550 CMR, § 6.08 - Mass Demonstrations, Crowd Management, and Reporting

(1) A police department shall establish plans to avoid and to de-escalate potential or actual conflict between officers and mass demonstration participants. When a police department obtains advance knowledge of a planned mass demonstration within the police department's jurisdiction, the police department shall diligently attempt in good faith to:

(a) communicate with organizers of the event before the event occurs in an effort to establish reliable channels of communication between officers and event participants, and

(b) discuss and establish logistical plans to avoid or, if necessary, to de-escalate potential or actual conflict between law enforcement officers and mass demonstration participants.

(2) The department shall designate an officer in charge of de-escalation planning and communication to carry out the above plans within the department.

(3) A law enforcement officer shall not discharge or order the discharge of tear gas or any other chemical weapon, discharge or order the discharge of a kinetic impact device or rubber pellets from a propulsion device or order the release of a dog to control or influence a person's behavior unless:

(a) de-escalation tactics have been attempted and failed or are not feasible based on the totality of the circumstances; and

(b) the measures used are necessary to prevent imminent harm and the foreseeable harm inflicted by the tear gas or the chemical weapon, kinetic impact device, rubber pellets or dog is proportionate to the threat of imminent harm.

(4) If a law enforcement officer utilizes or orders the use of kinetic impact devices, rubber bullets, CEDs, CWs, ECWs, or a dog against a crowd, the law enforcement officer's appointing agency shall file a report with the Commission detailing all of the measures that were taken in advance of the event to reduce the probability of disorder and all de-escalation tactics and other measures that were taken at the time of the event to de-escalate tensions and avoid the necessity of using said weapons, including a detailed justification of why use of said weapons was objectively reasonable.

(5) Canines should not be utilized for crowd control, restraint, or management of peaceful demonstrations, but may be deployed for crowd control, restraint, or management of peaceful demonstrations in isolated circumstances related to bomb detection, pursuit of suspects in buildings, and related situations. Utilization does not include circumstances in which the canine remains on a short lead in close proximity to the handler and is well behind the line of contact between law enforcement and civilian personnel.

(6) The use of Kettling as a means of crowd control, crowd management, or crowd restraint is prohibited.

Notes

550 CMR, § 6.08

Adopted by Mass Register Issue 1453, eff. 10/1/2021.