# Cops Union V. Chief - Taunton



## PVD24 (Oct 22, 2003)

By: SABRINA SHANKMAN 
01/18/2007

*TAUNTON -* The Taunton Police Patrolmen's Association filed two complaints against Chief Raymond O'Berg this week, officials said, one of which alleges that the chief coerced a woman into filing a complaint against an officer.

City Solicitor Steven A. Torres said he could not comment on the union's complaints, because they are personnel matters, but he confirmed that his office got them Monday and that they were against the chief.

One complaint alleges O'Berg, while investigating a domestic violence report, told a woman she was signing a restraining order but actually had her sign a complaint form about an officer, which he later filled out.

The second complaint charges that O'Berg told officers to respond to a report of suspicious activity at a home while they were all out covering an armed robbery and accidents, even though O'Berg was standing with the woman who reported the activity and was aware it was not urgent.

Union attorney Colin Confoey said he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the complaints, and union president Patrolman Steven Turner did not return calls for comment.

O'Berg confirmed both complaints were filed, but had different versions of what happened.

The police chief denied he coerced the woman involved in the domestic violence case into anything, and said that she willingly filled out a complaint against the officer.

O'Berg said he launched his own investigation into the domestic violence incident after hearing the woman told police she was afraid for her daughter, who was involved with a man with a history of violence.

Instead of following normal procedure, the officer she spoke with told her to come back the following day and did not put the incident in the police blotter, O'Berg said, although doing so would have alerted other officers to keep an eye out for suspicious activity.

The next day, the police chief said he picked up the investigation himself, and during the course of it the woman opted to file a complaint against the officer.

In response to the second complaint, O'Berg said he heard about the suspicious activity - not that he was standing with the woman, as the complaint says - and was aware that all officers on duty were out covering urgent calls. He said he called the officer in charge of the shift to ask why he didn't ask for mutual aid. Eventually Berkley police responded and investigated.

O'Berg said he could not have responded himself because he didn't have his badge or gun with him.

He said he learned later that police couldn't have gone to the home anyway, because the caller did not give the street name to the dispatcher.
O'Berg said the whole situation has him frustrated because the process by which complaints can be filed against officers, which is dictated by union contract, makes it difficult for him to run the department.

"It's easier for me to charge an officer criminally than it is to take a complaint against him through the police department," he said. "We're running the police department by committee."

To investigate any issue with an officer, O'Berg has to have a formal complaint issued; all investigative materials have to be handed over to the officer; and a committee of the police chief, a union representative and the mayor has to be convened to discuss the complaint.

"There is a contract with the city which has basically given away all my rights to investigate any wrongdoings in the police department," he said. The items in the contract that govern complaints were negotiated before O'Berg's tenure as police chief began, when David Westcoat was chief, he said.

The city solicitor said the city will look into the complaints to see if they have any merit. If so, they will be treated as a personnel matter and dealt with further at that point.

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