Panel Debates Community-Police Relations, Police Board Hearings

Representatives from Boston civic groups, newspapers, police and the mayor's office clashed over questions involving police-community relations at a panel discussion in the Arlington Street Unitarian-Universalist Church last night.

The participants were Louis M. Lyons, Curator of the Nieman Foundation; Deputy Police Commissioner John Howland, Traveler columnist Blake Ehrlich, Herald editorial writer Anson Smith; Elmer Foster, Mayor Collins' Citizens' Relations director; and Richard Banks, vice-president of the Boston NAACP and chairman of the Citizens' Committee on Police Practices.

Broadcast by WGBH

The discussion, which was broadcast by WGBH, centered around issues generated by complaints of inadequate police protection in Roxbury and the Jackie Washington case.

Dep. Comm. Howland defended the controversial "abroad in the night-time" law as necessary for crime prevention. "It is absurd for policemen to have to wait for an actual violation of the law before apprehending a suspicious person," he said, and reported suggestions that the law be extended to cover the daytime, too.

Smith and Banks disagreed, saying that the law is too vague and too apt to be misused. Lyons pointed out that it "dates back to a time when it was unusual to be out at night. Like many of our Sunday laws, it is now obsolete."

Panel members also disagreed on the procedures under which the Boston Police Review Board should hold its hearings. At present, the complainant is represented by a city attorney, while the accused officer has his own lawyer. Howland defended this arrangement with analogy to a criminal trial where the accuser may appear as a witness but the case is prosecuted by a public official.

Smith answered that Review Board hearings are more nearly analogous to civil trials, in which each adversary has his own lawyer. "The lack of counsel makes the situation so bad for the complainant that he really shouldn't participate at all," he said.

Lyons suggested that the important thing is to conduct the hearings in a way that insures public confidence in the findings. Allowing the complainant counsel might help, he said, as might the appointment of civilians to the Board. At present, it consists of three police captains.

Jackie Washington attended the discussion, but did not participate. He afterwards gave a concert in the church auditorium.