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Tag Archives: Springfield Police Commission

Lawrence Akers

Akers Age Waiver Likely to Move on Beacon Hill Soon, but with Cap on His Pension…

The attempt to gut the Police Commission was part of a broader legislative package that would facilitate Lawrence Akers’s appointment as superintendent. Another piece was a home rule petition to let him remain a cop beyond the state’s mandatory retirement age of 65 and cap his pension. That bill, too, went to the rewrite desk. Now the original language could make a return.

WWLP

On Its First Swing, WWLP Whiffs Big on Police Commission Story…

Media coverage of Springfield municipal politics is at a low ebb, which is not unique nationally. Critics will say most outlets privilege Mayor Domenic Sarno’s version of events or subject his side to no more than contrasting he said/she said claims. WWLP, the Springfield-Holyoke market’s NBC affiliate, aired a garbled description of events that confused and misinformed.

Springfield City Council

Take My Council, Please: The (Off-)Center of Power Holds on Police Commission…

SPRINGFIELD—Mayor Domenic Sarno and the City Council averted a political crisis Monday by agreeing to sunset what now amounts to suspensions of key parts of the Police Commission ordinance. The change ostensibly arose to ensure Deputy Police Chief Lawrence Akers, who would be the city’s first Black police leader, will have the same powers his four predecessors had.

However, the pair of ordinances, which reallocate most of the Police Commission’s power other than to mete out discipline, prompted sharp pushback.

Sarno Akers

Analysis: Sarno Choice to Lead Springfield’s Finest Could Turn the Page…Maybe…

One could not chuck a rock in Springfield without hitting someone praising Mayor Domenic Sarno for choosing Lawrence Akers to be the next Police Superintendent. The incumbent super Cheryl Clapprood praised the choice. Longtime frenemy Michael Fenton, now City Council President, hailed Akers. Even frequent Sarno critics the Bishop Talbert Swan and at-large councilor Tracye Whitfield feted the move.