What is the concern with these monies. First off – there is no oversight here. This money can be spent on just about anything. Secondly, soon it will bes budget season, and the Framingham Police will be 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. Read page 14-18 in the document in the grey box at the bottom of this page for more information on what the funds can be used for and what they cannot be used for.
We at FU are more concerned with the needless and wasteful spending of LETF funds on items, while the police department brass is asking tax payers to cough up more money in the upcoming year for ‘necessities’, when based on LETF spending it is apparent that the FPD has been wasting money that could have been used on these necessities.
We have been regularly requesting documentation of LETF spending by the FPD and have found periods of responsible spending, and periods of spending which is disgusting. For example radio communication equipment leases have been paid out of the LETF, and those leases have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Gym equipment and office furniture, also has been purchased out of LETF funds.
For example, Steve Trask, former police chief, in the weeks leading up to his retirement, he obtained four undercover cars to be gifted to each of his deputy chiefs for their exclusive use. The vehicles topped $100,000. The most expensive two vehicles were 2020 Ford’s, pimped out with upgrades and comfort packages. The other two vehicles were an 2015 Audi with 40k miles and a 2018 unknown vehicle with deep tints.
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
Did you know, the city had purchased and installed 12 license plate reading camera systems throughout the city in 2010, and have been tracking everyone’s 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…
This year we’re looking for accountability from our police and spending monies to get body camera systems on line for them. This has been bogged down for years… had the FPD actually wanted body cameras as they claim they do no… they could have tapped LETF funds to make it happen. Very telling.
Here is the 2023 LETF spending documents, when the value of the item or invoice is over $2000. Scroll down to the bottom to find our prior years research on LETF spending.
LOOKING AT PAST SPENDING OUT OF LETF:
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.
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.