Canton residents question firm behind Police Department audit, transparency

Canton residents are skeptical that the firm that audited the town s police department did an adequate job conducting the independent account saying they feel like their voices weren t heard in the process Agents from Stones intelligence Inc which dropped their months-long audit of the department last week presented their findings and heard from residents during a forum on Saturday Resident Greg Murphy mentioned he signed a petition that led to the November Town Meeting vote that authorized the audit because he revealed it to be the only way to renew trust between the police department and the citizens of Canton Murphy however also expressed that Stones might have dropped the ball in getting residents perspectives of the department which is at the center of multiple controversial cases the deaths of Boston Police Officer John O Keefe and resident Sandra Birchmore Numerous town members have been calling for a meeting like this to speak about the issues and ask questions Murphy commented I think there should have been several meetings like this during the audit process I think Stones missed a key part of the process to reestablish trust in the Canton Police The Canton Police Audit Committee inked a deal last fall for Stones to complete the account Organization director Matt Germanowski mentioned after an initial trip to the town in November he received instructions that there d be only one point of contact going forward We have no say on how that contract was written Germanowski commented If there were to be updates we would have provided them This is very strange The audit dropped on the same day the Karen Read retrial started and included recommendations on how the crime scene surrounding O Keefe s body could have been worked better Read is accused of striking O Keefe her boyfriend of two years and a -year Boston Police officer with her car and leaving him to die in a major snowstorm on the front lawn of Fairview Rd in Canton a property that O Keefe s BPD colleague Brian Albert owned at the time Defense attorneys counter that outside actors killed O Keefe and conspired with state and local police to frame Read for his murder in the early morning hours of Jan Read has pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter while operating a motor van under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal collision Germanowski during Saturday s forum stuck to the key points he made at the Audit Committee s meeting on Thursday The department requirements to improve its crime scene protocols internal affairs and training He added that the audit did not find any indication of conspiracies coverups or corruption The audit squad revealed it had spent about weeks in Canton evaluating the day-to-day operations While there they interviewed every member of the PD s staff which includes more than officers The assessment noted that there is a noticeable decrease in morale among department members largely due to general scrutiny regarding the Canton PD s handling of the crime scene and the assessment into the death of O Keefe Multiple anonymous quotes from officers including about low morale in the department are part of the description No one in this town will care about us until one of us gets murdered even then half the town will maybe celebrate that The interviewees also expressed that they do not believe they have the patronage of town personnel Resident Rita Lombardi a vocal police critic and a central leader of the Free Karen Read movement during the initial trial that ended with a deadlocked jury last year noted she s saddened by the low morale comments This town the last sparse years has been through extraordinary times extraordinary hardships Lombardi explained I wonder if those officers took any responsibility for the morale issues because the morale issues are on both sides If you don t own what has caused the morale issue you will never be able to fix the morale issue Germanowski responded When you watch a videotape from a body camera and a person speaking to the officer says I hope you die how do you take responsibility for that I think there are population themes being put out by people that just aren t true Collage of BPD photo of O'Keefe and Herald photo of Read by Stuart CahillBoston Police Officer John O Keefe died at in Canton on Jan His girlfriend Karen Read is about to be tried for a second time for his murder Collage of BPD photo of O Keefe and Herald photo of Read by Stuart Cahill