The Accidental Police Captain

Alfredo (Al) Andres
Captain, Boston (MA) Police Department


I was Born in Cuba and migrated to the United States with my parents in the early 70s. I eventually moved to Boston where I would live the majority of my life. I joined the US Army after graduating high school and was stationed in Georgia for my enlistment.

I returned to Boston with plans to attend college and go into the computer field. It was my cousin that told me about a job as a corrections officer that would start my career in law enforcement. While I was working at the Suffolk County (MA) House of Corrections I noticed most of the other corrections officers were taking the police examination and a friend of mine that had left corrections and joined the Boston Police Department encouraged me to take the examination and I eventually did. I was offered employment by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Transit Police Department and left corrections to become a police officer.

During my time as a police officer for the Transit Police Department, I took the police examination a second time and then received an employment offer from the Boston Police Department which I accepted. Upon graduating from the Boston Police Academy, I was stationed in the Roxbury area of the city as a Patrolman for the next nine (9) years. During my time in Roxbury I worked in different positions from being a clerk, booking officer, patrolled in a two-officer rapid response unit and a one-officer service unit. I also worked in a plain clothes capacity in an anti-crime unit.

In 2004, I was promoted to the rank of sergeant and worked in the Brighton neighborhood as a patrol supervisor. In 2006, I was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and was transferred to the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston where I worked as a duty supervisor. In 2009, Commissioner Ed Davis appointed me to the command staff as a Deputy Superintendent. While on the command staff, I served as the commanding officer in a few different positions to include the Staff Inspections Division, Internal Affairs Division and the Office of Labor Relations. During my time on the command staff I attained the civil service rank of Captain in 2012. I then became aware that I was going to become the first Latino in the history of the Boston Police Department—the oldest police department in the country—to be promoted to the rank of captain.

In 2014, I left the command staff and took command of a neighborhood district station in my civil service. I am now currently the commanding officer of District E-13 in the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood of Boston.

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