(The Wellesley Townsman posted the following article by Rick Holland on its website on April 3.)
WELLESLEY, Mass. — The night before Joseph Carter was to be publicly sworn in as the MBTA’s police chief in early February, a 30-year-old pregnant woman was shot at the Orange Line’s Massachusetts Avenue station. She survived the episode, but her 8-month-old fetus did not, and the public outcry over the tragedy provided a somber and sobering start to Carter’s term as the T’s top cop.
“I can’t forget that night,” said Carter during a speech to the Wellesley Kiwanis Club last week.
He went on to describe the police work of piecing together closed-circuit television tapes from a variety store and an ATM machine, an investigation assisted by T officers that resulted in arrests of Andre Smith, 18, and Chimezie “John” Akara, 19, and two alleged accomplices in the shooting.
Closer to home, Carter told his Wellesley audience that “enhanced protocols” for emergency commuter train stops had been implemented in the wake of a fatal heart attack sustained by Wellesley resident James Allen as Allen was riding a train into Boston last July. Allen went into cardiac arrest just after boarding at Wellesley Farms station, but Amtrak traffic controllers did not have the train make an emergency stop to provide Allen with any medical attention beyond CPR until it arrived in Back Bay station.
Allen, 61, was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center. His family has since filed a demand letter, addressed to the MBTA and CSX Transportation Inc. (which control the rails) and Amtrak, which provides the crews to operate the trains. The letter is a precursor to the possible filing of a lawsuit and seeks $25 million in damages from the MBTA, CSX and Amtrak.
The incident involving Allen pre-dated Carter’s appointment as the chief of police for the MBTA, but he did say that for its part, the T has chosen not to renew its operational contract with Amtrak, which expires on June 30, 2003.
“The ultimate message was sent that the T will no longer use Amtrak after June 30. There are now clear-cut protocols that taking care of victims is more important than being on time with a load of passengers.”
Looking forward, Carter has laid out an ambitious plan of reforms, suggesting that he wants to “restore the public trust and confidence” in the T’s police department. Under former chief Thomas O’Loughlin, the T’s police department was embroiled in a series of allegations that its plain-clothes officers practiced racial profiling and violated the civil rights of minority youths. O’Loughlin, who served as Wellesley’s police chief before taking the MBTA job, has since left the T and is now the chief of police in Milford.
Carter did not name a group of appointees that O’Loughin had brought in, but acknowledged that they had all left with O’Loughlin. “And I’ve decided not to replace them,” Carter said.
While he was short on specifics regarding moves he plans to make, Carter said that by May 19 he would submit a “plan of action to describe in detail” the changes he hopes to lead for his department of 218 officers.
Carter did identify one component of his plan, however: he’s going to make sure he asks people outside the department for their opinion about the T’s police force. He added that his final plan of action would be influenced by a series of confidential questionnaires and focus group interviews to identify what Carter said were “concerns that are obstacles” to the efficiency and pride he wants to restore among T police and the public they serve.
Carter also said than in anxious times for homeland security, “a coordinated plan” was already in place between the T’s police department and a variety of other federal, state and local public safety agencies.
“Public transportation has been identified as an area of particular vulnerability,” Carter told the Kiwanis audience.
Wellesley Deputy Police Chief William Brooks has met Carter on a number of occasions, through mutual involvement with the FBI’s National Academy. “He’s got great promise and I think he’ll be great officer for the [MBTA] department,” said Brooks of Carter.
Wellesley Police Chief Terrence Cunningham agreed with Brooks, and noted that, “for someone who has as much time in the [police] profession as Joe Carter does, he’s amazing as far as his enthusiasm for the profession.
“I applaud him for that,” said Cunningham.