The murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis last year sparked a national conversation about the need for police reform. Daniel Medwed, Northeastern law professor and GBH News legal analyst, joined Mary Blake on GBH’s Morning Edition to talk about whether that conversation has so far led to genuine change in how local police departments operate in Massachusetts.
Blake: Daniel, let’s start with Springfield. Its police department has historically faced withering criticism from observers on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. Tell us about some of the problems in that department.
Medwed: Springfield has a troubling history of police misconduct, especially in its Narcotics Bureau. In fact, while the Department of Justice under former President Trump largely abandoned what are called “pattern or practice” investigations of local police, where the Feds examine and provide oversight of rogue departments, there was one exception: Springfield. The DOJ investigated the Springfield Police Department and issued a scathing report in July 2020 that found the Narcotics Bureau routinely engaged in excessive force in which officers escalated encounters that harmed civilians and employed dangerous takedown maneuvers that increased the chance of head injuries.
The report attributed this phenomenon to systemic deficiencies in the department, including that officers weren’t required to report hands-on use of force incidents to their superiors such as punches and kicks. It was stunning rebuke — and from an administration not prone to maligning the police.
Blake: What has happened since then? Has Springfield taken steps to address this problem?
Daniel: Yes, Springfield is in the process of negotiating a settlement with the Feds and has responded in a number of important ways. First, take the composition of the department. Even before the report was finalized, the city installed a new commissioner, Cheryl Clapprood. Complaints against narcotics officers have virtually disappeared under her watch, and she recently announced that she is dismantling the Narcotics Bureau entirely and repurposing many of its activities to focus on gun violence, which has been on the rise in the city, and reassigning officers to other posts that often involve coordination with regional drug task forces.
Second, the city has implemented policy changes. Evidently, tougher use of force guidelines are now in place and every officer is required to wear a body camera, with an auditing process to screen footage. It’s not all puppies and rainbows, of course — residents are still seeking to streamline the process for filing civilian complaints against the police, for instance — but the city appears to be on the right track and this shows how federal oversight can make a real difference.
Blake: What other major changes have occurred in the Commonwealth in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder?
Medwed: Well, at the state level, the legislature passed a major police reform bill at the end of 2020, one of the most progressive in the nation, that created a civilian-led police oversight board with the aim of standardizing police certification — and decertification — throughout the state. It also imposed a statewide ban on the use of chokeholds, limited the use of so-called “no-knock” warrants (which led to the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville) and created a duty to intervene for officers who see a colleague using improper force. At the local level, a number of our cities and towns are experimenting with innovative reforms as well.
Blake: Do you have any examples of an especially innovative local reform?
Medwed: Lynn just announced a pilot program in which it’s allocating a half million dollars to fund an unarmed crisis response team — called ALERT — to grapple with mental health emergencies in that city. Unfortunately, the police are often ill-equipped to handle mental health crises and those encounters all too often produce injuries. Having a dedicated team of unarmed behavioral and mental health experts trained to respond to these emergencies could save lives and leave the police to handle problems that fall more directly within their purview. Cambridge is considering a similar measure.
WATCH: Daniel Medwed on how Lynn is changing how it responds to mental health emergencies
