A win for the mangemnt at FPD.. sort of
FRAMINGHAM — A police union is fighting a recent ruling in the
case of a former drug detective who claims he was wrongly moved back to
patrol after more than seven years with a narcotics squad.
The Framingham Police Officers Union filed an appeal in late July seeking to force the city to undergo arbitration on the issue of Framingham Police Officer Matthew Gutwill’s reassignment in the department.
A three-judge panel recently backed the city in the case, finding that acting Police Chief Steven Trask and his predecessor, Kenneth Ferguson, had the authority to rotate Gutwill out of his longtime post with a regional drug enforcement task force in 2016.
However, the union argues the transfer — which came after Gutwill lodged complaints against others in the department — was punitive, and therefore within the scope of arbitration.
The union’s lawyer, Dennis M. Coyne, filed an application July 25 seeking further appellate review of the case by the full Supreme Judicial Court.
The Framingham Police Officers Union filed an appeal in late July seeking to force the city to undergo arbitration on the issue of Framingham Police Officer Matthew Gutwill’s reassignment in the department.
A three-judge panel recently backed the city in the case, finding that acting Police Chief Steven Trask and his predecessor, Kenneth Ferguson, had the authority to rotate Gutwill out of his longtime post with a regional drug enforcement task force in 2016.
However, the union argues the transfer — which came after Gutwill lodged complaints against others in the department — was punitive, and therefore within the scope of arbitration.
The union’s lawyer, Dennis M. Coyne, filed an application July 25 seeking further appellate review of the case by the full Supreme Judicial Court.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 8:47 AM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
how many lawsuits are there currently involving the FPD? how much is it costing the city to defend these? is that consultant the COO hired going to address these issues?
Last time at Town Meeting, I heard 9... but this guy is a leftover from The Carl days.
And as much as I have been critical of FPD, I do agree that management has the right to re-assign officers as they see fit. This all was in the works before the Flagg consultant was hired.
Why are there so many issues at FPD? Things are so bad we need to hire an outside consultant to tell us how to fix it? What's wrong with the people who are hired to manage the FPD that they need to bring someone in from outside to do their job? How did things get so bad there? When it a new chief going to be appointed, and why is it taking so long to do that?
The Chief's temporary contract ends Oct 1. The consultant will be presenting a report of some sort before then. But what this does is make it to late to find someone different to run FPD. Unless, the Mayor has been looking already. I say give Chief Trask a year to clean things up.. by then perhaps all these lawsuits will be settled.
Has the job for Police Chief even been posted yet? Aren't they required to do that even if they plan to appoint Trask?
I don't think it has been posted... or maybe they are doing it on the sly.. not to offend Trask. It must be unnerving to hear that your boss is looking to replace you based on what some PR person has to say.
I think Trask is one of the good cops. I hope he is at least being considered for the job
I agree Anon.. as long as he can real in the bad apples and get rid of that Simone guy. He's (Simone) made FPD look foolish.
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