Things in the works
License Plate Readers policy... was a question that even George King had to ask FPD about. We know that there was no such policy from 2010 when FPD first bought LPR's, 12 I understand. And the one that was sent to the council is in draft form. Parts of the policy that I question are, no one person responsible for the data saved, audits will be at the discretion of the department head and the data will be purged in 30 days.
I filed a FOIA request and asked the following:
May I know when in 2010 did Framingham buy the license plate readers, for how much and who approved the purchase? Where the money came from, how much was the yearly maintenance costs and when the LPR's were no longer being used?
The request came back from FPD, that no documents exist
I appealed and the Sec of State wrote, that no one can ask for something that doesn't exist.
I get it now, next time be more exact.
A high ranking administrator wrote to me that they (FPD) can't find any record of the LPR's being bought from 2009 to 2011. So we may never know how they were purchased. And as the Mayor said in the last meeting, he doesn't have any say on what the cops buy and for what reason.
I filed a FOIA to know how much money FPD has at it's disposal in the Civil forfeiture funds or Law Enforcement Trust Fund. This is the response:
We have three LE trust funds
1)Massachusetts 38,389.22 is from forfeitures in local, state cases
2)Dept. of Justice- we have 268,464.61 after paying out the 359,346.38 for the items within the parenthesis
3)Treasury Dept -405,745.71 is available
We have officers assigned to federal task forces and get percentage of forfeitures for their casework from DOJ/Treasury
Rough start for the CPA/CPC group. Looks like there's decent among the member's. Some want the Chair Tom Mahoney to resign, others just resigned, lots of back door politics perhaps plays a role in this new committee. Lots at stake, where the money goes and who benefits is the first big question and there's no shortage of suggestions from the gallery.
And what about Sue Nichol's leaving. What a lose for the Mayor. She was the shinning star on his team. To leave Karen Spilka's side after all those years for the Mayor's office must have had benefits that I didn't see. I'm only guessing that she may have run into trouble with the Mayor and Mike T. As far as I know, Cannon didn't harass her at the Memorial building. Perhaps Maria Robinson will fill that position after not getting approved by the Senate for the energy job.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 3:54 PM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
You going to give Mike C a pat on the head for not harassing a woman down at the City hall?
I think there is a lot more to that CPA story than we know. It appears that Mahoney ignores and belittles women. If that is not the truth, then why has he not stated that publicly? Shame on the Mayor if he does not address this issue and share what is going on with all of us.
LMAO! Jim give Cannon a pat on the head??? What fantasy have you been watching?
That info about the police department and their lack of records is more than a bit questionable. No one knows when the cameras were purchased or how much they cost? Do they know where they are placed, or when they were taken down? And do they really get tos pend that money on anything they want with no oversight? Is there any auditing done of that money to make sure they are spending it on legitimate police department expenses?
What exactly was the purpose of these license plate readers anyway? Did they do any good?
I think there is something to the issues we are hearing about related to the CPA. I hope that they mayor and district councilors don't just ignore this, and I hope the public shows up tomorrow for the meeting to get to the truth. Who knows what that is at this point.
according to the FPD, the LPR's are only good for the enhancement of law enforcement agencies productivity, effectiveness and protection of the public and officer safety.
The cops will fill a "hot list" of plates to be on the look out for and if a plate reader sees a plate on the hot list, a senior officer will be notified and he/she will verify the plate before a cruiser is sent to intercept and make an arrest.
FPD will not say where they are mounted, but they are pole mounted around the city.
The new LPR's are being purchased now and will be up and running in no time, with or without a LPR policy.
From what I understand from hearing the Mayor speak at the last fincom meeting, they can buy anything they want with no oversight. I'm going to ask someone in the DOJ if that's completely true. Recently the Globe found out the BPD bought a drone with LETF money... and no one knew at City Hall. So it happens all the time I guess.
Unfortunately for all us, there's just a news void around the CPS issues. There's one more reason why all government meetings should be recorded and aired on Gov TV and on demand. But whatever the problem is, the Mayor better get in front of this.
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