The second in charge at the Boston Police Department took a leave of absence yesterday amid questions over whether he inappropriately pressured the head of the city’s Police Academy to overlook a suspected affair between a drill instructor and a female recruit, reports the Boston Globe. Robert P. Dunford, 64, a tough-talking Dorchester native who has risen through the ranks to become the sometimes controversial superintendent in chief, allegedly intervened on behalf of a friend, creating what one official described as a “complicated mess.”
At the center of the controversy is the department’s Police Academy, where a drill instructor, Officer Paul Downey, was believed to have been engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a female recruit. When the commander of the academy, Deputy Superintendent Marie L. Donahue, moved to discipline Downey, Dunford might have applied pressure on her to overlook any transgression, said two public officials briefed on the investigation.
Link: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/14/superintendent_of_police_under_investigation/