Boston Eyes Residency Waivers to Address Police Staffing Shortage
What to Know
- Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn plans to propose waiving residency requirements for officers transferring from other Massachusetts departments and allowing retired Boston police officers to work paid details to address a staffing shortage of roughly 500 officers.
- The Boston Police Department had 2,102 sworn officers as of May, well below the city code mandate requiring a force of at least 2,500 officers.
- The proposals come amid ongoing concerns about staffing levels, forced overtime and recruitment, while state lawmakers also consider raising the maximum police academy entrance age from 39 to 44.
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn will move to propose measures related to waiving Boston Police Department residency requirements and allowing retired officers to take shifts as the department faces ongoing staffing challenges.
“We are dangerously short staffed by at least 500 police officers,” Flynn said Sunday. “This is unfair and unhealthy to police officers and their families.”
The councilor said he would introduce a hearing order to study the proposal to waive residency requirements for police officers willing to transfer to the Boston Police Department from other Massachusetts police departments, as well as a city council resolution to allow retired Boston cops to take opportunities to work paid details.
Though a Boston Municipal Code mandate established in 1980 requires the department maintain at least 2,500 sworn officers, as of May, the police department reported they had 2,102 sworn officers, according to State House News Service reporting.
The short-staffing issue gained public attention after the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association critiqued the administration, saying the department was down about 600 officers or “a third of (their) workforce” in early July in response to multiple violent incidents.
The Boston mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the proposals as of Sunday evening.
After 13 people were shot on July 4, Mayor Michelle Wu said the city was working to “to prevent, to address, to provide support and resources wherever we can” and had had “great success” recruiting officer over the last several years.
“Since our administration started, we’ve had the largest ever police classes graduate from the academy,” Wu said on July 6. “Usually they’re around 50 to 70 officers per class that have been hired. Our classes were well in the range of 100-plus, starting in the academy and graduating.”
The state Legislature is also currently considering a home rule petition aimed increase Boston Police Department staffing, H. 4093 filed by East Boston Rep. Adrian Madaro. The petition bumps the maximum age to take an entrance exam for the city’s police academy from 39 to 44 years old.
City councilors also pushed forward a probe to examine Boston Police Department staffing, retirements, forced overtime, recruitment strategies and more in April.
“We need to support and respect police officers, their families and the public as well,” Flynn said of his proposals. “The status quo is no longer an option.”
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