##VIDEO ID:dRdofukZaVg## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] h [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e e e e record my name is Henry Santana at large city counselor and I am the chair of the Boston city council Committee on Public Safety and criminal justice today is Tuesday December 10th 2024 this hearing is being recorded it is also being live streamed at boston.gov SL city-council DTV and broadcast it on xinity Channel 8 RCN channel 82 and files Channel 964 varing comments may be sent to the committee email at cccp sos.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all counselors public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up and we'll have two minutes to testify if you are interested in testifying in person please add your name to the signup sheet near the entrance of the chamber if you are looking to testify virtually please email us email our Central staff liaison Shane Pac shane. Pac boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list today's hearing is on 11 Public Safety grants eight administered by the Boston Police Department and three administered by the office of emergency management I will now read the docket into the record and then we'll be we'll explain how we'll be dividing up the grants today for three panels of the testimony on behalf of the administration docket number 1545 message and Order authorizing the city of Boston to accept and expand the expend the amount of 307 $ 37,38 in the form of a grant for the fy2 DH DM H CIT ttac Grant awarded by the ma Department of Mental Health to be administered by the police department the grant will fund the implementation of 40-hour Crisis Intervention team CIT training for officers Under the Umbrella of the BPD Street Outreach unit docket number 1546 message in order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expend the amount of $ 28,650 in the form of a grant for the fy4 DNA capacity enhancement and backlog reducing Reduction Program excuse me awarded by the United United States Department of Justice to be administered by the police department the grant will fund two criminalist um positions overtime lab supplies equipment and continuing education expenses docket number 15 48 message and Order authorizing the city of Boston to accept and expend the amount of $ 29496 in the form of a grant for the FY 24 Port security grant program awarded by the United States Department of Homeland Security to be administered by the police department the grant will fund the purchase of new collar for the 38 safe boo Duty vessel these three matters were sponsored by mayor Michelle woo and referred to the committee on October 23 2024 docket number 1622 message and Order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expand the amount of 56,000 8904 in the form of a grant for the fy2 Municipal Road Safety Grant awarded by the United States Department of Transportation passed through the ma executive office of Safety and Security to to be administered by the police department the grant would fund high visibility traffic enforcement of mottor vehicle laws including but not limiting to speeding and aggressive driving distractive driving impaired driving and occupant protection as well as Traffic Safety Equipment this matter was sponsored by mayor Michelle woo and referred to the committee on October 30th 2024 docket number 1673 message and Order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expand the amount of $1 million 11,952 n86 in the form of a grant for the FY 2024 urban area security initiative awarded by the United States Department of Homeland Security passed through the ma Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to be administered by the mayor's office of emergency preparedness the grant will fund the enhancement of a regional preparedness and capabilities in designated High threat high density areas docket number 1675 message and Order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expend the amount of 2 mil 35,8 47 in the form of a grant for the fy4 regional um preparedness Grant awarded by the United States Department of Homeland Security passed to the Federal Emergency Management agency to be administered by the mayor's mayor's office of emergency preparedness the grant will fund Regional planning efforts to manage cic incidents including extreme weather events and their impact docket number 1676 message and Order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expand the amount of $1 million in the former grant for the securing the city um continuation Grant awarded by the United States Department of Homeland Security to be administered by the police department the grant the grant will fund continued enhancements for regional capabilities to detect identify report and interdict nuclear and other radioactive materials out of the regulatory control and provide Regional training and exercise opportunities necessary to enhance Regional capabilities docket number 1680 message and Order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expend the amount of $110,000 in the form of a grant for the fy2 dmh co- response Grant awarded by the ma Department of Mental Health and to be administered by the police department the grant will fund two full-time recovery coaches through best and provide training to officers docket number 1681 message in order authorized in the city of Boston to accept accept and expand the amount of $100,000 in the form of a grant for the fy2 