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You may be interested to learn that the doors to the Academy were first opened on November 16, 1931. The Governor at the time, Joseph B. Ely, and Police Commissioner E.C. Hultman founded the Police School (as it was known then) for the purpose of "promoting the efficiency of the Department and its services to the public." The enactment goes on to say:

Instructors for the school are selected from the senior officers and practical subjects in everyday police work which are covered in great detail. The duties of police officers are numerous and complex as to demand almost continuous study in order that officers may be acquainted with court decisions, proper procedure, regulations and statues that they are called on to enforce."

For over fifty years the duties remained complex, and economic, political and social changes created new demands for police services. As the role of a police officer was changing in the new democratic society, the Boston Police Department needed officers to adapt and instituted a new academy.

In 1985, a former neighborhood school in Hyde Park was rededicated as the Deputy Superintendent William J. Hogan Law Enforcement Training Center. In this academic setting, the Boston Police Department provides basic courses for recruit officers, promotional classes for detectives and supervisors, and seminars for the Citizens Police Academy.

Today, the curriculum of the academy prepares officers with practical training in Patrol Procedures, CPR, Defensive Tactics, Defense Driving, and the Use of Force. It also enhances education about the expanding role of police with an array of Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Ethics, Domestic Violence, Racism, Anti-Semitism, Prejudice, Civil Rights and Neighborhood Policing courses. The mission of the Boston Police Academy is to provide people with unique instruction merged with innovative teaching methods of Facing History and Ourselves, and to promote the knowledge, values and skill police officers need in the democracy they are called upon to preserve and protect.