Report orders reforms in Marblehead Police Department

MARBLEHEAD – The death of Allie Castner in August 2009 brought longstanding practices and perceptions of the Marblehead Police Department into focus this week.A 37-page review of the town’s police force by Strategic Policy Partnership of West Tisbury, based on weeks of interviews with police, town officials, businessmen and residents, contains 11 pages of improvements and recommendations – and gives Police Chief Robert Picariello nine months to bring them into practice.The review came about because selectmen wanted an outside look at local police in the wake of the Castner death and the February suspension of Police Sgt. Marion Keating for alleged sexual harassment and filing a false police report on the matter.Ironically the recommendation process would conclude in late August or early September of 2011, around the second anniversary of the traffic accident that took the 15-year-old Marblehead High student’s life.Chief Picariello said Wednesday although he questions some of the report’s observations he looks forward to meeting with selectmen to discuss the recommendations, which he called “a pathway to success.”The consultant’s report notes that “There have been a number of incidents in which command staff ha(s) been untruthful? Some employees have used profane language against others (and) only some of the violators have been disciplined,” as examples of a Marblehead police culture that creates some negative perceptions in the community.The report says that Town Administrator Tony Sasso has “pressed” (Chief Picariello) to address troubling aspects of the police culture “but little has been achieved.”The report called Picariello “a product” of the police culture who lacked previous senior administrative experience, but also “a thoughtful individual” who understood the need for good community communication and collaboration and the need for change.It contrasts two groups of police officers, those who care deeply about Marblehead and are “well-regarded and highly effective,” and those who police the town as if it were a high-crime city, according to police academy training, and states that many officers form cliques and value lucrative opportunities for overtime and police details over their “day job.”The report also says that some police officers believe disciplinary treatment may differ depending on an employee’s “relationship to other town employees or their families.”Selectmen have scheduled a Dec. 8 discussion of the report with Police Chief Robert Picariello and have already discussed having a volunteer committee work with the chief, making monthly reports, until change has been accomplished.In terms of the Castner death, the report credits the unnamed investigating officer with doing “a credible job” with “little support? from either of the sergeants on duty.”The report states that Chief Picariello, “notified by telephone early on that it was a very serious accident,” “did not immediately respond to the scene. He did maintain some contact with the Dispatch Center but did not contact anyone at the scene during the initial investigation. He did go to the scene later.”The report notes that the Castner family said the chief told them “he ‘was out for a walk’ when the accident occurred,” and that Picariello denies that and “he was in fact with his son at a hockey practice.” It also notes that the first police sergeant at the scene claimed to have “comforted the victim” but in fact the ambulance conveyed the victim to the hospital before that sergeant arrived. The report contends that withholding the driver’s name until the investigation concluded “contributed to the public’s sense that the department was protecting someone” and there was a significant delay in interviewing a key witness.The report recommends that police focus on problem-solving, not arrests; additional management training for the chief, the lieutenants and the sergeants, at an estimated cost of $25,000 and departmental accreditation, at a cost of $11,000; fie