LYNN — State Sen. Brendan Crighton of Lynn grew up among police officers, and has friends who ultimately joined the force. So he sympathizes with what police have to do on a daily basis.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for our police departments, and for the work they do every day. No way is this (police reform) bill an attempt to go at the many folks who are doing the right thing. Many of them are already practicing the reforms contained in this bill.”
The bill Crighton is talking about is a reform bill, first proposed last month by Gov. Charlie Baker, that passed, 30-7, after a marathon session that ended shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday. The bill, which will now move to the House, bans chokeholds, allows the State Police leader to be chosen from outside the department, and clarifies a critical law some see as a barrier to change: qualified immunity for individual officers.
The wide-ranging bill also creates a Police Officers Standards and Accreditation Committee, an independent panel of police, community members, a retired judge, and social justice advocates to oversee certification, training, and decertification of police. The committee will receive all misconduct complaints, and maintain a disclosure database. It will also prohibit non-disclosure agreements in police misconduct settlements and establish a commission to recommend a correctional officer certification, training, and decertification framework, a summary of the measure issued by Senate leaders said.
Crighton stresses that there’s been a lot of misinformation about the qualified immunity clarifications, but hastened to add that the bill would not leave individual officers financially liable as the result of civil cases.
“Government agencies cover costs,” he said.
“I would not have voted for this bill if I thought it would cause an officer to hesitate, or pause for a moment to keep himself, or the public, safe,”
Crighton said. “I’m committed to continuing to do that.”
But, he said, he hopes the bill will be a start in reversing the course of systematic racism that has occurred for centuries in the United States.
“Systemic racism is in every sector of our society, from the government, to housing, health care, education, transportation and education,” Crighton said. “This is the first bill that deals with a number of police reforms. We have our work cut out for us on a wide range of policies.”
But, he said, many of the provisions in the bill are matters of common sense, and many are already in practice in many departments in the state.
“Many police departments are already doing this,” he said. “But work needs to begin soon, or is ongoing, for other issues. In terms of strengthening use of force standards, again,a lot of departments are already doing this.”
While some of the issues in the bill might be considered matters of common sense, the clarification of qualified immunity has caused confusion resulting from, Crighton said, “a lot of misinformation” being disseminated.
“The issue of qualified immunity is a separate issue altogether from the indemnification of officers,” he said. “If you (as an officer or public employee) thought you could lose your home because of a lawsuit, you couldn’t do your job. The protections are there.”
The issue is confusing, Crighton said, and he admits the legislators did not do a very good job explaining it. The intent of the language on qualified immunity is to set standards established by reasonable police procedures when it comes to issues of misconduct, Crighton said.
“The thing that would change under this bill is that judges would be making decisions based on whether constitutional rights were violated, and whether an officer acted in a way that’s perceived as reasonable,” he said.
That perception, he said, would be given from the point of view of police officers, and not civilians, he said.
“I, as a civilian, wouldn’t have the type of knowledge to make that determination,” he said.
But “no one’s finances will be affected. Period.”
Still, noted Lynnfield Police Chief David Breen, many chiefs in the area put in for retirement in the last month. Among those chiefs who have stepped down are Lynn’s Michael Mageary and Salem’s Mary Butler, though neither cited the bill as a reason why.
Breen said all the retirements are “in response to some of the legislation that’s going through.
“I know we’ve all had conversations with Sen. Crighton, and he voted for this bill, but we feel this is going to be something that is going to be very difficult for police departments as there is a lot of misconception.”