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Wu appoints new police commissioner; he rose through BPD ranks after being beaten by other officers
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Good luck
Crack down on the useless Police Details and get cops to pay attention to their main job.
I won't hold my breath.
Huh
Perhaps you don't realize that details are all overtime positions; no regular police work is being subtracted from by officers on details.
I didn't say it was
I said they should pay attention to their regular job. And it isn't overtime, it's details paid by private companies forced to have a police officer (or more) stand at a job site watching people work. It takes away from a cop getting rest between shifts and distracts them from doing a proper job. Just my opinion .
Next Best Option
If the pols are too scared to tackle the detail scam, maybe the new commissioner can put a cap on hours worked in a 24 hour period. Then we may have fewer cops working their shift, "working" some OT, and then catching up on sleep during the detail.
There is a cap on hours.
You can’t work more than two eight hour shifts/details in a 24 hour period.
Well, that's not what the union was saying just yesterday
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/07/12/metro/some-boston-police-officers...
They are forced to work
These are overtime shifts that the officer has no choice in refusing. Details are optional and officers are not forced to work them.
Too tired
I think they're probably talking about people who do 50 hours of details on top of their 40 hours but use those 40 hours to catch up on sleep in their cruisers or are just too burnt out to do effective policing.
Seems Like a Great Choice
If anybody is interested in getting some insight in to Commissioner Cox' background, I highly recommend The Fence, by Dick Lehr. It covers the story about the beating and delves quite a bit in to the mid-90s BPD culture. Somebody who went through his experience and came out on the other side still wanting to serve is a very dedicated public servant.
She realized was "the one" just minutes into...
1) interview "halo" effect rarely turns out well.
2) who could get upset with folks in a chill 420 town like Ann Arbor to the point of a suspension?
I can maybe answer this one
As someone who moved to Boston from the Midwest...people in Boston swear waaaay more. It took me a while after moving here to realize that folks around me weren't super angry or upset all the time.
Not saying for sure that's what happened here, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me.
It wasn't swearing
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/02/ann-arbor-police-chief-to-r...
The investigation, conducted by outside firm Miller Canfield, revealed that a police lieutenant conducted two separate investigations into parking officials dismissing tickets, including a supervisor who ordered a parking officer to void a ticket outside of city policy. The lieutenant, as well as other police department and city staff, alleged that Cox tried to sway the lieutenant’s investigation toward a result that didn’t lead to disciplining the supervisor, according to the report.
Lazarus also accused Cox of insubordination during the course of the investigation, saying the chief attempted to talk to officers in violation of an order made in the administrative leave notification. Cox contended that he heard he was on leave through different means, and that he tried to speak with his deputy chiefs to discover the reasons why.
“Candidly, I did not read the letter placing me on administrative leave until I had already violated its conditions,” Cox said in a response to the investigation report. “I was willing to obey that directive, but suffered a lapse in judgment facilitated over my profound confusion... over the City Administrator’s decision."
That's what I get for assuming the best :-/
Thanks for finding that. Yeah, that's definitely quite a bit sketchier than I was thinking (and way sketchier than Cox seems to be implying in his statement above). Would love to see someone push harder on Cox and Wu about this!
Oh wow
I remember when this happened. Vindication. The best revenge. You love to see it.
Big. Bold.
Michelle Wu promised big and bold and she continues to deliver. Great pick backed by a great resume. Outstanding.
His Back Story Is Disturbing
His own fellow officers beat him nearly to death. They're all still on the force, and one got a fat check for keeping his mouth shut.
Disgusting. This is why the BLM movement exist. These officers don't even respect black officers within their own ranks.
Disturbing, but also kind of amazing
Since he didn't just walk away.
Granted, he also sued the city for $900,000 and won, and he sued one of the two cops he alleged beat him (they settled out of court), but he also had a career in which he persevered and, in the end, rose to the top of his profession.
Ann Arbor
Isn't exactly a "small Midwestern city." It's basically the Cambridge of Michigan, with UM and nearly the same population as well. It'd be the 4th-largest city in Mass. if it were here.
True, but ...
Yes, Cambridge isn't really a small city, either (it's no Marlborough), except when compared to Boston.
Ann Arbor has a police budget of roughly $30 million, compared to a BPD budget of roughly $400 million.
Ann Arbor is a small midwestern city/university town
I've lived both places. A big difference between Ann Arbor and Cambridge is that AA is an hour from a very miserable city, whereas Cambridge is part of a vibrant metropolitan area. AA is more like Allston-Brighton, if A-B were an hour outside New Haven instead of part of Boston.
A "small town"
with a very big state university.
Exactly
Ann Arbor loses a quarter of its population in the summers. It's a very different place without all those students.
More details on what he said during the press Q&A
The Dorchester Reporter has more detailed answers from Cox to questions from reporters this morning.