Encouraging Progress on Protecting Mass. Details
May 9, 2008
After meeting last week with the Patrick administration, fellow police organizations and legislative representatives, IBPO leaders are growing more confident that the state’s proposal to use flagmen on construction details has a dim future.
IBPO Massachusetts Director David Bernard took part in a meeting at the Transportation Building to discuss developing standards for deciding which personnel should perform traffic control at construction sites. One of the most encouraging signs for continued use of police at such details involves the state’s prevailing wage, which would be about $38 an hour for detail work.
“Replacing police officers with flagmen wouldn’t generate any real savings at that wage,” said Bernard. “It became evident that the governor and the legislature have no real appetite for changing the prevailing wage, so I suspect strongly that we won’t see any significant changes to current practice.”
In 90 days, the governor must give legislators a detailed report on the proposed policy and a realistic projection of costs and savings.