New Framingham Police Chief Ready To 'Listen To People'

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Becoming a police officer in Framingham is somewhat of a childhood dream come true for Lester Baker.

Growing up, he was a fan of "CHiPs," the 1970s show about two California motorcycle cops. Baker began his police career in Lexington in 1996 and transferred to Framingham in 2003. Before long, he was working in Framingham's traffic safety unit driving a motorcycle, just like Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello.

"It's been one of the greatest things I've ever done," he said of the decision to transfer to Framingham.

Baker worked his way up to deputy chief and now has been tapped by Mayor Yvonne Spicer to be the department's next chief. He will also be the first Black chief in city history, which carries special meaning after months of unprecedented unrest in the United States over race and policing.

Baker, 48, will take over a department that has undertaken its own reforms, but has also seen tumult around race, policing and use-of-force.

Eurie Stamps' family this summer asked for a fresh look at his death at the hands of a Framingham officer, which Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan agreed to do. The Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that Mark Tinsley, a Black man from Roxbury, can sue Framingham over a violent 2014 traffic stop where one officer was accused of calling him a "f------ n-----", according to court records. And Framingham High School students this summer led a movement to get school resource officers removed, saying the officers made them feel afraid.

Baker admits he questioned whether applying for the chief's job was the right move. Former Chief Steven Trask retired in June, at the tail end of the first coronavirus surge and at the beginning of a summer of nationwide protests over George Floyd's death.

"Part of me said, 'Why would you want to do this now?' Part of me said, 'We're going to need strong leadership, why not you?' The time presented itself and somebody had to step up and do it and I felt like I should," he said.

Before Trask's retirement, Spicer ordered police to review use-of-force guidelines. The order also reiterated the ban on chokeholds and the duty-to-intervene. Interim Chief Ronald Brandolini over the summer finished integrating the "8 Can't Wait" guidelines into department policy. Framingham is also moving away from the civil service exam to hire officers, an effort started under Trask that the former chief said would improve the pool of potential hires.

Baker said there are areas that need to be "fine-tuned," and pledges the department will stay up-to-date on new types of training and policy moves.

At $16.7 million in 2021, the police department budget is the biggest in Framingham next to schools. One of the cries heard during the summer protests was "defund the police," a policy prescription that, in most cases, means a redirection of police budgets toward social services.

Baker says he does want to expand the city's pioneering jail diversion program, which places a social worker from the Advocates with officers on patrol. He wants a clinician available during every shift.

"You can't put a time frame on a crisis," he said.

Defunding the police budget is the wrong answer, he said, because there's room right now to hire officers to replace retirees and transfers, and also to hire social service workers.

Baker acknowledged that policy reforms won't impress everyone, certainly not people who have had bad experiences with the police. In those instances, he said his job is to hear what people have to say.

"Somebody from deep down in their heart was telling me how they feel and how they perceive the police," he said of a recent conversation he had. "I needed to take my own feelings out of it and just listen."

One group Baker hasn't gotten around to speaking to is the family of Eurie Stamps. They have held rallies in Framingham and around the state this summer to bring attention back to the case, but Baker says he's only talked with people around the family.

The case remains an open wound in Framingham, with the City Council only in September issuing a formal apology to the family. Stamps, a retired grandfather, was watching a basketball game when the SWAT team entered his home looking for his stepson. Stamps was lying on his stomach in a hallway when officer Paul Duncan reportedly tripped and fired a single shot, killing Stamps.

In the aftermath, Framingham disbanded the SWAT team, and later paid Stamps' family a $3.75 million settlement. But the family still wants Framingham to fire Duncan — something Baker is unwilling to do. Spicer has also resisted those calls.

"I can't go back and make a decision on something from four administrations ago," he said when asked about the calls to fire Duncan.

By his own admission, Baker, who is well known across the city, still has some listening to do

He hadn't been officially sworn in as of Thursday. When he does, he said he will spend the first month speaking and listening to every employee in the department to "get us all on the same page."

Then, he said he will turn his attention to the wider city, with plans to speak to clergy, residents and neighborhood groups.

"You need to listen to people, and I need to do that from every portion of the city," he said.