04/11/2024
By Karen Mullins
The School of Criminology and Justice Studies is proud to announce a Dissertation Proposal Defense by Sean Perry entitled, "Evaluating Massachusetts’ Reforms and their Effects on Police Misconduct."
Friday April 26
11 a.m.
HSSB room 342
Committee:
- Christopher Harris, Chair
- Melissa Morabito
- Joselyne Nkogo
- Jason Rydberg
Abstract
Following a summer of national outcry over the state of policing, Massachusetts passed Chapter 253, “An Act relative to justice, equity and accountability in law enforcement in the Commonwealth” in December of 2020. The act aimed to restrict potential police misconduct and provide additional layers of oversight, as it banned chokeholds, created a “duty to de-escalate” as well as a “duty to intervene” for officers who witness misconduct, and chiefly created the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST). The POST Commission is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct, conducting reviews of data for potential wrongdoing, establishing requirements for hiring and training officers in Massachusetts, and even decertifying individual officers. While these changes appear sweeping and draw on many different bodies of research, many of these areas aren’t well understood. This lack of knowledge requires a detailed study to illuminate the effects of these reforms, whether they are producing their intended outcome in the neighborhoods around the state or even unintended consequences for the departments responsible.