Given the national state of affairs following the death of George Floyd and the scrutiny currently directed at law enforcement, Local Town Pages recently turned to Franklin Police Chief Thomas Lynch to clarify some questions the public may have on our local force and training provided them. Chief Lynch noted that he made a presentation on the department’s Use of Force policy at Franklin Town Council on June 3rd to answer questions citizens had been asking. He adds that the policy, as well as the department’s Use of Force data is located on the far-left side of the Franklin Police Department website.

Under what circumstances does your police force consider using physical force to be appropriate?

As our policy states, it’s appropriate only to use force that is reasonably necessary to achieve the lawful objective to make a lawful arrest, place someone in protective custody or bring an incident under control. If a person is going to be arrested and they resist, the level of force should match the resistance.

 Do our police wear body cameras? Why, or why not? Would you be willing to have officers wear them?

No, we do not have body cameras. I think they work more in favor of law enforcement, and I’d love to have them. The problem is the cost, not of the cameras themselves or the hardware, but for us it’s the storage of the video, whether you store it in house, which is very expensive, or on the cloud, also very expensive, and they want us to keep it for an extended period of time. According to public records laws, anyone can ask for the video and you have to edit it prior to release. So, I would have to hire another person just to be able to keep up with the public record requests. In a cost/benefit analysis, we’ve had 44 use of force incidents since 2016, 35 weaponless, and nine when they took a weapon out and those were all taser-related. Out of 44 incidents, we’ve had not one single sustained complaint about an excessive use of force. I do not want to trade officers for body cameras. For the first time, under my tenure, we were actually able to add officers, from 46 to 52. Money for body cameras would have to come from within the budget, and we are already looking at a reduction. Potentially, I would have to lose police officers to fund a body camera program, and historically we haven’t had many people come in to complain about (excessive force). Also a number of departments who have instituted body camera programs are now de-instituting them, because the cost is too much.

Do your officers take de-escalation trainings? How often? What is the purpose of these, and what does training entail?

The Municipal Police Training Council instituted this type of training in academies in 2016. The training also includes, defensive tactics training. We try to train for events that our officers may encounter. Every year, veteran officers have to go to 40 hours of in service training, including firearms, defensive tactics, de-escalation training, CPR & First Aid, legal updates and  something specific to what’s current. 

How are officers trained to manage stress in their lives and on the job? If an officer is under stress, can they recuse themselves from duty? Are their fellow officers able to intervene?

The Task Force on 21st Century Policing, instituted by the Obama administration after Ferguson addressed the issue with Pillar #6, Officer wellness. Law enforcement in general has made leaps and bounds on the issue of officer wellness, and one major development has been in the utilization of stress debriefings. We have stress debriefing resources available for officers after critical incidents through Metro-Lec and access to a clinician that works for our agency. Her job is to help out with mental health issues our residents may experience and she can also assist if an officer is having any difficulties. Also, our shift length went from an 8-hour day to a 10-hour day, with four days on followed by four days off. One reason was to address officer wellness. This shift configuration allows officers to spend more off duty time with their families. We’ve also created a wellness guide that contains a number of resources for officers and their families to utilize if they experience any job related stress.  I mailed it to the officers’ family, because I want them to know we’re here for them. 

How are false complaints handled?

When someone calls and files a report they can remain anonymous. We handle all the reports in similar manner. We respond, investigate and assess the situation to determine what we have. Recently we had a call in the center of town, where somebody called up and said that they had their wife and son held captive, and he was armed and threatened to kill them. We had to handle it as a legitimate hostage situation until we found out it was completely false and originated in England. We instituted a Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) Unit specifically for incidents that continue, that haven’t been solved. It doesn’t have to be criminal-related. The POP unit officers get the time they need to dive down to the root of what is the issue and come up with solutions, an example of something that would end up with the POP unit, was if someone was continuing to make false complaints, the unit would investigate, get to the root of the issue and come up with a workable solution. 

What, if any, diversity training is there for officers?

We instituted a policy and trained officers on the Identification and Prevention of Bias-based Profiling, trying to ensure that officers understand the concept of profiling and making sure they’re not utilizing it. We also train on Mental Health First Aid, Procedural Justice and all the criminal justice reforms that came down through the state. 

Has your department received any surplus military equipment?

The only thing we received years ago, were eight M-14 rifles, and they’re used for the Honor Guard, they are strictly ceremonial.

Police officers receive first aid training. If a suspect or bystander appears seriously injured, what is the protocol for administering first aid until paramedics arrive?

