Police lend ear to worried tenants

The notices — which include two pages of rules the officers must follow — follow complaints from a lawyer representing residents who say they have been harassed, even assaulted, by private officers known as “special police officers.’’

“I think it’s a good start,’’ said Lisa H. Thurau, a Cambridge lawyer who has interviewed many residents about special police over the last six years and alerted Boston police. “In the absence of any oversight mechanism, this is the closest tenants will have to an outside, independent review of the situation. It will ensure their safety.’’

Boston’s 268 special police officers are employed by private firms hired by the city to patrol housing developments. Like Boston police officers, they can carry guns, handcuffs, and batons, and have the authority to make arrests or search people they suspect of committing crimes. The Boston Police Department can suspend or revoke their licenses if they violate department rules. The private firm Thurau specifically complained about, Alliance Security Service, denied the allegations.

Residents who feel they have been mistreated by a special police officer can complain to a Boston police supervisor or the Internal Affairs division. But many people living in neighborhoods patrolled by special police do not know that, Thurau said.

Elaine Driscoll, Boston Police spokeswoman, said the department rarely gets complaints about special police officers. But she acknowledged that providing the public more information about the complaint process could change that.

“What we needed to do better was to increase the awareness of the protocol,’’ Driscoll said. “Complaints regarding special officers is not something that we see frequently at all. However it’s important that residents do know what the protocol is in the event that a resident of a development might have an incident or information they would like to bring forward.’’

Boston Police has sent the notices to the department’s 11 district stations so that community service officers can deliver them to tenant boards and management companies, Driscoll said.

Special officers patrol some of the tougher parts of the city, and management company officials say residents largely welcome the extra security.

But other residents said they have run into trouble with some officers. Gloria Lewis, 51, who lives in New Academy Estates in Roxbury, said she called Thurau last summer after her son was arrested for trespassing when he came to visit her.

Lewis said that when a special officer confronted her son, he crossed his arms in front of his chest in an attempt to avoid arrest. She said a special officer then kneed him in the groin. Special police tried to stop him again later that summer when he went to visit her once more, she said.

Lewis said she called the company to complain, but never got a call back. She said she also called a Boston police officer she knew but did not follow up with an official complaint because she did not know she could.

Last fall, she said she decided to run for the tenants’ board so that she could help other residents who felt they had been mistreated. “This is a family complex, not a prison,’’ Lewis said.

Mary Ann Chase, the corporate counsel for Alliance Security Service, a security firm based in Everett, said the company was never notified of Lewis’s complaint and denied there was any abuse by its officers.

She also denied allegations that Thurau described in letters sent to Boston police and the attorney general’s office last fall. In her letter, Thurau detailed residents’ complaints of special officers making false arrests, using pepper spray on a 10-year-old girl, and sexually harassing female teens. Boston police said none of the alleged victims complained to the department.

“None of it is true,’’ Chase said. “We attend meetings at Academy Estates every single month and this is the first I’ve heard of it.’’

Chase said that Alliance officers work hard to gain the trust of the people at Academy Estates.

“We do our own community outreach, we deal with the youth,’’ she said. “Our officers play basketball with the kids.’’

Chase said she believes most people know they can go to Boston police to complain.

Peter Scott, vice president of government and community affairs of Longwood Security, which patrols several housing complexes around Boston, said the process should be made more clear.

“If there is a complaint, we definitely want them to call Boston and call us,’’ Scott said. “It’s good that residents do have recourse.’’

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.