Meet Boston’s Newest Cops, Who Also Happen To Be In Love

There’s a first for everything, and this week, boyfriends graduating the police academy together is having its moment.

Meet Jimmy Moccia and Shawn MacIver, who as of today are cadets in the Boston Police Force. They’re also a happily partnered couple of five years.

Moccia, whose father and brother who are also Boston cops, told the Boston Herald “I think it’s important to note that throughout the entire academy experience we were never afraid to be ourselves.”

“I’m not going to lie. I was pretty nervous on the first day back in December,” he continued. “I sort of didn’t want people to find out because I didn’t want people to look at me differently. I wanted people to get to know us. We didn’t want to be known as ‘the gay cops.’ We’re cops who just happen to be gay. There’s so many other things we are. Yeah, gay’s on the list, but it doesn’t define us.

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MacIver almost gave up his dream of joining the force were it not for the inspiration he found in Tim Hancock, a member of the BPD’s SWAT team.

“Tim came out 20 years ago this month after he graduated from the police academy,” MacIver said. “He’s a former Marine, a legend in the department, not to mention an inspiration and motivator who told me I could pick up my dream and follow it here in Boston.”

The two met working security for gay bar Club Cafe in Boston, and hope their being part of a minority community will serve them in their new jobs.

“On the civil service exam there is no box you can check for being ‘gay,’ but the truth is we are a minority,” Moccia said. “We are a minority in the country as well as the department. But when you talk about community policing, I think it really provides us with a deeper empathy. We understand what it is like to exist in the shadows.”