New Police Chief Anthony Holloway is getting rave reviews from some of the toughest critics around – Somerville police officers. That hard-working but divisive bunch that rarely agree on anything. Even those who have been quick to criticize department leadership in the past concede he is a hands on, fair cop with a plan to bring true community policing back to Somerville neighborhoods.

‚ÄúHe’s a real cop,‚Äù is how one officer put it shortly after Holloway took over in January. Before he officially started the job he already did what few chiefs have done here. Called the first outsider to lead the department, he was the first top cop to actually live in the city during his tenure in recent memory.

But while the verdict seems to be in on his character and dedication, Holloway’s reorganization of the police department has yet to be tested. The goal sounds right – build better relations with the community – and so do the methods: getting police out of the cruiser and into the neighborhoods. But ask any veteran officer and they will tell you each new administration has had a grand plan to cure the ills of the Somerville Police Department. How many were successful?

One observer said Holloway’s reorganization plan owes 80 percent of its ideas and strategies to his predecessor Bob Bradley and 20 percent was tacked on by Holloway after he got the job (and after the patrol union approved Bradley’s reorganization). The hybrid may turn out to be effective but it has slowed implementation.

Another complicating factor is Holloway’s (and the department’s) relationship with City Hall. Bradley was criticized as being a subordinate to the mayor. Will Holloway, who owes his job to the mayor, be the first chief since Robert Carroll to back his men consistently?

He’s off to a good start, he’s won over a tough (and important) constituency in his own house, but soon his policies will live or die on their own. Yet the thing that should comfort the city as a whole about Holloway is, like the rest of us, he will be here to suffer or enjoy the consequences of his work.