A BUPD Veteran Moves Up

Robert Molloy, a member of the BU Police Department for three decades, has been promoted to deputy chief. Photo by Cydney Scott.

Robert Molloy says he’s always told his children, “Be happy in what you do, because then you’re really never working.” By that standard, Molloy hasn’t worked a day in his 30 years at the BU Police Department, because he clearly loves what he does.

Molloy (MET’91) joined the BUPD as a patrolman in 1987 and worked his way up to the rank of captain. The veteran officer has just been promoted to deputy chief, the number-two post in the department, where he will help oversee more than 50 officers. Molloy replaces Scott Paré, who left the position in June.

“It’s really nice knowing that the University has given me support for taking on this job,” says Molloy. “It’s really, really special for me.”

Molloy was appointed to the post by Kelly Nee, who became  police chief last May. “His passion for the department is so obvious,” she says. “He has been invaluable to me since I came here. He’s a good police officer and a good person.”

Most recently, Molloy has been head of the patrol division. He says he’s seen tremendous change in his time here, from the construction of Agganis Arena and the Student Village to the growing  influx of international students.

“Part of what we do now at Boston University Police is reach out to the international community, and we do a lot of orientations about staying safe on campus,” he says. “It could be the first time many of them are in the country, and now they’re in Boston, a big city, with different challenges and different cultures.”

He adds that “when we do training now, I like to open it up to how to deal with people of different cultures, because BU is really a melting pot. Our officers have to be sensitive to that when introducing themselves to people and dealing with victims of crime.”

Molloy finds that the department has changed too. “Today’s 21st century officers, they’re millennials, they’ve grown up differently, post-9/11, and they have a different view of the world,” he says. “I really think that the young officers coming on police jobs today connect more with the public than they ever have in the past. They have a different understanding about people, they’re open-minded, they’re sensitive to people and different culture, and I really think that’s a good thing.”

Policing is in Molloy’s blood. The West Roxbury native’s father was a Boston police officer for many years, working in South Boston during the 1970s busing crisis and putting in a stint running the department’s bomb squad. His son holds a BU degree in urban affairs and has trained at the FBI Academy in Virginia.

Was there a particular case he worked on during his BUPD tenure that stands out in his memory? A complex sexual assault investigation when he was in the detective division around 2000 to 2001 consumed his and other officers’ time for many months, Molloy says, resulting in a conviction and prison sentence for the suspect. “We still stay in contact with the survivor and the survivor’s family,” he says. “She’s doing great. We’re so happy about that.”

“When I came here,” Nee says, “I didn’t know anybody, which was a good thing. I was able to take a look, sit back, and assess. But Bob Molloy was just so generous of his time. He has such immense institutional knowledge of the University, the whole structure, why things are the way they are, who is who in the landscape of the University. I can run anything by him. I trust him.

“He’s incredibly fond of the men and women of the department,” she says, “and so proud of the whole University.”

Molloy and his wife, Susan, live in southern New Hampshire, and his idea of a good time is a White Mountains hike with family. They have three children. His sons Robert Molloy (SED’04) and Michael Molloy (COM’07) are BU grads. It turns out that his daughter, Julia, may end up being one too.

“She’s a freshman at Wheelock College,” Molloy says, bemused by the coincidence. BU and Wheelock recently announced plans to enter into formal discussions about a merger.