After Severe Staffing Problems, CPD Recruits Non-Cambridge Residents

Updated November 18, 2024, at 6:07 p.m.

For the first time in department history, the Cambridge Police Department has begun hiring new officers from outside the city in order to fill staff vacancies.

This change comes as CPD has increasingly “forced” officers to work back-to-back shifts due to department hiring shortages. If the new recruits pass their final screening, the hiring initiatives will fill nearly 30 vacancies by the summer, according to CPD Commissioner Christine A. Elow.

Elow said that the department has “struck gold” by expanding recruitment efforts to non-Cambridge residents. The department generally hires new officers from a list of tested candidates crafted by the Civil Service Commission. Since fewer qualified Cambridge residents took the exam this year, CPD was forced to broaden its search.

“Let’s just say you used to be a resident in the City of Cambridge, right, and you left for whatever reason, but you’ve always wanted to be a police officer,” Elow said. “We can get you now by you signing up on the non-resident list.”

“This is the first time, I will say, in the history of the police department, we’ve gone to that non-resident list, and we’re picking up diversity,” she added.

CPD also initiated lateral transfers — allowing for hires from nearby departments — to quickly fill in vacancies. The strategy resulted in five new officers, according to CPD spokesperson Robert Goulston.

Elow said that the department has struggled to recruit officers due to demographic and population shifts in Cambridge.

“The population that I grew up with — the working class population that was here — so many of that community has moved out of the city,” she said.

According to the American Community Survey, the median household income in Cambridge has increased by nearly 73 percent since 1989.

Elow said she believes that the success of lateral transfers is due to the “mission” of CPD.

“We’re an attractive place to work — we’re inclusive, we pay well, and people are definitely interested in the pay and in the benefits,” she said. “What I really find that people were interested in is the quality of work that we do — the fact that we have resources and support to work with some of our more vulnerable populations.”

Elow added that the department scrutinizes the records of applicants to ensure CPD can “get the best of the best from other communities because we can really pick and choose.”

“We don’t want to bring a police officer here who may have had issues in their own community,” she said. “If you had any sort of negative marks on your history, we are not taking you.”

Elow, however, declined to comment on the continued employment of Sgt. James Crowley, an officer accused of sexual harassment in 2020. In August, an investigation by the Boston Globe revealed that the City of Cambridge paid $1.4 million in settlements to three female CPD officers who accused Crowley of sexual harassment. Crowley also made national headlines in 2009 when he arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge.

Crowley strongly denied the allegations to the Globe, saying that he had not heard of many of the allegations until he was reached by a reporter.

Elow declined to comment on the status of Crowley’s employment, saying that the personnel situation is “ongoing”.

The Cambridge Police Patrol Officers Association wrote in a statement to The Crimson that they are “extremely encouraged by the effort of the city and department to fill the vacancies.”

“It is our hope that this hiring practice will continue into the future,” the statement read. “We look forward to welcoming the officers from other agencies and the recruits into our academy.”

Correction: November 18, 2024

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that three female Cambridge Police Department officers accused Sgt. James Crowley of sexual assault. In fact, Crowley was accused of sexual harassment.

—Staff writer Sally E. Edwards can be reached at sally.edwards@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sallyedwards04 or on Threads @sally_edwards06.

—Staff writer Asher J. Montgomery can be reached at asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com Follow her on X @asherjmont or on Threads @asher_montgomery.