Insights

Choate Provides Pro Bono Support to Boston Police Reform Initiative

On June 12, 2020, Boston Mayor Walsh declared racism to be a public health crisis and requested that former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd lead a community-based task force to provide recommendations about how to best combat these issues. 

At the request of Wayne Budd, a team of Choate attorneys assisted the Task Force by researching and analyzing nationwide policing trends and best practices.

The Boston Police Reform Task Force was charged with reviewing the Boston Police Department's current policies and procedures. The Task Force focused on several main areas of review, including: Use of Force policies; Implicit Bias Training, the Body-worn Camera Program, and Strengthening the Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel (CO-OP).

In September, the Task Force made five initial recommendations to the Mayor for systemic change to Boston’s police department:

  1. Create an independent Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) with full investigatory and subpoena power, i.e. the ability to call witnesses and to compel the discovery of documents, to replace the CO-OP.
  2. Formalize and expand the BPD's commitment to diversity and inclusion.
  3. Expand the BPD's use of the body-worn camera program where it increases police transparency and accountability, and continue to ban the use of biometrics and facial recognition software.
  4. Enhance the BPD's Use of Force policies so that they articulate clear and enforceable disciplinary code of consequences for violations and infractions and hold the BPD publicly accountable for the violation of these policies.
  5. Adopt data and record practices that maximize accountability, transparency and public access to BPD records and data.

The team of Choate lawyers contributing time to this important pro bono initiative include Jack Cinquegrana, Alli Denton, Genesis Guzman, Caila Heyison, Diana Lloyd, Emily Miller, Danielle Pelot, Christine Savage, Lauren Swidler, and Jennie Wilusz, as well as summer associates Alex Bevans, Sean Hickey, Gray Louis, and Alex Trobe.