During a Thursday City Council hearing, Councilor Andrea Campbell outlined her priority reforms including full implementation of body cameras, a civilian review board, transparency in the department’s database of stops and searches and clear protocols for use of force by police officers — all issues activists and councilors of color have sought progress on over the last six years.
Among the measures sought by Caucus members are requirements for local police departments to report data on the race of people stopped by officers and professional certification and de-certification processes for police and independent investigators for allegations of police misconduct.
While Pressley’s campaign coffers haven’t benefitted from large infusions of police officers’ donations, at the local level, the reach of the unions’ campaign cash is considerable.
When she bested Henning in a five-way race with two other women and two other black candidates, Rollins joined a wave of reform-oriented district attorneys around the country who ran and won on platforms that promised to end the culture of police impunity and combat criminal justice practices that have for decades led to disparate incarceration rates for people of color.
While Boston’s majority people of color council seems more willing to challenge police practices than in the past, how the Legislature will react to reforms being backed by its black and Latino members is still an open question.
