Amherst Police Object to Creation of Resident Oversight Board

Report on the Meeting of the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, February 12, 2025.  Part 1

This meeting was held on Zoom and was recorded.

Present
Debora Ferreira and Allegra Clark (Co-chairs), Lissette Parades, Erica Piedade, Pat Romney, and  Everald Henry. Absent: Angelique Ferguson. 

Staff: Philip Avila (Assistant DEI Director) and Camille Theriaque (CRESS Director and Town Liaison to the committee).

One of the main recommendations of the Community Safety Working Group’s (CSWG) 2021 final report was the creation of a Residents’ Oversight Board (ROB) to evaluate complaints against the police. After one failed attempt to hire a consultant, a working group was formed this past fall and began meeting in November under the direction of Rabbi Debra Kolodny and another consultant Brian Corr. However, according to the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC) representative to the group, Debora Ferreira, the progress has been slowed due to opposition by members representing the Amherst police unions. 

The meetings of the working group are not open to the public and are not recorded and minutes have not been published. The working group has no listing on the town web site and the composition of the group has not been announced publicly although Ferreira said members include: former town councilors Shalini Bahl-Milne and Anika Lopes, Police Chief Gabe Ting, President of the Police Patrol Officers Association Lindsay Carroll, President of the Police Supervisors Union Nicholas Chandler, CRESS Director Camille Theriaque, DEI Director Pamela Nolan Young, Assistant DEI Director Philip Avila, Director of Human Resources Melissa Loiodice-Walker, and Human Rights Commission member Rani Parker. The group drafted a proposed bylaw, which immediately raised objections from the police officers on the committee. The group received a letter on February 7 from the labor and employment lawyers representing the Amherst police union (Pyle Rome Ehrenberg PC) that offered seven objections to the proposed bylaw, including stating that the police did not see a need for an oversight board at all.

The seven objections:

1. The unions do not agree with the bylaw’s proposed reasons for creating the ROB. The bylaw’s stated purpose for the ROB — to “strengthen trust and safety between Amherst residents and all Amherst public safety departments” – is unnecessary because there is already a robust relationship between the APD and the community built on trust and safety. 
2. The unions believe that transparency and accountability already exist between the Amherst Police Department and the community, including Black, Indigenous and People of Color
   residents. 
3. The bylaw’s stated purpose for the ROB to “review and advise on investigations of [external] complaints” is unnecessary. Members of the community can contact the APD (anonymously, if they wish) to report alleged police misconduct and/or to commend officers for exceptional service to the community. Community can also report complaints outside of the APD to the Town Manager’s office, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) department, to the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST Commission), or to the District Attorney’s office. In addition, The Town maintains a host of community-related programs and departments, including the Community Safety Social Justice Committee, the DEI Department, and the Community Responders for Safety and Service (CRESS) program.
4. Because of the numerous programs already in place within the Town and the APD to address issues and concerns that arise within the community, the unions believe that negative comments about the police department come from a vocal minority and mostly appear to be an issue of perception, where community members do not understand the reasoning for an officer’s actions, thus creating a “perception versus reality gap.” Members of the unions have found that the vast majority of the community understands and supports the work of the APD 
5. The unions object to the bylaw’s proposed exclusion of current [or former] employees of the APD or immediate family member of an APD employee from the ROB. 
6. The unions object to the bylaw’s proposal to have the ROB engage in oversight of complaints of police officer misconduct. The APD and the Commonwealth’s POST Commission already provide sufficient investigation and oversight of complaints regarding police officer misconduct. 
7. The ROB’s participation in the creation and revision of public safety department policies and procedures has the potential to violate the state’s labor laws.

These assertions conflict with data presented  to the working group by Rabbi Kolodny  at the outset of their meetings that demonstrated a need for an ROB. The data were collected in December 2023 and January 2024 through two public forums, an online survey, and outreach at several service sites. Thirty-one of 72 residents who shared their interactions with the APD stated that they had a negative experience. Twenty-eight of the 31 were BIPOC residents. Ninety percent of the respondents who expressed an opinion on the need for a ROB, were in favor. These results are similar to the findings of the participatory action research done by 7Gen for the Community Safety Working Group (CSWG).

