By Jim O'Sullivan

Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans's announcement Monday that he would leave his post in November to assume a supervisory role in Britain marked the end of a nine-year tenure that witnessed dramatic drops in crime rates, and opened a key vacancy in the Menino Administration.

Evans's decision, made public at a City Hall press conference with Mayor Thomas M. Menino, triggered praise of the South Boston man's 33-year career in the department, and speculation about who will succeed him as the city prepares for the Democratic National Convention next summer, and grapples with patrolmen's union negotiations.

Menino said Monday that a search committee chaired by former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd will seek a commissioner by the time Evans departs in November who will be sensitive to the "diversity" of the city. With the 2000 census reflecting a "majority-minority" Boston population, many speculated that Menino would look to make a high-profile minority hire.

"Definitely an African-American should be commissioner &emdash; or [another] minority," said Rodney Dailey, a local anti-gang activist. "There's a tremendous amount of qualified, star-wearing African-Americans in the police department."

"I think the mayor has an opportunity to make a very strong statement," said Minister Don Muhammad, a leading Muslim leader in Grove Hall. Muhammad said that because Boston "has had a very terrible reputation, and sometimes unwarranted" regarding racial equality, the hiring of a black commissioner "would send shock waves across this country."

"I think it's an excellent opportunity to have someone who would be African-American. It would do the city well to take a qualified candidate and one who would be African-American, in my opinion," Muhammad said.

"I think the fact that the city has a majority of people of color should always be considered," said Dorchester City Councillor Charles Yancey. "I don't think that should the only criteria, of course, but it should be seriously considered."

City Councillor-at-Large Steve Murphy, chairman of the public safety committee, said pressure to hire a minority was increased Tuesday by a front-page Boston Herald story headlined "Minority boss eyed as Evans heads for England."

"I'm not so sure that's the best thing, because I think we're precluding other candidates who are non-minority," Murphy said, adding that the ultimate decision would fall to Menino, and calling that "a singular decision by a singular man."

"I think it's important to have a good commissioner no matter their color," Murphy said.

Murphy proposed several names of candidates for the post, including former Area C-11 Captain and current convention Superintendent Robert Dunford, Superintendent for Special Operations Paul Joyce, former state secretary of public safety Kathleen O'Toole, East Boston Captain James Claiborne, MBTA Chief Joseph Carter, and Superintendent-in-Chief James Hussey.

Of that list, Dunford, Joyce, O'Toole, and Hussey are white, while Claiborne and Carter are black.

Dunford offered no comment Tuesday when asked if he would consider the post, and said that whoever accepts the role will find in place an experienced and capable command staff that will help ease transition.

Dunford's successor in Dorchester, C-11 Capt. Thomas Lee, called Dunford "certainly well-qualified," and said Dunford's current job as head of convention security would benefit him if he ascended to the top spot.

Carter, dubbed by Muhammad and Dailey as the best candidate said Tuesday, "Today, I have no interest of leaving [the MBTA position]. I just came to it this year, and I'm proud of this department and the progress we've made."

Pressed about his hopes for the future, Carter replied, "We'll see what tomorrow offers."

The 54-year-old Evans said he would take the reins of the Home Office's Police Standards Unit in November. The new job will give Evans oversight of the unit's "work programme to help deliver on the Government's police reform agenda and raise standards in policing across England and Wales," according to a statement from London.

Murphy credited Evans with "implementing the grand vision of others," working with community groups and other government agencies to drag the city out of the crime-addled late-1980s and early-1990s.

"It went to, I think, historic levels of cooperation and sharing of information under Paul Evans," Murphy said. "there was just so much outreach and so many resources marshaled on the same page."

"I've grown to respect him over the years," Yancey said, calling Evans "a stabilizing force in the police department and the mayor's administration."

Menino called his appointment of Evans in 1993 "one of my best decisions I've ever made."

"He cares about our city and, more importantly, he cares about the people who call this city their home," Menino said.

Evans's regime oversaw a five percent drop in violent crime, a 30 percent drop in murders.

Evans called his time as commissioner "the single greatest achievement of my career," and credited the commanders and patrolman beneath him who, he said, "made me look good."

"I think it's just time for a change for me," Evans said.

"We're going to miss him," Lee said of Evans, calling him the "number-one community policing commissioner we've had here," and praising his outgoing boss's outreach to clergy, probation officers, and neighborhood leaders.

"It'll be a tough act to follow," Lee said, adding that it was "too early to say" what impact Evans's departure would have on the operations in Area C-11.