The demand by Karen Learn’s legal professional for an investigation into Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox places a harsh highlight on Cox’s weak management, together with a scarcity of transparency and urgency.
When he was appointed by Mayor Michelle Wu in 2022, Cox vowed to enhance the connection between police and the general public and restore transparency, however his report falls far in need of that promise.
Cox as a substitute has grow to be a legal responsibility for Wu, regardless of her glowing remarks when she appointed him.
“We have to earn (the public’s) trust, and so we’re going to go about doing that,” Cox mentioned after he was sworn in.
“I ask everyone who loves this city to please join in helping move the Boston Police Department forward,” he mentioned. “Give us feedback on how we can be better, and work with us as we try to… face the challenges that the city has, and actually serve you the way you need to be served.”
However how can he do this when he’s a part of the least clear administration in metropolis historical past, stifling public data requests and refusing to confess the town has against the law downside?
Cox has turned out to be largely a figurehead puppet for the Democratic mayor, following the identical Wu blueprint for ignoring critical crime whereas spewing the identical politically-motivated fantasy that Boston is the “safest major city” within the nation.
Learn’s legal professional, Alan Jackson, despatched a scathing letter this week to Wu slamming Cox for being “caught in a lie” about what he allegedly advised Learn case witness Kelly Dever, a former Boston cop.
Jackson was referring to feedback Cox made again in July when he mentioned he didn’t even know Dever was related to the Learn case.
“I have nothing to do with Karen Read,” Cox mentioned.
“For the Commissioner to suggest that he had ‘nothing to do with that case’ defies both logic and leadership,” Jackson wrote.
Jackson additionally known as for a right away disciplinary investigation into Cox by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Requirements and Coaching (POST) Fee.
“This is not a political issue. It is a question of credibility and public trust,” Jackson wrote in a letter to the fee. “When Boston’s top law-enforcement officer lies about his own knowledge of a case under federal scrutiny, the stain spreads across the entire system. Accountability cannot stop at the Commissioner’s door.”
Cox is underneath hearth not only for the Learn case however for his failure to take motion in opposition to cops accused by the general public of misconduct.
A current investigation by WBUR discovered Cox often rejects even modest disciplinary suggestions by the Workplace of Police Accountability and Transparency.
“The (city) ordinance says that we make recommendations to the police commissioner,” mentioned considered one of OPAT’s civilian board members, Joshua Dankoff. “I think it is not within the spirit of the ordinance, or the intention of it, to then have those recommendations not be responded to at all.”
The Civilian Evaluation Board for OPAT despatched a letter to Cox this month criticizing him for ignoring their suggestions. WBUR discovered Cox didn’t reply to the board in eight instances.
“Boston cannot move forward with a police accountability system that is ignored by police leadership and employees,” the board wrote.
Wu’s workplace didn’t reply to the letter or questions on whether or not she would ask Cox to make modifications, as a substitute resorting to the administration’s frequent characterization of Boston as “the safest major city in the country.”
This regardless of current violence within the metropolis and assaults on police which included a “street takeover” within the South Finish, the place a police cruiser was torched by fireworks and a number of other officers attacked with poles and cones, and a pro-Hamas demonstration the place protesters injured a number of officers.
Cox and Wu vowed to get robust with the road takeovers, but solely two arrests have been made, each of them youngsters from Rhode Island. They have been each launched on minor bail quantities.
That’s getting robust?
Cox earlier this 12 months additionally confronted questions in regards to the police division’s refusal to reply to detainer requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Cox claimed the town solely received 15 civil detainer requests from ICE, however the federal company challenged that declare saying the feds lodged 198 requests in 2024, none of which have been honored.
Boston Police blamed the discrepancy on the truth that detainer requests are despatched by fax as a substitute of e-mail.
