Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno’s office is declining New England Public Radio’s request to interview the mayor about the police department’s relationship with the city’s minority communities.
Three times in two months, Mayor Sarno told us he would talk about police-community relations and said to set it up with his office.
This followed a December interview on this station with the Rev. Talbert Swan, who has warned that Springfield could be the next Ferguson.
“For us not to be real about the reality of that relationship is to be like an ostrich with our head in the sand, pretending that there’s no way that this could happen in Springfield,” Swan said in that interview. “Springfield has dodged many bullets through the years.”
Despite repeated calls and emails, the interview with Sarno was never scheduled.
This week, mayoral aide Darryl Moss said Sarno would welcome a conversation on the city’s efforts on “communication, diversity and inclusion.” But he added, “to discuss the possibility of racial discord based on postulation would be imprudent and impractical.”
New England Public Radio does not agree to restrictions on what questions we can ask in an interview.
New England Public Radio’s Henry Epp contributed to this report.