Thousands of Mass. police disciplinary records released by POST Commission

By Sarah Betancourt

On August 22, 2023

A state commission released several thousand disciplinary records for law enforcement across Massachusetts on Tuesday in a long-awaited effortto improve police accountability.

The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, known as POST, released the database containing 3,413 records of over 2,100 officers from 273 law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts. It includes the officer’s name, brief details about the incident, when it occurred and any disciplinary action.

POST Executive Director Enrique Zuniga told GBH News that the release is the start of a process the agency plans to improve over time, and that POST will update the information the future, ideally monthly.

“We believe that transparency regarding officer misconduct furthers the goal of police accountability,” Zuniga said. “We’re not done.”

The agency is charged with setting up certification standards for officers and releasing instances of disciplinary action, a centerpiece of a state 2020 policing reform law. The release was scheduled for May 2022, but was delayed because of “data integrity issues,” Zuniga said, including repeat names.

The database — containing records from 1984 to January of this year — are a result of reporting from law enforcement agencies, including transit and university police. They include records involving bias, complaints of excessive or deadly force and criminal misconduct.

Zuniga told GBH News that agencies initially submitted around 36,000 complaints to the commission. Records were culled for “certain minor matters,” he said, like “incidents that result in a verbal reprimand, grooming, violation of shaving or things like that.”

Only sustained allegations and the disciplinary actions associated with them were made public, he said.

While 440 agencies are required to release information, only 273 agencies are in the database. The remaining agencies didn’t report any sustained complaints that fell under the commission’s criteria.

The commission may release complaints considered to be unsubstantiated, without officers’ names, in the future.

The top three agencies with the most reportable disciplinary records were the Massachusetts State Police, with 493 disciplinary records, Springfield with 417, and Boston with 373.

Massachusetts State Police Association President Patrick McNamara said in a statement that, “All allegations of misconduct against our members are investigated thoroughly,” and, if proven true, members are disciplined.

“Although law enforcement is and should be held to the highest standard, we are also human,” he said.

Over 260 former and current officers from the Boston Police Department were included in the data. Among them are former Sgt. Shana Cottone and Officer Joseph Abasciano, who were fired in March .

Cottone was found to be violating department rules regarding conduct, neglect of duty and public criticism of the department. Abasciano attended a rally for former President Donald Trump on Jan 6. at the Capitol prior to the insurrection, and was subsequently found to have violated a policy that requires officers to conduct their private affairs in a way that doesn’t reflect unfavorably on the department.

It also includes Captain John Danilecki, whose database entries date back to 2001 and 2002. But it doesn’t include an allegation that he violated department use of force guidelines in 2019 , or anything about the six internal investigations he was under in 2020.

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Boston-based nonprofit Lawyers for Civil Rights, lauded the release of records, but pointed out weaknesses.

For instance, the nonprofit represents a Black man who filed a racial profiling lawsuit against Arlington police officers for allegedly pinning him to the ground and placing a knee on his neck, even though they were pursuing a white suspect.

In the database, Arlington Police officers StephenPorciello and Brendan Flynn are included for “failure to respond to an incident according to established procedure.” Flynn received either a written warning or letter of counseling, according to the database. Porciello was given a written reprimand.

Lawyers for Civil Rights says a third officer involved in the lawsuit is “not captured by the database because he resigned after the racial profiling incident.” The Arlington Police Department didn’t reply to requests for comment.

“LCR therefore applauds the POST Commission’s step towards greater transparency, but urges the Commission to make more information publicly available, so that Massachusetts communities can hold law enforcement accountable and bring about needed reforms,” Espinoza-Madrigal said.

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This piece was republished from WGBH.