Kathleen M. O’Toole was appointed Boston Police Commissioner by Mayor Tom Menino on February 19, 2004. In that capacity she oversees the oldest municipal police agency in the United States with nearly 3,000 sworn civilian members and an annual budget of more than $200 million. It is the largest municipal police force in the New England region, responsible for provides public safety services to 589,000 residents and an additional 500,000 commuters, while annually responding to well over 600,000 calls for service.

During her twenty-five year public safety career, she has risen through the ranks of the Boston Police Department, Metropolitan Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police, retiring as Lieutenant Colonel.

From 1994 to 1998, she served in the Cabinet of Governor William F. Weld as Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety, where she was responsible for twenty public safety agencies, more than ten thousand employees and an annual operating budget exceeding $1 billion.

In 1998, Commissioner O’Toole was selected to serve on the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland (The Patten Commission) as part of the peace process group that developed a new framework for policing and security in Northern Ireland.

In 1999, Commissioner O’Toole was tapped by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino to chair the Boston Fire Department Review Commission. Commissioner O’Toole has also held senior positions at Digital Equipment, Boston College and GPC/O’Neill and Associates. In addition, she provided services to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division as an expert witness on “profiling” cases. Prior to her appointment, Commissioner O’Toole was President and founder of O’Toole Associates LLC, an international consulting firm with offices in Boston and Dublin, Ireland.

Commissioner O’Toole is active in the international police community as a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), including as a member of the IACP’s Committee on Terrorism, the Police Executive Research Forum and the F.B.I. National Executive Institute Associates.

Commissioner O’Toole is a graduate of Boston College and The New England School of Law. She was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1982. She lives in South Boston with her husband, Dan and daughter Meghan.