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Date: 7/26/2021
WEST SPRINGFIELD – Across the state of Massachusetts, police reforms have taken place after Gov. Charlie Baker originally signed a law on Dec. 31, 2020 – “An Act Relative to Justice, Equity and Accountability in Law Enforcement in the Commonwealth.” This law aims to repel any police transgressions, excessive use of force and racial prejudices. The law requires that if a police officer is exploiting use of excessive force, another officer must both intervene and report it.
On July 1, the majority of provisions under this law moved into full effect.
While towns and cities across the state adjust at their own pace, the West Springfield Police Department has already made some modifications.
“The last few months we’ve been getting ready administratively,” said Sgt. Joe LaFrance. “All of the training records have been entered into the Municipal Police Training Committee (MPTC) Acadis system and this system will be used for every agency in Massachusetts.”
LaFrance described this system as a “digital file cabinet” – tracking and making sure that every officer is compliant with their training.
As of now, LaFrance said, “We’ve made some policy changes, most notably clarifying language in our use of force policy.” He added, “The major changes will be training – especially our part-time special police officers.” As part of their job, these officers will have to attend a “Bridge Academy,” where they will work to complete the same amount of training hours as a full-time officer. As of now, this will be about 250 hours of training.
In addition, all West Springfield police officers will be receiving de-escalation training along with their ongoing roll-call training sessions.
Given their budget, LaFrance believes that the biggest impact will be getting their 36 Special officers compliant with the “Bridge Academy.” He said, “I see this having a bigger impact on smaller police departments that rely on part-time officers to cover patrol shifts.”
Although the impact on their budget is too soon to tell, LaFrance predicted that it will be significant and that they’ll know more over the next couple of years.
Overall, LaFrance anticipates that the impacts of police reform in general will continue to unfold in stages.