Police Review Board Not Releasing Required Reports

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and Police Commissioner John Barbieri in 2015 announce an expansion of a community-policing initiative. Sarno said he takes responsibility for the delay in releasing periodic reports by a civilian-police hearing board the mayor created in 2010

Credit WAMC

The civilian board that investigates complaints against the police in Springfield, Massachusetts has not issued a public report about its work in almost two years.

The last report detailing the number and types of complaints investigated by the Community Police Hearing Board was released in March 2014. 

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said the board has been meeting but a paperwork bottleneck in the city’s law department has prevented the release of public reports on the board’s work.

" I was a little dismayed at that. We have to do better and we will do better moving forward, " Sarno said.

The volunteer board was created by a mayoral executive order in 2010 during a public uproar over the savage beating of a black motorist by a white police officer, who was later convicted of assault and tossed off the force.