(source: Blackstonian)
POLICE DECERTIFICATION IN MASSACHUSETTS
Many professionals are licensed and if found guilty of wrong doing can LOSE their license to practice. Lawyers, Doctors, Plumbers, Electricians, Accountants, Taxi Drivers, Teachers, Real Estate Brokers, Architects, Psychologists, Barbers, etc. are all subject to losing their license or being decertified. Even your personal Drivers License can be revoked for serious infractions.
WHY NOT POLICE?
Massachusetts is one of only six states without revocation authority. The others are California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.Decertification is a common sense approach to police reform where police, politicians, and protesters can all find agreement.
2 UPCOMING EVENTS:
- COMMUNITY TOWN HALL MON. 3/28
- LEGISLATIVE BRIEFING TUE. 3/29
Keynote Presenter:
Leading National Expert on Police Decertification
Prof. Roger L. Goldman
Callis Family Professor of Law Emeritus
Saint Louis University School of Law
RSVP ON FACEBOOK CLICK HERE (3/28 event)
RSVP ON FACEBOOK CLICK HERE (3/29 event)
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS
Mass Police Reform, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of MA, National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) of National Lawyers Guild, New England Area Conference (NEAC) of the NAACP, Restore The Fourth – Boston, Boston Police Camera Action Team (BPCAT), Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice (LCCR) and others TBA.
MORE INFORMATION ON POLICE DECERTIFICATION
Repeatedly in the past several years the nation has been shocked by tragic events which have sharply focused public attention on the problem of police misconduct. The issue has emerged onto the national stage and all levels of government are aggressively pursuing new policies to increase accountability and oversight. Massachusetts is frequently touted as a national leader in so many policy areas; however, when it comes to police accountability, there is one simple fix that we don’t have in place. Massachusetts is one of only six states that lack a decertification (or de-licensing) process for those officers who violate their vows to protect and serve.
Decertification is a common sense approach to police reform where police, politicians, and protesters can all find agreement. This will quite simply prevent officers who commit egregious offenses and engage in misconduct from practicing as an officer and gaining employment in another department in or out of the commonwealth. The best methods of police reform are those which preserve the integrity of policing while also better protecting the safety of the general public. Most professional law enforcement associations across the country are already in favor of decertification.
Why is Massachusetts lagging behind?
- The National Decertification Index (NDI)
by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST). The purpose of the National Decertification Index (NDI) is to serve as a national registry of certificate or license revocation actions relating to officer misconduct. The NDI currently contains 20,458 actions reported by 39 states. - The Cato Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project (NPMRP). A non-governmental, non-partisan independent project that identifies trends affecting police misconduct, and reports on issues about police misconduct in order to enhance public awareness on issues regarding police misconduct in the U.S.
- Data from the NPMRP 2009-2010 report revealed 170 reported incidents covering over 64 cities & towns in Massachusetts from Adams to Yarmouth.
- In a sampling of February 2016 alone the NPMRP’s daily newsfeed recorded seven incidents in Massachusetts.
These incidents, culled only from media reports, are the types of cases that could merit decertification. In the absence of a decertification method any of these officers who exhibited criminal conduct or were fired for a variety of reasons could end up in another city or town within the Commonwealth or perhaps we may even export troubled officers out of state.
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