Graffiti-fighting patrolman joins Gloucester's detective unit

Douglas A. Moser, Staff writer

Thomas Quinn cites the example set by his father, a longtime Gloucester police officer and detective who retired in 1998, as his main motivation to become a detective.

Last week, Quinn, a patrolman for the last 14 years in Gloucester and for three years prior to that in Manchester, joined Gloucester’s detective unit. With more than 10 years of experience dealing with graffiti in the city, he will continue to be a primary investigator of graffiti-related vandalism.

“I was very happy and glad to jump at the opportunity,” Quinn said of making detective. “I’ve expressed interest in doing this for a long period of time.”

The move does not come with a pay change, according to the patrolmen’s union contract. It essentially moves him from uniformed patrol or house duty to plain-clothes investigation. Detectives in Gloucester are patrolmen who specialize in investigation and do not take special exams, as detectives in some other communities do.

As a patrolman, Quinn rotated assignments with other patrolmen. Sometimes he would be assigned to a cruiser, and on other tours of duty would be assigned to field 911 calls as a house officer.

John Quinn, Thomas Quinn’s father, spent 37 years on the Gloucester police force, retiring as a lieutenant. He was a detective for 13 years.

Lt. Michael Lane, who heads the detective unit, said Chief John Beaudette decided to add a patrolman to the detective unit on the 4 p.m. to midnight shift. Thomas Quinn typically worked that shift as a patrolman.

“We decided he’d be a good choice because he has that aggressive drive,” Lane said.

The department will continue use Quinn’s experience dealing with graffiti in the city, but he will work on a range of cases. “He does specialize in (graffiti) and has the training and will continue to work on those cases, but he, like us, is a generalist here,” Lane said.

Lane and the other detectives will give Quinn on-the-job training in the coming weeks and help him with his caseload.

As a patrolman, Quinn collected a large file of photos and notes on graffiti tags in Gloucester, how they evolved and who the suspected vandals are. In January, he helped send Brian Mahoney, 21, of Perkins Street, to jail for two years for numerous tags he sprayed around the downtown area.

Mahoney’s tags popped up under the A. Piatt Andrew bridge, on signs and guardrails downtown, and on the wooded side of the PMS Manufactured Products building at the end of the Sadler Street extension.

Since Mahoney went to jail, another person suspected of creating almost all of Gloucester’s graffiti left town, and the bothersome spray painting has “come to a screeching halt,” Quinn said

“If it starts up again, I’ll refocus my energy,” he said.

With the help of an ordinance passed last summer, Quinn has been pushing business owners to quickly cover graffiti on their buildings.

The ordinance, passed by City Council on Oct. 16, requires property owners to immediately remove graffiti, with the intention that leaving graffiti will attract others to spray paint next to it.

It also holds parents and guardians responsible for the acts of their children, requires offenders to undo or at least erase their deeds and forbids stores to sell spray paint and markers to those under age 18. It also established fines of up to $300 for each offense and allows the city to use the collected fines to pay for the removal of graffiti when the offender remains uncaught.

Local businesses, such as Ben’s Wallpaper and Paint Co. on Railroad Avenue, and CleanPro on Whittemore Street, have stepped forward to donate materials and manpower to clean up vandalism at Burnham’s Field on two separate occasions.

The southerly white wall of Allied Cold Storage off Commercial Street overlooking Pavilion Beach had been an ideal showcase for vandals and was covered with graffiti last summer. In particular, the water tower on top, which currently bears a graffiti tag, is like “a big billboard” for the person who sprayed it there, Quinn said.

After the graffiti ordinance was passed, the city sent Allied Cold Storage several reminder letters and the company repainted its wall and tower.

With the addition of Quinn, the detective division has eight officers. Besides Lane and Quinn, there are Sgt. William Leanos and Detectives Marc Cecilio, Sean Conners, Michael Gossom, Steve Mizzoni and Ken Ryan. In the fiscal 2007 budget, the investigation unit was appropriated $419,152 out of a total of $4.53 million for the police department.

No one has been hired to fill Quinn’s spot among the uniformed patrolmen, but detectives can be put in uniform and a cruiser should Lane or Beaudette believe it is necessary.

The entire department, including the detectives, has 47 patrolmen, 13 officers, seven reserve patrol officers, three meter enforcement officers, one animal control officer, two office support staff members, a custodian, a financial coordinator and the chief.