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Massachusetts POST Commission issues announcement of 4 newly suspended officers bringing total to 19
Boston –The Massachusetts POST Commission announced this week an update to the suspended law enforcement officer list.
Four newly suspended officers are listed below, bringing the total number of suspensions to nineteen:
Kendra Conway, Boston Police Department
Iancy Gonzalez, Salem Police Department
Michael Murphy, Boston Police Department
Carlos Vieira, Lawrence Police Department
Gonzalez is accused of depositing more than a dozen counterfeit $1,000 money orders into her account.
Conway and Murphy are accused of departing overtime shifts early and then submitting false and fraudulent overtime slips claiming to have worked the entirety of each shift which pocketed them $15,000 in unearned overtime.
Vieira was sentenced to state prison on child rape charges in November.
The POST Commission is directed by statute to suspend the certification of an officer who is arrested, charged or indicted for a felony and will revoke the certification of an officer who is convicted of a felony. The suspension order is in effect until a final decision or revocation is made by the Commission.
Executive Director Enrique Zuniga said, “The POST Commission has been working diligently to meet statutory obligations and deadlines while building our new agency. We have now established a regular cadence of releasing updated law enforcement officer status information, and the public can now expect updates at the beginning of every month.”
The POST Commission was established as part of a 2020 criminal justice reform law to focus on efforts to improve public safety and increase trust between members of law enforcement and the public. The POST Commission is charged with creating a mandatory certification process for police officers, as well as processes for decertification, suspension of certification, or reprimand in the event of certain misconduct.
Massachusetts has approximately 18,000+ sworn officers according to the United States Bureau of Justice.
David
February 4, 2023 at 2:57 pm
Wow. 19 bad cops in the entire state. Of course, by “bad” a FELONY must have been committed. Natch, beating the stuffing out of a civilian, violating their civil liberties, or even killing them is not a felony when Qualified Immunity stands in the way of prosecution. The POST Commission may have been intended to dupe the public into thinking that appropriate guardrails are in place. Instead, what it really shows us is how meaningless protections for the public really are. I can’t believe that with Democrats in all 3 branches of government in MA, we can’t do any better.