MBTA Union Protests Suspension Rule
By Doug Hanchett, The Boston Herald
MBTA police officers, whose allegedly foul-mouthed ways are targeted in a federal civil rights lawsuit, are railing against the agency’s zero-tolerance policy on swearing.
The union has filed a grievance over the department’s hard-line policy prohibiting potty-mouth talk, instituted two years ago by former T police Chief Thomas O’Loughlin after a slew of internal affairs complaints.
But union officials swear they’re not fighting for the right to cuss on the job. They say they simply object to what they say are O’Loughlin’s draconian measures for first-time offenders: suspensions without pay.
“It’s not me saying (let’s) allow the cops to swear all the time . . . and call people (expletives) or anything else,” said Paul Byrne, business agent for the MBTA Police Association. “He just changed the procedure to automatic suspension. It’s a violation of (our) contract.”
O’Loughlin instituted the policy in spring 2000, after a motorist gave the finger to a T police officer who was directing traffic, prompting the officer to respond in kind.
After looking into the problem, the chief discovered that two-thirds of all internal affairs complaints involved the use of inappropriate language by officers.
So O’Loughlin issued a new directive that called for the immediate suspension of any officer found to have used inappropriate language - swearing, sarcasm, rudeness - in the line of duty.
Union officials contend the lenient discipline measures for first-time offenders as spelled out in existing regulations are in order.
“There are all kinds of different kinds of situations involved here,” Byrne said. “Half the kids you run into, the words they’re using are astounding . . . (and) we’re human. We make mistakes.”
O’Loughlin, who left the department during the summer to become chief of police in Milford, wouldn’t comment on the matter. But T officials say they stand by his prohibition.
“The MBTA agrees with the spirit of the special order,” said T spokesman Joe Pesaturo. “It’s important that all T employees, not just police, treat customers with dignity and respect at all times.”
Lisa Thurau-Gray of Suffolk University’s Juvenile Justice Center, which is involved in the civil rights suit filed against T police by 11 juvenile plaintiffs, says the union’s grievance is ill-advised.
“That tells me they feel that they think they need strong words to be listened to,” Thurau-Gray said. “And that conveys a terribly disrespectful message to kids, who will be only too happy to reciprocate . . . I think it fosters a very abusive climate.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, alleges T police directed “profane and vulgar language” and racial epithets at the plaintiffs.