Transparency needed in hiring new State Police leader
As a part-time instructor at a state college, I, along with all state employees, are required to complete an online training video created by the Massachusetts Ethics Commission on the state’s Conflict of Interest Law. As I was seated at my home computer beginning to watch the section on how it’s unethical and illegal for state employees to accept bribes for services rendered, my phone started to beep with breaking news from the Boston Herald on the US Attorney charging current and former Massachusetts State troopers with an alleged bribery fraud scheme. The timing of this breaking news alert was ironic.
The paper’s columnist Howie Carr was spot on when he wrote, ” Yet another scandal for the second most corrupt law enforcement agency in the US….”.
The MSP, once known as an elite, military style law enforcement agency in the state, has been plagued by crisis after crisis due to unethical, illegal, and unprofessional behavior of troopers, who have seriously tarnished the image, reputation of honor and integrity that policing should stand for. These troopers, while taking an oath to uphold the law, seemed to believe that they were immune to following it. As legal, crisis communications and police experts have opined, the culture of the MSP has led to these crises and major change is needed to turn around the culture of organizational dysfunction which has allowed these crises to continue month after month, year after year.
Governor Maura Healey has recognized that change in leadership is needed to turn around a police agency that is under her control.
Last March, the governor announced the creation of a six-person committee of public safety, legal and community leaders to identify a new leader of this vital yet troubled police agency. The committee retained a costly search firm to identify potential applicants. As of today, nearly 12 months later, no public status update on this important search has been issued which flies in the face of the governor’s commitment to transparency. This has resulted in the perception that the administration and the search committee have been operating under a cloak of secrecy rather than issuing periodic public updates on the progression of the search process. A few months ago, I asked a state lawmaker to find out the status of the search, and he could not even get an update.
The governor and the search committee should publicly and proactively update the citizens of the Commonwealth on the search by creating a special section on their website to address the following: the full job description and background on the search firm, how many potential applicants have applied for the leadership position, the breakdown between female and male, the number of out of state, in state and internal candidates, how many applicants have been identified for interviews and when the meetings will commence and a deadline for the final selection. Many local and national corporations and non-profits, truly committed to transparency and seeking a new organizational leader, have successfully adopted this communications process. I hope the Healey administration does too. The axiom that you can never communicate enough during an image and reputation crisis is especially true with the crisis in trust the MSP continues to face.