After years of being adrift, the boats police use to patrol Boston Harbor finally have a mooring.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Police Commissioner Edward Davis yesterday officially opened the Boston Police Department Harbor Patrol Unit on Terminal Road in South Boston. The unit's five boats patrol Boston Harbor and all 27 islands with police officers and a Boston EMS worker on board.
“It's more than a boat,'' Davis said. “It's an ambulance. It's a full-service public safety vehicle.''
Boston Police Superintendent-in-Chief Daniel Linskey said 14 million metric tons of cargo pass through Boston Harbor each year, along with 200,000 cruise boat passengers and two-thirds of the liquefied natural gas that heats New England. The Harbor Unit shares the responsibility with the U.S. Coast Guard of guarding the material, crews and passengers.
Prior to the new building, the Harbor Unit fought for space above a snack shack in Charlestown, then shared a dock with lobstermen on Drydock Avenue.
Police said the new dock will provide better protection for the boats, one of which was heavily damaged in spring storms after it drifted away unnoticed. That $250,000 boat is still in the process of being repaired, police said.