Cambridge police detail response to PERF report on 2023 fatal shooting

CAMBRIDGE — April 2, 2024 — Cambridge Public Safety Committee reviews fatal 2023 police shooting report and hears of accidental discharge at high school. The committee examined the Police Executive Research Forum's independent review of the January 4, 2023, fatal shooting of Arif Syed Faisal, a 20-year-old college student killed during a mental health crisis response, with Commissioner Christine Elow outlining the department's progress on 38 PERF recommendations including expanded less-lethal launcher deployment and a draft Critical Decision-Making Model policy. Jen Summers of PERF told the committee Cambridge's officer-involved shooting rate was "disproportionately low" compared with similarly sized cities such as Lansing, Michigan, and Springfield, Illinois. Body-worn camera policy and a proposed officer-identification policy after fatal shootings — which Elow called a potential first of its kind in Massachusetts — remain in union negotiations with no announced deadline. A co-response pilot pairing a North Suffolk clinician with a Cambridge officer has funding but has not yet launched. Near the close of the hearing, Elow disclosed that a school resource officer accidentally discharged a firearm into the ceiling of a staff bathroom at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School at approximately 1:45 p.m. that afternoon; no one was injured.