|
More than just a name: Canton's
Scott Brown doing big things for the CPD
By Jeffrey
Pickette
Citizen Staff
Meet Scott
Brown (and no, not that one). This Scott Brown is a patrolman
with the Canton Police Department, not the newest member of the
U.S. Senate. He is from Canton, not Wrentham, and he drives a
police car, not a truck.
 |
| Officer Scott
Brown and Bosco, right, do a training drill. |
Scott Brown
has become a household name across the entire country, with the
former Republican state senator going from virtual unknown to
political superstar after winning last month’s special election
to fill the vacant Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat.
Canton’s Scott
Brown has been aware of Senator Brown’s political career since
Brown first ran for state representative in the late 1990s. It
was around then that some of Officer Brown’s friends started to
booby-trap his lawn with Scott Brown campaign signs.
“I’d be coming
out of my house or coming home from work and there’s a Scott
Brown sign out in my front yard. I’ve been dealing with that
name for quite some time,” Brown said.
Just exactly
which friends are responsible has remained a mystery for Brown.
“When you have
the last name Brown, it’s not that uncommon to know that there’s
another [Scott Brown] out there,” he said.
However, this
special election season made sharing the name even more
“interesting” and in some cases “daunting,” Brown said.
For the
record, like 60 percent of Canton voters, he cast his ballot for
Brown in the January 19 special election. His reasons for doing
so went beyond the name.
“He brings a
positive attitude, and the way the country is right now, [we]
need a little positive direction and we’re fortunate enough in
Massachusetts to have a guy who feels like he can do that,”
Brown said.
But there’s
more to Canton’s Scott Brown than just sharing a name with a now
major political figure. Brown, who has been a patrolman with the
CPD since 1998, heads the department’s Canine Unit.
Joe Friday had
Bill Gannon; Starsky had Hutch; Brown has a two-year-old Dutch
German shepherd named Bosco.
Bosco was
brought aboard a little over a year ago, when Brown picked him
up from a kennel in West Virginia. The two underwent an
extensive four-month training program at a K-9 academy in
Barnstable that ended last May. Even so, the two are required to
do 16 hours of additional training per month.
Brown
describes Bosco as both obedient and protective. He assists the
department with crime searches, crowd control, civil
disturbances and finding missing children or elderly people. He
has not been cross-trained to deal with narcotics, but the
possibility exists to do that in the future.
“Bosco is just
like another brother officer,” Brown said.
Between the
cost of the training, the equipment, the food and even the price
to purchase Bosco himself, operating a canine unit is an
expensive undertaking. But local community members and
organizations — Bill Dadassis, the Rodman family, the Simoni
Foundation and the Canton Association of Industries — stepped up
with private donations, helping to make this unit a reality.
“He’s my
partner; he’s my friend; he’s my companion,” Brown said. “He’s
right there with me. He’s my eyes and ears. I have a whole lot
of respect for the dog and the job he does.”
When he’s not
assisting the CPD, Bosco lives with the Brown family. Brown’s
wife, Colleen, and their three children — 3, 6 and 9 years old —
all get along well with Bosco. Brown said Bosco even likes to
lay with his children in bed.
“You would
never know he’s the same dog,” Brown said.
Brown enjoys
bringing Bosco to various Canton schools and letting the
children get to see him up close and get a better understanding
of the role he plays in the community.
Not all of
Bosco’s work is fun and games, however. This past December,
Brown and Bosco assisted the Dedham Police Department in
tracking down an armed convenience store robbery suspect. Brown
told the Citizen
at the time that it was “the most significant find Bosco has
uncovered.”
Brown, a
Canton native and a 1989 graduate of Canton High School, is a
third generation police officer. For the last ten years, he has
also been a member of the special weapons and tactics (SWAT)
unit for the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council (METROLEC).
Brown
describes the SWAT team as “law enforcement’s last defense,”
dealing with anything from “active shooting suspects to
barricaded suspects.”
METROLEC is
made up of police departments from 43 local communities,
including the CPD. Where many small communities might not have
the resources to deal with every potential situation, METROLEC
offers a regional support system for law enforcement agencies.
Overall, it’s
the unpredictability of being a police officer that Brown finds
most appealing.
“This isn’t a
job where it’s five days a week, 40 hours a week,” Brown said.
“You have to be prepared for a call anytime.”
February 18, 2010
Return
to Past Articles Page
|
