Meet Portsmouth’s water cop: Harbormaster Stephen Burns

He talks about jet skis, his souped-up boat and more

By Jim McGaw
Posted 9/8/17

PORTSMOUTH — If you’re a boater, no doubt you’ve spotted Portsmouth Harbormaster Stephen Burns out on the water — and hopefully you were on the right side of the …

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Meet Portsmouth’s water cop: Harbormaster Stephen Burns

He talks about jet skis, his souped-up boat and more

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — If you’re a boater, no doubt you’ve spotted Portsmouth Harbormaster Stephen Burns out on the water — and hopefully you were on the right side of the law.

Sgt. Burns, 44, has been with the force for 17 years and was with the detective division when he took over as harbormaster in 2010. (The town paid for his training so her could acquire a captain’s license.)

Outside of his harbormaster duties, which is his full-time assignment from May through September, he’s a patrol sergeant during the day.

We chatted with him last week at the Carnegie Abbey Marina, where the town keeps one of its two police boats.

What’s a typical day like for the harbormaster? “We get a lot of calls for people operating recklessly near swimming areas; Potter’s Cove is always big for that. You’re not supposed to cause a wake within 200 feet of anything and we get a lot of calls for that type of stuff. We do some BWIs (boating while intoxicated) and we’ve had to pull a couple of people out of the water because of overturned boats.”

What’s the strangest call you’ve ever gotten? “You can’t put that in the paper!”

Do you ever get attitude when you pull a boater over? “It’s actually the complete opposite. Boating people are nice to other boaters. When I stop someone on the road, it’s usually met with a little bit of an attitude. But out here, boating people are generally pretty happy you stopped them because nine times out of 10 it’s for a safety inspection. There’s required equipment you’re supposed to have on your boat: fire extinguisher, flares, flotation … If they’ve got everything, then it’s, ‘Have a nice day!’ A lot of people don’t get citations because they have what they need.”

But unlike driving a car, you don’t need to take a course first. “But you do. If you were born after 1986, you need a boating license to operate a boat. If you were born prior to 1986, you don’t need a license to operate a boat, but everybody needs a license to operate a jet ski — no matter what your age. A lot of people don’t know that. That’s been a huge issue. All it is is a safety class, so they can get it from Rhode Island DEM or any testing agency that has a NASBLA (National Association of State Boating Law Administrators) endorsement.”

Do you cite a lot of jet skiers? “Almost every one. We get a lot between McCorrie and Sandy Point and then in Blue Bill Cove and Potters Cove. I’d say every time we stop a jet ski, nine out of 10 don’t have it. Now and again, we find someone who has one and it’s like, ‘Wow!’”

What do you find boaters generally doing wrong on the water? “A lot of times they’re not where they’re supposed to be. We had a sailboat the other day right in front of Gould Island on a big rock. The barrel’s there, but they went on the wrong side of it and got hung up.”

You have two police boats now. Tell us about this one, which was purchased in 2016. “This is a 25-foot, 2004 SAFE boat Defender — 450 horsepower. It came from the Coast Guard.”

Why do we need two harbormaster boats? “The Parker (the town’s older police boat) is not really built for what we’re doing, especially when we go out in the winter. This has heat; it was built for heavy weather. The Parker’s really a fishing boat with ‘Police’ on the side and lights; it wasn’t purpose-built. We got that in 2009 with a grant, so I don’t think the town paid much, if anything. This boat was purchased through a private sale and we got it with two older motors on it. These seats probably go for about $5,000 each and they have big shock absorbers; when you hit the waves, it doesn’t hurt your back. It’s got a Simrad display with sonar so we can pick up any objects under the water. We’ve got a laptop for any police stuff. Anything they can do in a car, I can do in the boat. This was definitely a good purchase.”

How do you use the two boats? “We keep this one here (at Carnegie Abbey), with the primary response for Hog and Prudence islands. It’s an average of three to four minutes from the station to here by car, then it’s another three to four minutes in this to Prudence Island. Now we keep the Parker over at Stone Bridge, so we have an east side/west side response. If there’s a problem at Black Point, coming from here would take us maybe 20 minutes. We can save the 15 minutes (by using the older boat). The police and fire share everything, so if they have a response on the other side, they can take the Parker. (The Fire Department) has a boat here, but if it goes down, they can take this one.”

Portsmouth Police Department, Portsmouth harbormaster

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