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Date: 11/13/2023
SPRINGFIELD — The City Council met for its final quarterly meeting of the year to hear an update on the oversight and implementation of the Department of Justice consent decree and Board of Police Commissioners.
During the Nov. 10 meeting, President Jesse Lederman explained that he usually splits the updates between consent decree and Police Commission, but a lot of what is being done with implementation of the consent decree is related to the commission.
City Solicitor John Payne said it is an ongoing process, in which he believes the city has been “making good headway.”
Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood shared that she has been involved since the conception of the DOJ coming to the Police Department, back when she was a deputy in 2018.
She said she is “pleased” at the progress, and it is an “extensive change” in the way the Police Department operates.
Clapprood noted that the first five policies that the DOJ was interested in got done, such as training and obtaining some new software to help with accountability.
She shared that Capt. Brian Beliveau has been a “tremendous” asset to her, as he has two sergeants and a secretary working under him, which took all of them to continue this.
The first five policies that came out have to do with use of force, independent investigation use policy, and vehicle and foot pursuit. Clapprood said the department already had every policy except foot pursuit, so when it came out it entailed some “extensive training.”
The department also started using PowerDMS, a document management system that allows them to put out these new policies and requires an electronic signature from all officers. Clapprood said this assures her that the officers are reading and understanding what the new policy is.
She went on to say that all policies of the Police Department will be going on the PowerDMS, and all rules and regulations of the department are being updated to comply with a certification process.
According to Clapprood, the FIT manual, standing for Force Investigation Team, was held up a little bit because of the supervisor’s contract, but that has settled, and it already has been included. This is utilized to investigate different levels of force such as a hands-on level, up to a more serious use of firearms.
Clapprood said right now they are working on a promotions policy and have explained to the DOJ that they are a civil service department and therefore, promotions are regulated by civil service and the exams they take. There is a formula for promotions and if the department bypasses or skips anyone, they must document why, which Clapprood said includes “pretty strict” reasons for why you would bypass.
Currently, two “really important” programs are being worked on, which Clapprood agreed with the DOJ the department needs. This includes the field training officer program and the evaluations program.
“The field training officer is desperately needed for us because we’re putting an academy out every year and the department is younger and younger,” Clapprood said.
She shared that it was always difficult for her to put officers on the streets with only one, two or three years under their belts, which does not make them a seasoned officer, nor can they train recruits.
The training officers will be trained and assigned a recruit and that will stay with them for 12 weeks. They will be trained on evaluations, on what to look for and conduct a daily report of how that recruit is doing. “If there are any deficiencies we will retrain right away because I’m not getting the recruits in the numbers that I wanted. I tried hard to get 50 officers in this academy starting Monday [and] I managed to get 30.”
Clapprood said she is “already a little bit behind the eight ball” in getting her numbers and has “well over” 30 vacancies along with people out.
“Right now, it’s very difficult to retain and recruit and I find that not only for the Springfield Police Department, I find that for every department in the state of Massachusetts and across the country, frankly. It’s just the profession that’s taken a few hits right now and it’s tough to get the quality candidates,” she said.
Clapprood noted that she will get the field training officer program going, which is all in accordance and in line with the consent decree and DOJ.
Along with that comes the evaluation program. Officers in the Springfield Police Department are only evaluated — at this point in time — during the first year on the job. Clapprood said she agrees there should be a yearly performance evaluation from their bosses.
“The evaluations are only as good as the evaluators, so everybody has to be trained up and be on the same page and be fair to help us out,” she said.
Clapprood shared that the only issue with implementing these two programs is the manpower of getting enough supervisors able to go to the training at once.
Clapprood also pointed out that there is a community engagement piece to this, in which there are quarterly meetings with the DOJ, C3 and the public. She said they have taken ‘a lot of feedback” from the community. The department has also posted its policies online and asked for feedback, to which Clapprood said some suggestions have been adopted where they can.
Going off of this, Lederman asked about community outreach and involvement.
Board of Police Commissioners Chair Albert Tranghese said the commissioners are invited to many department ceremonies, remembrances and more, but the attendance of the commissioners is up to them. He shared that he has attended several events, and this was the “piece that was missing” as the commission wants the department to see they care about them.
Tranghese noted that the department has also been willing to meet with the commission.
He went on to say that the body-worn cameras have provided the commissioners with a “tremendous view” on what is going on, which helps them when there is a problem.