Police Commissioner Christine Elow

Christine Elow is the first woman police commissioner of color in the city of Cambridge Massachusetts.

Christine Elow was raised in Cambridge, MA. “After high school, I wasn’t quite ready for college, so I went on to the military, spent 4 years in the United States Navy, came out and took the civil service exam; got a job as a police officer and that was in 1995. I currently live in the city of Boston. I’m a single mother of twin 16-year-old boys who are absolutely amazing, and right now, I serve as the police commissioner for the city of Cambridge, first woman ever, and first woman of color but first woman ever!  I absolutely love my job I love working in the community I grew up in and really love serving my police department it’s just such an exciting opportunity.”

DEM Question: What sparked your interest in Law, did it start when you were little?

“Yeah, thank you for that question. I’ll tell you, I never thought nor never ever saw myself as a police officer. It’s so funny in this job so many people that I work with come from families with long legacies in the police force. They had grandfathers, their father, their brother, I had no police officers in my family. I actually thought I was going to be more geared toward social work. When I came out of the navy what I really wanted was a paid job, so I took the civil service test thinking I just wanted to pay my bills. One thing that really struck me at the time was during my backgrounded. So there was a background investigation I had to go through and I was working as a youth counselor at a teen center working mostly with kids of color. There was a group of boys who found out I was being backgrounded checked to become a police officer. They asked, “Christine why do you want to be a police officer?” and I asked them, “Why don’t you want me to be a police officer?” and they said “well the police are mean to us and the police don’t like us”. Let me tell you Dayana (our DEM interviewer) these are children they were like 12–15-year-olds boys, all boys of color and one of the things was like a gut check for me, one of the things that I said to myself then was when I become a police officer, specifically when I engage with a young person of color I want to make sure that they feel like they are valued, that they are respected, that I actually care about them. That’s what really drove my career as a police officer and really improve on interactions particularly when it came to communities of color based on my experience with those young boys.  At that time, I was never really interested in being a police officer, it kind of fell in my lap. What really has driven me these past 25 years is improving relationships especially with our vulnerable marginalized communities.”

DEM Question: Do you have a specific style in management that you plan to use?

“Thank you for that, and absolutely I found this style its interesting when I first became a police officer it was like a hierarchical approach. Kind of like a “do as I say” command and control approach throughout my career, and different police commissioners that I worked under found that we had a voice in the decision-making process. As well as a lot more communication and a lot more transparency. Building trust and treating people with respect and dignity I learned that in 2009 that’s really been the foundation of my leadership style”.

DEM Question: Was there any push back or hesitation from your Male counterparts in being the first Women or did you get more support?  How did you handle it?

Kind of a more compassionate response when your dealing specifically with internal issues. Its been mixed but mostly supportive. “I received support from those that are older and more traditional. However, they thought I was too soft, or I belonged at home that this job was not for me.”

DEM Question: If any of your officers commits a crime or abuses their power, how do you plan on disciplining them? I would immediately conduct an investigate and hear all sides of the incident to understand what fully happened. These cases would be taken very serious.

DEM Question: What is the responsibility of a police commissioner?

“Yea so a lot of things like this interview, talking to community groups, talking to our officers. One of the things we’re really working hard at is improving communication not only externally with our communities but internally with our officers. I think it’s pretty obvious, nationwide policing is going through a pretty dramatic shift. There is a call for a lot of enforcement and more engagement, more identifying root causes of problems and working collaboratively to improve outcomes for people. Again, specifically for marginalized communities and I will say for my particular passion the Brown and Black community. How could we engage more effectively to build trust in communities that have historically not trusted the police? How do we identify people who are struggling and connect them with our police force?” Although I just became the police commissioner, I intend to push for a more proactive team to engage with our communities.”

DEM Question: If you could speak to your younger self what would you say?

I would push myself to further my education right after high school because it took me 10 years to get my degree. I wish I could’ve just told myself that I got this I can do it and pushed for it.