Mayor Addresses July 8 Message Board Incident

Statement of Mayor Paul Brodeur

July 8, 2020 MPD Message Board Incident

Early in the afternoon on July 8, 2020 I was contacted by Melrose residents who shared with me their concerns about an image on social media depicting a picture of a Melrose police message board on Main Street. The board had been programed to say, “Speed limit 25 mph thank you /the safety of all lives matter”. Given that the phrase ‘all lives matter’ is commonly used as a way of dismissing or rebutting the phrase ‘Black lives matter’, I found the message to be completely inappropriate and inconsistent with the City’s values. I then ordered Chief Lyle to have the sign taken down.

 Chief Lyle launched an investigation into how that message had been placed on the City owned sign. Since both the Chief and I were directly involved in uncovering and reacting to the sign, I determined that in order to ensure that the integrity of an investigation was beyond dispute, we turned Chief Lyle’s initial investigatory findings over to an independent investigator the City had engaged to conduct an impartial review and issue a report. The City has been invoiced $3,420 in connection with the performance of this external review. I believe that it was an important thing to do.

Ultimately determining what steps to take next based on the findings of the report was at Chief Lyle’s discretion. As much as I value transparency—here is the reality—while Massachusetts public record law permits the City to share these investigatory reports, Massachusetts General Law. c. 4, § 7(26)(c) prevents the City from sharing or discussing most disciplinary actions and personnel information. And I respect that.  I can report that Chief Lyle has taken action as a result of the findings contained in this report, but am not able to comment further.

The Sergeant’s intent when he programmed the sign is not something we can determine.  Nonetheless, posting the message led to a painful experience for members of our community and the understandable aftermath is distrust and division while we are trying to create equity inclusion and respect.

My commitment is to understand this moment in time and meet it in our actions as a city. We will ensure that the policies, procedures, and practices of all the departments of our City government – including the Police Department – are actively focused on improving and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Beyond the “Two Weeks Toward Change” self-study, my administration is actively seeking expert help in providing us with a department by department assessment of how we can do better.  I hope all Melrosians will join me in that effort.