More scrutiny eyed for state police amid scandals

State police — under fire for hiring and potential overtime abuse scandals — would be subject to another layer of scrutiny under a budget proposal that would examine the department’s hiring, testing and assignment practices.

The proposal by the House Ways and Means Committee recommends having the House and Senate leaders of the Committee on Public Service convene a special legislative commission of stakeholders to “examine the relevance of testing requirements, preferential treatment given on competitive exams and other areas to secure and ensure that the state police is reflective of the people who they serve,” said Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez.

The group would be charged with meeting at least monthly and must make recommendations by the end of the calendar year. The same deadline would be in place for the Collins Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which is provided funding to study and make suggestions for reforms of the overall management structure of the state police.

The House also reins in the state police’s main budget account — proposing to fund the agency with about $281.4 million, less than the $287.8 million in the current budget and the $284.9 million proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker.

The proposal is part of the committee’s 2019 fiscal year $41B budget released yesterday.

The increased review of the state police comes in response to a series of controversies that have resulted in two federal lawsuits and an investigation into possible overtime abuse.

A scathing internal review released in March revealed that 30 current and former troopers may have been paid for overtime shifts that were never worked in 2016. Some of those troopers have retired and others are on administrative leave.

Under a set of reforms unveiled by Baker and state police Col. Kerry Gilpin early this month, it was announced the former State Police division assigned to the Mass Pike, Troop E, would be disbanded.

Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office is investigating the allegations to determine whether criminal charges are warranted. There is also an ongoing internal

The department is also dealing with fallout from the Troopergate scandal in which two state troopers have filed federal lawsuits alleging that revisions were ordered to a police report to remove embarrassing remarks from the October drug and OUI arrest report of Alli Bibaud, 30, the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud. affairs investigation.