Sgt. John Burns: Fields Corner civic leaders presented the longtime C-11 officer with a small gift on Tuesday.After 22 years as a fixture in Dorchester, Boston Police Sgt. John Burns, is getting ready to retire from the department this spring. And the neighborhood’s array of civic associations are taking a moment to salute the longest serving sergeant on Area C-11.

“We’re losing an icon of the Boston Police Department,” Captain Tim Connolly said at a Codman Square Neighborhood Council meeting on March 1. Burns was also honored at Tuesday’s gathering of the Fields Corner Civic Association.

Burns, 64, spent decades working as a patrol officer and later as a community service officer, Connolly said.

Born in Georgia in 1952, Burns was a firefighter before he joined the Boston Police department. At 31, he was appointed to the force, leaving the police academy assigned to area E, where he served from 1986 to 1989. He moved into team policing until 1993, then served in area B for the next two years.

After making sergeant in 1995, Burns was posted at area C-11, where he remained for more than two decades. He retires March 31, with just under two weeks of working days remaining.

“All I want to say is I’m blessed,” Burns said at the Codman Square meeting, thanking the previous commanders he served under. “It’s a great team here and I appreciate everybody.”

Burns has a bachelor’s degree in childhood education, which Connolly said has been apparent in his work as a community service officer.

“He’s able to engage with and relate to the kids at C-11,” Connolly told the Reporter, “and generations of children know him. Generations of adults know him.”

To have a sergeant with a profound understanding of the district was “invaluable” as he started his new post last year, Connolly said.

“He knew every leader of every civic association and beyond,” Connolly said. “He knew 98 percent of all convenience store owners, and he had a story about each one. He related to all of them in some way... He introduced me to Dorchester.”

It will be a loss for C-11, he said, and they are working to bring in their new community service officer, Sean Smith.

Burns’ compassion to all has been an enduring and priceless quality, Connolly said.

“He has the ability to talk to anybody, whether you are homeless person or a doctor,” the captain said. “He can relate to anybody; he’ll find out all about them, appreciate them and find value in them. I’ve seen homeless people kiss his hand; just seen amazing things because of the way he treats people. He cares about the people in the community.”

Burns and his wife, Mary, are devoted to their children and grandchildren, and Connolly said he thinks a conversation Burns had with his granddaughter best describes the congenial sergeant -- Burns asked his granddaughter if she wanted to be a police officer, to which she responded, “I don’t think so, Poppy.”
Why not, he wondered, since he was one?

Sure, she said, “But you’re not an ordinary police officer.”