By Sean Philip Cotter
Boston Herald
BOSTON — The Boston Police Reform Task Force is recommending that the city create an independent office to handle complaints against the cops.
The report recommends establishing an independent Office of Police Accountability and Transparency that would be staffed by civilians and exist outside of the Boston Police Department and City Hall. This new office would have the ability to issue subpoenas amid its “broad investigatory and supervisory powers” to review internal and external complaints.
Mayor Martin Walsh said he would let the planned public comment period on the recommendations play out before taking a position on whether to adopt them, but said that the task force did a “great job.”
“Every recommendation is very strong — valid points there,” the mayor told reporters. “They they took a real great look at it and took into account what’s in place today with accountability, and what’s missing.”
Walsh created the task force as calls and protests for police reform grew in June following several high-profile police shootings of Black people. The Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel has been the mechanism to oversee some complaints against the department, but despite movement by Walsh early in his tenure to strengthen the panel, it is essentially toothless and does very little.
Walsh insisted that this new office would be more effective.
“The way it’s written is much stronger, much stronger,” Walsh said.
The task force recommendations also call for new police diversity initiatives, the expansion of the current body-cam program, and more clarity and reporting on use of force.
But Walsh insisted he is “not a supporter of defunding the police,” as protesters — and some city councilors — have called for, though he reiterated his support for looking at moving some duties away from police.
“I’m not going to put the city of Boston at a public-safety risk,” the mayor said. “If we need to fund police officers to keep us safe, then we’re going to do that.”
The City Council is currently considering a bill to create a civilian review board. Public Safety Chair Andrea Campbell, who sponsored that proposal along with Councilors Julia Mejia and Ricardo Arroyo, said she was pleased to see the task force recommending “something similar” to their bill, which she still called to pass.
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