The fifth anniversary of the murder of a Springfield police officer was observed quietly in the western Massachusetts city Sunday. The city’s mayor reflected on the dangers police face in their day-to-day work and he urged passage of a state bill he believes would support the police.
In a solemn tribute to Officer Kevin Ambrose, a volunteer honor guard held a 24-hour vigil Sunday at the police memorial in front of Springfield Police headquarters. A police cruiser with Ambrose’s badge number 7 was parked nearby with its blue lights flashing.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, who stopped by the vigil Sunday, said no other commemoration was planned.
"Out of respect to the Ambrose family, they did not want anything publicly formal," said Sarno.
Ambrose was shot to death on the afternoon of June 4, 2012 during a domestic call at an apartment building in the Sixteen Acres neighborhood. Police said the 36-year veteran officer died while attempting to shield a mother and her child from the woman’s estranged boyfriend.
The woman was critically wounded, but survived. The one-year-old daughter was not hurt. The gunman, a New York City corrections officer, later took his own live.
Ambrose was the first in-the-line-of-duty death suffered by the Springfield Police Department since 1985.
In an interview a few days before the anniversary of Ambrose’s death, Sarno reflected on the dangers police face on the streets and he renewed his call for the Massachusetts legislature to change the rules about bail which he said is needed to keep “repeat violent offenders” locked up.
" Individuals like these should not be on the streets because it demoralizes police officers and the people who work with them," said Sarno.
Sarno, a Democrat, has championed a bill that would allow prosecutors to appeal bail rulings by judges. Current law allows defendants to appeal to lower the bail set by a District Court Judge, but prosecutors cannot go to a higher court and ask for bail to be increased.
The bill failed last year when the two-year legislative session ended. It was refiled in January by Democratic State Rep. Angelo Puppolo of Springfield. On Tuesday, The legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing on the legislation and dozens of other criminal justice reform bills.
Sarno cited several recent examples in which he believes judges erred by setting low bails.
"We've arrested some bad bad individuals including gun violent repeat offenders and I don't know how one individual, who has challenged our cops a number of times ,is back out on the streets with a ( monitoring) bracelet," said Sarno.
He sited another recent " great arrest" of a man who had been released on bail after his arrest for a violent crime in January.
Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said he feels very strongly about the need for bail reform to give prosecutors a level playing field.
" Judges come to work with the best of intentions everyday, but no one is infallible," said Gulluni. "We want to have the opportunity in a situation where we feel public safety is at risk to have a second set of eyes look at the matter."
The legislation is opposed by the Hampden County Bar Association, which said Sarno is “misguided” to blame Springfield’s violent crime problems on bail decisions by judges. The bar association said high bails discriminate against low-income defendants.
