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 years
- Certification – All municipal, MSP, MBTA, environmental, campus and sheriffs. License valid for 3 years and require 120 hours of training (40 per year)
- Data Collection
- Police departments would be required to report to POSAC:
- any felony or misdemeanor conviction
- any separation to include suspension, resignation,termination or retirement noting if these occurred while an IA investigation is open
- facts of any sustained IA charge
These along with training records would be available to other police departmentsUpon request the public could acquire the officers certification status, training records and facts of sustained IA charge. They would not be able to know reasons for separation or any convictions.
Mandatory De-certification would be triggered if:
- It was obtained by fraud
- De-certified in another state for improper conduct
- terminated for misconduct defined as intentional conduct to obtain false confessions, make false arrests,relate or use false evidence, destroy evidence, deprivation of rights, hate crimes or any conduct resulting in personal gain
- convicted of any felony
- convicted of any misdemeanor that would result on loss of firearm license or punishable by more than 2 years in jail to include drug crimes and domestic violence
- had sustained use of force charge based on use of choke hold
- officer failed to intervene to prevent unreasonable force
- excessive use of force resulting in serious bodily injury
- perjury or false statements in a police report
Discretionary De-certification could occur if:
1) officer convicted of any misdemeanor
2) officer has history of repeated sustained IA complaintsThese could result in de-certification, suspension, reprimand, or no action
The bill also removes civil service review of any de-certification decisions or employment action based on mandatory de-certification.
Finally it provides the MPTC to provide advanced training which could provide incremental bonuses of $1000, $2500, $5000 to officers. The bonus would only be for the year they are completed and must be completed in the calendar year.
We hope this gives you an idea of what’s contained in the legislation. Remember this is only one version with the House scheduled to release their version shortly. What is evident is the momentum to get something done before the session ends on July 31st.
Stayed tuned for the latest.
Jim Machado