Baston named BPD superintendent; will lead new engagement bureau

Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Nora Baston, left, greeted schoolchildren outside Saint John Paul II Academy’s Columbia Road campus last Friday.
BPD News photo

A new bureau within the Boston Police Department has been created to focus on community engagement and a newly promoted superintendent — Nora Baston — has been named to head it up. Mayor Martin Walsh and Commissioner William Gross made the announcement on Monday.

The Bureau of Community Engagement will be charged with “overseeing a citywide effort to further strengthen community policing in Boston, and will focus on ways to build relationships and trust between law enforcement and residents, create new and innovative partnerships, and promote inclusion and diversity within the department.”

Walsh said Baston will be charged with “ensuring that every district has a dedicated and robust community policing effort, concentrating on building relationships where they don’t exist and strengthening ties with the community.”

“There is no better person to lead this effort than Superintendent Nora Baston, who has shown throughout her career her commitment to the people of Boston,” Walsh said.

Baston is a 22-year veteran of the BPD and has policed streets in Dorchester and Mattapan with assignments to districts C-11, B-2 and B-3. A graduate of Boston Latin School, Superintendent Baston has been a member of the BPD command staff for 11 years, most recently serving as commander of the Community Support Division.


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