Brookline's Chief Andy Lipson On His First Week: Q&A

BROOKLINE, MA — Chief Andy Lipson is still getting used to his new title. It may yet take a while, he told Patch four days after he was sworn in. Lipson spent Friday at the department moving into the office with the bright red walls that Chief Dan O'Leary moved out of in January. Lipson, who joined the department in 1998, took some time to chat with Patch about his career over the past couple of decades — from a childhood photo that may have been responsible for him becoming a police officer to a moment he remembers where he was called to the front lines of Watertown after the Marathon Bombing.

• This interview has been edited for clarity.

Do you remember your first day? I do. I was paired up with a senior officer and I remember thinking 'Wow this is for real.' It was a relatively quiet day, until we had up in Coolidge Corner there was a cab fare dispute and the person riding in the cab kicked out all the windows of the cab. So we went up and it was going to be my first arrest. I started doing the academy taught handcuffing procedures, which is pretty involved and take a while, and I remember a senior officer came over and said 'just put the cuffs on this guy.' It was pretty memorable.

During your speech Thursday you mentioned your Father gave you a hat that was catalyst for your career? My grandfather he lived in Lynn and worked at GE and was a reserve police officer in Lynn. And it was given to me when I was very little. There was a picture of me taken as a chubby kid with it on. And my grandparents framed it and it was in their house forever. My mother would joke that it was my father's fault for me becoming a police officer.

What made you want to be a police officer?

I had worked as a park intern at the police station in college. It was just that drive in me that I was always interested in doing police work. When I graduated from college I went to work for State Street Bank and realized that's not what I wanted to do.

What was it about police work?

Being outside and getting involved in different things all the time. The challenges of it. The cliche of being able to help people. When I was an intern I listened to the PD radio and the variety of it all was interesting. You never know where the ride is going to take you.

Was there a moment you realized yep. This is who I am?

I'm not sure. There's a constant balance. I have people in my life who know me outside of that. You experience so much that it does become a huge part of your identity. [But] you want to maintain a broader perspective. I don't think there was one moment. It just seemed like a gradual transition over time.

What's something you've learned on the job that has been invaluable?

There are a couple things. Early on in the job I took things very personally and kind of thought that if somebody disagreed with something I was doing as a police officer I could, instead of explaining to them why it is what I'm doing, I could just convince them that I was right and they were wrong. [But] as a police officer you can't take these things personally. It's a huge part of procedural justice, actually, calmly explaining to people why it is what you're doing and connecting to them as a person and not just trying to convince them that they're right and your wrong. There's more to life than that.

Have you seen good things come from that?

Oh definitely. There have been instances where you don't get angry or frustrated you explain and empathize with the person you're dealing with and think about how they're seeing things and try to provide a bridge to a gap. Sometimes providing the background on that helps overcome miscommunications. I think it's really important to what we do, particularly today.

You've had some tough moments on the job, yes? What's been the scariest?

I think one of the scariest moments I had on the job was after the marathon bombings and being in Watertown and experiencing what went on that day [the night before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured]. And some of the false reports that came out whether there were other sleeper cells active around the city. There were moments there that felt like the world was fundamentally changing and wasn't going to be the same after.

What's something you wish more residents understood about the Brookline police?

How profoundly good most of the officers are. And the incredible array of work that they do. Brookline is a wonderfully safe place to be and much of that is a credit to the officers here. But when things do happen, they interview people on the street and they say 'I can't believe that happened here,' which is good, and what we want cause they feel safe. But at times it doesn't translate to what the work that we do here. The way the officers handle that and go about their business really speaks highly of them.

As I said in my speech, I really would encourage residents to interact in a positive way with the officers and I think there's a lot of good that can come from that.

You also mentioned in your speech that community interaction was a priority:

We do have a lot of great programs going on. Really my goals there are to take input from the officers in the department and in the community and really more than me having answers to the question of how to build more interaction, have people in the department and the community work on this with me.

And you mentioned you'd like to build on what Chief Dan O'Leary did before you:

I think he did a lot of good things. I think it's just a basic thing that with change comes the opportunity for growth and improvement. And separately from that the transparency. Sometimes we're boxed in as to what we can talk about. We deal with people's private issues, so we can't just say the things maybe that would best explain the situation. We have to take the people's privacy into account and sometimes that can make it hard for us to defend ourselves from criticism.

I just believe that the vast majority of what goes on here is exceedingly well done.

What challenges do you see in the days and weeks ahead?

On Friday we have an academy class graduating, and then another one so then we'll have a large group of new officers coming on all at once, that's exciting and challenging. It's a well needed addition. We'll have 16 officers coming out of the academy.

And then also we had recently at town meeting there was a warrant article on surveillance I think that's going to be important to the department going forward.

You've talked about transparency, improvement, connecting to the community. How does the new glass wall at the police station behind the front desk officer fit in there?

I think that was just a safety concern. The officer sitting at the front desk is still very open. The area there allowed people access to behind where the officer was seated and the idea was that just wasn't safe.

And because I have to ask: On the accusations of racism and lawsuits and settlements over the past couple of years?

I think that that's part of the important question not only in Brookline but to the national debate. The department that I've experienced is one where people get a long and work well together. I think we need to continue to work on the changes we've made and I think we're headed in the right direction.

Is there anything else you want to add?

No. I think we covered it.

Previously:

Select Board Approves New Brookline Chief Of Police Andy Lipson

• New Brookline Police Chief To Be Recommended To Select Board
• Search For Next Brookline Police Chief Edges Forward
• Brookline Police Chief Dan O'Leary To Retire After 40 Years
• Brookline Searches For New Police Chief

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Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch. Contact this reporter at Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com or find her on Twitter: @ReporterJenna

Watch Lipson's speech Thursday, Sept. 13 after his appointment was announced:

Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch. Contact this reporter at Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com or find her on Twitter: @ReporterJenna