already short-staffed and facing budget problems.
"Any time you have a loss of an officer, you feel its ripple effect," said Walpole Deputy Police Chief Scott Bushway.
Of the 54 officers who joined Boston's police academy two weeks ago, at least 19 were from cities and towns south of Boston.
Bushway and several police chiefs from throughout the region said Boston hand picked some of the area's best officers and offered them jobs. Most local chiefs felt they could not in good conscience thwart the officers' ambitions to work for a big-city department, so they approved the transfers, knowing it would leave them short of staff during the summer, when crime typically goes up. The remaining officers have been forced to work overtime to close the gap.
"Any time we're down staff, it will impact the operations of the department," said Cohasset Police Chief James Hussey.
Among the towns losing officers in Boston's hiring sweep are Abington, Cohasset, Dedham, Easton, Hingham, Hull, Milton, Norwell, Norwood, Quincy, Randolph, and Walpole.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis used the officer transfer process, said to be the biggest in state history, as a way to quickly put officers in some of Boston's most violent neighborhoods without having to spend the time hiring and training new officers. The only requirement for the officers transferring to Boston is that they live in the city.
Two of those officers were from Randolph, where the need for skilled police rivals that of Boston. Randolph's murder rate is the highest it has been in more than a decade. Less than a month ago, two people were killed there in one week. In the last three years, there have been four murders. In contrast, there were only three murders in town from 1992 to 2005.
Boston recruited the top officers in the area, say chiefs who lost staff. In Randolph, that meant losing one who was on the SWAT team and on the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council, a regional consortium. It also meant the loss of the town's top training officer.
"These guys were premium," said Randolph's chief, Paul Porter. "They're taking the cream of the crop."
Police chiefs said it could take a year to fill the positions. New officers must be recruited from a civil-service list, and then the chiefs must conduct background checks, hire the officers, and train them.
The chiefs said they are considering transferring in officers from even smaller communities -- similar to what Boston has done -- to avoid the training and recruiting expenses. But they acknowledge the irony of doing so.
"It's the big fish eating the littler fish, because I'm going to do the same thing," said Porter. "We have to provide street protection -- power on the street, officers on the street."
Milton lost three officers to Boston. In addition, two officers recently left the department for jobs in other fields of law enforcement, and then took the Boston job.
Acting Milton Police Chief Paul T. Nolan said his department's staffing level, at 46 officers, is at the lowest level in his 27 years on the force. A fully staffed department would have 55 officers. Small towns can't compete when officers want to go to the big city, he said. "The problem for a South Shore chief is good guys but small opportunities."
Norwood and Abington each lost two police officers during the transfer process, as did Hingham.
In Easton, the loss of one officer strained a department that already had limited resources.
"We have difficulty in town," Easton Police Chief Thomas Kominsky said. He said his town's problems can't compare to Boston, "but we have our share for a suburban community.
"And when we lose an officer like that, it's a hit."
Milton Valencia can be reached at valencia@globe.com. 
