The areas being assessed are, professionalization, the general use of force, searches, and seizures, equal protection and non-discrimination, recruitment, selection and hiringMr. Rafael E. Ruiz retired from the Boston, MA Police Department, after more than 32 years of service. During that time, Mr. Ruiz rose through ranks and held many positions. He retired as a Superintendent, becoming the first Latino in the history of the Boston Police Department to attain that rank.
Mr. Ruiz was first promoted to Deputy Superintendent in 1997, and was assigned as the Assistant Night Commander, overseeing citywide police services and supervised resources for all eleven police districts and specialized units; In 2000, he was assigned as the Zone 2 Commander in charge of the City’s busiest police Zone, composed of four (4) districts with a total personnel number of approximately 430 and over $4 million budget. In 2008, Mr. Ruiz was promoted to the rank of Superintendent and served as the Night Commander in charge of citywide police services and supervised resources for all eleven police districts and specialized units. Part of his responsibilities included to respond to and manage major incidents throughout the city; During this time, he also led the Department’s Committee on Rules and Regulations and Policies. He held this rank until his retirement in 2012.
During his career, Mr. Ruiz held a variety of positions within the Police Department, including as co-commander of the Police Anti-Corruption Unit, Internal Affairs Investigations, Detective in Drug Investigations Unit, and the Recruit Investigation Unit. In 2010, Mr. Ruiz became Senior Associate, MBG Catalyst (Miami/Boston Group), a law enforcement and criminal justice consulting group based in Boston and Miami. There, he co-managed the program to provide consulting, training, development, and mentoring services in criminal justice and public safety to foreign governments through the US government’s international mission to foster peace and security, especially in Latin America; participated in the program to train officers and command staff on the principles of Community Policing and the CompStat process and conducted Train-the-Trainer courses.
In 2013, Mr. Ruiz became a consultant for O’Toole Associates, where he assisted with the monitoring of the USDOJ Agreement for Effective and Constitutional Policing with the East Haven, CT Police Department. In June of 2014, Mr. Ruiz was designated as the Joint Compliance Expert for this Agreement, with overall responsibilities of managing the entire monitoring process and reporting to the Courts. In 2014, Mr. Ruiz was named to the Federal Monitoring Team for the Agreement for the Sustainable Reform of the Puerto Rico Police Department, where he still serves as of December 2022.
Mr. Ruiz attended the University of Massachusetts at Boston and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice in 1989; in 1998, he attended Boston University in Boston, MA where he was awarded a Master of Science Degree in Criminal Justice. He also received a Certificate in Police Management from Babson College in Wellesley, MA; received a Certificate in Police Management/Internal Affairs Issues from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and a Certificate in Drug Identification and Investigation from the Drug Enforcement Administration., policies and procedures, training, supervision and management, civilian complaints, internal investigations, and discipline, community engagement, and public information, and information systems and technology.
