Becoming a Boston Police Officer

Becoming a police officer in Massachusetts is mostly the same in every city and town. In this post I will be talking about how to become a Boston Police officer. This is a tough job that has strict requirements when accepting new recruits.

Not every step of becoming a boston police officer is very difficult but they are very strict and everyone of them includes multiple requirements. Step one involves the requirements to be accepted into the academy. The most important thing is you must be a United States Citizen by birth or be naturalized. The next requirement is that you must be 21 years or older. There is no requirement for higher education because you need a High school diploma, GED, or be in the armed forces for at least three years. Higher education may not be a requirement but it does help with pay because with higher education comes more hourly and annual pay. In order to be a police officer you must be able to drive therefor you must have a valid massachusetts driver's license. A requirement that only Boston and certain other cities in mass use is that you must live in Boston or any other cities that use it up to a year before your civil service exam.

Step two according to (LawEnforcementEDU) is that you must pass the Police Civil Service Exam. This is needed for all towns and cities for becoming a police officer. It costs 100 dollars. The Civil Service Exam involves three parts the written abilities test, life experience survey, and the work styles questionnaire. The written abilities test is used to evaluate your reading comprehension, oral communication skills, reasoning, and ordering information. The life experience survey is a multiple choice test about your history and how it relates to you becoming a Boston police officer. The work styles questionnaire evaluates your character as a person, motivation, and values of becoming a Boston police officer.

(LawEnforcementEDU) says that step three is a much longer process. Once your are called up you will attend the orientation and given an application packet that is extremely long. In order to become a police officer there will be a background check done by an investigator. All of your references and people in your history will be called and checked up on. There will also be a house visit to make sure that you live and boston and to check out your living conditions.

The Next step is a Physical fitness, psychological, medical, and drug test. You must be tested on your mental health, your overall health, and whether or not you do drugs. The biggest part of this test is the PAT or (Physical Ability Test).You must complete an obstacle course in 130.4 seconds or less, squeeze a trigger with both hands in less than 7 seconds, drag a dummy a certain distance in 11 seconds, and separate two people in 14.2 seconds or less. Sounds easier than it is i’m sure.

Boston is such a large city so they have their own police academy. This is the next step where you go through 6 weeks of multiple different courses on how to be a police officer. Once you graduate you will be sworn as a Boston Police Officer.  

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4IsElBICi4

Sources:

EDU, L. E. (n.d.). Becoming a Police Officer in Boston, Massachusetts. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://www.lawenforcementedu.net/massachusetts/boston/

B. (2015). Boston Police Academy graduation ceremony. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4IsElBICi4

Reformative Justice

Policing is not all about Arresting people and putting them in jail. Police are not out there to ruin someone's future. There are plenty of different types of justice that do not leave a mark on your record and can put you on a path to a bright future. One of these different types of justice is called Restorative Justice. This form of justice takes Minor non violent offenders such as Vandalism, minor theft, and other charges that most young kids will commit and gives them a second chance. It is mostly used on young children and older juveniles to fix the damages they caused by committing these minor crimes. This is not something that can be used on a violent offender such as assault, rape, or murder because those things are not typically mistakes. The only violent offense that can really be put in restorative justice is minor assault such as two kids getting into a fight which now is such a terrible thing.

According to Officer Greg Ruprecht restorative justice can take up to several months. It starts by the offender or offenders admitting to what they did wrong. Without this step restorative justice will not happen because it is a kind of healing process and if you do not believe you did something wrong then it will not work. You take everyone involved like the offender, victim, parents of both victim and offender, and anyone else involved in the offense. Everyone sits down and talks about what happened and discuss what happened and the pain that was caused. After this is done they discuss what can be done to make up for this. This is a lot more effective with victims than someone going to jail. With this maybe the offender can work for the victim, help them with yard work, do some housework for them, do food shopping for them, anything to help make up for the pain or damage they had caused. This allows closure where someone going to jail and not getting better does not allow closure. With restorative justice there is a very high chance that the offender will not reoffend but in jail, prison, or probation the offender is not really treated like a human and reoffending is common.

Ruprecht had an event happen to him that changed his whole picture of Restorative Justice. He was working the night shift because he was a knew police officer. Around 8 young kids between 10- 13 years old had broken into an abandoned chemical factory. Just stupid kids doing stupid stuff we have all done it. But he went in with his dog and the kids ran. They ended up in a field and the kids were hiding. Officer greg had his gun drawn and the dog ready to go before the kids came out of hiding. He then realized that he could have seriously hurt these kids and he didn't want to ruin their futures. This is when he decided to turn to restorative justice but he was still skeptical until he had gone through it and realized it is a useful tool in policing. He since then has used it in multiple cases and even adult cases and can see that it is very successful.

This form of justice gives people a chance to change their lives and also educates some police officers on better ways to do their jobs. They are their to help not just put us in jail or fine us.

Video:

http://posi-party.org/articles/rowan-university-criminal-justice-program-2305104.html

Sources:

Rowan university criminal justice program Videos. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://posi-party.org/articles/rowan-university-criminal-justice-program-2305104.html

About Restorative Justice. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://restorativejustice.org/restorative-justice/about-restorative-justice/

Boston Police Beginnings

The Boston police department is the oldest in our country and has changed a lot over the years. In this post i will talk about the origin of the department through a few events that will lead us to the year 1919.

