Ware Police Chief Shawn Crevier used his official position and public resources to advocate against and rally opposition to proposed gun reforms that were winding through Beacon Hill over the past year, a move state regulators said was likely a violation of the conflict of interest law.
The State Ethics Commission said they found “reasonable cause to believe” Crevier violated the law when he directed an administrative staffer at the department to draft four statements opposing the legislation and directed the person to post it to their official Facebook page.
A post from July 2023, which was signed “Ware PD,” took aim at the bill’s constitutionality, criticized the creation of gun-free zones, and encouraged residents to reach out to gun rights groups to oppose the measure, according to the State Ethics Commission.
Later the same summer, Crevier had the Ware Police Department administrative office post to Facebook three more times with statements in opposition to legislation in the House and a similar proposal in the Senate, regulators said.
The four posts were “shared several thousands times,” the State Ethics Commission said in a statement Wednesday.
“The statements encouraged people to advocate against the bills, which they characterized as ‘treasonous’ and ‘seditious,’ and referenced the opposition of a private organization of law enforcement officials of which Crevier was a member,” the commission said.
In a statement to the Herald, Crevier said the gun reforms that Gov. Maura Healey signed into law this summer “does very little actually to address gun violence, all it does is penalize the current and future law-abiding gun owners, which only emboldens criminal offenders to increase gun violence.”
“The focus of this bill should have been on the criminal element. As a law enforcement official, one of my primary objectives is the safety of my residents, and this new law takes minimal strides to achieve that,” he said.
The proposal he criticized has become a flashpoint for Second Amendment rights advocates and gun owners, who say the measure goes too far and will end up punishing everyday citizens once it takes effect in October.
A coalition of gun stores, sportsmen clubs, and advocates are in the process of gathering signatures to immediately suspend the law and place a question before voters in 2026 asking them to repeal it.
Beacon Hill Democrats who authored the proposal have argued the law is meant to keep everyone in Massachusetts safe, including schoolchildren, adults, firearm owners, and law enforcement.
The law bans people under 21 from owning semiautomatic rifles or shotguns and reworks rules around firearms licensing, dealer inspections, carrying and transporting weapons, areas where a gun is prohibited, “assault-style firearms,” and large capacity feeding devices.
A local affiliate of the National Rifle Association, the Gun Owners Action League, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the statute’s provisions covering firearms licensing, including requirements around licenses to carry and firearm identification cards.
As the bill wound its way through the Legislature over the past year, many gun rights groups and owners opposed it, including Crevier, the police chief in Ware, according to the State Ethics Commission.
As an appointed policy-making employee, Crevier was allowed to use public resources, including his title, staff time, and the department’s Facebook page, to provide “factual information that could help legislators make informed, fact-based decisions” about the proposal, the commission said.
The chief was also allowed to state his opinion on the bill about the gun law’s effect on public safety in Ware and on the department’s social media channels so long as they were “based on objectively verifiable facts and not on personal opposition to increased gun control,” the commission said.
“Crevier’s actions as police chief in having the four anti-gun law reform statements drafted and posted on the WPD Facebook page were, however, political activity prohibited by the conflict of interest law because the statements included his personal opinions on matters outside of the WPD’s purview, such as the legality and constitutionality of the proposed gun law reforms and whether the proposed legislation was treasonous or seditious,” the commission said.
Regulators at the State Ethics Commission resolved the matter with a public education letter sent to Crevier rather than an adjudicatory proceeding “because the conflict of interest law’s application to political activity by public employees is complex, easily misunderstood, and in need of further public clarification,” they said.
“The commission expects that the public education letter to Crevier will provide public employees in similar circumstances with a clearer understanding of how to comply with the law,” the commission said in its statement.
