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US: Ex-employee shuts down PD website over pay dispute, city says

Newton has created a new police department web portal in its place

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Officials in a Boston suburb are investigating a former city employee they say shut down the police website during a pay dispute.

Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said that the former employee — who had been the police department's information technology director — took down the department website in late June and July. The website instead directed visitors to a message that called on them to contact Fuller and ask the mayor to restore it, The Boston Globe reported on Friday.

Fuller said the employee controlled access to the site, and had not turned it over to the city. Newton has created a new police department website in its place. The old website was no longer active on Sunday.

Fuller told the Globe in a statement earlier this week that the ex-employee had shut down “a vital resource for the residents of the city of Newton". He had notified city officials in March that he was leaving the job, the Globe reported. The paper reported that the employee felt he was owed $137,000 in compensatory time, at the time he shut down the website, the paper reported.

The employee said in a statement that he was “disheartened by the city's representation of the facts in this matter”, and would work with the city to resolve the problem.

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