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Former Turnpike official to oversee Gates case review panel

E-mail|Link|Comments () August 20, 2009 06:53 PM

By Meghan E. Irons and Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- The Cambridge Police Department has hired a former top deputy at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to oversee the independent review panel created following the Henry Louis Gates Jr. scandal.

Jennifer Flagg, the authority's former chief administrative officer, will be the department's liaison to the panel in her position as the new director of special projects, a one-year position with a salary of $127,000.

The high-paying post is an indication of how seriously Cambridge is taking the Gates controversy, which made the city the center of a national debate about race and police conduct. Gates, a prominent African-American professor at Harvard, charged the department with racial profiling after he was arrested at his home July 16 following reports of a possible break-in.

"Most cities want to turn the corner and move on,'' said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the DC-based Police Executive Research Forum, who will chair the review panel. "Cambridge wants to take away something from this that can be helpful for the city and the nation."

In her new role, Flagg will report directly to Commissioner Robert C. Haas and her main tasks will include managing special projects, facilitating high-level discussions on hot-topic issues, and coordinating drafts of community policing strategies.

Flagg said yesterday she will devote her attention to high-profile issues so that the police can continue their focus on public safety.

This "was something that was not part of their day-to-day business, and clearly certainly the commissioner needs to get back to running his police department."

Flagg began her new duties Aug. 3 after working for more than a year at the Turnpike Authority. She was hired by former authority chief Alan LeBovidge, who resigned in May, and had been coordinating the integration between the Turnpike Authority and the State Highway Department

She left that post July 31.

City leaders announced the establishment of the review panel late last month after the Gates arrest triggered a national furor. The issue went global after President Obama offered comments in support of Gates, a friend. The president then calmed tensions by inviting Gates and the arresting officer, Sergeant James M. Crowley, for a beer at the White House.

In announcing the review panel late last month, city officials said the committee will not conduct an internal police investigation in the Gates case or make official judgments on the actions of the police. It will “identify lessons to be taken from the circumstances surrounding the incident,'' said Robert W. Healy, the city manager, who is Cambridge's chief administrator in charge of its personnel.