The $350,000 that was taken out last year has been returned for cruiser replacement.
Because a police department works 24 hours a day, seven days a week on three different shifts, Fuller noted officers spend much of their day in their cruisers.
“Those are their offices,” she said.
Personnel costs
Personnel also drive budget costs. There are approximately 970 employees on the city side (not including school employees) and many are union members, said the mayor. There are usually “step increases” in union contracts which in turn, require a budget increase.
Fuller said when Carmichael starts, the city will re-evaluate the police hiring process and consider whether to withdraw from civil service in order to diversify the pool of candidates.
Wicked Local
During a very challenging era for policing, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller on Thursday said the city had found “the right person at the right time” to become the department’s new leader: Current Walpole Police Chief John F. Carmichael Jr.
If the City Council agrees with the mayor’s choice, Carmichael will take over for Interim Chief Howard Mintz in June.
“I’m very big on transparency,” said the 53-year-old father of two regarding his communication style with the community and media.
During a press conference at the police station, Fuller praised Carmichael, an East Walpole resident, for being a good listener, a collaborative manager and someone who leads with compassion and integrity, she said.
Elianna Kruskal, Megan Fieleke and Connie Shui-Yi Chow
After eight months of work, Newton’s mayor-appointed Police Reform Task Force has released a set of recommendations that are deeply flawed. The report begins by acknowledging the historic and ongoing harm policing causes to Black, Indigenous and other people of color, then inexplicably concludes that we need to invest even more money and effort into the Newton Police Department.
The Newton Police Reform Task Force seems driven by an erroneous belief that police can be fundamentally transformed into something other than police. They call for a mindshift from a “warrior mentality” to a “guardian mentality” through a consultant-led culture change initiative, substantial new and expensive training, and hiring more officers in order to achieve racial diversity. They propose these solutions despite widespread evidence showing that reforms that seek to fix police don’t result in more equity.
UpdatedTue, Apr 6, 2021 at 4:26 pm ET
Replies(3)
Middlesex District Attorney Ryan speaks to the press about the investigation into the death of Michael Conlon who was shot by Newton police in February. (Jenna Fisher/Patch)
NEWTON, MA The family of Michael Conlon, who was fatally shot last month by police during a mental health crisis, is calling for more police training. Given that 1 in 5 US adults experiences mental illness, 1 in 20 US adults experiences severe mental illness, and 17 percent of youth experience a mental health disorder, we feel training is not only called for, but also necessary, they wrote in a letter to the Boston Globe, citing National Alliance on Mental Illness statistics.