We’ve all heard the story by now, ‘police officer arrested for domestic violence’, and each time it’s the same story, innocent or guilty they are strung up in the metaphorical town square and made an example of. That is unless you are a member of the command staff…

Deputy Chief Frederick Gary has been with the Boston Public Health Commission Police since April 2019, acting as the highest-ranking BPHC employee on the force. Prior to assuming the top-ish cop job, Deputy Chief Gary was a security guard for a private company, with the only law enforcement experience previously held being a three-year stint with Boston School Police in the late 2000s. At the time of publication, we have not been able to obtain any documents to shed light on his sudden departure from the School Police.

On January 5, 2022, shortly after 17:00 hours, Officers from C-11 responded to a radio call for service at Carney Hospital in Dorchester where a patient was looking to file a report for an assault that had occurred earlier in the day. In the Boston Police report exclusively obtained by LB617 investigators, Officers spoke with the victim who told them that he “got jumped by his brother”, who was later identified as Deputy Chief Frederick Gary, at their home on Roxton Street in Dorchester.

During the course of their investigation, officers noted that Deputy Chief Gary’s brother had lacerations to his head, facial injuries, and blood on him. According to the report, the victim stated that he was in his apartment on Roxton Street caring for his sick girlfriend when Deputy Chief Gary came downstairs from his apartment and a verbal fight occurred. During the verbal disturbance, the victim stated his brother began striking him in the face. The victim then fled on foot out onto Washington Street where he was able to flag down an officer who then was able to get EMS to transport him to the Carney.

Screen capture of Gary’s LinkedIn

That brings us to January 9 2023 when the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, also called the BRIC, issued a wanted flyer for Deputy Chief Gary’s arrest. In the BRIC flyer, two images of Gary were published as well as his date of birth, home address and other personal information which we have redacted. What is shown below is that he was wanted on a straight warrant out of Dorchester District Court and that the investigating detective was assigned to the Domestic Violence Unit. What wasn’t included was his position as the PBHC’s top-ish cop. As the flyer began to circulate, tips began to pour into our office and we quickly were able to discover that Deputy Chief Gary was spotted in his department-issued vehicle, still working and on duty, during the day of January 10, 2023.

This came as a surprise to us, given the nature of the incident and his position of authority within the City of Boston. Still at work, using his vehicle and seemingly unphased by his status as a wanted criminal. The real shock came when we received word from numerous sources within the Boston Police and Court that Deputy Chief Gary had shown up to turn himself in, still driving the department-issued police car.

It turns out that he was never placed on administrative leave until later in the evening seemingly once we had reached out for comment and began to stir the pot. As of late today, we were able to confirm via a BPHC spokesperson that Deputy Chief Gary is on administrative leave, “pending further review of the matter”.

Now with all of that said, this normally would not have been a story we would even bother coving. Families fight, especially brothers, but in this case, what we found during the course of our investigation went much further than a one-off scrap between kin. A request to the Boston Police Department showed that police had been called nearly 20 times to the residence on Roxton Street in Dorchester for numerous complaints. Sources familiar with these incidents tell us that these calls all have a domestic violence undertone commonly seen in houses that host these issues. Included in the list is an October incident involving a fight with a metal pipe which left members of the family bloodied and injured according to a Boston Police source. According to the records no arrests were ever made.

Even more concerning than the domestic allegations is the information that began to flow in from former and current employees, other police officers, and even civilian Health Commission sources all of which expressed frustration that Deputy Chief Gary had seemingly had a guardian angel throughout his time at the Commission. They told us it appeared as if someone was watching over him through internal investigations and other matters which would have left a normal officer suspended or even terminated.

Screen capture of a video submitted to BPHC showing Gary sleeping at his desk while on duty, something officers claim he frequently had written others up for.

After all, they also pointed to his lack of qualifications for the position, going from a security guard to top-ish cop overnight. From complaints of misuse of his department-issued vehicle, to sleeping on the job, to threatening and bullying his staff, and even to instances of conduct unbecoming an officer which we have chosen to not publish at this time, Deputy Gary has seemingly skated by.

We spoke with a representative from the District Attorney’s Office who confirmed that Gary had been arraigned and updated that he was released on his own personal recognizance the same day. When asked about his access to firearms they were unable to tell us if the court had restricted it, a concern for many that know Gary and tell us his temper is dangerous and has access to numerous firearms through his personal firearms business. Another step that law enforcement experts tell us is seemingly standard in cases of domestic violence, especially when the accused is in law enforcement. The Commission at the time of publication had been unable to confirm if they had taken away any firearms that may have been issued to him.

Screen capture from Gary’s firearm company page

The long and short of it is something far too many of the rank-and-file officers within Boston are familiar with, no matter the department. There are different rules for different people. Sometimes it’s who you know, sometimes it is what rank you hold, and sometimes it’s both. We look forward to the findings of the Health Commission’s internal investigation and we urge them to take the time and diligence our investigators took with researching this story. Imagine all they could find out given the ever-growing pile we did in less than two days.