On April 27, 2009, The Massachusetts Coalition of Police hosted its annual Police Educational Seminar for a packed audience in Westborough.  As in the past, the attorneys of Sandulli Grace, joined by outside experts, presented on a variety of timely legal topics.  Over the years, the annual seminar has become a premier educational event for Massachusetts police officers.

As usual, the topics this year were informative and timely.  (See the program here – See photos from the seminar here).  After a welcome from MCOP President Hugh Cameron and MCOP In House Counsel Tim King, Sandulli Grace Attorneys Susan Horwitz, Amy Davidson and Ken Grace talked about creative alternatives for bargaining in these tough economic times.  Joining them was Carol Chandor from Boston Benefits Partners.  Carol is an expert in public sector health care and gave an incredibly informative talk about how to judge various health plan alternatives, including the GIC.

After a break, Sandulli Grace Attorneys Joe Sandulli and John Becker discussed how to deal with the reality of layoffs, a topic that’s unfortunately too current.  SG’s Alan Shapiro and Bryan Decker then gave a blow-by-blow of the historic injunction MCOP and the BPPA were granted against the “banding” of police promotional scores.

The educational portion of the event ended with Sandulli Grace attorneys Leigh Panettiere and Patrick Bryant, joined by Police Lawyer Extraordinaire Thomas Drechesler and noted Psychologist Leo Polizoti, discussing the pitfalls of off duty misconduct.  Dr. Polizoti’s frank, behind-the-scene look at what goes into a psychological fitness for duty exam was the highlight of the day.

The day was capped off with a late lunch, during which Ken Grace recognized the winners of this year’s Sandulli Grace/MCOP Scholarship Essay Contest.  The annual event, open to the children of all MCOP members, awards 4 scholarships based on essays in response to a police related topic.  This year’s topic was the value of having sworn police officers providing traffic coordination at construction sites.  All of the essays were excellent.

Stay tuned next Spring for the announcement of the 2010 MCOP / Sandulli Grace police educational seminar.