Our officers are considered first responders and would immediately render medical aid until relieved by someone with higher qualifications.  Also, contained within our Use of Force Policy is a provision that states if you use force, and now the person complies, but has an injury, as a first responder, the officer has a duty to provide care until they’re relieved by somebody that’s more advanced or they’re exhausted. The goal up front is to control the situation, and once they get that person subdued, or unfortunately, if they use lethal force, they can go ahead and provide the necessary medical aid. There are different variables, but once things get under control and it’s safe, we have a duty to provide aid, and then they’ll be relieved by someone who has more training than them.

What is the department’s stance on the “Blue Lives Matter” flag?

We don’t really have one. I think it’s really a question of who you talk to, and have these symbols been hijacked. Back in the 50s, it used to be referred to as the thin blue line, used by many to demonstrate support for law enforcement, but all in all, the symbol has become controversial and I didn’t realize, has become a symbol of white supremacy. Whatever it is, we have not and will not display it at the Franklin Police Department.

If they see police misconduct, how do you ensure that officers won’t protect “one of their own?”

All of our officers go through ethics training regularly, and again, if somebody was committing misconduct, we would hope that officers would report it. Through our internal affairs policy, there would be an investigation. If you’re following training on ethics and policy, you shouldn’t have any issues. Also, our supervisors are constantly monitoring our officers response to calls and if they see anything concerning they have the ability to address it or report it to an officer of higher rank for investigation.

Are fellow officers trained to step in if they see another officer using excessive force?

Same thing with the ethics training—That other officer would intervene and stop the use of excessive force, maybe if they were in physical altercation, they’d basically have to deescalate.

Officers know that, and officers are trained, so if they see someone in that heat of the moment, they are there to calm that person down, to allow them that opportunity to come down and let the adrenaline release from the body.

How are any complaints against officers handled?

We’ve not had any sustained excessive use of force complaints since I’ve been Chief, but do we get complaints about officers? Sure, we do. For example, “Why did he/she have to give me a ticket”, sometimes it’s policy-related, the officer was “rude.” Those complaints come in infrequently, but they do. If you’re talking about excessive force, it would go to our internal affairs investigator. With our policy, the deputy chief of police is responsible for assigning and conducting those investigations, the majority of which he would handle himself.

What I can speak to is in Massachusetts, since the Task Force on 21st Century Policing was published, has done a number of things. We listened. We implemented. We haven’t had things (like Ferguson) happen yet. Massachusetts is a model.

What do you think about the perception of police by people in the black community?

I will tell you this – I don’t think that there’s anybody, including an officer, when you see the blue lights, there’s a little bit of anxiety.

But it’s more than anxiety for the black community…

As a middle-aged Caucasian male, I can’t fully speak to that. One area we could work on is communication and education, to change that perception so people wouldn’t have that fear. We can listen to their concerns, and if people have issues or specific complaints, we’re open to investigate and address any issues that come up. We want people to tell us how they’re feeling and explain to them why we do things a certain way, and eventually make an educated decision and come up with a solution that is agreeable to all involved.  I think we do a good job and listen to the issues. If we can get to that point, when that fear isn’t there, I think it’s a win-win all around, and that’s what we’re trying to do with community policing.

What about defunding the police?

The defunding means different things to different people. For some it means abolish the police. For others, it means take a portion of the money used for police and put it toward something else. Somewhere along the line, people decided to defund a lot of resources for mental health services, and many incidents that become use-of-force usually have a mental health or substance abuse nexus and we are called to deal with these incidents.  If citizens have a situation and don’t know who to call, for example,  if it’s not medical or fire related, you’re going to call the police. So, as the police, we need to deal with the situation the best we can. Now, it’s up to us to find programs and other avenues to deal with some of these issues related to mental health and substance use disorders. We’re all in regional groups trying to deal with it the best we can. Kallie Montagano is our 40-hour social worker who splits her time between Franklin and Medway and is a great resource. Her main focus is on mental health-related issues. Long story short, if you defund the money you have for the police, there will be some valuable programs we keep and some we will lose. My budget is 95% personnel services, and most of it is dictated by collective bargaining. I don’t have a lot of wiggle room. We’re not infallible, but if you want to take some of the stuff we need to do off our plate, if they have a vision, that’s fine, but they’re going to have to put that vision into something that is going to work and be done safely.

Judith Dorato O’Gara, Editor

Franklin Local Town Pages

(508) 922-9458

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