- Massachusetts Probation Service
Media Contact for Probation Officers maintain safety at Boston’s 45th Annual Caribbean Carnival
Coria Holland, Communications Director
Boston, MA — Left to right are probation employees Jessica Pina, Lisa Butler, Joe Robles, Wendy Pena, and Ronald Whitehead.
Suffolk County Probation Officers maintained a presence and assisted the Boston Police at the 45th Annual Boston Caribbean Carnival on Saturday, August 25, in the Dorchester section of Boston. The event draws an estimated 300,000 visitors each year, according to the Boston Carnival Village Foundation, Inc. which has staged the annual event since 1973.
Each year, Probation Officers work with police to enhance public safety at this event which attracts people from all over the world. For more than a decade, the Boston Police have turned to the Massachusetts Probation Service (MPS) to assist with crowd control. Boston Municipal Court (BMC) Regional Supervisor Renee Payne coordinated a team of Probation Officers and Assistant Chiefs to help monitor the throngs of carnival attendees.
Among the nine MPS employees who worked Saturday were Suffolk Juvenile Court Probation Officer (PO) II Ronald Whitehead, Suffolk Superior Probation Officer Salvador Bolanos, Suffolk PO II Lisa Butler, BMC-West Roxbury PO Kaitlyn Mabee, BMC-Roxbury PO Joe Robles, BMC-Roxbury PO Wendy Pena, BMC-Roxbury PO Jessica Pina, Suffolk Superior PO Mairobi Hansen, BMC-Central PO(s) Philippe Pamphile and John Izzo, and Boston Juvenile PO Robert Nagle.
“Our Probation Officers are not only integral members of the court, they are invested in the communities and the people they serve. This group of MPS employees demonstrated this through their presence at the festival and the work they put in beginning at the wee hours of the morning until late in the afternoon. Their efforts contributed to the success of this family-oriented event,” said Commissioner Edward J. Dolan.
Probation Officers, who wore MPS gear, patrolled and monitored the sidewalks of the parade route, which runs from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Warren Street as marchers wend their way down Blue Hill Avenue to Franklin Park in Boston. Those who participated in the parade wore colorful feathered costumes. Some rode on top of trucks outfitted with jumbo speakers blasting loud music.
The MPS employees were assigned to work three separate shifts with the first beginning at 6 am which included the monitoring of crowds who turned out for J’ourvert, a celebration that kicks off the official start of carnival, until the last shift which ended at 6 pm.
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