Wu secures crucial reforms in new police contract
Deal includes ability to fire officers convicted of crimes and a 21% raise in police salaries over five years
Mayor Michelle Wu last week announced a contract with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association that expands the Boston Police Department’s ability to fire officers convicted of crimes, opens up paid details to civilians and tightens the rules for determining when officers are eligible for medical leave.
The contract is the first in which city officials have managed to secure significant reforms from the Patrolmen’s union and includes a 21% raise for the officers over a five-year period. The contract is subject to approval from the City Council, which is likely to vote on the matter this week.
“This groundbreaking contract is a major step forward in how Boston continues to set the highest standards for community policing and ensure resources for the health and well-being of our officers and their families,” Wu said in an announcement of the contract last week. “I’m thankful to Commissioner [Michael] Cox for his clear vision and strong leadership for our department, and to President [Larry] Calderone and the BPPA for their partnership and shared commitment to our city.”
Mayor Michelle Wu, BPD Commissioner Michael Cox, and BPPA President Larry Calderone discuss details of the tentative agreement with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association in the Eagle Room. PHOTO: Mike Mejia, Mayor’s Office
Historically, when the police department has determined officers have committed crimes and moved to fire them, officers have often been able to stop their termination through arbitration, a process through which an independent panel reviews department disciplinary proceedings and, in a majority of cases, decides in favor of the officer.
Under the new contract, the patrolmen’s union agreed that officers would lose their ability to use arbitration when they are convicted of certain crimes, including armed robbery, assault with intent to rob or murder, attempt to murder, use of firearms while committing a felony, rape, extortion, drug trafficking, felony for hire, and hate crimes involving assault or battery for the purpose of intimidation.
Wu told the Banner the agreement marks a significant milestone for the city.
“It’s the first time in city history we’ve seen arbitration rolled back,” she said. “We’ve never had the opportunity to broach this conversation before. I’m very grateful for the officers’ overwhelming support for this contract.”
Union members voted to approve the contract Dec. 4.
“This is a contract that is fair and equitable to the men and women in uniform that are answering those calls for service,” Calderone, the BPPA president, told reporters during a press briefing last week at City Hall.
City Councilor Kendra Lara, who has pushed for progressive policing reforms, said Wu achieved as much as could be expected in a contract negotiation.
“It’s collective bargaining,” she said. “We can’t get anything if the union doesn’t agree to it.”
Still, Lara said, the progress on issues such as paid details is groundbreaking.
Last year, Lara led efforts to open up paid details to civilians. Under state law, construction projects that impact travel on public streets and street repairs require flaggers to direct traffic and ensure safety. Noting that approximately half the details requested by utility and construction companies go unfilled due to police staffing shortages, Lara and other activists called for the unfilled positions to go to civilians. Union officials balked at the proposal.
Under the new contract, other police officers, including retired Boston police officers, Boston Housing Authority police, Boston municipal police officers and university police officers, will have priority in filling the details. In addition, contracted civilian personnel will be eligible to fill the details not taken by sworn officers.
Lara noted that as written, the contract makes details available to civilians working for companies run by certified law enforcement, which includes retired police. She told the Banner she plans to file an ordinance that would allow community members to participate in the drafting of a request for proposals for such companies.
While the contract made progress on key reform goals that activists have been pushing for in recent years, Wu has moved away from several of her campaign stands to more radically alter the nature of policing in Boston, such as dismantling the department’s controversial gang database, reducing the department’s growing overtime budget and redirecting funds allocated for policing into proven prevention programs, such as the Streetworker program, which the city shuttered last year.
“It’s not clear any of this will reduce police spending,” said Fatema Ahmed, executive director of the Muslim Justice League.
While the rate of violent crime in Boston is less than half what it was 20 years ago, the number of police officers has more or less remained constant. In 2000, there were 2,169 sworn officers, according to a Boston police report. This year there are 2,139, according to the Police Data Initiative of the National Policing Institute.
Lara, who previously worked in the city’s Streetworker program conducting outreach to criminally involved young people, said the share of city dollars going to policing is out of proportion to the share going to crime prevention.
“We need to significantly reduce the police force,” she said. “I think our next frontier is to really scrutinize the minimum staffing levels.”
Police captains in charge of the city’s precincts regularly inform the department of their staffing needs, setting a number of officers they say they require. Those numbers routinely exceed the number of officers assigned to their precincts. As additional officers are assigned to meet the captains’ stated staffing needs, those officers are given time-and-a-half overtime pay to fill those shifts.
In a series of contentious City Council meetings in 2020, councilors prodded police department officials to disclose the methods captains use to determine staffing levels. The department’s officials have refused to disclose any such information and refused to share minutes from the meetings held to make those determinations.
Asked whether she would seek to reduce the number of uniformed officers, the police budget or overtime, Wu said the demand for policing remains high in Boston.
“Our job is to make sure resources are going where they’re needed to deliver the outcomes our residents are calling for,” she said. “Focusing on a dollar amount doesn’t get to where people feel like they have what is needed.”
Ahmed of the Muslim Justice League said that by avoiding changes to staffing levels, Wu has avoided the most substantive changes criminal justice reform advocates have sought.
“The city is not willing to dig into how police staffing really works and acknowledge that hiring more officers isn’t going to reduce overtime,” she said.
