By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

BPD Captain Pervis Ryans Jr., who heads the department's 911 call center, appeared before a meeting of the Meetinghouse Hill Civic Association last week to address concerns that officers were not following up on 911 calls made by neighborhood residents, and even claims that 911 calls were going unanswered.

Ryans addressed one specific instance in which a call from a neighborhood resident went unanswered for many rings, causing the person to hang up in frustration. According to Ryans, who reviewed tapes of the incident, the operator called back 10 minutes later and was rude to the caller. He assured attendees of the Thursday night meeting that operator had been disciplined.

"That's an anomaly. The goal is to pick up calls within 8 to 10 seconds," said Ryan.

During a tour of the department's 911 call center at BPD headquarters on Monday morning, Ryans said his operators meet that mark about 90 percent of the time. In instances when every BPD 911 operator is occupied &endash; at least 10 operators have to be staffed at any given time &endash; calls are bounced to the Boston Fire Department.

The process by which calls reach the department can also be confusing. While calls from a land-line go directly to the call center at police headquarters, cell phone calls are routed to the State Police barracks in Framingham, then directed back to a dispatcher at BPD headquarters. The BPD call center logs roughly 580,000 calls a year, said Ryans, 23 percent of them re-directed from cell phones by the State Police. It is possible to reach the city's 911 center from a cell phone by dialing 617-343-4911.

While Ryan insisted that the circumstances that led to a call going unanswered were an exception, he admitted that it is routine for low-priority calls to go without a response from district officers during high-traffic periods.

"Sometimes, between 11:45 p.m. and 12:15 a.m., which is right on a shift change for our operators and also a busy period in the districts, there can be a back-up," said Ryans. "We answer all emergency calls that come in, and life and property take top priority."

Calls involving a threat to life are designated "priority one," loss of property "priority two." Beyond that, it is likely that officers will be otherwise occupied and unable to respond during busy periods like late weekend nights.

"Ten years ago, officers at C-11 were free from responding to calls about 50 percent of the time on their shift," Captain John Greland, commander of Dorchester's district C-11, explained at the civic meeting. "Now that's down to about 30 percent."

Civic groups form sub-committees to help police focus response

In the aftermath of a contentious meeting of the Cedar Grove Civic Association on October 12, residents and officials assembled a subcommittee to address constructively address community concerns. A meeting between Capt. Greland, Superintendent Robert Dunford, and community leaders produced a formula of directed patrols to deal with the threat of armed robberies, the teenagers loitering at neighborhood parks, and drug activity that has been pushed from the McDonald's parking lot onto residential streets.

"We came up with six key locations in need of more attention, and [Greland] put patrols in those areas," said Ellen Wyse, a St. Brendan's resident and former BPD community service officer who chaired the sub-committee with Craig Galvin.

"You're not going to accomplish much at a huge meeting with too many ingredients in the mix. When you get down to a small group, you can get people on the same page."

Greland agreed that the committees are a good way to help him direct the district's limited manpower.

"A lot of people vent, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when we try to nail down a specific problem at a specific time, we can make progress," said Greland.

At a meeting in Meetinghouse Hill, Greland suggested the group organize a similar subcommittee to deal with their own crime concerns and provide him with a list of locations and times most in need of more attention.

"We're going to have people write down their concerns, so that the police can speak directly to specific issues," said Michael Pratt, treasurer of the association. 'It's important that we get more people around here involved, that they have a chance to take part in the process."

Dissolution of Municipal Police Department means more work for district cops

Neighbors who live within sight of Ronan Park have appealed to Captain Greland to take care of mounting safety concerns at the park, which has a history of unsettling criminal activity. Greland agreed last week to send a directed patrol past the park in the evening hours, but emphasized that the park is supposedly monitored by officers from the Municipal Police department.

The 64 officers of the Municipal Police Department, a city agency directed by Mike Galvin, Boston's Chief of Public Property, patrol property owned by the city of Boston, such as community centers and public parks. However, their jurisdiction is limited to city-owned property; they do not have the authority to cross onto private property to pursue suspects or make an arrest.

"[The municipal police] have assured me that they will be watching the park, but you have to remember that they will be gone in January, and we will essentially be picking up their extra work," said Greland.

Effective January 1, the Municipal Police force will be dissolved and officers will be offered a lateral transfer into the BPD in a move designed to increase crime prevention efficiency for city residents.

"It means that Boston Police officers are going to have to pay more attention to the quality of life stuff in our parks, in our community centers," said Boston Police Deputy Daniel Linsky. The fireworks, kids drinking in park &endash; these are minor problems to most but if we don't deal with them, big problems come out of it."

Linsky said that each officer who accepts the transfer will be required to attend a 8 to10 week course to catch them up to speed with BPD procedure.