GOL: More Information Needed Before Establishing Resident Oversight Board for Police

Report on the Meeting of the Governance, Organization, and Legislation Committee, Aug. 11, 2026

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

Present Town Councilors: Ana Devlin Gauthier (Chair, District 5), Lynn Griesemer (District 2), George Ryan (District 3), and Hala Lord (District 3). Absent: Amber Cano-Martin (District 2). Staff: Athena O’Keeffe (Clerk of Council)

It has been several months since the Governance, Organization, and Legislation (GOL) Committee of the Town Council took up the topic of creating a Resident Oversight Board (ROB) to review complaints about the Amherst police. At this meeting, GOL members decided they needed more information from the three Massachusetts cities with ROBs and from the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST), which also reviews complaints against the police, before GOL can make a recommendation to the town.

A stakeholders’ group of representatives met for eight sessions in 2025, ending in November. That group consisted of members of the town’s Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC), the town’s Human Rights Commission, the town’s diversity, equity, and inclusion director, the Amherst police chief, former Town Councilors Shalini Bahl Milne and Anika Lopes, and representatives from the police union and firefighters/EMS. Members researched different topics between meetings. A 36-page report on the group’s work was submitted to the council, along with an opinion from KP Law on the implications for confidentiality, the privacy rights of individuals and police officers, and open meeting law regulations for ROB hearings.

The stakeholders’ group outlined two possible forms of ROB: one that reviewed complaints based on police investigations, and another that could investigate complaints independently. The group did not reach consensus as to which model to recommend.

CSSJC members have expressed frustration over the lack of progress in creating the ROB and sent a letter to town councilors rebutting some of the limitations noted by attorney Janelle Austin of KP Law at the June 23 meeting of GOL. The letter asserted that POST was not set up to handle residents’ complaints about the police, and that the three cities with existing ROBs — Cambridge, Springfield, and Boston — did not disband their local boards when POST was created in 2020. The letter also advocated strongly for the investigative model of ROB with subpoena power. It quotes the Community Safety Working Group (CSWG) report: “Resident oversight is beneficial to the police because it strengthens the relationship between a police department and its community and creates greater trust in the police.”

GOL Chair Ana Devlin Gauthier acknowledged that the June meeting with Austin raised several questions. She suggested that she and Clerk of Council Athena O’Keeffe look into other communities that have enacted resident oversight boards “to figure out how they’ve done some of the things that we heard from our legal team weren’t really doable.”

Lynn Griesemer wanted to know whether those communities are reexamining the roles of their oversight boards in light of the creation of the POST Commission, and whether Amherst should revisit the CSWG recommendations and consider how they fit with the POST Commission’s existence. Devlin Gauthier noted that her review of recent agendas and articles about the work of the ROBs in Boston and Cambridge did not indicate that they were adjusting their work in light of POST.

Griesemer then stated, “When I went on the POST Commission site, I saw an amazing number of reviews for those three municipalities. So, I’m wondering, whose word is final here — the POST Commission or the ROB? I think I know the answer, but I want to know what they’re thinking.”

In addition, Griesemer wanted to know the committee charges of the three existing Massachusetts ROBs, how members are selected and what training they receive, and whether members are compensated. She also wanted to know how they fit into the review or investigation models described by the stakeholders’ group. George Ryan wanted to know how much the local boards cost their towns.

Devlin Gauthier asked whether the establishment of an ROB changed the level of community trust in the police. Ryan countered, “What about the impact on the police department itself, on the men and women who will be subject to potential ROB review? Do we want to hear from them? If we’re going to talk about impact on the community, shouldn’t we also discuss what the impact on the police will be?”

Ryan reported on his examination of the POST Commission site. The commission was established in 2020 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. It has nine members: three appointed by the governor, three by the attorney general, and three joint appointments. In the past five years, the commission has decertified 87 police officers and suspended 90.

Each substantial complaint is, by law, required to be reported to it by every police agency in the state within two days. The commission is seeking funds to conduct an audit of every police department to ensure it is following these rules. Incidents that must be reported are defined in 555 CMR (Code of Massachusetts Regulations).

The commission can monitor complaints, investigate them independently, or review the local agency’s findings. Serious complaints involving excessive use of force and serious physical harm or death are usually handled by the attorney general.

Ryan noted a loophole in the process whereby officers under investigation can retire or resign, at which point the investigation stops. They may then be hired by a different police department.

Griesemer asked if any flags were raised when the Amherst Police Department was recertified two years ago. Ryan offered to ask Police Chief Gabe Ting.

Hala Lord is the GOL member who is the council liaison to CSSJC. Devlin Gauthier asked committee members who have questions about the CSSJC letter to relay them to Lord.