Issues Over Specificity and Jurisdiction Are Vigorously Debated

The POST Commission’s subcommittee on certification standards met last Thursday in a three hour meeting continuingan on-going discussion begun in May regarding certification standards for officers.  Commissioners Calderone, Bluestone and Kazarosian comprise the committee. Calderone is the chair. The subcommittee has been charged with reviewing and offering a comprehensive set of standards related to 555 CMR 7.00. Thursday’s discussion focused on section 3. 

​A draft policy statement regarding certification was discussed at the meeting.  The proposed general policy is as follows: “Character and Fitness can be assessed through consideration of the ‘totality of circumstances’ weighing all factors both favorable and unfavorable with no one factor being necessarily dispositive”. There appeared to be consensus with this approach.

The discussion became more animated when the specific elements used to determine the totality of circumstances were presented.  The criteria included such elements as: (1) follows the organization’s mission (2) adheres to laws and orders (3) demonstrates accountability and responsibility (4) truthfulness (5) neglect of duty (6) misconduct toward the public or other officers (7) abuse of authority (8) engages in prohibited associations or establishments. Discussion intensified over one element related to “conduct unbecoming”. The draft language was overly wordy and included a controversial phrase “conduct casting doubt on an officer’s integrity, honesty, moral judgement or character”.  This drew strong criticism from Commissioner Calderone, who called the phrase “extremely vague”.  He cautioned the other members to retain only very explicit and well-defined standards.  The commissioners labored through their discussion but could not find full resolution. This discussion will continue.  The Commissioners agreed to utilize IACP conduct standards as their reference, but they could not agree on whether to adopt these standards outright. MAPLE offered several suggestions during this meeting and forwardingour approved draft of general recommendations for reform, with its definitions, to assist the subcommittee in their deliberations.