The city councilor demanded transparency around a Boston Police officer’s participation.
On March 2, city councilor and mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell filed an official 17F order for information on the Boston Police Department’s investigation into the possibility that a Boston Police officer may have been involved in the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
The order will subpoena information about investigations, including documents on the status of the department’s investigation, documents on any related disciplinary action, and a date by which the public can expect a report of the findings of this investigation. On February 1, Campbell and councilor Julia Mejia sent a letter to then police commissioner Dennis White. They requested a “thorough investigation,” according to a press release and a public report. Boston Police, as of now, have not sufficiently responded to the letter or released information about the investigation in over six weeks.
“Today’s hearing was supposed to be about the action the City of Boston and Boston Police Department are taking to implement historic, long-overdue policing reforms to increase accountability, transparency, diversity, and racial justice in policing, especially as it relates to BPD officers who may have participated in the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol,” said Campbell. “I refuse to accept that because we don’t currently have a permanent police Commissioner that no one from the department or Administration is capable of answering questions today. I refuse to accept that Bostonians have to wait for answers and accountability about if a Boston Police Officer participated in a violent, white supremacist attack on our nation’s Capitol, and whether they are still patrolling our streets.”
Shira Laucharoen is a reporter based in Boston. She currently serves as the assistant director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. In the past she has written for Sampan newspaper, The Somerville Times, Scout Magazine, Boston Magazine, and WBUR.
