PRESENTATION BY THE JOINT POLICE REFORM GROUP

INTRODUCTION

Following the murder of George Floyd in May, 2020, some of us who have been deeply concerned about racism and policing in our country for some time, turned our attention to learning more about the Watertown Police Department and its practices with an eye toward addressing police reform locally. Similarly, many other communities across the nation are engaged in this process.

Additionally, the Massachusetts legislature, out of its growing concern for the lack of police accountability, issued a landmark bill to address, among other things, police certification and decertification, police misconduct, training, use of force policies, and police bias. While the bill that eventually was signed by Governor Baker was somewhat weakened by his requested changes, when enacted it will still be of enormous positive impact. We believe, however, that efforts at the local level continue to be necessary to hold individual police departments accountable. Local efforts are important for the prevention of racial bias, unnecessary use of force, and harmful aspects of police culture. Citizens want reform.

The information and projects presented below represent what we have learned from our research and efforts that has led us to the determination that we must act to bring about changes to the current operations and culture of our Watertown Police Department. It is our conclusion that the WPD definitely has areas that warrant improvement. We have listened and learned from our investigations and interactions with the WPD. As representatives of groups of Watertown residents, we ask that our town government listen to our concerns and act to bring about greater justice and accountability from the WPD, as well as more effective solutions to the root causes of public safety issues.

We feel that it is imperative that we have a diverse and inclusive police department that does not stop, cite, and arrest a disproportionate number of black people; is equitable and avoids harm; maintains a culture of professionalism and respect, and is held accountable by our Town Government and its citizens. We would like to see the WPD take responsibility for joining with Watertown government and citizenry to achieve the improvements outlined below.

GROUP DESCRIPTIONS AND STATEMENTS

1. Watertown Citizens for Black Lives Police Policy Reform group

Since July 2020, the Watertown Police Policy Group (a working group of the Watertown Citizens for Black Lives) has been reviewing how to recommend changes to the Watertown Police Department to ensure that Black people, other people of color, and those with mental health concerns in Watertown are protected from violence, targeting, and discrimination.

WCBL formed a Police Policy Reform Group after receiving and reviewing the presentation of Ted Hammett on the Use of Force policies in Watertown PD in July 2020. Subsequent discussions led to the group forming an ad hoc group called the Police Policy Reform Group. The goals of the group include: 1) Collect data and information on current Watertown Police Department policies, procedures, and statistics in order to identify issues; 2) Suggest changes to the Watertown Police Department in response to this data; 3) Advocate for larger structural changes in Watertown; 4) Collaborate with relevant efforts that reach beyond Watertown.

The Watertown Police Policy Reform Group has achieved the following: 1. Reviewed and analyzed use of force policies 2. Secured data from WPD regarding stops and arrests 3. Designed a list of public records requests 4. Met with Lt. Unsworth twice to inquire about policies and procedures 5. Met with Middlesex DA Ryan to hear policy and training changes within her office

As of 12/28/2020, a major next step for moving forward is to meet with the Watertown Police Department to review the data. The plan is to use the data to make a case for change in Watertown; to present and discuss with a variety of internal and external groups to effect change, including potential use of force modifications.

What we would like the Committee on Public Safety to know.

1) We have documented the extremely disproportionate rates of Black people being arrested and cited by Watertown police, which are statistically highly significant. We ask that the Town Council call on the WPD to correct procedures and behaviors that have resulted in such racially discrepant treatment of residents. 2) We ask the Town Council to call on the WPD to align fully its Use of Force Policy with the model policies put forth by “8 Can’t Wait” and “Campaign Zero,” and all provisions of the recently enacted Massachusetts police reform bill. 3) We ask that the Town Council look into the allegations in the lawsuit Donahue vs. the Town of Watertown and the Watertown Police Union. 4) We advocate, through the Watertown Charter Review process, a government structure that ensures real police accountability. 5) We ask that the Town Council favor a proactive approach to police reform, as adopted by several surrounding towns, rather than embracing the status quo. 2. Community Advisory Group Kingian Response Team

The WPD Community Advisory Board working group was organized in June 2020 as part of the larger Kingian Response Initiative.

Our work was based on the assumption that Watertown (like other smaller communities in MA) would not be able to enact and fund an independent police review commission – which we anticipated would be provided at state-wide level through the police reform legislation. Instead, our focus was on an advisory board that would enhance communication and dialogue between the Department and important constituencies within the Watertown community.

We suggested several objectives for the proposed Community Advisory Board:

● Foster transparent communication and trust between the WPD and the increasingly diverse constituencies of the Watertown community

● Provide citizen and community feedback or recommendations about the Department’s operations, policies, and practices – and their impact on the different racial and ethnic constituencies in town

● Foster routine reporting and accountability to the community about the Department’s operations, policies, and effectiveness

Our proposal included suggestions and recommendations for the Community Advisory Board membership, responsibilities, and operations (see here for a copy of our proposal). We also prepared a companion piece highlighting reasons for such an advisory body (see here).

We developed the proposal as an initial step in a collaborative dialogue with the WPD about establishing a mechanism for community input and dialogue. We sent this proposal to Chief Lawn in mid-September, and he responded by sharing it with his entire command staff and scheduling a meeting with them and our working group members in mid-October to discuss it.

During that meeting we learned that there was very little support for establishing such an advisory body – at least until the police reform legislation was passed, to clarify the implications for the WPD. Some of the command staff felt that the approach we outlined was more of a “control board” than an advisory board, and that it might be another level of unnecessary bureaucracy. Others supported the concept of including community perspectives, but felt that the Department has existing programs and approaches that might be better used instead of setting up a new group.

