As a graduate of what today is the MS in Criminal Justice program at BU’s Metropolitan College, the Boston University Police Department’s new deputy chief knows the importance of skilled, informed, compassionate law enforcement. Whether students choose to take a generalized approach or focus their criminal justice studies on leadership-centric Strategic Management or a specialization like Crime Analysis or Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity, they all benefit from BU MET’s commitment to a practical education that makes an impact in career growth.
Pamelia Harris (MET’15) is a BU Terrier through and through, having been born in a BU-affiliated hospital, earned a MET master’s degree in criminal justice administration, and today sending her own child to school here. Now, after retiring from the Boston Police Department following a 32-year tenure that saw her hold ranks including sergeant, sergeant detective, and deputy superintendent while working as part of the internal affairs, crimes against children, and crime scene units, the Roxbury native is joining the BUPD, where she seeks to bring focus to community-oriented aspects of policing, emphasizing law enforcement’s capacity to serve the people.
“Everything goes back to relationships, community policing, staying in touch, getting to know who your service reaches and allowing them to have some say in that,” Harris recently told BU Today. “Whether it’s in a professional or personal sense, it’s time for us to step up as a discipline and show that we care about the community and that we can be tailored to what the community needs”
Deputy Chief Harris aims to give the community a fresh introduction to its police force, “to go into spaces where we haven’t had the dialogue in the past and open new doors and build new relationships” in order to foster a dynamic where the institution is more open, available, and integrated with the BU’s students, faculty, and staff.
“I try to leave everything better than the way I found it,” Harris said. “If I can leave one person, one officer, one faculty person better than the way I found them, then I’ve done my job.”
Read more in BU Today.