GB police join national effort to combat hate crimes
Great Barrington — Chief William Walsh has announced that the Great Barrington Police Department has joined more than 50 police departments nationwide that are making publicly available data related to hate and bias crime.
In partnership with the Police Foundation, GBPD will take the important step of promoting transparency and collaboration within the community in order to build awareness of and put a stop to hate- and bias-related crimes.
Hate and bias crimes are those that target individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or disability. They are often underreported and consequently not well documented. By releasing this information to the public in the form of open data, GBPD is aiming to:
- Narrow the reporting gap;
- Call more attention to the problem in an effort to better prevent the incidents; and
- Set a foundation for two-way engagement and problem solving between law enforcement and the community.
GBPD has begun actively working to assemble a data set and make it public via the Police Foundation. The department tentatively plans to make that data available by Sunday, July 1.
“We are dedicating ourselves to doing our part to shine a light on the terrible reality of hate and bias crimes so that we can work together with the entire community to confront these issues head on,” Walsh said. “While hate crimes are not something we encounter very often, we are also not immune to it in Great Barrington. I hope that anyone who feels they have been victimized will come to us and report it.”
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Audit shows DCR still not collecting all user fees for state land
Boston — An audit of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, released Thursday by State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump, shows the agency is still not collecting all user fees that are owed to the Commonwealth. The audit estimates that approximately $600,000 in user fees were unpaid at the end of the audit. Thursday’s audit, which looked at DCR activity from July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2017, follows up on a 2013 audit of the agency that found approximately $168,000 in uncollected user fees.
“The Department of Conservation and Recreation is responsible for maintaining our public lands and ensuring that the taxpayers of the Commonwealth receive fair compensation when others profit from them,” Bump said. “Our 2013 audit highlighted significant problems with the lease management and fee collection on state-owned land. At that time, DCR indicated it had a plan in place to address these issues but this audit makes clear that efforts to improve collection of user fees have not only stalled, but this problem has grown. DCR must take immediate action to address this problem.”
Thursday’s audit shows that DCR did not keep an accurate official record of its use agreements and did not have an adequate billing collections system, policies or procedures to effectively collect fees. Bump’s office found that DCR had not sent any of the accounts that were past due by 120 days or more to the state comptroller for collection or intercept. The high ground program, which leases public land for telecommunications towers, was the largest driver of new unpaid user fees during the two-year audit period, racking up nearly $115,000 in unpaid fees.
The 2013 audit also found that DCR had not updated the fee rates it established as far back at 1923 and had not developed a method for setting fair user fees for boat and yacht clubs leasing on DCR land. The current audit determined that DCR had developed a method for setting fair user fees for all 28 boat and yacht clubs, but also notes that it had not fully established proper fees for utility providers that use state land, although the agency indicated this task was in progress. Additionally, the audit calls on DCR to take further steps to ensure lessees and permittees comply with liability insurance requirements and resolve expired use agreements.
DCR was created in 2003 as part of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, when its two predecessor agencies merged. It is responsible for the administration and oversight of state parks, forests, reservations and recreational facilities. In fiscal year 2017, it received state appropriations of $86.8 million and reported other revenue of $23.6 million, and had approximately 850 employees.