dmh training Grant awarded by the ma Department awarded by the ma Department of Mental Health to be administered by the police department the grant will fund to reimburse overtime costs to backfill Crisis Intervention team training and other mental ho trainings for officers these five matters were sponsored by mayor Michelle woo and referred to the committee on November 20th 20124 and lastly docket number 1770 message in order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expend the amount of $80,000 in the form of a grant for the federal burn Justice assistance program awarded by the United States Department of Justice pass through the ma Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and to be administered by the police department the grant will fund the annual Boston address verification procedures mandated by the Massachusetts sex offender registry board docket number 1772 message an order authorized in the city of Boston to accept and expend the amount of 71,000 um $335 in the form of a grant for the Federal fy4 Emergency Management performance agency to be administered by the office of eer emergency preparedness the grant will fund the enhancement of operational capacity at the Boston emergency Operation Center and promote the professional development of the mayor's office of emergency management these FAL two matters were sponsored by mayor Michelle woo and referred to the committee on December 4th 2024 today I am joined by my colleagues in order of arrival councelor Ed Flynn councelor Erin Murphy councelor Liz bradden councelor John Fitzgerald and councelor Ben Weber we also receive we've also been joined by city council president Ru Jen we also received letters of absence from councelor M pepen from counselor Brian warell and from counselor Sharon Durkin before we begin I like I'd like to just ask folks to please silence their phones and devices as we have a lot of Grants to cover and I'm sure my colleagues are interested to hear testimony from the three separate panels testifying on behalf of the administration and we want to have ample time to ask each of the panel's questions we're going to move directly to our first P first of three panels and we'll provide time for my colleagues to offer both remarks and ask questions at at the time as we go at this time I'd like to provide an overview of the first set of four docket that will be reviewing along with the panelist the committee invited to testify on behalf of the administration on these dockets and for the and for the members of the Boston Police Department and administration who are here to testify today I kindly ask that you only be seated seated at the panelist table right now if you are testifying on these specific four dockets our first panel will be on dockets number 154 1545 dockets 1680 docket 1681 and docket 1622 for dockets 15451 1680 and 1681 the committee invited lieuten superintendent um Lieutenant Lieutenant Peter Masina Street Outreach unit Boston Police Department Jenna Savage office of research and development with the Boston Police Department and for docket number 1622 the committee invited superintendent lenita Kain Bureau of field services with the Boston Police Department for the panelists who are here today I'd like to each of you to just state your name and title for the record and once everyone has introduced themselves we'll move to opening remarks all right we're having some technical difficulties so just give it a minute we just been a quick recess um as we're having some technical difficulties thank you we're back in session so um I think we are good to go so I'll turn it over to our panelists to introduce themselves great thank you uh and thank you uh Mr chair um I'm Jenna Savage I'm the deputy director of the Boston Police Department office of research and development good afternoon my name is Lieutenant Peter Merina Street outre Unit good afternoon chair my name is lenita Cullen I'm a superintendent with the Boston Police Department I oversee the Bureau of field services thank you um at this time I'd like to invite our panelists to please proceed with opening remarks I kindly just ask that in order to allow times for counselor's questions and discussion that you please limit your opening remarks to 5 minutes per Grant with that please proceed with the open remarks beginning with the three grants related to dmh dockets number 1545 1680 and 1681 and then dockets number 1622 for the fy2 Municipal Road Safety absolutely uh so I'm going to do those first three the 1545 1680 and 1681 um I'm going to do the actual testimony but Lieutenant m is here to answer any questions that I can't answer um the three grants are all from the Massachusetts uh State uh Department of Mental Health uh we get them every year the big one is obviously the CIT Tech which stands for the crisis intervention team training and technical assistance center uh the BPD is really excited to have their own Training Center that first initially launched this first class I believe in May of 2022 um it's a 40-hour mental health training for officers and not just for BPD but we always save seats for external uh First Responders be they anyone who a hospital uh security mate police you name it anyone who's responding in the city of Boston who would really benefit from not only learning how to recognize symptoms of mental illness and substance disorder but also knowing about local resources learning how to deescalate um it's a really great training that we're