Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network

Massachusetts Police News, Information and Discussions on MassCops

Posted by: kwflatbed

Mayor To Appoint Board To Review Misconduct Cases

BOSTON -- Boston Mayor Thomas Menino plans to appoint a civilian board to review police misconduct cases, a move long sought by community leaders.

The three-member Civilian Review and Mediation Board will represent the public, and will review all allegations of serious misconduct that are dismissed by the police department's internal affairs division, The Boston Globe reported Friday.

The board also will investigate less serious cases if a member of the public appeals an internal affairs decision.

"This is an important step in the process of people having faith in the review of complaints that go to the department," Menino said. He said he will begin reviewing candidates immediately, a process that could take several weeks.

The paid, part-time ombudsmen will not have the power to conduct their own investigations or to issue subpoenas. They will be able to ask for further police investigations of complaints and to make recommendations to the police commissioner, said the city's corporation counsel, William F. Sinnott. The board also will make an annual report to the mayor, which will be available to the public.

A panel investigating the 2004 pepper pellet-gun shooting death of 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove had recommended such a review board. Snelgrove died when police fired the weapon into an unruly crowd celebrating a Red Sox win. Menino had at first resisted involving a strong outside entity in police review.

But the city did hire an outside consultant to come up with a plan for a review board, and the final plans include many of those recommendations.

Sinnott said police internal affairs misconduct complaint forms and materials will be translated into several languages and made available on the city's Web site.

Also, officers and complainants will have the option to take less serious allegations to mediation instead of formal internal affairs investigations.

The city has had a citizens appeal board to consider police internal affairs decisions, but it hasn't met in years.

Darnell Williams, head of the Urban League of Massachusetts, told the Globe he hoped the mayor would reconsider giving the new board subpoena power. He also said he would like reports more than once a year.

"Is it all that we want? Probably not," Williams said. "Is it moving in the right direction? Yes."




Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

---

Posted by: BrickCop

I'm curious to see what qualifications these civilians have. How can someone navigate potentially complex issues such as reasonable force, probable cause, etc when they have virtually no training is said areas?

Then again I'm sure the agenda driven, politically correct appointees will be more than competent to critque an occupation that they know very little about.

---

Posted by: Mongo

You are absolutley correct BrickCop. My own sainted Mother would'nt understand why I took a subject to the ground, or sprayed them, or even cuffed them, let alone use deadly force. It is a very dangerous practice to utilize civillians this way. What ever happened to I.A. If their own I.A. sucks that bad send the cases to another agency.

---

Posted by: djgj200

Menino obviously hates BPD. First he comes up with drug testing and now this.

---

Posted by: 94c

Quote:

Originally Posted by djgj200 Menino obviously hates BPD. First he comes up with drug testing and now this.

what's wrong with drug testing?

---

Posted by: Mongo

Quote:

Originally Posted by djgj200 Menino obviously hates BPD. First he comes up with drug testing and now this.

What's up with that.

---

Posted by: kwflatbed

Quote:

Originally Posted by djgj200 Menino obviously hates BPD. First he comes up with drug testing and now this.

---

Posted by: SOT

He is an absolute dumb ass

---

Posted by: LA Copper

We've had a civilian police commission and drug testing since before I came on the job back in 1988. It's no big deal, they'll survive. Nobody has more controversial stuff go on then we do and we're still here, although I'm not a big fan of a civilian police commission. The drug testing is a different thing, I'm all for it.

---

Posted by: tazoez

Quote:

Originally Posted by djgj200 First he comes up with drug testing and now this.

Dude seriously, you need to stop smoking or snorting the stuff if you want to be a cop. That is the only reason that I can think of as to why you would have an issue with drug testing.

---

Posted by: RPD931

If someone is pissed off that a City or Town requires drug testing for Police, then they clearly should not be a cop. Like Taz said, stop smoking/snorting the stuff. Nobody wants a junkie or a pot-head for a partner.

WTF is wrong with people?

---

vBulletin Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.
vB Easy Archive Final ©2000 - 2008 - Created by Stefan "Xenon" Kaeser