Officer accused of profiling in Gates case taught academy cadets how not to

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Cambridge Police Sergeant James M. Crowley has spent the past five years teaching a class at the Lowell Police Academy to Cambridge and Lowell police cadets about how to avoid racial profiling, according to Thomas Fleming, academy director.

The academy teaches prospective officers from both departments under an agreement.

Fleming said Cambridge's former police commissioner, Ronnie Watson, hand-picked Crowley and another officer, who is black, to jointly teach the class to about 60 cadets each year. The course meets four times a year, for three hours a session.

"He's very well respected," said Fleming, a Lowell police sergeant who has run the academy for 14 years. "He gets a very high evaluation from all the students. In my opinion, he's a good role model for young officers. He's a good cop. That's the type of person you want in a police academy.''

Fleming said it was a "very good assumption" that Watson picked Crowley because he was sensitive to the dangers of racial profiling.