Mayor Wu: Patrick Rose case is shaping the city’s approach to collective bargaining

Mayor Michelle Wu stated Monday the case of disgraced former Boston police officer Patrick M. Rose, Sr., now a convicted youngster molester who sexually abused six youngsters over twenty years, has formed how metropolis officers are negotiating collective bargaining agreements with Boston’s regulation enforcement and different unions representing metropolis staff.

The case has been a supply of controversy for the Boston Police Division in recent times after felony costs had been filed towards the previous president of town’s patrolmen’s union in 2020.

A Boston Globe investigation final 12 months discovered Rose was capable of stay on the power for 20 years regardless of a 1995 inside division probe that discovered he doubtless sexually abused a toddler.

Rose pleaded responsible in April and was sentenced to serve at the very least 10 years in jail.

Showing on WBUR’s “Radio Boston” on Monday, Wu was requested what she has realized whereas talking with former division executives concerning the case.

Wu stated that though the company will not be the one one, the Boston Police Division is “in some ways, sure by layers of insurance policies inside particular person departments but in addition contractual obligations,” tradition, and state regulation concerning how instances like Rose’s will be resolved.

“It may be very powerful, and it’s a reminder every single day that our subsequent collective bargaining session … has much more to do with how this division will perform than simply how a lot staff receives a commission,” Wu stated. “And so we’re actually attempting to include that into many bargaining discussions.”

Particularly, Wu stated town is taking a look at incorporating “operational adjustments” into collective bargaining agreements, not only for police unions but in addition in contracts with different metropolis businesses, too.

She steered these adjustments might embrace language that units clear timeframes for departments to deal with personnel issues and misconduct like that offered in Rose’s case.

“Over time, it could develop into very troublesome for a case to be pressed ahead,” Wu stated. “It depends on testimony from survivors who’re beneath an amazing quantity of strain, and if that testimony finally ends up being withdrawn for no matter cause over time, or if the case goes on a very long time and the reminiscences of various witnesses fade or the courts develop into annoyed, then it’s simply tougher and tougher and tougher.”

Wu described the doable contract updates as an effort to “tighten up” insurance policies.

Primarily, the adjustments might say, “‘Right here’s the clear guidelines,’ whether or not that’s by way of an goal disciplinary matrix or provisions throughout the contract that say, ‘A majority of these incidents can have accountability that’s tied to a selected timeframe,’” Wu stated. “‘This set of points must be resolved inside 30 or 60 days,’ proper, versus 4 or 5 years, the place then the case falls aside and it turns into very troublesome to really attain justice.”

Wu’s feedback got here a couple of weeks after the mayor stated she personally delved into the division’s inside affairs report on Rose.

Earlier final month, Wu gave a WCVB interview through which she stated she had solely learn a redacted model of the report. Wu made a remark that implied she was blocked from studying the report, however she later stated her remarks had been “misinterpreted.”

Up to now, town has solely made public 13 pages of Rose’s 100-plus web page lengthy file.

On Monday, Wu stated she and her employees are completely reviewing the report back to “strike the appropriate steadiness” between defending the privateness of survivors and making the matter extra clear to make sure public belief within the division.

“Our groups have been diligently going by way of that go after go after go, by way of these paperwork, and settling on the proper steadiness for the place we’ll land,” Wu stated.

Take heed to the complete WBUR interview: