Judge dismisses DOJ-Springfield Police consent decree

Regarding the dismissed consent decree, Springfield Police Superindentend Lawrence Akers, seen here at his swearing in, said, “We’re just a much better community and a much better Police Department.”
Reminder Publishing file photo

SPRINGFIELD — Four years after the Springfield Police Department came under a consent decree by the federal Department of Justice resulting from a lawsuit, a judge has dismissed the oversight agreement.

On May 7, United States Magistrate Judge Michael Ponsor dismissed the consent decree upon the request of both the DOJ and the Police Department.

The consent decree was a component of a 2022 lawsuit settlement, stemming from complaints about use of force by the department’s narcotics bureau.

The decree required the department to revise its use of force policy and accountability measures, and train officers on the topics, as well as de-escalation tactics. The city created the Board of Police Commissioners as a civilian oversight committee, and the narcotics bureau was disbanded and replaced with a firearms investigation unit.

At a May 11 press conference at Springfield City Hall, NAACP of Greater Springfield President Bishop Talbert Swan, Emurriel Holloway of MA Senior Action, Pioneer Valley Project Board of Directors President Rev. David Lewis and PVP board member Sister Melinda Pellerin were joined by Mayor Domenic Sarno, Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers and Capt. Brian Beliveau, who has led the department’s community engagement.

“We are here because the community demanded change. And let’s be clear, shining a light on injustice is not division. It is the beginning of justice,” said Lewis.

“Today, we mark the end of the federal consent decree involving the Springfield Police Department. It’s the end of the decree, but it is not the end of accountability and transparency or reform,” Swan said. He credited members of the community for the reforms that had been achieved. He said reform could not have happened without people speaking up about their experiences and community organizations pushing for “federal intervention because the community had lost confidence in the system. The DOJ investigated and validated our concerns. And what followed was not punishment for the city of Springfield. It was an opportunity for it to become better,” said Swan. “Public safety and civil rights are not opposing values, they go hand in hand, and the progress achieved over these past years must not be reversed.”

The framework established under the consent decree consists of four pillars: oversight by the Professional Standards Unit, the processes and practices of the Firearms Investigation Unit, the Internal Investigations Unit’s audit and compliance system and continuous community engagement.

During the lawsuit, Sarno brought Roderick L. Ireland, a retired chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in as an advisor on the issue. Roderick said in a press release, “The fact that the Department of Justice and the Federal Court have dismissed the case reflects extremely well on Springfield’s Police Department. It tells me that the Police Department has addressed each and every concern that was raised.”

Kathleen O’Toole, the court-appointed compliance evaluator, said in a press release. “As Lead Compliance Evaluator, I appreciate Judge Ponsor’s decision to approve the parties’ motion to terminate the consent decree. This outcome reflects substantial, sustained progress by the city of Springfield and the Springfield Police Department in advancing constitutional policing, strengthening accountability, and building systems capable of enduring beyond federal oversight.”

Asked if the progress between the community and the Police Department has required compromise, Akers said, “Yes, there’s been compromise on both sides — I’m hesitant to say both sides because we should all be one side and that’s what we’re working toward.” He said the road to becoming one community, rather than adversaries, “was not easy in the beginning.” He said he was glad not to be a part of the initial negotiations with the DOJ, “because that left a lot of bitter taste in some people’s mouth.”

Speaking about working with community leaders, he said, “When you have your mind set on doing things your way, it’s not easy to do something someone else’s way, and that’s what the communication and collaboration is all about. As time went on, we all began to grow closer together. When I first took over, I wasn’t happy with a lot of things. And I have to say, a couple of times I did think people who were just trying to hold my department accountable were being a little adversarial and they didn’t want to hear what I had to say. But once I opened my mind, and others opened their minds on the other side, we began to come closer in understanding how each of us have to do our jobs.”

He added, “We’re just a much better community and a much better Police Department.”

Tracey Carpenter of MA Senior Action later told Reminder Publishing, “There was a lot of distrust and fear in the community, and we felt like that was a huge stumbling block in terms of giving people the confidence just to come and say what has happened to them or what their thoughts are. We have to acknowledge that there was great trauma in the city. We were willing to put our organizations on the line because the community trusts our organizations, and it was able to bridge some conversations.”

Despite the progress that has been made, Lewis said the trauma remains. “It’s going to take some time. We began that piece, that therapeutic alliance, that relationship. So, from there, now we can begin to have less fear. We can now open up. We can now be a little more transparent than we were, because now we’re getting to know the person, not just the badge.”

Reflecting on the challenges the department had to overcome, Beliveau said the department did not have a use-of-force problem, but it was unable to back that up with data. “Anecdotally, we knew people weren’t running around getting clobbered all the time, but it wasn’t until we had a data set, where we could actually do that and have that clear articulation. Yeah, we had some issues with reporting. It wasn’t that things weren’t being reported, it was pathways for reports.” He said the reports were all handwritten, leading to a chaotic tracking system.

“So, now have a synchronous system that allows all of that to be captured,” he said.

“Everything came about at the right time. And I think there has always been a great story to be told within the SPD, but it was a matter of us being able to say it and say it and do it with support and articulation,” said Beliveau. He said that the department’s incidents of force had been trending downward for a few years before the consent decree. “But it wasn’t solidified. We couldn’t back it with data.”

Akers said, “I think it was better that we did change, but it did come with collateral damage where officers were afraid to do anything. We did have to change it because it wasn’t up to par, but officers became hesitant to do things, which usually leads to injuries… they don’t want to put their hands on people, even if it’s justified, because they always felt that big brother was looking over us.”

He continued, “I think that if we were going to go about it and recognize that it was going to happen in advance, then we probably would have done it a little bit differently.” He pointed out that 200 of the city’s more than 500 officers have been onboarded since the consent decree took effect. “This is all they know,” Akers said. “Now, we can continue what we’ve been doing and we’re a different type of department. When you look at it, the big picture was the right thing to do. The city’s changing, the state’s changing, the country’s changing, the world’s changing.”