- Physical abuse of citizens by a police officer is among the most serious violations of the public trust possible.
- - St. Clair Commission Report, 19921
The Boston Police Department was founded in 1854, making it one of the first police departments in the country. Although there have been incidents of serious misconduct and brutality, the department is not a notoriously abusive one. As several observers have stated, Boston's 2,300 sworn officers usually seem to abide by an "unwritten rule" that limits how rough they can get without attracting media attention and community outrage. Furthermore, prompt implementation of the recommendations made in the 1992 St. Clair Commission report improved the operations of the police force's internal affairs unit. Still, the 1995 alleged beating of an on-duty, plainclothes officer by fellow officers, and the code of silence that has thus far blocked efforts by investigators in that incident, indicate that reforms are still needed.
The department received a great deal of scrutiny following door-to-door and street searches of a predominantly African-American housing project, following the October 1989 murder of Carol Stuart, who was white. Her husband - who was suspected to be responsible for the murder - claimed the assailant was an African-American man, leading the police to search and harass scores of alleged suspects.2 Charges of excessive force were made during the raids, but disciplinary sanctions against officers were light.3
Following the Stuart case, then-Mayor Raymond Flynn appointed a commission to examine allegations of brutality against the department and how those allegationswere handled by the force's Internal Affairs Division (IAD). Flynn appointed attorney James St. Clair to chair the commission, which produced a detailed and critical report about the department's management that was particularly negative about IAD's operations. Since the St. Clair Commission report, the department has addressed the report's recommendations, yet accountability at times remains elusive.
1 St. Clair Commission, Report of the Boston Police Department Management Review Committee, January 14, 1992 (hereinafter St. Clair Commission report).
2 Kevin Cullen, "Stuart dies in jump off Tobin Bridge," Boston Globe, January 5, 1990; Kevin Cullen and Mike Barnicle, "Probers suspect Stuart killed wife," Boston Globe, January 10, 1990.
3 Telephone interview, Bureau of Internal Investigations Superintendent Ann Marie Doherty, January 30, 1998. Doherty noted that delays in the department's investigations into these abuse allegations made fact-finding more difficult. Doherty headed the Bureau of Internal Investigations (BII), which includes the Internal Affairs Division, for six years before transferring to another bureau in February 1998. William F. Doherty, "Internal affairs had gets transfer," Boston Globe, February 7, 1998.
© June 1998
Human Rights Watch