The Drug Task Force wants office space in Natick
The Drug thugs want Framingham to lease space for their operation in Natick. It will be approved in Executive session and then by the full council tonight. I'll bet no one asks or questions any of it. This group of thugs needs to be disbanded and each municipality do their own drug investigations IMO. Keep in mind, it was a drug arrest that lead to the killing of Eurie Stamps. The drug war is over. The days of busting stoners at a traffic stop is over. The majority of fentanyl seizures (60%) are coming from the US Mail. The one motivating factor for the drug task force is civil forfeiture. The money (and assets) taken in drug busts is split between the feds, State and local cops.
From the Patch:
A regional police unit that investigates drug crimes is seeking to move into
a new location in Natick, and the Framingham City Council is set to approve the
move on Tuesday.
The MetroWest Drug Task Force, a joint effort between Natick and Framingham
police, has found a 1,475 square-foot space to lease in Natick. The lease would
be paid for out of Framingham's law enforcement trust fund — a pot of money
that comes from property forfeitures made after drug arrests.
The two towns formed the MetroWest Drug Task Force in 2015. Drug detectives
from the two departments work together on investigate drug dealing activity.
The partnership was renewed in 2019, and Framingham has a similar pact with
Marlborough police.
The address of the new space was not disclosed. The Framingham City Council
will meet in closed session on Tuesday to negotiate the lease, and will then
vote to approve it at the regular meeting.
Questions I sent to George:
Are the other towns chipping in anything?
How much time will be spent in these offices and who is supervising?
Is the money for this lease coming from the civil forfeiture funds?
Do they require union approval to have their own offices?
Who pays the utilities and out fitting the office space?
Will there be firearms stored there?
After all these years why do they need space now, considering the drug war is essentially over?
How many drug investigations were there in 2019?
Given the BLM movement over the killing of innocent black people like Eurie Stamps in a drug raid does paying for the Drug Task force to have its own headquarters in Natick show the lack of sensitivity on behalf of the elected officials?
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 11:11 AM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
Great questions, but I suspect George will not respond to any of them. Hope I am wrong
I think the primary question is how is this being paid for in a time where we need to be cutting so many budgets. Who here thinks this office is more important than that money being spent in the schools or on building repairs that have been ignored for years and will need to be pushed back now because of Covid? My vote is if we have the money available to pay for this,then there are far better places to be spending that money
I live in Cannon's district and refuse to deal with that idiot. Which councilor should I reach out to since it isn't going to be Cannon to ask them not to support this?
It now seems like the money is from the Forfeiture Fund. It's not clear in the agenda item for tonight's meeting, who pays for the operating costs of the space in Natick. If it is Framingham taxpayers, the council should reject the lease as we shouldn't be spending money on anything that is not needed. I believe the FPD can spend that money without council approval. Tune in tonight on your GovTV channel... it's number 3 on the agenda.
George King (gking@framinghamma.gov) is receptive to e-mail. But he and all the others are to afraid to ask the hard questions of anyone in public safety.
Why the hell do we even need this space? Isn't everyone in agreement that the drug war is over because it failed miserably?
Is the public able to comment during the meeting tonight and if so, anyone know how we do that?
here's the URL for the Zoom connection
http://framinghamma.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=14&ID=4319&Inline=True
If you watch it on TV and you want to call in:
Or Telephone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):US: +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 558 8656 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 9128
Or you can watch in on City Council FB page.. The council never answers question from that platform, but do read them later, so I'm told.
As the agenda states... the Council will meet in executive session before the regular meeting. It's my guess it's a done deal.
Does this have to be approved by the DC or is this something the mayor or police chief can approve without the OK of the DC? Just curious if this is a powerplay waiting to happen as the DC has no authority but is still going to try to get some say in this process.
last nights meeting
the vote happened in record time with no questions at all from the council
10:49 to 11:42
http://207.172.210.8:5002/CablecastPublicSite/show/2041?channel=1
This drug task force move signifies to me that the Mayor, COO, Police Chief and the Council are tone deaf. While all over the country, measures are being taken to stop or slow down the racial injustice that the drug war has brought to our black and brown populations. But since the Mayor seems oblivious to what happened here 9 years ago with the killing of Mr. Stamps, the theft of drug money from the evidence room at FPD headquarters and other misguided and often illegal acts by FPD, her administration has just furthered to systemic racism she so loudly championed against when she was elected Mayor.
This is the Mass law that defines civil forfeiture and what the funds can be spent on. As I read this, there's no mention of office space to be paid for out of the fund.
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/mass-general-laws-c94c-ss-47
There shall be established within the office of the state treasurer separate special law enforcement trust funds for each district attorney and for the attorney general. All such monies and proceeds received by any prosecuting district attorney or attorney general shall be deposited in such a trust fund and shall then be expended without further appropriation to defray the costs of protracted investigations, to provide additional technical equipment or expertise, to provide matching funds to obtain federal grants, or such other law enforcement purposes as the district attorney or attorney general deems appropriate. The district attorney or attorney general may expend up to ten percent of the monies and proceeds for drug rehabilitation, drug education and other anti-drug or neighborhood crime watch programs which further law enforcement purposes.
Renting space makes no sense when we have city owned space they could use
And plenty of it as one realtor in the know has said and most likely cheaper than 50k a year for 1400 sf.
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