Boston Chief Gives Up Dublin Business

By Sean O’Driscoll 

BOSTON’S newly appointed police commissioner has said that she will give up management of her Dublin consultancy firm to concentrate on her new role full time. 

Kathleen O’Toole, a former member of the Patten Commission on police reform in Northern Ireland, has said that she will use her experience in Northern Ireland to address public disorder problems in Boston.

She spoke after one man was killed in riots following the Super Bowl on Sunday. O’Toole, who will be sworn in as Boston’s first female police chief later this week, said that she could no longer devote time to the Dublin office of her management consultancy business, O’Toole Associates.

She said that the new job would take up all of her work time, particularly as the Democratic Party national convention is taking place in Boston later this year. 

O’Toole said that she had been “flooded” with emails from members of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce in the past 24 hours. 

“Everybody has wished me well, it has been amazing,” she said. 

O’Toole said that Barry Mawn, a former FBI assistant director, and Kevin Burke, a former Massachusetts district attorney, would help run the business in her absence. 

She was one of two female members of the Patten Commission on Police Reform in Northern Ireland and made key recommendations issues including the use of plastic bullets.

O’Toole is the former Massachusetts state secretary of public safety and a former State Police lieutenant colonel.

She began her role with the Patten Commission in May 1998 and made nearly 30 trips to Ireland to attend public hearings on police reform and read submissions.

Her previously described her meetings with victims of violence as “incredibly emotional” and she that she supported the “agonizing” decision of allowing the Northern Ireland Police Service to continue using plastic bullets.

“We looked at all kinds of different alternatives from water cannon to bean bags but, responsibly, the commission had to choose an option that would prevent the use of lethal force,” she said. 

O’Toole said that controlling public disorder was a key concern in Boston and that she had learned a great deal from her work on the Patten Commission. 

She also said that she had very good relations with the FBI and that the police relations with the bureau had greatly improved. 

Last week, details of FBI collusion with Irish American criminal Whitey Bulger, emerged at the sentencing hearing of Bulger’s second in command. A prosecutor told the court that illegal involvement by some FBI agents with the gang had left “a scar” over law enforcement relations in the city.