super proud of and so this grant supports a full-time CIT training coordinator who is a civilian who is based out of the street Outreach unit um also supports overtime for officers to help teach the classes because it's a huge week week long effort um it includes travel to the annual CIT training conference and usually the co-responder conference as well um food and drink during the the training um presenters sometimes need to get paid to come in various supplies obviously just for doing trainings um and if you want more answers or you know more information about the training itself it's very comprehensive and it's really great we've trained over 230 officers so far at the BPD um so that is docket 1545 which relates directly I'll just skip over to 1681 uh which is really simple that's just backfill so for officers who are attending the training this this uh Grant will provide backfill so that someone can cover for them while they're at the training so that's all that money is for and then finally the third Grant 1680 which is our Co response Grant uh we're using that to support one it's supposed to be two positions initially uh but dmh had some severe budget cuts this year so they end up changing our award um so now we're going to be able to hire one recovery coach we had one but they actually left to take a different position uh with the city so we're going to be hiring One recovery coach who will work directly at our Hub tables work with the street Outreach unit uh and Recovery coach just plays a really important role helping people navigate the system there people who have lived experience with substance use with the criminal justice system and really help them kind of navigate the system um from a really personal point of view um and so we're really excited to have that position back awesome thank you so much yeah you want to add anything recovering the uh questions just just one thing I do want to add uh that was left out we do train uh EMS as well so if we have open seats at at our cat tech training uh we do offer it up to EMS as well so they train alongside the the officers who are students in the class uh and we have found it to be very effective so far awesome thank you I'll be testifying relative to to docket 1622 the Municipal Road Safety Grant and the Boston Police Department is committed to enhancing the safety of Motor Vehicle operators pedestrians and cyclists as a key component within the overall community policing mission for Mob mobilization activities our desired impact would be to reduce collision and VI U violation incidents in all three categories of motor vehicle traffic safety enforcement which incl include impaired driving dist distracted driving as well as speeding um as well as pedestrian and bike enforcement we will do this through overtime funds for officers to utilize and participate in plan mobilizations and through the utilization of Co mounted radar speed signs um which will include um the uh all of the hardware for those signs as well as a subscription um to deploy Boston police officers um to particip ipate in all traffic mobilizations convened by mass eops is to reduce motor vehicle violations and all the focus strategies by 5% we will deploy Boston police officers to participate in all pedestrian and bicycle safety mobilizations as well um with a 5% reduction as our goal and we'll be purchasing those three pole mounted speed signs that will also support those activities um we did do an assessment um as a part of the GR Grant uh to look at the different areas where we are having issues around some of the identified um components of the road uh Municipal Road Safety grants and so we looked at total number of crashes um those with injuries bicycle involved accidents as well as pedestrian involved accidents and that's how we decided on those areas of focus which doesn't mean that we won't focus on other areas um but specific to this grant we use this particular information awesome um thank you so much for those remarks um at this time I'll turn it over now to U my Council colleagues in order of arrival for counselor questions um starting with counselor um Ed Flyn you have the floor and sorry I didn't mention the amount of time so we're going to give five minutes per counselors um and then if if that's if if a second round is needed we'll do that so we going to do five minutes per counselor councelor F you have the floor thank you Mr chair and thank you to Lieutenant superintendent and Jenner for being here for your leadership um I know there's several other grants that haven't been discussed yet um that are that are part of this um that are part of this hearing but superintendent um one of the issues I've I've worked on um for a long period of time is the Boston police crime lab are you able to give me an update on exactly what's happening today at the crime lab the crime lab does not fall under the bureau field services so I'm going to leave that to the people that have um more information relative to that okay Jenner are you able to respond about any anything relating to the crime web I am not I'm sorry Lieutenant no I'm sorry okay so superintendent you're you're here on traffic inforcement related issues and uh pedestrian safety related issues is that correct that is correct okay um superintendent have we noticed any increase in response time from police fire or EMS as it relates to tr emergency vehicles getting to hospitals in Boston because of the ongoing um traffic or construction