Residents share leadership concerns, CPD trust issues at Select Board

By Jay Turner

Members of the Canton Select Board faced an onslaught of criticism during the resident comment period at Tuesday night’s meeting.

In perhaps the most direct and public rebuke of Canton’s leadership in recent memory, five local residents, each from different backgrounds and hailing from all corners of the community, went one by one in front of the microphone to air their grievances and concerns, alleging everything from public impropriety to a complete dereliction of duty in their role as Canton police commissioners.

In particular, multiple people who spoke at the meeting faulted the board for refusing to even consider opposing viewpoints, or make any effort to understand why many residents currently do not trust the police. The easy answer, according to Kathy MacCormack and others, is the skepticism and intrigue surrounding the Karen Read murder case, which has brought a media circus to Canton’s front door while shining a spotlight on the defense team’s allegations of a widespread cover-up and introducing uncomfortable questions about how the initial investigation was handled by members of law enforcement. (Prosecutors allege that Read intentionally struck her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her car outside a house party, while Read maintains that she is being framed by people inside the home with the aid of law enforcement personnel.)

MacCormack said that regardless of whose version one is inclined to believe, “This doesn’t have to be, ‘You’re with us or you’re against us.’ This doesn’t have to be anything nefarious. Police officers are human beings and they make mistakes, and as a town we need to give them the help and resources they need.”

Instead of exhibiting defensiveness when police tactics are criticized, MacCormack said Select Board members would be better served by keeping an open mind and focusing instead on improving officer education. “Maybe they need to have a refresher course every few years on what happens when they come upon something horrific, like securing a crime scene or separating witnesses,” she said. “If we don’t have forensic kits … then maybe we need better ones at the CPD headquarters so that they are not collecting evidence in non-sterile containers.”

MacCormack also referenced a lawsuit filed against the town and the CPD in the early 2000s by a resident who received what were described as “gruesome” injuries from an off-duty officer in an incident at a Canton bar. The officer had intervened after learning about an earlier altercation at the bar between the man and Chris Albert, a current Select Board member and brother of Boston Police Sgt. Brian Albert, who owned the home where O’Keefe was killed and is a central figure in the defense team’s cover-up theory.

“We don’t need gruesome on the Canton police force,” MacCormack said. “We don’t need gruesome being supported by the Select Board, or town citizens, or me, or the police chief. We really need to look at what we’re doing in this town and our procedures and how we handle these things, and we need you to lead us.”

Also speaking Tuesday night and calling out the behavior of Chris Albert specifically was Attorney and Citizen columnist Christine Smith. She noted that a section of the board’s own administrative code states that members should treat each other with respect; however, she suggested amending it so it states that members should treat all people with respect. Smith said Albert certainly did not meet that standard while out recently at a downtown bar, where he was captured on video making sexually inappropriate comments to a female patron and calling her a “[expletive] loser” during a heated argument about the Read case.

“This is a poor reflection on the town,” said Smith. “He is not treating a member of the public with respect as outlined in the administrative code, regardless of how she may or may not have treated him.”

What’s more, Smith noted that the Select Board had previously made clear in a written statement that town officials would not be commenting on the Read case.

“However, in this same incident, in the parking lot, [Albert] in fact commented on said trial. All of this flies in the face of the spirit of the guidelines contained in the administrative code.”

While Smith focused her comments on the importance of appropriate conduct, Angela Chan O’Donnell emphasized the leadership expectations that come with the job of a Select Board member. “It really is an honor to have people trust you, to have people know that you’ll listen and respond and act,” she said. “And you have that privilege, and you’re abusing it because you think you’re entitled to it.”

Chan O’Donnell, who recently moved to the town, was also highly critical of the town leadership at a Select Board appearance back in April and she was amazed by the amount of positive feedback she received. After speaking with hundreds of residents over the past few months, she said she now has a much better sense of what matters to people in Canton. “FYI, people want to ask about internal investigations, funding, term limits, body cams, real procedures, and recalls,” she told the board.

She was also highly critical of the CPD, concluding from her time in Canton and through her own research that the town appears to have a documented history of corruption, where officers will “protect their own with violence and ruin an innocent person’s life with lies.”

Also offering her thoughts during the public comment period was veteran journalist Kathleen Howley, who has lived in the town for nearly two decades. While Howley attended the meeting to speak about the relocation of a planned dog park — and urged the board to find a way to keep it at the Revere site as per an earlier agreement — she also shared some thoughts on the Police Department’s recently announced plan to install four new automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras at fixed locations on major roadways.

The cameras, as detailed by Chief Helena Rafferty and Lt. Paul Gallagher at an earlier board meeting, will be purchased using forfeiture funds and are designed to be an investigative tool to aid in the recovery of stolen vehicles, missing persons, and other “hot list” cases.

But Howley said she’s uncomfortable with “increasing the video surveillance of taxpayers and residents” while officers are not yet wearing body cameras. “They should be wearing them in every interaction with the public whenever they’re performing a duty,” she said.

Fellow resident Tara Shuman had also raised some questions about the cameras at a previous board meeting, specifically whether the decision to purchase them was influenced by the increased public scrutiny they have gotten in recent months.

Gallagher, however, said their motivation was based on improving their investigative capabilities and he described the technology as a “game changer” — one that he said will benefit residents as well as local businesses.

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s public comment period, Select Board Chair Tom Theodore offered his sincere thanks to all of those who stood up and shared their comments and questions.

“Really the only way we can address a lot of these issues is by having an open session, or having you folks reach out to us,” he said. “I welcome anybody who has an issue to please call us or call me so we can address it — and in a fashion that’s going to be good for everyone.”

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