The City of Boston, perched in the Massachusetts Bay, is comprised of almost ninety square miles. It is home to approximately 692,600 residents of which approximately 44.5% identify as white, 25.2% as Black, 19.8% as Latino or Hispanic, and 9.7% as Asian.²   Boston is served by the Boston Police Department (BPD), the US’s oldest police department.³

Members of the BPD assert that the department has prioritized building trust and legitimacy for over ten years and believe that majority of Boston’s community indeed trusts the department. Stemming from what is referred to as the ‘Boston Miracle’, the BPD has maintained partnerships with community organization and stakeholders, including members of clergies, medical facilities, educational and higher learning, and professional sports teams. Such partnerships are helpful for reaching and maintaining open channels of communication with a variety of Boston’s community, consequently building the community’s trust. Moreover, the BPD indicated pride in that, in 2018, Boston’s Mayor Walsh and Commissioner William Gross approved the formation of the Bureau of Community Engagement.¹³ The Bureau’s goal is to ensure that every District of Boston has a dedicated and dependable community policing effort, focusing on building stable police-community relationships particularly in areas that did not have them before. However, BPD members strongly believe that despite their respect for the community and continuous efforts in community-based policing, the media portrays a contrasting story that often disrupts their efforts.

After George Floyd’s death, BPD held a panel to review their current policies and assess the areas for improvement. The resulting recommendations included the implementation of civilian oversight boards, the use of dashboards for internal affairs, and emphasized the need for more open discussions on diversity training and recruitment.

In accordance with the panel’s recommendation, the BPD is currently working on setting up civilian oversight boards with the aim to increase transparency and accountability. However, members expressed concerns over civilian oversight boards that include community members who hold strong anti-police sentiments, and therefore may be incentivized by their own personal agendas to participate. A second concern related to participating community members’ lack of adequate understanding of how policing works on a day-to-day basis, and how this may generate more conflicts than resolutions. Nonetheless, they agree that more transparency and open communication with the community is needed and providing explanations to the community at large for why things are done in certain ways would be helpful.

The BPD welcomes the use of new technology; all officers are provided with iPhones and smartphone technology, including ShotSpotter software, is available to them. Moreover, BPD uses online platforms for communicating with the community, such as social media posts and bulletins on their website are updated twice a day.

However, the BPD acknowledged that some areas, particularly on intelligence gathering remain outdated. Facial recognition and license plate reader software will no longer be used as per the community and the ACLU’s demand.
Moreover, BPD has implemented the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) and members believe them to be helpful for protecting officers and aiding arrests, however, policies on the use of BWCs and compliance checks remain limited.14

In interviews with the NPF assessment team, BPD members mentioned their use of technology was restricted by the City Council. Specifically, a member stated that if it weren’t for the Council, they could be using social media monitoring and surveillance more effectively. Indeed, in 2016, the Council scrapped the BPD’s social media surveillance system plan. Nonetheless, according to an ACLU report, the City’s decision was guided by considerable concerns over the BPD’s prior misuse of such surveillance systems.15

The BPD defines community policing as the liaison with community members and the City to solve ongoing problems. The BPD prides itself in its community policing principles, for example, during academy training recruits are required to do community service in order to graduate. 

The BPD’s community-based policing dates back to the early 1990s when the department, alongside community members and stakeholders, began several community engagement initiatives to tackle growing issues of gang and youth violence. Initiatives, such as the Ten Point Coalition described above, has helped BPD create a standing culture based on community policing principles. During interviews with the NPF assessment team, BPD members asserted to have strong ties with Boston’s community based on years of active engagement. However, they acknowledged the practical difficulty that COVID-19 has recently imposed on community policing. A related point of improvement for the BPD relates to their procedures for responding to mental health calls. Since 2011, the BPD works with an Emergency Services Team who provides clinicians that attend, alongside officers, calls involving persons in crisis or emotional distress.

For years the TPD has cultivated officer safety and wellness offerings, and they have continued to grow over the last five years. Recognized nationally by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, the TPD’s behavioral science unit (BSU) provides several services for the overall health and well-being of sworn and professional staff and their family members. BSU has provided counseling services, referrals, and peer support, and have organized police family events. As police suicides have increased across the country, in 2020 the TPD held trainings around mental health and suicide prevention, with a command staff member attending each class to reinforce the value leadership places on employee wellbeing.