or for whatever reason I don't have any information relative to that okay Lieutenant no likewise I don't have any information regarding that Jenna no sorry um okay do we know if there have been any First Responders that have been stuck in traffic trying to get to a an Emergency because of the traffic do we do we have any idea if that's accurate I don't have information relative to that today Lieutenant no nor do I have I do not in your experience have you ever witnessed that I I don't have any I can't answer that right now I don't have information relative to that likewise okay Mr chair I have no questions thank you councelor Flynn um councelor mury you have the floor chair um thank you panelists for being here on the dockets um lieutenant in Jenna is it is the 110 co-response that one position yes yeah could you just speak a little bit more and you said there was someone in that position was that the first person was this like a new position we hired one person but for whatever reason they moved on but yes they are now they took a great position with the city um but uh then we were very sad to lose her uh so we did have someone's position we had her for a full year I believe before and we had just gotten permission to also hire her second person and then just as we were getting the renewal of the grant we lost first person and then we lost the funding for a second person um so we're basically filling an existing position that has already worked out very well so we thought we'd have funding to continue yeah and then we're back to one yes and have we filled that uh we were very close to filling it uh the person who left had recommended someone um but then we actually lost that person to the city as well at the last second um so we are now reposting it okay and could you just touch on the great work the former person did a few yeah like what what were the things that she was focused on that helped support this work uh and Lieutenant might be able to speak to it better but I just know that they especially she could only be in one so many places at one time we really needed 10 of her and so she became very very close with District B2 with Roxberry so I know she was heavily involved with helping um with people in that station with helping officers who were just you know interacting with people out in the streets helping them get connected to the resources they need and I know she was very heavily involved in our Hub tables um again just super sad to see her go but really excited for her in this new position but you want to add anything to that lieutenant uh no she was fantastic in the role um and definitely recovery coaches are are important uh element to have off Boston police officers um a lot of these officers I mean we're we're getting them trained up on CIT training uh but a lot of officers I mean we've had 230 officers go through the CIT training to date uh we're trying to obviously increase that we would like every officer going through c training but having a recovery coach uh available to the officers on the street uh to assist with Section 35 voluntary um treatment uh is is very important and it makes sense that it was B2 at that time we had a hearing a few weeks ago you know specifically to the crime and the concerns in the downtown area and at that hearing and in many conversations we're having is you know we knew that that wasn't aten Street wasn't the only location but now that we know that those concerns are spread out over the city is there enough resources like do other just districts not just B2 need someone like this to support them knowing that those concerns are spread out now they definitely spread out and it's important that's why it's important to hire these two positions I mean having um this would allow us to really break the city in half essentially uh having one of them handle one section and one of them handle the other so is two and now I know the grant covers it is it something you would want to see like in the budget season coming up to expand that we have people on our own City payroll that's funding these positions yes so ideally uh in an ideal world uh we have right now I guess what we coming up with hopefully five hubs there'd be one assigned to each Hub so one assigned to each area so a total of five would be perfect I would just add I guess a couple things one is that yes we are actually currently working on our FY 26 budget request um and I literally just sent you an email earlier today say what do we want to try and ask for so um I think it's actually a great suggestion to maybe add some permanent recovery coach positions guys do a great job with your grants but if the funding ends and it's a position that we know is supportive to our police offices and EMS and absolutely we can't can't thank this body enough for supporting us and getting our permanent funding for the the best clinicians for the co-response clinicians um I will add there are other recovery coaches working in the area that aren't BPD employees um one of our other grants actually does come through the BPD is the services over sentences Grant and that supports two recovery coaches uh specifically dedicated to working where they're most needed which was mass and cast but I think they're being more um movable uh and they're hired through North Community Services so we do have other recovery coaches working in the area they're just not necessarily paid directly through okay um and to traffic before my time runs out um