Pete Stidman

JAMAICA PLAIN GAZETTE

“I’m still getting the furniture set up in here,” said Police Captain James M. Claiborne of his new office inside the E-13 precinct station. His arrival a week before was unexpected, a demotion from the rank of Superintendent of the Bureau of Field Services for the Boston Police Department, but he accepted his new assignment with enthusiasm.

“I like JP. It has a lot in common with the South End where I first started as a patrol officer,” said Claiborne. “There’s a substantial gay and lesbian population, a substantial Latino population, and a wide range of socio-economic status. There are highly dedicated people in JP, passionate about their community.”

Having been in the station for only one week, he said he does not have specific plans for changes at E-13, although a round of promotions has opened up positions in the station that he will appoint officers to after conferring with his staff. He describes himself as a proponent of community policing, the practice of keeping officers on the same beat so they can become familiar with community members.

A pencil sketch drawn by his wife sits on a bookshelf in his office, waiting for a nail to hang from. It shows the head of the late pit bull terrier he called Hog, a former family pet, grafted onto Claiborne’s shoulders.

Claiborne describes the symbolism behind the image as merely “my wife’s creativity,” but the image is telling for a man who is not fazed by adversity. He has risen through the ranks twice to become the Superintendent of Field Services, essentially overseeing all police operations in the field, and was favored by rank-and-file officers to become police commissioner in 2004.

His latest downgrade came this month as a result of an Internal investigation into the death of journalism student Victoria Snelgrove after game 7 of the American League Championship Series in 2004. Snelgrove was shot in the eye with a FN 303 Pepperball gun as police tried to subdue an unruly crowd. Snelgrove was an innocent bystander.

Officially the Bureau of Internal Investigations judged Claiborne for “failure to designate an operations section chief in an operational plan,” and “failure to create an operational plan that had objectives, strategy or tactics.”

The plan that Claiborne did issue shortly before game 7 of the ALCS series did not specifically mention any particular methods of crowd control or weapon use. Instead it focused on assigning personnel to potential trouble spots and identifying the chain of command.

When investigators asked Deputy Superintendent Robert O’Toole, the commander of the squad on the ground on Lansdowne Street that night, if there were any written BPD policies relative to the use or training of chemical munitions, he replied, “absolutely not.”

O’Toole (no relation to Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole) did not confer with Claiborne or the Unified Central Command (UCC) in the decision to deploy the FN303. He told investigators from the District Attorney’s office that “communications [became] damn near impossible” due the noise created by record crowds on Landsdowne Street next to Fenway Park.

Claiborne’s lawyer, Alan McDonald, issued a statement Sept. 16 that criticized the fact that during “external investigations” Claiborne was never “fairly heard,” also stating that Claiborne “must respectfully disagree” with the demotion.

Claiborne himself would not comment on the matter. Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole could not be reached for comment.

Sitting calmly in an office still free of the paper reports and other clutter associated with running a police station, Claiborne recounted his rise from a patrolman in the South End in the late 70’s to the Superintendent of the Bureau of Field Services, twice.

“When I joined the force as a patrol officer in 1979 my partner and I were the third and fourth African-American officers to be assigned to the district,” said Claiborne. “A lot has changed since then.”

In 1986 he was promoted to Sergeant and Deputy Superintendent that same year. In 1993 he became the Superintendent of Field Services for the first time and held the job until February of 2000. He was demoted to his civil service rank of Captain and assigned to become commander of the East Boston Precinct.

While at East Boston he worked to improve communication and trust between officers and a majority Spanish-speaking community. The number of Spanish-speaking officers grew from two to 17 out of around 80 officers during his tenure, said Claiborne.

“People coming from Latin America are used to systems where the lines between police and the army are not as strong as they are here,” said Claiborne. “We had to impress upon them that we were not integrated with the Immigration department, that we were here to improve their ability to travel the streets safely and other things. In order to get that message out we had to speak their language.”

In 2004 Kathleen O’Toole promoted Claiborne to Superintendent of the Bureau of Field Services, and in February of this year he was temporarily transferred to head up the Police Academy before arriving at E-13 this month.

Claiborne hopes to bring the same focus on building communication and trust he established in East Boston to JP.

“I have an open door policy,” said Claiborne. “I believe that the more people who are involved, the better the resolution. I invite people to come and tell me their concerns. Police officers, business owners, community members, anybody.”