Time For Community Control Of Boston's Police In 2023?

Many decades ago a "Petition Statement for Community Control of Police" appeared in the June 14, 1969 issue of The Black Panther newspaper, which summarized a proposed "police control amendment that must be established in the cities and communities of America," in the following way:

"This amendment to a City charter would give control of the police to community elected neighborhood councils so that those whom the police should serve will be able to set police policy and standards of conduct.

"The amendment provides for community control of the police by establishing police departments for the major communities of any city; the Black community; the predominantly White area...etc., etc. The departments would be separate and autonomous. They can by mutual agreement use common facilities. Each Department will be administered by full time police commissions. (Not single police chiefs). The Commissioners are selected by a Neighborhood Police Control Council composed of 15 members from that community elected by those who live there. Each department shall have Community Council divisions within it. (Or number of departments ratioed to population.)

"The Council shall have the power to discipline officers for breaches of Department policy or violations of law. (Against the people). They may direct their police Commissioner to make changes in department wide policy by majority vote of the said department commissioners. The Council can recall the Commissioners appointed by it at any time it finds that he [or she] is no longer responsive to the community. The community can recall the council members when they are not responsive to it.

"All police officers must live in the department they work in, and will be hired accordingly."

Yet instead of adding this kind of "police control amendment" to Boston's city charter or enacting this kind of "police control amendment" in the form of a Boston city ordinance in 2023, the purportedly politically "progressive" Democratic Party mayor of Boston and "progressive" Boston city councilors are apparently still proposing to allocate between $350 million and $405 million of the Boston city government's operating budget on funding the existing undemocratic Boston Police Department [BPD] set-up in 2024.

But, as Isiah Thompson reported in an article, titled "Mayor Wu Proposes $4.3 Billion City Budget', that appeared in an April 2023 issue of the Bay State Banner, "advocates focused" on "reallocating city funds away from policing" were "disappointed to see Wu include a pay raise for the Boston Police Department;" and a statement by Boston Youth Justice and Power Union Organizer Favour Ejims was quoted as noting that "Wu promised to move money from the police to community needs" yet "the mayor is proposing to increase it by $10 million this year."

And, according to an April 13, 2023 Boston Globe article by Emma Platoff, the "progressive" administration of Boston's current mayor initially proposed using $405 million of municipal government public funds to pay for its police force operations in 2024, while--at the same time--apparently proposing to cut funding of an "office of police accountability & transparency" by -2.3%, cut funding of "community engagement" by -1.16% and cut funding for "worker empowerment" by -2.8%.

Compared to other large city governments--like the municipal governments of Indianapolis, Denver, Austin, Albuquerque, Sacramento, Tucson, Raleigh and San Jose--the city government of Boston has employed more police officers per 1,000 residents in recent years; and only 7 other large U.S. city governments have employed more police officers per 1,000 residents than has Boston.

In recent years, for example, while Boston's city government employed 3.1 police officers per 1,000 residents, San Jose, California (whose population exceeds Boston's population) employed only 1.15 police officers per 1,000 residents, Sacramento employed only 1.31 police officers per 1,000 residents and Raleigh, North Carolina (a city of over 468,000 people which is now providing fare-free public transit bus service for all riders on all bus routes until June 30, 2024) employed only 1.45 police officers per 1,000 residents.

Yet despite apparently voting in June 2023 for a $31 million decrease in City of Boston funding of its existing police department operating set-up in 2024, the politically "progressive" majority in Boston's City Council is still apparently proposing to spend over $350 million in 2024 to fund the BPD; where, according to an April 30, 2021 Forbes magazine article, in recent years 365 of the 500 top-paid Boston city government employees worked and apparently made at least $215,000 annually?