Police Commissioner

When Police Commissioner William Brattan moved to New York from Boston, he brought with him the Schroeder Brothers Medal, the Boston Police Department’s highest award for valor, which he earned by facing down a bank robber and rescuing a hostage in 1975. 

It’s a measure of the man, and one of the reasons he is widely respected and trusted among the rank and file. 

As the 38th police commissioner, Brattan has begun a total restructuring of the police department, aiming for stronger precinct commands and better trained and motivated police officers. 

He began his career as a Boston police officer in 1970, and ten years later became a superintendent. Since 1983, he has managed five police agencies. He served as Chief of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police and as superintendent of the Metropolitan District Commission Police. 

In 1990, he moved to New York to take over as head of the New York City Transit police before returning to Boston as Police Commissioner in 1993. A graduate of Boston State College and the FBI Executive Institute, Brattan was a Senior Executive Fellow in Criminal Justice at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 1993, he was elected president of the Police Executive Research Forum, a national organization of police agencies. Brattan’s paternal grandmother was Irish.