Weeks after the sudden retirement of former City of Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow, even community members who knew her well still have more questions than answers.
“She would always say that ‘I love my job.’ So, you can imagine the shock,” said Rev. Irene Monroe, a prominent local theologian who has known Elow for decades. Monroe said she reached out to Elow to check on her personally but was met with “deafening silence.”
Monroe has long been involved with issues related to Cambridge’s policing. In 2009, she was on an ad hoc committee to help improve the Cambridge Police Department following an incident where Sgt. James Crowley, a White officer, arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Black man, for allegedly breaking into his own home. The event led to the “beer summit” between the two men and then-President Barack Obama at the White House.
Monroe said policing in Cambridge has improved in the years since, especially under Elow and her predecessor, Bran Bard, who left for a role at Johns Hopkins University in 2021. During Elow’s tenure as Commissioner, Elow implemented a department-wide body camera program and championed more diversity in the hiring of officers.
Monroe said the department still has issues, referring to the 2023 police shooting of Sayed Faisal as an “egregious blunder.” But when asked if she thought Elow was well-liked in the community, Monroe offered a different word: “beloved.”
“She’s also Cambridge’s native daughter,” Monroe said. “And that’s what policing should be. It should be people who are from the community that have seen the changes in the community.”
Elow was also lauded by Michael Monestime, president of the Central Square Business Improvement District (BID). “She was always present in the community, cared deeply about Cambridge, and often spoke proudly about rising through the ranks from being a beat officer in Central Square to ultimately becoming Commissioner,” he told Cambridge Day via email. Elow is a former board member of the BID.
“She was deeply rooted in this community,” Monestime said.
Internal investigation
Some members of City Council said they were puzzled. Councillors Patty Nolan and Ayah Al-Zubi confirmed with Cambridge Day that they had not been given any information about the nature of Elow’s departure.
While the reason she left remains unknown, a city official confirmed an internal investigation related to Elow was being conducted at the time of her retirement. It is now closed.
“Because Commissioner Elow has retired, the internal investigation is no longer active,” City Director of Media Relations Jeremy Warnick told Cambridge Day in an email. “Since the investigation was not completed prior to her retirement, there was no final determination into its findings. Without a completed investigation or definitive findings, the City will not provide further comment on that matter.”
Cambridge Day has submitted a public records request for the investigation’s preliminary findings.
News of the investigation was first reported by The Boston Globe, which also obtained a copy of Elow’s severance agreement, in which Cambridge agreed to pay Elow $309,000. The agreement said Elow had left “for personal reasons.” Warnick confirmed the provisions of the employment agreement, and said the city honored it “in recognition of her long career and dedication to the Police Department and Cambridge.”
Elow’s retirement came less than a year-and-a-half into a four-year contract, according to other city records obtained by Cambridge Day. Elow was making an annual salary of $285,000 per year and was eligible for a $3,000 raise in January 2027. According to city data, Elow was the third-highest paid official in the city, after City Manager Yi-An Huang and Deputy City Manager Cathy Watkins.
Councillor Nolan found the details of the severance agreement troubling. “I’m disappointed that the city would negotiate a $300,000 additional payment to an employee who was resigning,” Nolan told Cambridge Day Wednesday. “I respect the work Commissioner Elow did. It’s not at all about that. It’s about fiduciary responsibilities as public servants.”
The uncompleted investigation was also a concern. Nolan said some disciplinary circumstances for public sector employees require that information is kept private, but “if it’s a matter that was not personnel related, then I think the public would have a right to know.”
Nolan noted Elow’s legacy as the first woman to lead Cambridge’s police force.
“She’s an incredible role model. Even today, there’s certainly not parity with women in police forces, and even fewer as you go up the chain of command,” Nolan said. “There are people for whom she is looked up to … with a lot of respect. So, to leave in this way is unfortunate.”
“Her retirement came as a surprise because it happened suddenly, but honestly, the details of that are not my business,” Monestime said. “I hope this next chapter is one that brings her peace, happiness, and time with her family, and that it happened on her terms.”
This story was updated to add comments from Michael Monestime, president of the Central Square Business Improvement District.
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Councilor Nolan is entirely correct that such a large settlement seems inappropriate for a public employee resigning while under investigation. And the idea that the investigation would then be closed, and its findings sealed, just because the employee resigned, seems antithetical to the goals of transparency and accountability upon which a functioning government depends. Perhaps the subject of the investigation was something that the city would like to bury?