Everett Mayor Declares Systemic Racism A Health Crisis

EVERETT, MA — Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria on Tuesday declared systemic racism a public health crisis in the city. DeMaria signed the "Mayor's Pledge" issued by the Obama Foundation's My Brother's Keeper Alliance.

The "Mayor's Pledge" commits the city of Everett to the following:

1. Review police use of force policies;
2. Engage communities by including a diverse range of input, experiences, and stories;
3. Report review findings to the community and seek feedback; and
4. Reform police use of force policies.

"The city of Everett is culturally rich and abundantly diverse. Racism or discrimination, in any form, will not be accepted nor tolerated. It is with this in mind that I find it imperative to declare racism a public health crisis in the City of Everett," DeMaria said.

The Everett Police Department is actively updating the use of force and deescalation policies, as well as the rules and regulations with a duty to intervene clause. The department will soon be equipped with a policy surrounding Biased Based Policing.

For years, the Everett Police Department has been trained to never initiate any police involvement with another person on the sole basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or physical ability; although it existed as a past practice, such training has never been codified into a policy until now. This policy will be published and implemented within the next 10 days.

Chokeholds have never and will never be a method of restraint taught to the Everett Police Department, and chokehold training is explicitly barred in the state of Massachusetts, city officials said.

DeMaria is seeking to form a Regional Internal Affairs Coalition to increase the transparency of police misconduct and the processes by which they are investigated. The mayor will call upon local leaders to join him in forming this coalition to increase the impartiality of all Internal Affairs investigations.

Additionally, the Everett Police Department has taken its own proactive measures in monitoring Internal Affairs investigations, including utilizing the leading professional standard software, IA Pro and Blue Team, which is used by approximately 800 public safety agencies in five countries. The IA Pro and Blue Team software acts as an early warning system, helps frontline supervisory documentation, case management of internal affairs investigations, and overall organizational accountability.

"As the needs of society change, it is the responsibility of local leaders to implement changes. My Administration will not be defunding our police department; rather, we will be reequipping the force by adding more tools to their duty belts," DeMaria said.

As part of its ongoing efforts in community policing, the Everett Police Department has engaged numerous organizations over the years in an effort to better serve its residents. These relationships have resulted in the creation of the Cops Corner, the Junior Police Academy and the 25 Days of Christmas tradition.

The department is also committed to hiring police officers who are culturally reflective of the community and its residents.

"The men and women of the Everett Police Department take their responsibilities seriously," Police Chief Steven Mazzie said in a statement. "We have always valued our relationships with our residents and strive to provide our services in a fair and impartial way. Over the years we have found that transparency, communication, and mutual respect have helped deescalate volatile situations and often led to positive outcomes. We acknowledge that now is an important time to reinforce our dedication to getting the job done right while protecting those we serve and building a lasting trust."