Police Reform

Our district holds the special honor of leading the nation in dealing with the opioid crisis. The changes implemented by our district show how reforming the way police interact with the community can save lives, increase trust, and build better communities. This shift was a critical step in police reform but it should not be the only one.

I was incredibly disappointed to see Senate Republicans use the filibuster to block even the most incremental of Joe Biden’s police reforms, including the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. On this issue and so many others, Massachusetts must lead where our federal government is stalled by Senate Republicans. As a state representative, I will work to make sure that these efforts are brought to Massachusetts which can help create momentum state-by-state by demonstrating that police reform can co-exist with public safety.

In the past several years, Massachusetts has been roiled by overtime scandals among our state police force. The ability of state police to lie, and get away with it for years, has cost the public in our taxpayer dollars as well as in our confidence in our police. We need to be able to show that nobody is above the law. As a state representative, I will champion efforts for transparency into the state police, including establishing a commission to investigate these overtime scandals, prevent such conduct in the future, and work to repair trust.