10 Mass. App. Ct. 851 | Mass. App. Ct. | 1980
The plaintiffs, patrolmen in the Boston police department, appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court (G. L. c. 249, § 4) upholding a decision of the Municipal Court of the City of Boston (G. L. c. 31, § 45)
The appendix in this case does not contain the order of the police commissioner, the decision of the commission, or the transcript of any of the hearings. The appendix is thus insufficient to permit review by us of the plaintiffs’ contentions. See Kunen v. First Agricultural Natl. Bank, 6 Mass. App. Ct. 684, 691 (1978). The questionnaire is not invalid on its face. See Opinion of the Justices, 375 Mass. 795, 807-808 (1978). The plaintiffs can prevail only by showing in the factual context facing the commissioner that the questionnaire did not bear a “sufficiently rational connection to the [officers’] . . . ability and fitness to perform [their] official duties.” Broderick v. Police Commr. of Boston, 368 Mass. 33, 42-43 (1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1048 (1976). Since there is nothing in the appendix which presents such a showing, the judgment of the Superior Court must be affirmed.
We note, in any event, that if, as indicated in the decision of the judge of the Municipal Court, the police commissioner had cause to believe that some members of his department may have been involved in widespread illegal gaming activities, he had a right to interrogate his officers as to relevant matters. Broderick v. Police Commr. of Boston, 368 Mass. at 37-44. See Baker v. Lawrence, 379 Mass. 322, 330 (1979). A similar and equally broad financial questionnaire was upheld against a challenge on privacy grounds without reference to any such suspicions. O’Brien v. DiGrazia,
Judgment affirmed.
See now G. L. c. 31, § 44, as appearing in St. 1978, c. 393, § 11.