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It’s said you never get a second chance to make a first impression, which in the case of the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, means it has its work cut out to restore confidence in its police-accountability mission.
Fitchburg Police Chief Ernest Martineau was OK with the idea of increased transparency into police departments after the state Legislature passed a police reform bill at the end of 2020, but a recent list of officer disciplinary records has left police officials like Martineau “disappointed” in how parts of the process have unfolded.
The Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, which was created by the reform bill, released a list last month containing disciplinary records for individual officers across the state going back to the 1980s. While police officials like Martineau praised the idea behind the list and the transparency it is supposed to provide, they took issue with what they said were inaccuracies and omissions from the list after the individual police departments provided “mountains of records” to the commission.