HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1671        FILED ON: 1/15/2025

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2973

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Priscila S. Sousa

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relating to fair compensation for bilingual police officers.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1671        FILED ON: 1/15/2025

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2973

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
(2025-2026)

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An Act relating to fair compensation for bilingual police officers.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 41 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after Section 108L, the following section:-

Section 108MMMM. There is hereby established a language proficiency pay program offering stipends, salary increase or other monetary incentive to regular full-time members of the various city and town police departments who speak one or more languages in addition to English which are also spoken in the communities they serve as compensation for their linguistic proficiency and contribution to the department within that skillset.

Police stipends, salary increase or other monetary incentive within this program shall be predicated on the members with linguistic proficiency in relation to a language spoken within the town or city of the police department. The criteria for establishing language proficiency shall include but shall not be limited to: achieving the minimum school of the applicable World Language Assessment Instrument used for the Massachusetts State Seal of Biliteracy or a comparable metric. Satisfaction to this requirement shall be determined by the chief of police or one of similar rank.

Police stipends, salary increase, or other monetary incentive authorized by this section shall be granted within the discretion of the city and town’s administration.

Any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section and provides career incentive salary increases for police officers shall be reimbursed by the commonwealth for one half the cost of such payments upon certification by the Municipal Police Training Committee. The Municipal Police Training Committee shall certify the amount of such reimbursement to be paid to such city or town from information filed on or before the September first of each year with said committee, on a form furnished by it, the chief of police, or one of similar rank, of the city or town police department. Said information shall be filed on a form to be furnished by the Municipal Police Training Committee.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, the Municipal Police Training Committee shall establish quality guidelines, including but not limited to, standards and review processes.