This is unfamiliar territory we're entering. Unlike every other state, Massachusetts has never employed flaggers to direct traffic around highway projects until now.
But in an effort to save money, the Patrick administration has decreed that on state roads and for projects involving state funds, contractors need not employ police officers at overtime rates in every instance.
Those officers are understandably upset over the potential loss of income. But the governor has properly taken this action in an effort to show voters he is serious about reducing expenses. And the fact is that flaggers, like school crossing guards, can be effective in directing traffic in many circumstances.
Unfortunately, there has been very little in the way of preparation for the transition, which may have contributed to the trouble last week when Massachusetts Water Resources Authority employees attempted to do some routine maintenance work on streets in Everett and Revere.
The new policy regarding police details was supposed to go into effect Friday. The MWRA figured they didn't need a police officer standing by given the nature and location of the work being done.
But in both places workers were confronted by angry police officers who in effect drove them away. In Everett, according to the Boston Herald, the officers left a bumper sticker on the manhole cover reading, "Police details save lives; governor-appointed flagmen won't."
Someone needs to remind those officers that our elected officials make the laws, they don't.
Properly administered, the new policy should cut down on the cost of construction and utility work without compromising public safety. And we suspect there will still be plenty of instances where circumstances will recommend the use of police officers so that all overtime won't be lost.
But the governor, legislators, mayors and police chiefs have to make it clear that the bullying tactics of the sort that were on display last week won't be tolerated. There's a term for societies in which those with weapons and powers of arrest also make the rules. It's called a police state.
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