Holyoke City Council addresses police practices, policies after corruption allegation
Updated 12:35 PM;
HOLYOKE – The City Council’s Public Safety Committee took up an order that supports examining the Police Department’s policies and practices.
City Councilors Rebecca Lisi, Gladys Lebron-Martinez and Juan Anderson-Burgos filed the order after a YouTube video posted by Police Officer Rafael Roca alleged widespread corruption within the Police Department. Roca was suspended from duty in early March.
The order stated, “In an effort to obtain neutral, fact-based data and statistics, the city contract an independent assessment of Holyoke Police Department’s structure, policies and practices.”
Ward 2 Councilor and Acting Mayor Terence Murphy, the committee’s chair, said his goal was to share as much public information and possible “to prove what we have and what has been working well” within the Police Department.