What we would like the Public Safety Committee to know. We have believed from the outset that a Community Advisory Board needs to be fully embraced and supported by the Chief, and that it must be a collaborative effort to facilitate dialogue between the Department and community representatives. We believe that overt pressure on the Chief or the Department will not be successful … and in fact would likely be counter-productive … in getting the department to embrace such an advisory group.

Having said that, but still believing in the efficacy of a Community Advisory Board, another approach would be to have the Town Council, either through ordinance or addition to the Town Charter, mandate such a board with the full weight of the town government behind it. It could be based on this Community Advisory Board proposal and made appropriate to meet town requirements.

3. Police Training Kingian Response Team

The goal of our project is to have all of the officers in the police department be trained in state-of-the-art conflict reconciliation and de-escalation practices. This training would be based on the Kingian curriculum, customized to meet the needs of police officers in a way that would be supported by our training group, the Police Department, and other interested members of the community who are invested in progressive police reforms. Training would be conducted over a three-year period, and officers would be trained in groups of 10, two groups per year for a total of at least 60 officers by the end of those three years. This would:

- - Provide officers with a greater understanding of the nature of conflict, as well as

how racism has influenced policing in America over the years -

- - Increase officers’ listening skills and abilities to see situations from other people’s perspectives;

- - Help officers to more quickly recognize and respond to calls that are mainly motivated by implicit racism and suspicion of people who are somehow “different” from the caller;

- Help to lower the stress experienced by officers involved in tense situations by building their self-confidence and ability to facilitate peaceful outcomes;

- Offer concrete techniques for de-escalating volatile confrontations between individuals and groups, thus ensuring the safety of the individuals involved as well as the well-being of responding officers;

- Potentially prevent future violence, arrests, court proceedings, etc., by assisting involved parties to settle their differences peacefully; - Help officers to better understand the fear, anger, and frustrations felt by Blacks and other People of Color in today’s climate, and strengthen positive relationships and mutual respect between police officers and all Watertown residents, especially People of Color;

- Demonstrate to the community the commitment of the WPD to offer the best officer training possible to serve the public with compassion and understanding. These efforts of the department could be well publicized in the local media, thus making Watertown an outstanding example for other communities to emulate.

What we would like the Public Safety Committee to know

Data shows that the population of black people in Watertown is 2%, yet 14% of the stops and/or arrests made by the WPD are of people in the black community. This is completely disproportionate to the population size and suggests that there is significant bias in policing that needs to be addressed. More training is needed to help officers recognize and suppress their personal bias, de-escalate tense situations, both physically and emotionally, calm themselves, and make proper decisions in the moment. These changes must be pushed forward to get rid of this inequality in our town. The data also proves wrong the assumption that our town is already anti-racist and has no problem in our PD. We are seeking the support of the Town Council in implementing innovative and effective anti-racist, culturally competent police training for the benefit of both officers and the community, and especially for BIPOC who live in, work in, or pass through Watertown.

4. Uplift Watertown

Uplift Watertown is a group of young people dedicated to a new vision of public safety in Watertown that came together in June 2020. We believe that divesting from the Watertown Police Department and investing in social programs that best meet the needs of Watertown creates safer and more just communities. We want to help Watertown move away from punitive reactions to harm and towards solutions which are life-affirming and transform the conditions which perpetuate harm in the first place. We advocate that progressive structural changes to our town’s government, departments, and public schools should be led by marginalized communities and should uplift the stories and work of community members affected by racism and other systems of oppression.

Using the Kingian framework of Listen, Learn, Grow, and Act we describe our work in the following ways: Listen: Listen to the data that is already available from other communities about how police responses to issues such as mental health crises, homelessness, and interpersonal violence, have failed affected community members. Learn: Examine the extreme disparities in funding between social services and police in Watertown. Grow: - Encouraging creative problem solving that goes beyond traditional and usual approaches to find solutions to noted problems. - Create a 5-year plan for gradual budget reallocation from the police department to the health and housing departments for the purpose of increased mental health care and affordable housing. - Recognize that social services and mental healthcare are often catered towards white people and even reinforce white supremacist structures. - Take steps to ensure that community resources are increasingly accessible to all community members in Watertown. Act: - Implement and follow through with a 5-year plan for divestment. Evaluate and readjust. - Hire mental health professionals who are People of Color, and hire culturally competent white mental health professionals.

In short, our goals with regard to policing are: 1. To achieve comprehensive mental health care and substance use treatment, housing for all, transformative justice solutions to interpersonal violence, and an end to punitive systems of control within our community. 2. To work with the Town Council/Town Manager/Town Departments to invest tax dollars in community resources like Wayside Foundation, subsidized housing, CARE, and to divest from the police department. 3. To educate the Watertown community about police and prison abolition and transformative justice as it relates to Watertown and the surrounding area.

What we would like the Public Safety Committee and the Town Council to know: Police should not have a monopoly on the term public safety. Communities are safer when we invest in preventative care in all aspects of public health. Healthier communities, where everyone has access to good food, safe and affordable housing, physical and mental healthcare, and a sense of belonging experience lower rates of crime. They are also much less costly in the long term than increasing expenditures on surveillance and policing. We must expand our thinking about public safety to include public health.

We would like to see the Public Safety Committee and the Town Council commit to reallocation of the police budget to other resources: mental health care, food, safe and affordable housing, transformative justice and restorative justice initiatives in response to violent and non-violent crimes. We would like to see research on what the most common crimes / causes for police calls are, and then find specific alternative solutions for each of those. We would like to see the WPD make data more readily available on arrests. We want to make sure that preventative care is effective and well-funded, and that the effectiveness of jail diversion programs in terms of rates of relapse / second overdoses is investigated. We want to see that CARE / substance use group is adequately funded.