More than 80 recruits at the Boston Police Academy will hit the streets in late May, a month earlier than had been planned, because Commissioner Edward Davis wants more officers on the streets as soon as possible, reports the Boston Globe. Robert Harrington, who oversees the police department’s Bureau of Professional Standards and Development, said police officials were already reviewing ways to tighten the academy’s schedule before learning that Davis wanted recruits on the streets immediately.
“There was some feeling that some of the courses were repetitive,” Harrington said. Harrington said the reduced training time would not affect the safety of officers or the public and will make the academy curriculum more efficient, while also bringing much-needed officers to Boston before summer begins. He expects the academy schedule to be reduced permanently to several weeks less than the 30 weeks it had been.