Councilors ask commish to make Capitol riot investigation public
Two Boston city councilors have sent a letter to the new police commissioner, asking him to make public the results of the investigation into the “potential involvement” of city cops in the Capitol riot and the rally that preceded it.
“With public trust in government at an historic low, it is not enough to conduct a thorough investigation into any officers who may have participated in that event, but it is imperative that a report of this investigation and its findings be made public — as it would within the requirements of the OPAT (Office of Police Accountability & Transparency),” City Councilors Andrea Campbell and Julia Mejia wrote to Police Commissioner Dennis White on Monday, the day he was sworn in.
The councilors cite media reports about a Twitter account that some have alleged was that of a Boston cop tweeting from the rally by former President Donald Trump before the Capitol violence. They call on the city also to speed up the implementation of the OPAT, a beefed-up oversight body that the mayor proposed and council approved last fall.
Campbell added in a statement that “any City employees that participated should be terminated immediately.”
Boston Police spokesman Sgt. Detective John Boyle declined to comment, saying the department continues to have “an active investigation” into the matter.
Campbell, Mejia and City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo also filed a hearing order Wednesday for an update into the implementation of the OPAT and other police reforms.
“There are very real systems that need to adjust to these new laws, and there are new systems that need to be created as well,” Mejia said in a statement. “We have a responsibility as a body to make sure that the reforms we passed into law are fully implemented. That’s what this hearing is about.”