According to the Boston Police Department website the first form of police was established in 1631. This was a group of men known as the watch. The men would walk around Boston at night keeping people safe from different threats. The watch was under the control of the town meeting by 1636. Watchmen would carry a “Bill and Hook” which was a 6ft tool with a hook on one side and a club like part on the other. The hook was used to grab fleeing criminals and the club side was used for protection. In the early 1800’s the city approved a police force of six men run by a “city Marshal” but this did not mean that the watch was gone. The watch continued to run at night until 1854 when the Boston Police Department was officially Established. This was the first department in the nation. Since the city had grown since the first watch was created there were 250 officers on the first police force. The men were payed 2 dollars for every shift done and worked there own “beat” or route in which they walked daily patrolling the city. The Department did not have their first death until 3 years after their establishment.

According to “Michael Mcphee” of the boston herald the first Boston police officer to die in the line of duty was Ezekiel W. Hodsdon. He was on his normal beat keeping an extra look out for burglars who were robbing people in his east Boston area. The man who killed him was named William McNulty, a local tough guy known to have a gun. Being 1857 police did not carry firearms. All Ezekiel had to defend himself was a 14 inch club and that isn’t going to do much against a gun at point blank range. Guns at the time were not very accurate but any gun shot at a close enough range can’t really miss. According to “Find a Grave” Hodsdon was arresting one man for the burglaries but was approached from behind by another,who was later identified as William McNulty, and was shot point blank in the back of the head and the two men fled. End Of Watch was recorded on October 7, 1857. Mcnulty was convicted for the murder but later pardoned by officials.

The Boston police department was the first ever police department in our nation. It was started to protect citizens from the dangers in this world. These men were respected and people like that they had someone to protect them. Like many departments we know that through the years they have had corruption but what job has not? Today we dishonor our police officers by thinking they are all bad. Use Ezekiel's death to prove that not all officers are bad. Most are out there to protect us and some give all they have to keep us safe. Ezekiel left behind a newborn child and wife to stop two bad men and he was killed for it.

Sources:

Police Department, B. (n.d.). History of the BPD. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://bpdnews.com/history/

Mcphee, M. (2013, August 13). A cop’s sacrifice is remembered...150 years later. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2007/08/cop’s_sacrifice_remembered150_years_later

Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr

BPD Officer John Moynihan Shot in the Face on a Routine Traffic Stop

Officer John Moynihan Boston Police Department 

Angelo West "41 year old shooter"

Officer John Moynihan was a highly decorated Army Ranger who served in Iraq. He was part of the Boston youth violence task force and was a hero during the Boston bombing crisis. He had helped transit police officer Richard Donahue when he had been shot during the gun battle with the Tsarnaev brothers. He was honored in Washington D.C. by the National Associations of Police Organizations for his bravery. They awarded him one of the Top Cop awards. On March 27, 2015 John Moynihan and other police officers in unmarked vehicles with blue flashing lights pulled over a vehicle at 6:40 P.m. that Angelo west, a 41 year old convicted felon, was driving. There were reports of gunshots in the area and these officers were investigating. As Moynihan approached the vehicle and opened the the driver side door West flew out shooting Moynihan point blank below his right eye with a .357 magnum. West continued to fire at police as he ran and the officers who were interviewing the two passengers of the car opened fire on west killing him. West had been convicted on gun charges before and according to the law should not have been able to posses a gun in which case the gun he used on officer Moynihan was an illegally obtained firearm. Moynihan survived the gunshot and was taken to the hospital where he was put in a medically induced coma. He was not the only one hit in the shooting. A woman driving by was also hit but only suffered a minor flesh wound and recovered well.

Moynihan as honorary captain at New England Patriots game "Moynihan is center number 12

On Sunday the 29th of march Officer Moynihan was brought into surgery. The bullet entered below his right eye and was lodged below his right ear around the neck. He was in surgery for several hours to remove the bullet but was said it be in stable condition the whole time and the surgery was a success. Two months after the surgery he had just finished what he had hoped to be his last surgery. This one was to transplant different nerves from his foot, calf, and left side of his face to the spots that the bullet damaged on the right. Due to his injuries the right side of his face was partially paralyzed but not permanently. Moynihan had high hopes and was quoted saying “I’m feeling OK, kind of one day at a time,” he said. “It’s a slow, gradual process, but I’m happy, and the doctors are happy.” He was very thankful for the officers that took control of the situation and take down the threat saving his life. He was honored at the patriots game depicted in the picture above as an honorary captain. He had also been honored at a bruins game as well. Although he went down him and the men and women he worked with that day are heroes and this reminds us that the job they do protecting us is not a safe job and some people are out there to hurt them. Not all police officers are bad people, a great majority are good people out there just trying to make the world better.

Click here for video of shooting:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/04/10/boston-authorities-release-video-police-officer-being-shot/G5Zm6wfNmI7cKQE6qH4YmM/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article

Sources:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/30/wounded-boston-police-officer-john-moynihan-says-road-recovery/MJZIPMEIuWXdueGFrG0VHL/story.html

http://www.wcvb.com/news/decorated-boston-cop-john-moynihan-in-coma-after-being-shot/32074096

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/04/11/boston-police-officer-injured-in-shooting-released-from-hospital

http://southbostontoday.com/bpd-officer-john-moynihan-expected-to-make-a-full-recovery/