National
Black Boston Police Officers Facing Higher Discipline Rates than White Counterparts
Boston Police Department
O’Ryan Johnson and Matt Stout, THE BOSTON HERALD
BOSTON (The Boston Herald) — The Boston Police Department has upheld complaints against black officers and punished them disproportionately more than their white counterparts, a Herald review found.
Black officers make up just 23 percent of the police force, and whites about two-thirds, the review found. But over the past two years an equal number of black and white officers — 14 of each — have faced suspensions, indicating blacks are being found in the wrong and disciplined at a dramatically higher rate.
“It is unfair,” said Larry Ellison of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers. “There are also fewer complaints against black officers, but the department has found a way to punish an equal number or more year after year. We have been dealing with this as far back as 1989. It just doesn’t get any better.”
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