Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell has filed a formal request for information on the status of a Boston police officer who may have taken part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Campbell's request — known as a 17F, as labeled in the City Charter — came Tuesday after officials from the police department and the Walsh administration failed to appear at a committee hearing on public safety and criminal justice.
Boston police spokesperson Sgt. Detective John Boyle told GBH News that the matter remains under investigation, but he declined to comment further.
“Any police officer in our department who participated in that insurrection should be fired,” Campbell told GBH News after the hearing.
The meeting was intended to review the Boston Police Department’s progress towards implementing a recently-approved slate of reforms put forward last year by the state and a local police reform panel.
Campbell, who is running for mayor, said she found the absences and the lack of transparency unsatisfactory.
“I refuse to accept that because we don’t currently have a permanent police commissioner and a mayor that is transitioning out any day now, that no one from the administration or any department is capable of coming to a hearing to answer some of these questions,” she said, pointing to the officer in question and the status of the latest police reforms.
"I refuse to accept that Bostonians have to wait for answers and accountability about if a Boston police officer participated in that violent, white supremacist attack on our national Capitol and whether or not, of course, this officer or officers are still patrolling the streets," Campbell added.
The Boston Police Department confirmed to The Boston Globe in January that an investigation into the unnamed officer’s potential participation was ongoing.
Since then, Campbell said, the department has not “adequately responded” or released information about the investigation, despite two informal requests over the month of February.
The mayor’s press office did not address the BPD investigation in an emailed statement Tuesday, but it said that implementing the recommendations from the Police Reform Task Force is a priority for outgoing Mayor Marty Walsh, who is likely to be confirmed as U.S. labor secretary soon.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make anyone available to testify this afternoon before the City Council, but the Boston Police Department provided a comprehensive update in writing about the implementation of various reform efforts,” the press office said.
The department also sent a letter outlining the clarifications needed before many of the state and local police reforms can be fully implemented.
Campbell’s 17F request seeks documents related to the police departments' investigation into the potential insurrection participation along with details about any resulting disciplinary action and a date “by which the public can expect a report” of the investigation’s findings.
