Legislative Updates

The committee on public service has announced a hearing on March 4, 2024 to discuss changes to civil service. The bill contains language that would allow communities to expand the hiring process. Over the past several years many communities have bargained leaving civil service as a way to expand their potential hires. Click here for

In accordance with joint rule 10, the committee has issued their report with legislative decisions on topics that will move forward. Our veterans buy back bill received a favorable recommendation while the retiree earnings was sent to study. We have included it below. Note there are 3 tabs. Favorable, Study and Extension. Contact us with any questions.

Last week the MPA join Massachusetts district attorneys in voicing concern over changes to drug forfeiture process. The newest version S2944 changes earlier versions which would have put the money in state control. We were able to show that co-mingling of federal funds was not allowed in drug related cases. Although there may be increased

Moments ago the POST Commission closed their public meeting without enacting emergency regulations covering recertification process. After nearly two hours of comments and questions, commissioners were uncomfortable with the emergency enactment. Attorney Scheft spoke on behalf of the MPA with the concerns we had raised in our meeting last week and codified in our document submission.

Last week the POST commission approved an 8-question recertification questionnaire. At first glance it appears to be creating more questions than it answers. It seems to put aside rights of officers covered in collective bargaining C150E as well as rights against self-incrimination. What makes is more troubling is that law enforcement officers/union officials that sit

Although the State House remains in lockdown business is slowly progressing.  This week the House released its budget for fiscal year 2022. We continue to go through it but noted that it increases spending over the Governors proposal and puts more money into local aid. We don’t expect any legislative/policy changes to be taken up during

In a fait accompli, Governor Baker put the pen to paper and made police reform official. As he did so the MPA joined other police groups in a brainstorming session to plan a course of action for the next legislative session. Among the topics were nominees to serve on the POST commission. We will continue

Senate Votes 31-9 to Pass Reform, House Finalizes on Tuesday After a long day of waiting, the Senate quickly voted down several amendments and passed what they called a compromise police teform package. Making minor concessions to assure the Governors signature, the Senate voted 31-9 and sent the bill to the House for action tomorrow.

Although the Senate will be holding a formal session Friday, we have been told that police reform will not be on the agenda. Friday will be to take up budget overrides addressed by the House on Wednesday as well as abortion legislation overrides.The Senate will continue to examine the Governors amendments to the reform bill

You can view it by clicking here

After a weekend of productive dialogue,  and positive feedback on Monday, today the train went off the rails. We were informed this morning that some in the Governors office had convinced him to put politics before public safety and abandon many of our amendments. We had worked on board makeup and due process protections. Although

Initial Senate Roll Call Click here

After reviewing the bill, we urge you to call your legislators and ask them to vote no. Although it calls for a study of qualified immunity in another section it states if decertified the officer would be subject to litigation. Due process is weak at best and the makeup of various committees and commission are overwhelmingly

Last night the Senate completed debate on the 46 billion dollar fiscal 21 budget. Very similar to the House version, it now heads to conference committee to iron out the few differences, then on to the Governor. Our amendment waiving retiree earning was accepted and will be in the final version. We thank Senate leadership

Last week, the House completed budget debate with abortion debate taking center stage. Worried that the US Supreme court may act on Roe v. Wade, the House passed safeguards to assure women would still be able to end their pregnancy. The rest of the budget passed with little debate and few amendments. We were fortunate

The House began debate on a 46 billion dollar fiscal 21 budget. Delayed 7 months due to covid, the House uses nearly 2 billion from the rainy day fund to maintain services.  Although Speaker DeLeo warned they would not consider policy amendments, we along with Massachusetts Retirees are looking to extend the waiver of earnings

Kevin is dedicated toward defending the police, not defunding them. Please consider voting for him on election day

The MMA is taking police reform and suggesting further crippling of collective bargaining rights in order to carry out the mission of reform. The suggestion of dismantling bargaining rights under 150E would be the final nail in the coffin of law enforcement. We are disappointed but not surprised that municipal leader would take this opportunity

Covid 19 has changed a lot of behavior including this year’s legislative session. Since 1995, the formal session ended at the stroke of midnight on July 31st. That all ended this year when both the House and Senate voted to extend the formal session thru year end. This means that in addition to the budget

The Senate named Senators Brownsberger, Chang-Diaz and Tarr while the House named Representatives Cronin, Gonzalez and Whelan to the conference committee which will negotiate the final version of police reform. No real surprises but we are hopeful that Representative Gonzalez who also serves as chairman of the black and latino caucus can temper the dialogue.

