(already subscribe? log in).

Police reverse stance on taping of officers’ actions

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 10, 2012|By Maria Cramer

Two Boston police officers showed poor judgment when they arrested a bystander for filming them on Boston Common in 2007, the department has ruled, in a reversal of its initial position that the officers had done nothing wrong.

The two officers, Sergeant Detective John Cunniffe and Officer Peter Savalis, face discipline ranging from an oral reprimand to suspension, a department spokeswoman said yesterday.

The finding was released six months after the US First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that citizens have the right to record police officers while they are performing their duties.

The bystander, Simon Glik, a 35-year-old Boston lawyer, filed an internal complaint against the officers after he was charged with unlawful wiretap and aiding the escape of a prisoner in October 2007.

Glik was on the Common when he whipped out his phone because he said the officers were using excessive force against a suspected drug offender whom they had put in a chokehold.

A February 2008 Boston police memo, issued after investigators from the Internal Affairs Division had interviewed Glik about his arrest, said the officers did nothing wrong, even though a Boston Municipal Court judge had dismissed charges against the lawyer.

“Mr. Glik did not articulate a violation of law or the department’s rules and regulations by an officer,’’ Sergeant Marwan Moss of Internal Affairs wrote in the memo. “Mr. Glik was advised that the proper forum for this matter was with the courts.’’

In February 2010, Glik, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, filed a federal lawsuit alleging that police had violated his civil rights.

Glik, who works in Allston, said he was surprised last Thursday, when he received a letter from Superintendent Kenneth Fong of the Police Department’s Bureau of Professional Standards.

In the letter, Fong said that Internal Affairs had now found that Cunniffe and Savalis had used “unreasonable judgment’’ when they arrested Glik. Neither Cunniffe nor Savalis could be reached for comment yesterday.

“As far as I knew, my complaint was summarily dismissed. . . . I was basically laughed out of the building,’’ Glik said. “From what I understand, it takes filing a federal lawsuit in order for internal affairs to review a complaint.’’

In his letter, Fong said that the officers did not use excessive force against the suspect.

Glik’s lawyer, David Milton said his client is considering whether to appeal that decision to the city’s civilian review board.

“The fact that this investigation took over four years . . . shows a lack of genuine concern for investigating misconduct by the Police Department,’’ Milton said.