Police officers smile to fellow officers as they leave the scene after the arrest of a suspect of the Boston Marathon bombings in Watertown, Mass., April 19, 2013.
Police in Massachusetts will continue to have many tools at their disposal to respond to crime, but if a state legislator gets his way, one of them won’t be harsh language.
State Rep. Benjamin Swan has introduced a bill that would prohibit law enforcement officers from using profanity, racial slurs or any name-calling while dealing with the public. The idea for the legislation came from a conversation Swan had about police with guys in a local bar.
“I asked the men in the bar whether or not they had ever witnessed inappropriate use of language and every person there said ‘yes’,” Swan told WBZ NewsRadio. If the bill becomes law, officers could potentially lose their jobs for violation of the code.
Scrutiny of cussing cops is not without recent precedent. In August, Gilberton, Pennsylvania police chief Mark Kessler found himself suspended and later fired for a series of profanity-laden YouTube videos.
Read a copy of the bill proposal here.
[WBZ]