IT'S TIME FOR THE BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT TO WORK TO RESTORE ITS CREDIBILITY & REPUTATION. 

Former Boston police union head Patrick Rose pleads guilty to abuse charges

Records show that despite the determination Rose probably broke the law, police officials never recommended that he be fired.

Patrick M. Rose pleaded guilty to many of the allegations against him. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

By Andrew Ryan, Ivy Scott, The Boston Globe

April 25, 2022 |

Patrick M. Rose Sr., the onetime president of the city’s powerful patrolmen’s union, pleaded guilty Monday to molesting six children over decades in a case that exposed deep institutional failings within the Boston Police Department.

Rose had been allowed to keep his badge for 20 years after top police officials determined he more than likely sexually abused a child in 1995. Despite that finding, Rose remained on patrol in Dorchester, where he interacted with children and sexual assault victims and eventually ascended to the presidency of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association. The revelation, published in a Globe investigation in April 2021, underscored the secrecy of the nation’s oldest police department, which has a history of protecting officers accused of misconduct.

In Suffolk Superior Court, Rose pleaded guilty to many of the allegations against him. Rose had been charged with 33 counts of sexual abuse of six children ranging in age from 7 to 16 and had maintained his innocence.

Finish the story at BostonGlobe.com.

ACTING BOSTON MAYOR KIM JANEY HAD THE COURAGE TO FIRE DENNIS WHITE. 

EXCERPT:

Boston mayor fires city police commissioner after investigation into domestic violence allegations

By Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 8:57 PM ET, Mon June 7, 2021

Boston Mayor Kim Janey, left, has fired City Police Commissioner Dennis White.

(CNN)Boston Mayor Kim Janey announced Monday that she has fired Dennis White as commissioner of the Boston Police Department, effective immediately.

The termination stems from White's ex-wife accusing him of domestic violence 20 years ago, according to his attorney. White has denied those claims and the allegations were resolved in court in 1999, White's attorney said.

Janey said she reached her decision after considering the results of an independent investigation into multiple allegations, along with testimony and information that he provided during a hearing on June 1.

"Dennis White has repeatedly asserted that the domestic violence allegations against him are false, but he stated in his hearing and during the investigation that he has hit and pushed members of his household," Janey said. "The allegations and evidence of this behavior raised serious questions about his fitness to lead the Boston Police Department. And Dennis White's actions in recent weeks, have done even more to erode public trust in his judgment and ability to lead."

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FROM POLITICO:

— “Almost a year on, new Boston police watchdog has processed only a few complaints of officer misconduct. Some advocates are disappointed,” by Danny McDonald, Boston Globe: “Since the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, or OPAT, was established in early May of last year, five complaints of officer misconduct have gone through the organization’s intake process. All of those cases are still pending, meaning the organization has yet to make any recommendations. An additional 10 complaints were lodged but have yet to go through the intake process. For some advocates, those numbers suggest the organization is falling short of its mission — to investigate complaints of police misconduct in a city of 700,000 — and that more needs to be done to ensure the new watchdog is not another toothless bureaucracy that quietly accepts the status quo.”