Photos by Frank Santagelo 

By William Tauro 

The only things better for us from the newsroom watching the great Parade of Sails in Boston harbor this past weekend from the decks of The Somerville News Weekly Newsboat the ‘Miss Somerville News Weekly II’ was seeing several Somerville Police officers on a Quincy Police Marine Unit boat patrol boat in the inner harbor that was provided support and security.
In addition to the maritime officers, the Quincy Police Marine Unit that was commanded by LT. Robert Gillan is assisting the Somerville Police Department with the build out of the SPD boat and training.  
The Quincy Police Department has one of the premier maritime units in New England. The Somerville K-9 and Dog Officer Tim Sullivan provided EOD support for the Navy Yard, Somerville Police Detective Collazo and other officers assigned to the regional COBRA bike unit worked in Boston for the Parade of Sails in small bike teams.
The Somerville K-9 Unit and several maritime trained officers will continue to work in Boston enhancing regional enhancements until this coming Thursday afternoon when the ships depart Boston.
We hear that the Somerville Police Department is very close to getting a serious police boat unit up and running and has been training a half dozen officers to operate a new police vessel for the new Somerville Police Department Marine Unit both in Somerville and in the region for events such as the Parade of Sails, 4th of July and other events as needed to help the public. 
We first reported this last year that Somerville will finally be constructing a Marine unit which is very well needed now that we are utilizing our wonderful Somerville waterfront. 
Sail Boston for the new Somerville Police Marine Unit guys was a very long day for them as well as all first responders as they started their shifts to keep the peace before 5:00AM. 
The Maritime build out and regional support is being spearheaded by Somerville Sgt Michael Kiely of the Homeland Security unit. He is the Somerville regional liaison as well as he is bringing in and utilizing a lot of federal funds. 
Somerville Police Chief DavId Fallon has made this one project one of his of his priorities as now that Somerville is in need of a police marne unit to patrol our newly commissioned waterfront to protect our citizens and to ensure their safety.