Police union to fight merger

Boston's powerful police union is preparing an assault on the city's plan to fold its Municipal Police Department into the Boston Police Department, with a legal challenge and biting radio ads.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino included the merger in his budget for next year.

He has argued that combining the forces can add much-needed officers to an understaffed force without spending more money.

But Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, says that the move is illegal and could jeopardize public safety by putting unqualified officers on the street.

''These candidates have not achieved the minimum entrance requirements that everyone else in the Boston Police Department has," Nee said. ''I'm certain the public wants the most qualified, competitvely tested individuals on the job.

''If they were of the same standards as Boston police, they would have been hired by now," Nee added.

In the radio ads, to begin airing next week, the union will urge Boston residents to lobby city councilors to block the planned merger. The consolidation is set to go into effect next January, according to officials.

The scheduled radio ads disparagingly refer to the Municipal Police officers, whose jurisdiction currently extends to city buildings and parks, as ''building security guards."

''Today political patronage is threatening the safety of our community," says the announcer, in a draft of the ad that will air on AM stations WILD, WRKO, and WBZ.

''The municipal building security guards are attempting to circumvent civil service and become Boston police officers. They have been afforded the same opportunities as every other citizens, but have failed to meet the standards. They now are attempting the political back door."

On Tuesday, lawyers for the police union filed with the state Civil Service Commission a ''motion to intervene" in the city's request to declare 23 municipal officers permanent civil service employees.

The city's request, if granted, would pave the way for the municipal officers to be placed in the Boston Police Department without passing the state civil service exam, which is required of Police Department officers.

Municipal Police officers were not required to take the exam. The union argues that any effort to transfer the municipal officers into the department would violate state law requiring all employees in civil service jobs to be hired based on their exam performance.

''There was always only one way to become a Boston police officer: score high enough on the test, pass the background check, and go through the 29-week academy," said Bryan Decker, a police union lawyer. ''Everyone at the Boston Police Department did that, including the commissioner. For the first time, people who haven't met these standards will be offered the job and get in through the back door."

Forty-six Municipal Police officers had been declared civil service employees by a separate commission ruling in 1999. The Boston police union is also disputing the validity of that ruling.

Mark McKeown, president of the Boston Municipal Police Patrolmen's Association, said his members are as qualified as regular police officers. He pointed out that many Municipal Police officers at some point applied to be Boston Police Department officers and took the exam as part of the application process.

''Every officer has taken the civil service exam," McKeown said. ''They've all scored well, but for different reasons weren't hired. We have veterans and people who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. They work in the same exact city, under the rules and regulations of the Boston Police Department. They carry a gun and a badge for the city of Boston."

He called the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association campaign to kill the merger a waste of money. ''If their priority is to bash another union, I think their priorities are a little misplaced," he said. ''It's pretty sad when a fellow union viciously attacks another union."

The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association should support the merger, he said, because the new police officers would be dues-paying members of the association and because the addition of new officers would lighten the workload of current officers.

Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole supports the proposed merger, according to her spokeswoman, Elaine Driscoll.

City officials said they filed papers last week with the Civil Service Commission to clarify the status of Municipal Police officers, not necessarily to begin the merger process.

''All parties here need to get some clear direction from the Civil Service Commission about the status of this work force," said John Dunlap, the city's director of labor relations.

Dunlap said that only some of the city's 69 Municipal Police officers will probably transfer to the Boston Police Department. Some may choose not to apply because they are near retirement or live outside the city and would have to move to Boston to comply with the city's residency requirement.