14 months later... we still don't know

About what the results were from the State Police accident re-construction Team investigation the Framingham officer who was seriously hurt on his way to a large party on Brooke Street. The accident happened Feb 2018. I asked Cannon the question on what the outcome was and he asked the Chief. "This case has not been adjudicated in court yet so I cannot comment on it" was his response. No one has been charged with any motor vehicle charges. As I have asked in the past, did the officer leave his detail post without authorization? I believe Ken confirms that by commending him for responding at the hospital. I will continue to seek answers on this one.

By Norman Miller
Daily News Staff

Posted Feb 9, 2018 at 8:42 AM Updated Feb 9, 2018 at 3:00 PM

FRAMINGHAM – A Framingham Police officer suffered serious injuries in a head-on crash on Thursday as he was rushing to a large house party.
The officer, who was not identified but has been with the department for three years, was taken by a medical rescue helicopter to UMass-Memorial Medical Center in Worcester to be treated for serious injuries that aren’t believed to be life-threatening. The officer is scheduled to have surgery on his leg on Friday, police said.
Chief Kenneth Ferguson said he visited the hospital to speak to the officer and commended him.

The crash occurred as the officer, who was on a detail, was responding to an out-of-control house party on Brook Street at about 11:20 p.m.

House Reps cave to big Pharma.. we'll all pay more

Due to the campaign donations and intense lobbying by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, a budget rider that would have saved the state millions of medicaid dollars and our own prescriptions, was dropped by the House. The Senate will take up this issue later this month. A former House member Bob Coughling (w Roxbury) now the CEO of the MBC drafted an amendment prohibiting the Health Policy Commission from publishing what it believes are fair drug pricing. It also prohibits the commission from holding public investigatory hearings.
A few other States have drug price disclosure, Vermont, California, New York and Connecticut. It will be up to Karen Spilka to make drug pricing a reality here in Mass.

After the scandal, where is the real change at The State Police

Lifted from 

 Matt Rocheleau Globe Staff,April 26, 2019

Yet, one year later, several of these initiatives are partially, if not entirely, unfulfilled, and a shift in culture at the troubled agency has proved stubbornly elusive.

Although overtime spending dropped department wide last year, it was driven in part by a steady reduction in the agency’s ranks. Some proposed reforms have suffered setbacks or remain uncertain amid union push back. And though the agency conducted several internal studies, it also ignored some of the recommendations outlined in these reports.

Reforms State Police, Governor promised

■ Disband troubled Troop E — Last spring, the unit at the center of an overtime fraud and bogus traffic citation scheme was disbanded. Its barracks, troopers, and their duties, which consisted primarily of patrolling the Massachusetts Turnpike, were absorbed by other State Police troops.

■ Deploy GPS-tracking in cruisers — The department is about halfway done adding GPS-tracking technology to its fleet of 3,000 cruisers and specialty vehicles, but union push back and pending complaints before the state’s labor relation department could upend the program.

■ Develop body camera program — The department launched a six-month body camera pilot program in February. The troopers’ union agreed to the ongoing pilot, but if the program is to be implemented permanently, it will require additional buy-in from the union.

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■ Study how to more efficiently patrol Mass. Pike — The department completed the study, but ignored a key recommendation to stop staffing posts purely on an overtime basis.

■ Study Troop F’s high overtime spending — The department completed the study, implemented a plan to reduce overtime, and saw some early promising results. But the plan is unlikely to hit the high-end of the lofty projections officials announced last spring. And the department hasn’t followed through on Governor Charlie Baker’s order to resolve a long-running jurisdiction dispute with Boston Police over the Seaport district.

■ Audit top 50 earners quarterly, publish results — The department said it has audited top-paid troopers agency-wide three times since last year, looking for violations of limits on how many hours troopers can work. But the department has refused to disclose if such violations were found, saying prosecutors investigating overtime fraud have requested it not release the audits’ results. A department spokesman did say the audits revealed “various isolated” record-keeping inconsistencies and data-entry errors, but those “do not warrant investigation or discipline.”