Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans took a swipe at his predecessor's move into for-profit consulting Tuesday, highlighting areas where the former commissioner is at odds with the policies of Mayor Marty Walsh.
In an interview with WGBH's Boston Public Radio Tuesday, Evans criticized former commissioner Davis for opposing fingerprinting for ride-hail service drivers, a safety measure Evans said Davis himself supported for taxi drivers when he was in charge during the Menino administration.
"Here’s a guy who said that the ‘gold standard’ of fingerprinting was the best way to go, and obviously someone paid him to say something else," Evans told BPR hosts Margery Eagan and Jim Braude during the monthly "Ask the Commissioner" segment of the show.
"Obviously I’m a little disappointed that he gets involved in some of this dialogue, when the major city chiefs in Massachusetts all support it, I support it, and obviously he forgets where he came from," Evans said.
A spokeswoman for Davis said the former commissioner's only comment on Evans' comments is: "I have the greatest respect for Commissioner Evans".
Ed Davis hails from Lowell, where he was that city's Superintendent of Police before coming to Boston in 2006 as Commissioner.
Davis now works as a senior advisor to Uber's Boston operation and is on the company's U.S. Safety Advisory Board. A spokeswoman for Uber would not disclose how much the company pays Davis for his consulting services.
Evans, who has served as Walsh's top cop since 2014, is embroiled in a deepening disagreement with his own officers over whether to outfit them with body cameras. After negotiating a deal for police to voluntarily enlist in the body camera program in exchange for a $500 bonus, not one member of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association signed up. Evans said random officers will now be outfitted with the cameras.
Davis also took the Patrolmen's side on whether to increase police access to long rifles and more protective armor.
“Look, you don’t want to turn this into a military force. Like everything else in life, there needs to be a balance, and there hasn’t been as far as addressing the concerns about officer safety. They are legitimate concerns," Davis told the Boston Globe.
Patrolmen's Association president Patrick Rose did not return a request for comment.