Boston city councilor warns dwindling police force is "a recipe for disaster"

BOSTON - Police departments nationwide took a hit to the ranks during the summer of 2020. Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn says the city is struggling to bounce back, suggesting they are several hundred officers below required staffing levels.

"Our population is growing and the number of police officers we have in the city is declining," Flynn said. "That's a recipe for disaster."

Officers working mandatory overtime

Flynn is looking to find new ways to recruit and retain police officers. "We have so many police officers right now that are working mandatory overtime which means they're consistently working 16 hours a day several days a week," Flynn said.

He said he has heard from a number of officers and their families who say they are fatigued from being overworked and underappreciated.

Like so many cities during the pandemic, Boston lost officers at a record rate. Yearly resignations at BPD skyrocketed in 2022, compared to 2018, from one to 36, and early retirements did too, from 17 to 127 in the same time frame. And that's not counting the retirements they saw coming.

"I think that is hurting the city, the department. It's having an impact on the health of the police officer and his and her family," Flynn said.

"We can't have it both ways"

Flynn says there's a city statute requiring a minimum of 2,500 police officers, but the city currently is several hundred below that leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime.

"Elected officials constantly complain about the overtime budget but then they don't advocate for more police officers to hire," Flynn said. "We can't have it both ways."

Flynn says the city needs to recruit about 200 officers a year. Right now, they average about 50 below that. A hearing on this could happen within a month.