Michelle Wu, a fierce advocate for police transparency earlier than changing into Boston mayor, now has a dismal document of holding her personal police accountable – from blocking physique cam footage from going public to declaring her commissioner a civilian to keep away from scrutiny.
With one notable exception, Wu has stated little about police accountability after being elected mayor 4 years in the past and as a substitute received the endorsement of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Union.
The exception was when Wu stated the town’s Workplace of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) was amassing studies on alleged abuses by ICE officers.
However in terms of holding her personal police division accountable, Wu has been lax.
Her administration has usually resisted the media’s public data requests for physique cam footage and has insulated Commissioner Michael Cox from potential scrutiny by hiding behind technicalities that he’s not a police officer.
Wu’s administration, which is being sued by an ex-city worker concerned in a Metropolis Corridor love triangle, has refused to launch physique cam footage from the evening of the worker’s assault arrest. The arrest prompted Wu to fireplace her.
Marwa Khudaynazar claims recordings she has seen from police will present she by no means punched a feminine responding officer, and has requested a Boston federal courtroom choose to rethink its approval of a movement to seal the physique cam footage.
Police physique cam recordings are ruled by public data legislation and Secretary of State William Galvin has fought a invoice to make them exempt from the legislation. He famous that solely footage that might establish witnesses or victims is mostly allowed to be withheld by police.
“Allowing police departments to withhold any footage captured on these cameras would interfere with the public’s ability to oversee their own government,” Galvin, who’s in control of implementing the general public data legislation, wrote to lawmakers. “This is an issue of particular importance to minority communities, and withholding videos of police interactions would only breed mistrust. This is an area where we need more transparency, not less.”
Wu’s administration additionally turned embroiled lately within the Karen Learn case after Learn’s legal professional, Alan Jackson, wrote a scathing letter to Wu and the state Police Officer Requirements and Coaching (POST) Fee asking for a disciplinary evaluation of Cox for “dishonesty, lack of candor and conduct unbecoming of an officer.”
Jackson recommended Cox lied when he stated he didn’t find out about former officer Kelly Dever’s involvement within the Learn case and pressured her to alter her testimony – a cost Cox has strongly denied.
Dever is a former Boston police officer and Canton police officer who labored the evening earlier than John O’Keefe was discovered useless within the snow.
However the POST Fee govt director Enrique Zuniga rejected Jackson’s letter, saying Cox was not topic to evaluation as a result of he’s a civilian. Cox is a former longtime Boston police officer picked by Wu to steer the division.
“According to the City, Commissioner Cox does not personally carry out police duties and functions,” the letter from Zuniga stated. “Based in part on this information, the Commission thus far has not required non-sworn civilian executives such as Commissioner Cox to obtain law enforcement certification nor has the Commission treated them as being subject to other statutory and regulatory provisions governing sworn law enforcement officers.”
WBUR has additionally reported that Cox “routinely” rejects suggestions by the Workplace of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) to punish officers accused of wrongdoing.
The workplace, which features a civilian evaluation board and was created by the Metropolis Council and signed by then-Mayor Marty Walsh after the police homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis, has reviewed 18 citizen complaints and really helpful self-discipline in some circumstances.
“The ordinance says that we make recommendations to the police commissioner,” stated Joshua Dankoff, who serves on OPAT. “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.”
