Funding for the Boston Police Department's investigative unit is stalled after Democrats voted down the roughly $3.4 million in new funding as crime in the city surges.
Last week, half of the city's council members voted against funding the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) – opposing the city's progressive Democrat mayor, Michelle Wu, who flipped her position to supporting the funding.
BRIC serves Boston and surrounding regions to reduce crime and prevent acts of terrorism. The opposing council members cited concerns with BRIC's gang database, which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently claimed unfairly targeted Black and Hispanic youth, prompting an investigation from the state's attorney general.
But Wu said new leadership at the city’s police department and efforts to clear names that were no longer relevant from its gang database caused her to change her view and support funding for Boston Police Department's investigative arm, according to a report in the Boston Herald.
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"There were lots of questions about the gang database, how it was being used to potentially feed information to further a school-to-deportation or school-to-prison pipeline," Wu said on WBUR’s Radio Boston. "I did not believe that the gang database in its form at that point with the structures there should continue because it was causing active harm."
Wu said she spent "many hours" in her early weeks as mayor discussing BRIC and its gang database with the police department, meetings that were aimed at "understanding some of the changes they were making," according to the Herald.
"One change, for example, was around names that were inactive in terms of any interactions with law enforcement but had somehow gotten into the database and were just there, always affecting someone’s future potentially," Wu said. "They’ve changed their procedures around how that database has been maintained, so thousands of names have been removed. Inactive names are regularly taken out."
Still the majority of the city council cited racial bias concerns, and voted down the funding that has now been in limbo for years.
Police Commissioner Michael Cox said he is "dumbfounded" that the BRIC is not "so well-received" for the work that it does, which "is so central to do what we do as a police department," according to the Herald.
"The work that they do is not about vilifying people of color," Cox said. "It’s really about identifying the people who are driving the violent crime in our city, and you’re keeping track of that information."
The funds, he said, would help to fill several gaps in BRIC’s analytical operation, by hiring eight civilian analysts, positions that would be sustained for five years," the Herald reported. Today, the BRIC is understaffed in that area, with only one analyst per shift on duty from Friday to Monday, police officials told the outlet.
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The gang database is a "relatively small part of what we do" and the requested funding would not be directed to that component of BRIC, according to its Deputy Director Ryan Walsh, who said three-fourths of its 52-member personnel is devoted to its anti-terrorism initiative.
Councilor Michael Flaherty, who chaired a Friday committee hearing on the matter, also expressed his disappointment to the outlet.
"Public safety is paramount for our city," said Flaherty. "I know the important role BRIC plays in each and every homicide in the city of Boston. They don’t go around tooting their own horn. It’s a team effort."
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The stall in law enforcement funding comes as violent crime, especially among youth, has surged. In August, 13 kids were arrested after more than eight fights broke out, injuring police officers and closing businesses just south of Boston.
Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, told local outlet WBZ that "crime in the city is out of control" and that the city's police force is direly understaffed to counter it.
According to Calderone, Boston is nearly 500 officers short, WBZ reported.
"We need hundreds of officers, and we need them tomorrow," Calderone said.
