Acting Mayor Kim Janey fired Boston’s short-lived police commissioner Dennis White on Monday, citing both the old allegations of domestic abuse against him that recently gained new attention and his response to them, which she said “have done even more to erode public trust in his judgment and ability to lead.” The move was the latest in a string of scandals for the embattled Boston Police Department, coming just days after a Boston Globe report highlighted a slowly unfurling pattern of overtime fraud among multiple Boston cops. To discuss, Jim Braude was joined by Yawu Miller, senior editor of the Bay State Banner, and Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards.
“We’re looking for leadership in the department, honestly,” Edwards said. “We need to use this as the opportunity it is — it’s time to reform, it’s time to change.”
“For me, if there was one takeaway from the investigation that the city did, it’s that the police department’s own internal affairs investigations are not thorough — they seem like they’re more interested in sweeping things under the rug than arriving at any kind of truth,” Miller said. “When it comes to allegations of domestic violence, there’s a pattern of ignoring serious allegations and not really getting to the root of it.”
WATCH: The Boston Police Department deals with multiple scandals
