Boston council panel reviews $8.6 million in police grants for youth violence and 911 services

BOSTON — December 4, 2025 — Boston's City Council public safety panel reviewed four police-administered grants totaling more than $8.6 million at a December 4 committee hearing chaired by at-large Councillor Henry Santana. The largest item, a $3,966,900 Safe and Successful Youth Initiative grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, would fund the city's flagship firearm-violence intervention program for fiscal years 2026 through 2028, targeting residents ages 17 to 24 deemed at highest risk of shooting violence. A $4,125,000 state grant sustains the computer-aided dispatch backbone for Boston Police, Fire, and EMS, while a $528,156.32 companion grant covers 911 telecommunicator certification. A $10,000.01 homicide data grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health funds annual reporting to the CDC. Maria Cheevers, Director of Research and Development at the Boston Police Department, disclosed that a budget revision to the department's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant is funding a laboratory transition from serology to Y-chromosome screening, a shift projected to increase profile-ready CODIS uploads by up to 25 percent. A fifth grant presentation — $850,000 for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center — was halted mid-hearing by Santana after he determined it had not been properly noticed. Santana said he would file a committee report before the full council's final meeting of the year on December 10.