“If you walk away from this podcast knowing anything at all, it’s that POST isn’t giving you everything that’s out there and the [police] departments don’t want you to have it. And you can take that information and do what you will with it, but that is the story, and that is the takeaway that I’m taking from this. This jaded me. This whole process has jaded me, has radicalized me in a way that I never anticipated. … It’s been a disgusting display of secrecy.” — Jeff Raymond
For the fifth episode of Lights Out Mass, we discuss the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission’s new statewide database of complaints against police officers, how the commission left out most of the data, and cohost Jeff Raymond’s tireless efforts to release the full data using the state public records law.
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Links
You can find the POST Commission’s police officer disciplinary records database here and the commission’s press release about it here
You can find Jeff Raymond’s Google spreadsheet linking to disciplinary data he obtained directly from police departments, which include information omitted by the POST Commission, here
Read Jeff’s interview with POST Commission executive director Enrique Zuniga here
Other stories referenced in the podcast include a Duxbury police officer who was indicted, a Springfield police officer with a long history of violence and alleged misconduct who the city says it can’t fire without the POST Commission’s help, police chiefs complaining about the accuracy of the POST Commission’s database, the Springfield Police Department saying it wants accurate information removed from the database, and examples of extremely vague language used in database entries
This podcast is hosted by Andrew Quemere and Jeff Raymond:
Andrew writes this newsletter and is also on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon
Jeff is the founder of Mass Transparency and is also on Twitter and Bluesky
Our theme music is “Sun Bleach” by Lifeformed. More music available at Bandcamp.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant!
If you haven’t heard it yet, check out our interview with journalist and author Luke O’Neil.
Also check out this piece by Bill Shaner about the suspicious timing of Worcester Police Chief Steve Sargent’s retirement.
Thanks for listening!
The Incredible Shrinking Police Complaint Database