When big daddy taxpayer says no, no, no… LETF is a go, go, go! FPD spent $70,000+ out of LETF with no oversight in first 90 days of 2023.

BEFORE WE GET INTO THE SPENDING FOR THE LAST YEAR 2023 WE OFFER THE FOLLOWING READS ON EARLIER LETF SPENDING:

In May 2022, FU reported on the FPD spending thousands of dollars on challenge coins, tens of thousands in rent for the Metro West Task Force office space, nearly a hundred grand in vehicles, $10k+ in training software officers detest using, filing cabinets, hardware, their drones, after they blew a grant application, and nearly $100k in uniforms that officers per their contract are supposed to purchase themselves.

Top Secret LETF purchases by Framingham Police. Buying anything they want, while billing taxpayers for ‘needs’.

We also reported that when Chief Steven Trask decided to ‘retire’ from the FPD, that he gave his deputy chiefs going away presents. $120,000 was spent in all, to give his deputies work vehicles that were souped-up, and taylored to their individual preferences. Brandolini, Slattery, Baker, and Perreira were all handed going away gifts, that had the taxpayers known about, would have caused a shitstorm of criticism.

WITH NO OVERSIGHT: Trask gave $120k in gifts out of LTEF – What is our new Police Chief doing?

In 2021, when we first learned about LETF spending, we requested all expenses charged to it over $1000. We also obtained the guide to what the money can and cannot be spent on.

FOIA DUMP: LETF Spending by the police

In this posting, we offer details about the mindset in using LETF spending, a drone company, was asking to get paid for a bunch of drones the city was purchasing out of grant funds. In this document set you will see the vendor emailing the city about a past due bill on 4/8/22. The chief emails deputy chief Brandolini and asks to confirm that the city is not getting the grant on 4/10/22. Immediately Brandolini’s response is that they should pay with LETF.

$20,000+ in drones purchased out of LETF because FPD blew a grant.

This year, we asked the FPD to respond to us with all the LETF spending from fiscal year 2023 thus far, a period that goes from 7/1/2022 through 6/30/2023.

What is the concern with these monies. First off – there is no oversight here. This money can be spent on just about anything. Secondly, it’s budget season, and the Framingham Police are asking for a increased budget from the city for necessities, when we now know that the department has been making wasteful purchases in the background.

Essentially this is money that the police spends without any oversight from the Mayor or the City Council. The US Justice department as well as Mass General Laws do limit what these funds can used for, and what they cannot be used for.

The typical process during budget season is that the police ask the city council for expensive things. The city council may approve some things and deny others. Anything the council denies, winds up being bought anyway – out of the LETF.

Did you know, the city had purchased and installed 12 license plate reading camera systems throughout the city in 2010, and have been tracking everyones movements as they pass by these secretly located camera systems. The city council got wind that the citizens have been tracked for years, and without oversight of what data is stored, for how long, and how that data can be used, and demanded a presentation on it. After the presentation in the spring of 2022, councilors were left with more questions than answers. The city claimed that the system could be used for facial recognition and traffic enforcement, but that they weren’t utilizing the systems for those reasons… if you believe them…

We asked Ashland for their LETF spending over the past two years… Their response,

“There has been no spending out of the LETF in 2022 and 2023; therefore, there are no records responsive to PRR#23-131.
– Accounting Department

The kicker is that in the data below, you will see that the city has purchased and installed another 12 more license plate reading cameras to further track the comings and goings of each and every person in the city.

Body Cameras, that would be a good use of LETF funds, as it is a form of transparency. Not surprisingly, the city has not been able to find the funds to purchase them, or to purchase the software and storage for the videos…. all the while they are tracking and storing data on each and every car that passes by its 24 license plate readers…. but i digress.

This year the city has been even more heavy handed on their redactions, and they took months responding to us… without reason, which is not in accordance with the public records laws… but since when have the police been known to act within the boundaries of the law?

Without further ado.

Click to enlarge the images below representing 2022 and 2023 LETF spending when the invoices are over $5000.