The US Attorney's office reports that four current and former Boston Police officers and supervisors at the department evidence warehouse in Hyde Park have had a new charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud added to their existing charges related to an alleged scheme in which the supervisors approved payments for overtime the officers did not actually work. Read more.
The Dorchester Reporter reports on the return of a walking beat to Bowdoin/Geneva.
For the second time in a week, Boston Police have arrested one of their own on a charge of domestic violence. Read more.
A Boston Police officer who is already part of a suit seeking millions of dollars in damages from Boston over its rescinded indoor vaccination requirements today filed a separate suit seeking at least another $2 million because the city fired him last month after rejecting his request for a religious exemption from Covid-19 vaccinations. Read more.
ACLU's Crockford makes point at council hearing.
City Council President Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown), who last year joined all his other colleagues in passing an ordinance requiring Boston Police and seven other departments to detail their use of cameras, cell-phone interceptors and other surveillance technologies, today voiced concern that forcing BPD to actually comply could result in the release of information that would help bad guys. Read more.
The Bay State Banner reports on a contentious City Council hearing on the idea of letting civilians get part of the construction detail game, in which the police union president went over his allotted five-minute talk time and so city councilors Kenzie Bok, Kendra Lara and Ruthzee Louijeune walked out until he was done.
Correction: Officer's gender corrected in story.
A Boston police officer was released on $500 bail at his arraignment today on domestic-violence charges, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. Read more.
Retired BPD officer Francis Foley, who died Oct. 23, at 80, was to be buried today in Mount Benedict Cemetery in West Roxbury, 31 years to the day after he and his fellow bomb-squad member, Jeremiah Hurley, responded to 39 Eastbourne St. in Roslindale to investigate a suspicious package. Read more.
A man who says police injured him in a rush to crush anti-fascist protesters at the conclusion of a white supremacist march through downtown has sued the city, state and Boston Police - and a Boston Municipal Court judge he says had him stripped of a religious covering and then refused to drop the charges against him despite a request to do so by the DA. Read more.
CommonWealth Magazine reports Capt Haseeb Hosein was cleared of the most serious charges against him by a hearing officer who "said the complaints against Hosein appeared to be orchestrated and called for an investigation."
The unions representing Boston Police superior officers and detectives have a lot of bones to pick with the city council and mayor and want a judge to order them to back off telling them how to do their jobs but also hire at least 500 more officers right away. Read more.
Cox speaks at Gertrude Howes Playground in Roxbury as former SJC Justice Geraldine Hines, on the commissioner search committee, listens.
Mayor Wu today announced she has appointed Michael Cox, a lifelong Bostonian who rose through BPD ranks to assume a variety of command posts, as the city's new police commissioner. Read more.
Suspended Boston cop Dana Lamb of Roslindale got six months probation yesterday for trying to skip out on the taxes he owed on a $10,000 winning lottery scratch ticket. Read more.
A federal judge ruled today that four people at a George Floyd vigil on the Common on May 31, 2020 can try to convince a jury that Boston Police officers violated their First Amendment rights by attacking them with pepper spray, fists and a bicycle afterwards and that the city created a culture where such a thing could happen. Read more.
Note: Updated with comments from a city spokesman.
Boston Police conducted active-shooter drills this week, including outside school, giving officers a chance to practice how they'd respond to a person with a high-capacity weapon running amok.
The only problem, at least at the Irving Middle School in Roslindale today, is that the school was locked down today and at least some teachers were told this was no drill. Read more.
Mayor Wu today released more detailed files related to the child-rape case involving a police officer who eventually became head of the patrolmen's union, said his initial case should never have been allowed to linger as long as it did and said she hopes to work with the Boston police union to ensure somebody like him will never again be allowed to remain on the force. Read more.
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