Charlie Baker threatens veto, sends police reform bill back to Legislature

The fate of a set of sweeping police reforms debated in the Legislature for more than seven months is in jeopardy if lawmakers -- who lack a veto-proof majority -- refuse to compromise on a number of amendments Gov. Charlie Baker has added to the bill. The Republican governor sent the bill back to the Legislature today with amendments making changes to portions of the legislation dealing with facial recognition technology and police training. In a Thursday afternoon memo to lawmakers, Baker agreed the bill "overall… promotes improved police accountability" but nixed a number of provisions he said "introduce barriers to effective administration and the protection of public safety." In no uncertain terms, Baker said he would not sign a bill that bans police from using facial recognition systems to solve crimes or leaves the development of training programs for police to a civilian-controlled commission. "This is about making compromise and I'm ready to do that on almost everything with respect to improving accountability for law enforcement. But there are parts of this bill that were never part of that conversation about accountability that I can't support," Baker told the State House News Service.