Behind the Shield

Mayor Walsh’s swift, behind-closed-doors police commissioner appointment a departure from how other cities handle major move

In Boston, there was no national search. No list of finalists. No public input. Other cities do it much differently.

When Boston police officers fail to tell the truth, the department rarely calls a lie a lie
Today, some officers continue to struggle with telling the truth, whether in court or everyday police matters, and the Boston Police Department has no mechanism to monitor officer testimony or truthfulness. Quite often, records show, internal affairs investigators are reluctant to call a lie a lie.

Boston police sergeant who bragged about hitting George Floyd protesters with car was previously accused of sexual assault
Clifton McHale, a 23-year BPD veteran with family ties to the department’s upper ranks, was accused in 2005 of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman while in uniform in a police vehicle and agreed to serve a one-year, unpaid suspension following an investigation.

Boston Police

Behind the shield: Inside the Boston Police Department

Within Boston police, more often white officers win the awards and Black officers get punished

Black officers in the Boston Police Department are less likely to be honored for exemplary work and more likely to be disciplined than their white colleagues, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of a decade of police commendations and misconduct.

Boston is set to consider wide scale police reforms. But many of them have been pitched before
As Mayor Marty Walsh awaits final proposals from the Boston Police Reform Task Force — which he commissioned in June following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police — the city's legacy of task force inaction demonstrates how often good intentions have been left by the wayside.

Mayor’s task force issues sweeping Boston police reform recommendations

A task force appointed by Mayor Martin J. Walsh is recommending the city create an independent office to investigate police misconduct, as part of a series of broader reforms to the city’s police department, according to the group’s draft report.

Within the Boston Police Department, complaints against officers are rarely confirmed or result in punishment

Police data provide a sweeping look at the hundreds of allegations lodged each year against officers — and show how rarely the more than 2,000 members of the department are disciplined.

A 2015 audit of the BPD turned up various issues with the department’s overtime system. Were any of them corrected?

Boston police once resembled the community. But force has grown whiter as city becomes more diverse

When it comes to Boston Police reforms, unions are often the sticking point

‘The avatar of cop violence in Boston’: Police captain routinely crosses line, activists say

Boston’s highest-paid worker: a cop accused of payroll abuse in 2007

Prosecutors

‘In the dark.’ Suffolk DA Rollins wants more information on troubled Boston officers

The Boston Police Department has been slow to hand over information about which officers its own internal affairs department has found to have lied or broken the law.

Suffolk DA Rollins releases watch list of 136 area officers accused of misconduct

The database contains 70 State Police troopers, 54 Boston police officers, and a handful of officers from Revere, Chelsea, and Transit Police.

The 7 minutes of chaos and confusion that led to the police shooting of Juston Root

A vast trove of documents recently released to the Globe provide the fullest picture yet of the frantic events leading up to Juston Root’s death, and make it clear how murky the circumstances remain.

State Police

Dozens of State Police troopers remain on the force despite past illegal conduct

A Globe review of the department’s internal affairs files shows the agency rarely fires troopers almost no matter what they have done. The Globe found only a handful of examples of firings in the last decade.

State Police uncovered more trooper payroll issues last year. This time, they kept it in-house

Sergeant Mark Lynch’s case raises questions about how seriously the department handles pay abuse and how many other troopers may have escaped sanctions.

State Police lieutenant, a top earner, retires amid internal probe into paid detail violation

Mark Lombardi, a 27-year veteran, said that because he is a high-earner, he has faced constant internal scrutiny. He denied his retirement was related to the internal State Police review.

State Police lost thousands of e-mails related to trooper overtime fraud case

An attorney for a former Massachusetts State Police lieutenant charged with overtime pay fraud says the law enforcement agency has lost tens of thousands of e-mails related to the high-profile criminal case.

Other Law Enforcement

Body camera program brings unease for Mass. police, and, perhaps, a new age of accountability

Amid a national reckoning over systemic police abuses and growing demands for reform, the calls for cameras, which provide an unvarnished account of police actions, have only intensified. Recent deaths illustrate promise, shortcomings of use so far.

Prisons chief said order halting guards’ discipline was news to her. E-mails say otherwise

E-mails show Commissioner Carol Mici was in the loop as the policy was hatched and received multiple messages about suspending employee discipline during the pandemic.

Lax management, pay irregularities rampant at state’s Environmental Police force, report says

“This is not the first time that the agency has been called out for its lax practices,” Auditor Suzanne M. Bump said.

Help us hold law enforcement accountable

Share your experience and story. Have you filed a complaint against an officer? Tell us how it went. Do you know more about any of these cases we highlighted? Are there other incidents we should look at? Let us know.

Explore the data

Reporters have compiled records and crunched data and produced several exclusive databases that take you inside the operations of local law enforcement. From officer misconduct to awards, payroll to diversity data, explore the records for yourself.

BEHIND THE SHIELD