City Council To Hold Hearing On BPD Contracts

Boston MA

22 March, 2021

2:39 PM

Description

BOSTON — The Boston City Council is holding a hearing to examine Boston Police Department contracts and is inviting the public, as well as representatives from the BPD, the mayor's office, and other city offices to give testimony. When looking at the contracts, the council will consider changes that have been called for in the past year, including changing department funding allocations and improvements in accountability and transparency in the BPD, the hearing notice says. The hearing will be livestreamed on Tuesday at 1 p.m. "Over the course of the past year, nationwide attention to the need for police reforms and reductions in police budgets have also drawn attention to the important role that police contracts play in limiting or enabling such reforms and allocations," the hearing notice says. Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill in late December that increases transparency measures, something that councilors noted will require changes in police contracts in several units in Boston and is subject to bargaining. "The council strongly endorses the right to collective bargaining, and does not sit at the bargaining table, but can play an important role by helping to educate the public about police contracts as public policy documents and by setting key public policy expectations in light of which all parties should negotiate, much as all parties negotiate in the light of the broader economic context," the notice says. The councilors wrote that since the murder of George Floyd, police departments have been scrutinized for their limited ability to fire officers for abuses of power and that there are "grave concerns" about that in the BPD. To watch the hearing, visit Boston City Council TV.