Question Time.
By Jim Conley • Feb 4th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Question: Why does Brookline need a civilian review board to handle citizen complaints into police department actions?
Answer: Well, besides the obvious reason that the police can’t investigate themselves, it puts control of department investigation into the hands of residents. The idea is not to put new pressure on officers, but to remove politics from the review process.
Question: Why can’t the Brookline Selectmen serve as the review board?
Answer: First let’s set aside the fact that the current board of selectmen view their job as being morale boosters for town employees; and that at least one board member has turned his law firm into a concierge service for people doing business with town government. It’s just not reasonable to think that a board of five part-timers are going to put the time - and political temerity - into adjudicating these complaints.
Question: Couldn’t a different board of selectmen produce a different result?
Answer: Perhaps. But this board has proven that they can’t rise above the politics and the personalities involved. They’ve marginalized the witnesses as “friends of Conquest” and steamrolled all principles of fairness. A political group is going to act out the politics in a case like this. There’s no reason to believe any other board would behave differently.
Question: Isn’t this an over-reaction to the Arthur Conquest case?
Answer: I don’t believe anyone who has witnessed the selectmen’s behavior in the Conquest matter (on both sides) believe that it was handled well. Look, you can’t expect that a board chaired by Nancy Daly is going to acquit itself in a matter with racial and Constitutional implications.
Question: But the selectmen have assembled a panel of experts to advise them on the policy for handling these complaints. Shouldn’t we wait to hear what they say before acting on a civilian panel?
Answer: The panel of experts is a sham. It’s a way for the selectmen and Town Administrator Richard Kelliher to appear as responding to the Conquest matter and to circumvent any warrant articles at the May town meeting dealing with police review. They do this all the time - put the decision on a panel of experts and then time the panel’s report until after an election or town meeting. The panel of experts is not going to look at who performs the review, but the folks on the sixth floor will make you think they are.
Question: Selectman Bobby Allen has said that hearing appeals of internal investigations (as in the Conquest case) will cause officers to, “worry that someone is looking over their shoulder, making them more cautious in the field.”
Answer: Uh, I think that’s the point.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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WAITING FOR GODOT, BROOKLINE STYLE
When can this panel of experts (whoever they are) be expected to be appointed, consider their mission statement (including via public meetings and perhaps hearings) and report back to the Selectmen? Surely it won’t be prior to the upcoming May elections with two (2) Selectman seats on the ballot. How about by this fall’s anticipated Special Town Meeting? Or by the May 2009 elections when two (2) Selectman seats will be on the ballot? Meantime, will TMMs sit on their duffs patiently, waiting for Godot?
TRANSPARENCY EXCEPTION: BPD?
The “Trinity of Transparency” in good governance - Open Meeting Law, Public Records Law and Whistleblower Policy - may be opaque with BPD in the event of a complaint by a citizen. What is wrong with public employees knowing that their actions - or inactions - may be subject to public scrutiny, that someone may be ilooking over their shoulders? Should physicians be permitted to bury their mistakes without bearing responsibility? Should attorneys be absolved of error or incompetence that may damage their clients?
With respect to the BIG DIG it took many years - and a death! - before officials pushed for responsibility on the part of the contractors, etc. The shame is that pressure had not been firmly applied years ago that might have saved the Commonwealth many dollars and spared the life of an innocent victim.
I would venture to say that most public employees proudly perform their jobs in a conscientious manner whether or not someone is looking over their shoulders.