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BPD lieutenant charged with drunk driving in Walpole
By adamg on Tue, 05/23/2023 - 9:58pm
Boston Police report that Lt. John Earley was arrested for OUI and negligent driving in Walpole on Sunday. The BPD Bureau of Professional Standards has started an investigation, police say.
Earley, who lives in Walpole, joined the Boston force in 1998.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
Police reform
Earley was fired for an alcohol involved crash into a snow plow in 2015. An arbitrator overturned the decision. This is why the problem can’t be fixed without major legislative changes.
Unions protect the bad
All unions do this and it’s infuriating.
Disagree
The police unions and their contracts have little resemblance to the ones governing most private companies.
The arbitrator doesn't work for the union.....
And the union only provides an attorney, they really have zero power otherwise in a case like this.
And what governs the arbitrator process?
Much has been written about how the arbitration process for police grievances is stacked in the officer's favor even if the arbitrator doesn't work for the union.
The officer with a grievance will often argue that prior cases of similar misconduct have resulted in less severe punishment (if any) and therefore it's unreasonable for the accused officer to be fired if a prior officer wasn't terminated for the same thing.
The arbitrator, following procedures, will rule in the officer's favor because that is factually true even if it's absurd from the common sense standpoint.
Now this can be true but....
that isn't the case here I don't think. And I don't think the union has anything to do with an outside investigator finding disparate treatment of an employee in a workplace in terms of discipline. This stuff is common in non union shops as well. A national grid worker who sleeps on the job can only be punished as far as the last worker who got caught sleeping on the job. The Gas company uses the same process as the police (minus some civil service protections).
And I believe the State labor board and labor laws govern the process here.
Citations needed
In Massachusetts it is the civil service code that gives people rights to defend themselves. Unions simply provide the legal representation.
This is why we need to license cops like we do nurses, doctors, contractors, etc. But you still get the chance to plead your case regardless - just like nurses, doctors, etc. when their license is on the line.
Long History of trouble for this officer
This is Earley’s second OUI, He was previously charged in 2011 out of Wrentham District Court.
An IA investigation about his drinking issues go all the way back to 2004. Several other IA investigations show Earley has been a bad apple for some time now.
In 2015 he crashed his truck into a backhoe after leaving a bar in West Roxbury. He fled the scene.
I am familiar with several of his family members and they all seem to struggle with alcohol.
Hopefully this will be a wake up call before he kills someone but somehow it seems it won't be as he never seems to face any real consequences from his action and always gets to keep his job.
The state can now revoke his certification....
They have done a bunch of them already and there are hundreds more in the process. He has to be found guilty of this though and that can be very tough in MA if you have a half decent attorney.
Earley's long drinking-related problems list aside,
it's insane that a BPD officer can live as far away as Walpole.
found this cool cop forum post "discussing" the paltry residency requirement that exists where some of them also refer to the city and residents as "trash".
Why do you care?
Calling people trash is horrible I get that.
But why can't someone live in the town they want to if it's better for their family?
Residency requirement
Oh, for their "family". Residency requirements should only apply to people who don't have "families", whatever that is?
Walpole and Boston are less
Walpole and Boston are less than 10 mi apart.