Boston to Use Police From Other Cities
The Police Department plans to exchange officers with departments around the nation to bring in people with accents and foreign-language skills who can help ferret out crime, officials said Wednesday.
“It’s going to make everybody’s lives a little more interesting, the criminals and the police,” said Supt. John A. Gifford, chief of the Bureau of Investigative Services.
Gifford said he is looking for unfamiliar faces to help the 1,900-member department crack groups involved in drugs, stolen cars, fencing stolen property and other crimes.
“People generally know who your most aggressive and active officers are,” Gifford said. “Sometimes that Southern drawl can get you anywhere.”
Gifford said the exchanges, which probably will begin by early December, would be on a one-for-one basis, with departments paying their own officers while they work away from home.
He said imported officers would not need arrest powers in Boston because their chief value would be in developing information leading to arrests.
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