Police reform bill postponed
Issue pushed to Monday
After back-to-back days of false starts, the Massachusetts Senate held a rare weekend session Saturday in hopes of reaching consensus on a sweeping police reform bill, only to put it off after just an hour of debate until Monday.
“We need to get this bill on the governor’s desk,” Sen. William Brownsberger, D-Belmont, said. “Delay is the enemy of success here.”
Sen. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, for the third day in a row used a parliamentary procedure to table the bill, stopping the full Senate from considering it after pushback from police unions over the bill’s bid to limit qualified immunity, which would allow officers to be held personally liable for misconduct on the job.
The bill would create a civilianled board to oversee the state’s first-ever certification system for police officers, allow for suspension or decertification of officers for misconduct, and permit officers to be held personally liable for wrongdoing on the job.
Boston Police Sgt. Eddy Chrispin, president of the Massachusetts
Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, said he opposes doing away with qualified immunity because “officers can be acting reasonably but still be sued.”
“We are definitely for change in policing,” Chrispin told the Herald, “but we have to make sure we’re not making change just for the sake of making change.”
On Saturday, the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts union entered the fray, saying that its members support many elements of the bill, but accused the Massachusetts Municipal Association of attempting to “hijack” the bill in order to strip public employees of due process and collective bargaining.
“My personal opinion is they’d just like to see civil service go away,” said PFFM President Rich MacKinnon Jr. “We’re not denying there should be changes. But as a union, we just want a seat at the table at a public hearing.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the MMA urged lawmakers to pass the bill and said cities and towns should have the authority to remove police and fire departments from civil service without special legislation or protracted negotiations.
“It is indisputable that … the state’s collective bargaining law for municipal employees has created a system of unresponsive contract rules that make accountability of public employees for misconduct, particularly police and fire, almost impossible to implement,” the MMA said.
Senate Democrats are seeking to fast-track the bill filed last week, building on the momentum of a wave of national protests.
With barely three weeks remaining in the legislative session, the bill must gain the approval of both the Senate and the House of Representatives before it can reach Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk.
The Senate will reconvene at 11 a.m. Monday.