Boston Council Reviews Eight Police Grants Totaling More Than $5.6 Million

BOSTON — October 8, 2024 — Boston's City Council Public Safety Committee reviewed eight Boston Police Department grants totaling more than $5.6 million at an October 8 hearing chaired by Councillor Henry Santana. The largest single award, Docket 1166, is a $4,125,000 state grant supporting 911 operations at Boston Police, Fire, and EMS, where Director of Operations Christopher Markunas disclosed a 23 percent civilian call-taker vacancy rate and a 33 percent police dispatcher vacancy rate. A $175,000 Target Corporation grant, Docket 1432, will launch the Youth Police Initiative in four neighborhoods — Orchard Gardens, Franklin Field, Mildred Haley, and East Boston — pairing groups of 15 teenagers with patrol officers over two weeks of structured sessions. Council President Ruthzee Louijeune pressed BRIC Director Ryan Walsh on implicit bias in the gang database, noting concerns about a 14-year-old boy flagged as gang-affiliated; Walsh said a revised Department Rule 335 is in final review by the police commissioner, with a public email redress option coming "within weeks." The $850,000 BRIC earmark, Docket 1168, has funded personnel rather than technology since approximately 2021, with eight and a half positions authorized and only four and a half currently filled.