Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans is pushing for police officers to wear name tags as part of their uniforms. It's part of a larger effort by Evans to increase transparency and foster trust between cops and the communities they serve.
Evans first disclosed the new push on WGBH's Greater Boston Tuesday, during a discussion of police policies following a ruling by a Superior Court judge last week allowing Evans to proceed with assigning body cameras to police officers as part of a pilot program.
"That's one of the things I'm bargaining with them on," Evans told Greater Boston host Jim Braude.
Boston Police spokesman Michael McCarthy confirmed in an email today that Evans "hopes to have name tags issued to all officers in the department and is working with the remaining two unions [...] toward that goal."
Command staff members — those senior police officials appointed by the commissioner — already wear name tags, McCarthy noted; and so do superior officers (lieutenants, captains and sergeants), who belong to a different union than rank-and-file officers. But the bulk of officers, belonging to two other unions, do not. A call to the Boston Patrolmen's Association, which represents most rank-and-file officers, was not immediately returned. Whether Evans could order that name tags be adopted isn't clear.
Police officers, as union members, have rights to collective bargaining and the right to negotiate many changes to their jobs. It was precisely those rights that the Patrolmen's Association cited in asking a Superior Court judge for an injunction to prevent Evans' assigning body cameras when no officers volunteered to wear them. The union said Evans had violated their contractual right to negotiation.
Judge Douglas Wilkins disagreed, citing a variety of reasons -- but prominent among them, the idea that the police commissioner has broad executive authority when it comes to police uniforms and equipment in particular. Wilkins wrote that a set of legal precedent known as the 'Commissioners' Statute' "grants the police commissioner significant non-delegable management authority over matters such as deployment, uniforms and weapons of police officers."
The union had argued, unsuccessfully, that the adoption of body cameras represented more than a simple change of equipment or uniform. Such an argument, given the judge's ruling, might not hold water when it comes to name tags.
Nationally, rules governing name tags and other identifiers for police range widely. Most, though not all departments, require officers to identify themselves upon request — though whether verbally or by presenting identification can differ. When it comes to name tags, policies are even more varied.
Mark K. Leahy, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said that in Massachusetts, policies around name tags and badges tend to be a matter of "custom."
Some departments use an identifying number instead of a name, Leahy pointed out.
"Most departments," he said, "do use a name tag."
