Ed Davis: Boston’s top cop takes to Twitter

During his five years as police commissioner, Ed Davis has brought back walking beats in the city, attended community meetings and responded to many violent crimes himself. Now he’s taken to Twitter to further his community policing goals.

“It’s simply another community that we need to stay in touch with; and it’s also a very educated, articulate group of people that are able to express their opinion in [140] characters or less,” Davis said.

Davis, who is 55 this year, said he began using TweetDeck about a year ago and has since posted more than 160 tweets.

Many of the tweets are comments on world events or chats with friends, but some seem to voice frustration with parts of his job.

“Very disappointed with meeting with ICE yesterday. They are not listening to our legitimate concerns,” Davis tweeted in July as the city threatened to pull out of a controversial immigration program.

At other times he tweets directly with residents who voice concerns about crimes or who criticize police activity.

“We have to be transparent,” Davis said.