Page 10 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – Friday, January 17, 2020 POLICE | FROM PAGE 8 serious off enses and simplify the disciplinary process for imposing lower forms of discipline for minor off enses; • Create a new fraudulent pay statute that will allow state and municipal agencies to recover treble damages from police officers who knowingly submit false claims for hours worked for payment; • Authorize the creation of a cadet program as an alternative route to the State Police Academy, similar to those used successfully by municipal police departments, an innovation that will diversify the pool of prospective recruits; • Eliminate the requirement that the colonel of State Police be selected exclusively from within the Department, allowing external candidates with 10 or more years in law enforcement and fi ve or more years in a police or military leadership position; • Eliminate the oral interview component from the formula that determines scoring for promotion to lieutenant or captain in order to reduce the potential for subjectivity or bias in promotional decisions; and • Accelerate the rate at which longevity points are accrued in the context of promotion to the positions of sergeant and lieutenant in order to expand the pool of qualifi ed candidates for these positions. “The future of Massachusetts State Police will be determined by the personnel we recruit, hire, and train today,” said Lt. Gover nor Karyn Polito. “These legislative proposals will help shape the organizational environment in which they work to serve, protect, and inspire our communities.” Mason also provided an update on his internal eff orts to ramp up the Department’s accountability to the public, revise the curriculum at its Academy, and increase diversity within its ranks. Within the past two months, State Police have: • Activated Automatic Vehicle Location systems in nearly 3,000 cruisers; • Posted a Request for Responses for a contract to provide the Department with 1,500 body cameras and 1,000 in-car video systems; • Put new supervisory oversight policies in place for proASH LANDFIL | FROM PAGE 1 mittee is a good fi rst step. Obviously, there will be a whole lot of discussion with some elected offi cials,” Heff ernan said. “Just to be clear, the subcommittee will be under the Board of Health. We will be the ones driving this, and I think that it’s a good thing. And so we will see where we go from here. So, stay tuned.” “It has long been our desire to have a meaningful discussion with the town on how we can best continue to provide economic and environmental value to Saugus and the region,” said Jim Connolly, Wheelabrator’s Vice President, Environmental, Health and Safety. “We would be pleased to start that conversation with the Board of Health,” he said. “It’s not going to be a bash session” In an interview after the meeting, Heff ernan said plans for the committee’s composition are yet to be determined. “There are a lot of moving parts, and I hope grammed overtime assignments, such as those used in the former Troop E; • Implemented ethics training specifi c to time and attendance at the State Police Academy along with instruction on modern policing skills such as empathy, de-escalation, and communication; • Developed continuing ethics training modules on time and attendance and supervisors’ duties for current Department personnel; • Created and posted the position of Diversity Recruitment Offi cer to assist in recruiting, hiring, and developing employees from historically underrepresented communities; and • Promoted two women and fi ve people of color to the supervisory ranks of detective to get this started within the next six weeks. There’s a lot of public interest in this, but we don’t want to make this a free-for-all,” Heff ernan said. “Hopefully, it will include some Town Meeting members from Precinct 1. I want to stress, it’s not going to be a bash session. It’s going to be a constructive session, centered on the closure of the landfi ll and getting a date for the closure.” The closure of the ash landfi ll at the Wheelabrator plant has been decided, and then postponed for years, by the state Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). Putting a definitive date on the closure of the ash landfi ll became an issue in last fall’s town elections. During her campaign, Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Corinne R. Riley promised that if elected, closing the ash landfi ll at the Wheelabrator trash-to-energy plant by the year 2025 would be a top priority for her. Riley said she opposes any more extensions for the landfi ll and declared the town needs “to move onto another way” in disposal of lieutenant, captain, detective captain, and major, with one assigned as a troop commander and fi ve assigned as unit commanders. “The Massachusetts State Police remain fully invested in our commitment to excellence in modern policing,” said Mason. “Even as we fulfi ll our core public safety mission in every corner of the Commonwealth and adopt new responsibilities in a changing world, we are making important and measurable progress increasing the Department’s diversity, our accountability to the public, and the training practices we employ. With the support and assistance of dedicated personnel at every level of the Department, State Police are moving forward on the right track.” the waste that the incinerator produces. Meanwhile, Cogliano said that if elected back on the board, he would press for a pact with the owners of the Wheelabrator plant so the town can receive fi - nancial benefi ts besides tax revenue for being the incinerator’s longtime home. “We pass up between three and fi ve million-ayear by not having a host agreement. We need to get Saugus’ fair share,” Cogliano said. “We are the only community that has one of these facilities in its boundaries that receives no fi nancial benefi t besides taxes. It’s time to have a conversation to get what we rightfully deserve for having to deal with this in our backyard. There is a way to have a discussion without sacrificing safety. We just need the right people at the table.” In recent weeks, however, the discussion of creating a Wheelabrator subcommittee has centered exclusively on the closure of the ash landfi ll. All fi ve selectmen oppose any further expansion of the ash landfi ll.
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