Ferreira stated that, in this time of high anxiety, it is critical to have an ROB, independent of the APD, to ensure due process for both residents and police officers. She noted that, even though CSWG developed a blueprint for the ROB, the working group wanted to start anew and to broaden the scope of the ROB to include oversight of CRESS and the Amherst Fire/EMS Department.  According to the draft bylaw, discipline of officers would still remain with the APD.

Many of the CSWG recommendations have been stripped from the proposed bylaw, removing much of the authority of the ROB. There will be no stipend for ROB members, and when the group does not agree with the police response to an incident, the police chief will summarize the ROB’s concern, but no action response is required. Ferreira said, “I’m really concerned that this might end up being a diluted, weak advisory group that will have no power, no teeth, and no authority to do anything. No one is going to trust it, and no one is going to utilize it.” She added, “It’s interesting that the police don’t see this as a benefit for them because right now there’s a lot of mistrust and it’s only going to get worse under this environment we’re living in, in terms of fear.”

CSSJC Co-chair Allegra Clark advocated for a local ROB, because it took two years for the town to get a response from the Massachusetts POST Commission regarding the July 5, 2022 incident between nine teenagers and the police. “POST is not going to be expedient in addressing concerns,” she said. She added that the changes requested by the police union would turn the ROB into a public relations mechanism for the APD, validating police conduct.

CSSJC member Everald Henry asked why the police officers are still on the committee if they object to the concept of an ROB. He thought their attitude should be brought to the attention of the Town Council, which, he said, needs to affirm its strong support for the ROB. Ferreira stated that if the Town Council adopts the bylaw created by the working group, the police union will have to accept the provisions in its bargaining and its training. She noted that Police Chief Gabe Ting has continued to engage with the group and has not expressed the same resistance as the police union members. However, she said Ting also does not think there is a problem at the APD that would necessitate a ROB.

Because the working group meetings are not open to the public, Clark suggested having a public forum to obtain community input to the draft bylaw before it is presented to the Town Council for approval.

In public comment, CSWG member Russ Vernon Jones stated, “The ROB is not anti-police. It really is about building relationships between the police and the community. We [CSWG members] talked to stakeholders before we put out a recommendation. We listened to a lot of things, but this was the one piece we took to the Town Manager and then [former] Police Chief Livingstone, and both said they could support this with the possible exception of granting subpoena power to the ROB. Any retreat from this is really a betrayal of trust. The ROB must have certain authority to hear complaints, investigate complaints, and an ability to hire paid impartial investigators if necessary. It must have the opportunity to recommend what is the response–what’s the discipline, the supervision, the further training that should come about as a result of whatever it was that was complained about and seek agreement with the Police Chief. If the Police Chief and the ROB cannot reach an agreement, then the chief puts in writing why he’s not accepting the recommendation of the ROB that can be seen by the public and the recommendation will be shared with the Town Council. The actual discipline of police officers remains with the chief.” He concluded, “This is about building trust in the community, and this is what these boards do across the country. They make for better policing because they build trust. Policing that’s ineffective or inequitable is not in anyone’s interest.”

At the close of the 3 ½ hour meeting, Pat Ononibaku, a former member of both CSWG and CSSJC, stated, “Deb (Ferreira), I’m not sure that Town Council and even Paul (Bockelman) truly understand the role you play in our town, that you do speak for us, you do speak for marginalized groups in our town, and they should start listening to you, because without you and this committee we won’t know a lot of things happening in our midst. This work is very hard. It breaks my heart that there is a ROB bylaw committee and it was just you fighting for the marginalized groups. That is so depressing, and yet we call our town a liberal community. If the ROB is something that white people want, it would have been established two or three years ago. What I don’t get is people that look like me just keep silent and act like let’s be nice and keep the peace.”