In the 10 years since the Boston Marathon bombings, former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis has become a national speaker on some of the strengths and weaknesses in law enforcement’s response to mass tragedies.
Davis joined WBUR’s Morning Edition to talk about the response in 2013, and changes to security and policing since then.
Highlights from this interview have been lightly edited.
Interview Highlights
On the police response to the bombings under his leadership a decade ago:
“One of the biggest issues that I recall was the psychological effect it had on the victims of the incident, as well as the first responders who had to provide life saving assistance to people who were literally bleeding out on the streets of Boston. I didn’t realize the impact of the psychological trauma and how that would affect my officers. We had taken steps. We brought in psychologists and psychiatrists to help them decompress from the incident. But in the coming weeks, we found that much more serious treatment was needed.
“We also had to increase our communication with our partners at the federal and state level. We had a tremendous working relationship that continues to today, but some things needed to be tweaked.”
On how new technology developed since the bombings could change the way we respond to crises:
“One of the things that’s been controversial is the use of facial recognition. And it was in its infancy when we tried it, and it didn’t work. It did not turn out the suspects, but I believe now it would. And so, leveraging those advances when the country is under an assault and people’s lives hang in the balance is critical.”
On how the shift in perception of law enforcement might affect a response to a tragedy today:
“There’s certainly been a sea change in people’s attitudes, and deservedly so. The things that have happened to the citizens in their perception of, and trust in, the police have been horrible. And it’s up to the police to reestablish the trust that we had back then. In the meantime, the solution to this is absolute transparency as quickly as possible. And making sure that people understand that the great bulk of the work that officers do day in and day out completely outweighs the bad conduct on the part of officers that we see in the press.”
On whether he worries people have become numb or complacent to tragedies and safety precautions:
“I don’t think they’ve become complacent about safety precautions. I think, if anything, these active shooter situations that have been so prolific over the last year or two are driving people to be more concerned about that. They’re not getting complacent, but I worry that they get numb to it and don’t stand up and demand that that something be done to stop it.”
On whether we’re safer than we were 10 years ago:
“I think in regards to terrorist events, we improve every year as far as our ability to understand the threat. But the threat morphs every year. Now, the threat seems to be more domestic, and we have to adapt to that intelligence stream and use strategies that work as the threat evolves.
“The active shooter thing is horrible. And I don’t know if we’re safer now in that particular arena or if the cat is out of the bag, and there’s a segment of society that is opting to do something as horrible as what we just saw in Nashville. I worry about that, and I worry about our inability as a country to deal with it.”
On how he’ll spend the marathon this year:
“I will be at the finish line. I get to see the victims again and in the way that I got to know them back 10 years ago. I’m really looking forward to getting to see these people and catching up with them.”
