Massachusetts Law Enforcement groups file suit against police standards commission

A trio of law enforcement groups filed suit Wednesday against an agency tasked with policing their training and standards.

“Today, the Massachusetts Coalition of Police (MassCOP), the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation (BPSOF), and the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society (BPDBS) announced that three plaintiffs – acting in the interest of law enforcement professionals as well as all citizens of Massachusetts – have filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court against the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (‘POST Commission’),” the groups said in a release.

According to the plaintiffs, the POST Commission has been conducting business behind closed doors in violation of the open meeting law.

“This complaint alleges and details repeated violations of the Commonwealth’s Open Meeting Law by the POST Commission, including a disturbing practice of conducting much of the Commission’s critical work in secret,” the group said.

The commission responded to the suit Wednesday, saying they have complied with all required meeting rules.

“POST Commission strongly believes that it has complied at all times with the Open Meeting law, and is reviewing the complaint filed today,” a POST spokesperson told the Herald.

The POST commission is charged with creating mandatory certification standards for police officers in the commonwealth.

The act that created the commission, signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker on New Year’s Eve of 2020, also set a deadline for law enforcement agencies to recertify all police officers.

The deadline to recertify officers with last names ‘A’ through ‘H’ is June 30. The commission, on April 4, issued a set of questions which would be used to certify officers. According to the lawsuit, the mechanism by which the commission came up with those questions isn’t legal.

“The attached complaint and motion demonstrate how the POST Commission created subcommittees that have illegally performed their work in total secrecy – without any notice to the public and without any public involvement or observation,” the groups said.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Officer Scott Hovsepian, president of MassCOP, Sgt. Jeanne Carroll, president of the BPSOF, Det. Donald Caisey, president of the BPDBS.

“The Post Commission has violated the public’s trust, disregarded and broken the Open Meeting Law, and betrayed the very principles upon which the Massachusetts police reform act of 2020 was based,” the three officers said in a joint statement.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/j5V1C60