Amid calls nationwide for police reforms, a court ruling could put a civilian board in charge of the Police Department in Springfield, Massachusetts.
A Superior Court Judge said Mayor Domenic Sarno is obligated to accept the creation of a five-member Board of Police Commissioners to head the Springfield Police Department – a change long sought by the City Council, but vehemently resisted by the mayor.
In a 20-page ruling on the lawsuit brought against Sarno by the City Council, Judge Francis Flannery said the ordinance adopted by the Council in 2018 creating the board, which replaces the police commissioner appointed by the mayor, is “valid and enforceable.”
Sarno said he intends to appeal.
" As I have said before, we expect that this dispute about my authority as mayor and the authority of the City Council regarding the Springfield Police Department will be resolved by the Massachusetts Appellate Court," Sarno said. "We are following that process."
In a statement, City Council President Marcus Williams hailed the judge’s ruling as an “historic rendering.” He urged Sarno to accept the court’s decision and said the outcome of the case is “an opportunity for the city to heal and grow.”
Sarno said he’s not trying to win a power struggle with the City Council, but is fighting to keep the police department “very effective, highly professional, and properly accountable.”
City Councilor Orlando Ramos, chair of the Public Safety Committee, said in a statement that he supports the police commission because it is in line with reforms he and others have called for at the police department.
Last June, following the death of George Floyd, Ramos urged the police commissioner to make changes to the use of force policy including an explicit ban on chokeholds. A month later, the U.S. Department of Justice, in a scathing report, recommended several changes in procedures and training after an investigation found a pattern of excessive force by narcotics officers.
" The changes that they've made are not enough," Ramos said. "There doesn't seem to be enough urgency from either the police department or the mayor's administration and we need to do more."
Springfield had a civilian police commission for decades. It was abolished 16 years ago by the state-appointed finance control board.
In 2016 and again in 2018, the City Council voted to create the civilian Board of Police Commissioners with the authority to hire, fire, and discipline police officers and set policy for the department. Sarno ignored the ordinance, claiming it stepped on powers given to the mayor by the city charter.
Last June, the Council voted to retain lawyers, who agreed to take the case for free. City Councilor Jesse Lederman said it was in the best interests of the city to end the stalemate.
""So that we might move forward as a city together in a committment to improving police oversight and accountability as well as community-police relations," Lederman said last June.
Flannery said state law clearly gives the City Council the authority to reorganize municipal departments, which is what would occur by abolishing the office of police commissioner and replacing it with the Board. The mayor has sole authority to appoint the members of the commission, Flannery said.
He rejected the argument that the 2018 ordinance improperly interferes with the employment contract of current Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood.
Sarno appointed Clapprood to the job in 2019. She signed a five-year contract that expires in 2024.
