More than just a name: Canton’s Scott Brown doing big things for the CPD

Officer Scott Brown and Bosco, right, do a training drill.

Meet Scott Brown (and no, not that one). This Scott Brown is a patrolman with the Canton Police Department, not the newest member of the U.S. Senate. He is from Canton, not Wrentham, and he drives a police car, not a truck.

Scott Brown has become a household name across the entire country, with the former Republican state senator going from virtual unknown to political superstar after winning last month’s special election to fill the vacant Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat.

Canton’s Scott Brown has been aware of Senator Brown’s political career since Brown first ran for state representative in the late 1990s. It was around then that some of Officer Brown’s friends started to booby-trap his lawn with Scott Brown campaign signs.

“I’d be coming out of my house or coming home from work and there’s a Scott Brown sign out in my front yard. I’ve been dealing with that name for quite some time,” Brown said.

Just exactly which friends are responsible has remained a mystery for Brown.

“When you have the last name Brown, it’s not that uncommon to know that there’s another [Scott Brown] out there,” he said.

However, this special election season made sharing the name even more “interesting” and in some cases “daunting,” Brown said.

For the record, like 60 percent of Canton voters, he cast his ballot for Brown in the January 19 special election. His reasons for doing so went beyond the name.

“He brings a positive attitude, and the way the country is right now, [we] need a little positive direction and we’re fortunate enough in Massachusetts to have a guy who feels like he can do that,” Brown said.

But there’s more to Canton’s Scott Brown than just sharing a name with a now major political figure. Brown, who has been a patrolman with the CPD since 1998, heads the department’s Canine Unit.

Joe Friday had Bill Gannon; Starsky had Hutch; Brown has a two-year-old Dutch German shepherd named Bosco.

Bosco was brought aboard a little over a year ago, when Brown picked him up from a kennel in West Virginia. The two underwent an extensive four-month training program at a K-9 academy in Barnstable that ended last May. Even so, the two are required to do 16 hours of additional training per month.

Brown describes Bosco as both obedient and protective. He assists the department with crime searches, crowd control, civil disturbances and finding missing children or elderly people. He has not been cross-trained to deal with narcotics, but the possibility exists to do that in the future.

“Bosco is just like another brother officer,” Brown said.

Between the cost of the training, the equipment, the food and even the price to purchase Bosco himself, operating a canine unit is an expensive undertaking. But local community members and organizations — Bill Dadassis, the Rodman family, the Simoni Foundation and the Canton Association of Industries — stepped up with private donations, helping to make this unit a reality.

“He’s my partner; he’s my friend; he’s my companion,” Brown said. “He’s right there with me. He’s my eyes and ears. I have a whole lot of respect for the dog and the job he does.”

When he’s not assisting the CPD, Bosco lives with the Brown family. Brown’s wife, Colleen, and their three children — 3, 6 and 9 years old — all get along well with Bosco. Brown said Bosco even likes to lay with his children in bed.

“You would never know he’s the same dog,” Brown said.

Brown enjoys bringing Bosco to various Canton schools and letting the children get to see him up close and get a better understanding of the role he plays in the community.

Not all of Bosco’s work is fun and games, however. This past December, Brown and Bosco assisted the Dedham Police Department in tracking down an armed convenience store robbery suspect. Brown told the Citizen at the time that it was “the most significant find Bosco has uncovered.”

Brown, a Canton native and a 1989 graduate of Canton High School, is a third generation police officer. For the last ten years, he has also been a member of the special weapons and tactics (SWAT) unit for the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council (METROLEC).

Brown describes the SWAT team as “law enforcement’s last defense,” dealing with anything from “active shooting suspects to barricaded suspects.”

METROLEC is made up of police departments from 43 local communities, including the CPD. Where many small communities might not have the resources to deal with every potential situation, METROLEC offers a regional support system for law enforcement agencies.

Overall, it’s the unpredictability of being a police officer that Brown finds most appealing.

“This isn’t a job where it’s five days a week, 40 hours a week,” Brown said. “You have to be prepared for a call anytime.”

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