House debate begins tomorrow! We have been working hard to place our input into this version of the bill. Click the name of the amendment to view the proposed change. Please contact your local State Reps and ask for their support on the following amendments:Amendment# 3 (Rep. Alan Silvia)-  Membership of Police Standards and Training CommissionAmendment #61

Please follow the link to view the summary of H.4860. Click here for summary

Written Testimony was submitted to the House this morning by Executive Director Jim Machado on behalf of the Association. Electronic Email Only testimony is being allowed until 11:00AM. We encourage you to submitted your testimony by emailing: [email protected] Click here for a copy of the testimony that was submitted by the MPA

The senate has released their final revision. Stay tuned as we expect the house to release their version on Monday. Click here to view the bill.

Early this morning, after nearly 17 hours of painful debate, the Senate passed their vision of police reform by a 30 to 7 vote with 3 members voting present. Senators Rush, Collins from Boston , Velis, Gobi, Fattman, Moore and Tran from central and western Mass voting no . Senators Tarr, O Connor and DiZoglio

As we alerted you, the Senate did meet and the item was quickly tabled again. A session is scheduled for tomorrow but we are hearing that real action in more likely on Monday. We cant let our guard down and must continue to press for fair and equitable solutions to qualified immunity and due process.

We are getting early indications that the Senate session scheduled for today may be impacted by further use of parliamentary  procedure to lay the bill on the table. The standoff hinges on qualified immunity with the MPA position being that the issue is too complex to decide in 3 days. We have been advocating for

Using parliamentary procedure, Senator Ryan Fattman moved to place the item on the table. This means the debate will begin again tomorrow at 11:00AM. Over the last several hours, we have been involved in detailed discussions on qualified immunity. Explainations of the anticipated action created more confusion than answers. Given this, we asked the issue

Executive Director Jim Machado is working tirelessly on the proposed legislation and we will up date membership when we have concrete info. We are working towards change that is fair for all. Our biggest concerns are preserving qualified immunity and an appeal process as well as the number of votes necessary from the board for

Today the Senate will be releasing their version of the Police Reform. The entire bill can be viewed by clicking the link provided. We expect this to move very quickly and anticipate a vote this week. Continue to call your Senators and let your voice be heard.

Just received word that the final touches are being put on the Senate version of police reform/ POST legislation. It could be released as soon as this weekend but no later than next week. We are led to believe that it will focus mostly on POST with several items such as chokeholds, data collection, militarization

Throughout the weekend, we have been in numerous  communications with members of the legislature as well as the administration including those in the House and Senate responsible for creating legislation for their branches. As bad as some of the already released legislation cripples law enforcement, we are aware of a concerted effort by some to

Earlier today, Governor Baker was joined by members of the black and Latino caucus and released his bill on police licensing/certification. We have put together a summary and highlights of the legislation. Establish a police officer standards and accreditation committee (POSAC) made up of 7 police officers and 7 civilians. They would serve for three

We were informed late last night that Governor Baker will release his version of police reforms on Wednesday. We expect to receive a draft this morning and will have more comments.

Yesterday, the SCOTUS chose not to review cases regarding qualified immunity. This principle protects government employees acting in an official capacity from lawsuit unless their actions violate ” clearly established” federal law or constitutional rights. It takes four justices to take up a case. In the past, Justice Sotomayor, the most liberal on the court and

We are tracking this Bill closely as it is in the early stages of development. As of yesterday, it did not have a filing number yet. We look forward to an open dialogue and having a voice in any future reform discussions. Stay tuned as we will keep you posted to any updates. The bill

Yesterday Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership released the Justice in Policing Act which calls for reforms in policing that include a ban on chokeholds, an end no knock warrants in drug cases and makes lynching a federal hate crime. It goes on to require local departments submit their uses of force to the feds

Today the SJC gave us a partial victory in their ruling concerning the release of prisoners in Massachusetts jails. They ruled that only pre-trial detainees being held on bail for non violent offenses could be eligible for release. There would be a hearing to decide on a case by case basis. The ACLU said the

Brother and Sister Retirees,Over the weekend Governor Baker signed into law Chapter 53 of the Acts of 2020 which states that retiree earnings earned during the declared state of emergency would be exempt from earnings restrictions for the calendar year 2020. The state of emergency began on March 10th so any earnings received from that