Related articles:
Mass. officers protest civilian flaggers
Mass. police perks undergo changes
By Jessica Fargen
The Boston Herald
WOBURN, Mass, — Red-faced Woburn officials are scouring video tapes of this week’s rowdy police picket of civilian flaggers to see if any of the off-duty cops should be cuffed for their bad behavior.
Woburn Mayor Thomas L. McLaughlin is so concerned about the protest he’s carefully eyeing the footage and is asking police Chief Phillip Mahoney to do the same to consider criminal charges.
“The tapes will be reviewed to see whether or not there are any infractions and if there are, proper actions will be taken,” he said yesterday after meeting with Mahoney.
Civilian flagmen have been successfully used at 13 MassHighway projects over the past two days in nine cities and towns, said highway spokesman Klark Jessen. But a routine catch-basin clearing in Woburn targeted by unruly cops remains the most noteworthy blotch on the badge.
On Tuesday, about 40 off-duty officers from Woburn and surrounding towns blocked traffic, walked across work sites and heckled flaggers, succeeding in delaying - but not stopping - the work. One protester drove the wrong way through construction cones.
Harry MacGilvray, president of the Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition, said officers behaved lawfully.
“I have not heard of any nor did I see any infractions at that site,” he said. “That was a lawful assembly by a group of union police officers that were exercising their right to free speech.”
The new regulations, which went into effect Friday, could save the state $5 million a year by paying civilian flaggers lower wages and at times doing away with flaggers and cops altogether.
But police unions have argued that the rules violate their collective bargaining agreements and pose a safety risk, while at the same time stripping them of overtime detail pay.
Copyright 2008 The Boston Herald