you mentioned that this would fund three pole mounted speed signs where are they going to be located and do we have some already and where are they in the city we have not determined where they're going to be located we um make use of the ones that the city actually um um puts into place and so I had some conversations with them so we'll we'll speak with them as well to figure the transportation department when you were talking I was wondering wouldn't this be through the transportation department but this grant comes through the police department yes but we we have had conversations with them to and we'll figure out where the best locations are Bas and I know my time's going to um run out but when you mentioned that funded you know other recovery coaches does the Public Health commission or others help support these roles that the police are expected you know or I can't say what they have I mean I'm sure they have their own folks working with their team I'm not sure I'm sure they all coordinate in some way I'm not on the ground with that though sure together thank you thank you councelor Murphy councelor bradden you have the floor come on got it thank you thanks for being here this afternoon um I'm interested in darket 16622 the um the the road safety one um I I like the idea that the pole mounted speed guides are really helpful I think instant feedback about how fast you're going is always good um do you folks coordinate with BTD about sort of the most how do you decide the location do you work with BTD on that or is it so we will work with them on that and we will take the information that we have that's relative to um areas where we have been seeing the most incidents and then figure out where we should put them uhhuh and um so how many did you say we had to deploy new ones three just three just three and what sort of price tag do those have uh they were each uh $3,199 okay times three okay we're get really excited we we'll fight over the three I could do with three for all district N9 never mind the whole city that's wonderful so just out of an idea how many do we have across the city you know I I would have to get back to you with that information okay the other issue I had and I just saw it again today was um you know the whole issue around EB ebikes and scooters like they're a total Menace on the road sometimes uh when they don't observe the rules of the road um I saw one coming through a red light on the wrong side of the road this morning um uh riding through crosswalks and missing or hting pedestrians and then uh you know just been General nuisance almost um what's the sort of will will this grant be able to help address some of those issues I know it's been a big problem around scooters and ebags that are delivering food deliveries and stuff like that but these are just ordinary folks as well yes there are there's specific enforcement mobilizations that directly focus on pedestrian and bicycles uh enforcement and safety so yes and there's speeding and there's another other um elements that we'll be focusing on throughout the year but it definitely does have an aspect that focuses on bicycles yeah I think the other issue we see in our district is a lot of folks using the way app that they cut through residential streets and they really go to prir clip um is there any any insights into how we can manage that like I've we've been talking about this for a long time cuz they they there's trying to save time on their commute but they're driving recklessly through away from the main drag where you would maybe have more enforcement but uh is there anything that we can do to sort of address some of that stuff I think there are aspects because I that would be considered distracted driving which falls under this U Grant and so there are specific things that we could talk about and strategize to address some of those things things that lead to distracted driving I think sometimes the placement of um you know a phone in a car um and you're not you know there are laws that uh prohibit you from holding a phone in your your your hand when you're operating and those the some of the things when we talk about distracted driving and enforcing those specific laws relative to the to to that type of situation very good um and then with regard to the the um the u b um which docket there's a lot of dockets here 1680 and 1681 1681 1680 um sorry we're really we're really pleased with how we've been adding more best uh practitioners how many do we have at this point I believe we have 14 full-time positions 14 does that mean there's someone in every sort of every Precinct we have a couple of vacancies right now and actually I guess that that also includes someone who's with the uh School engagement unit um and it also includes at least one supervisor position because when you get that many clinicians sorry can you hear me okay yeah um so right now I believe we have we're about to lose three vacancies I think we've got three we literally losing someone as we really unfortunately be four so we'll have four four vacancies four vacancies which is the most we've had we we actually just had the highest like for the past year we actually had a really good roster it was pretty stable it's like long as it stayed that stable for so long and as the the best clinician uh program been beneficial incredibly yeah and you know for me personally that what's really exciting is when I go to the we have these Community com stats now and at multiple ones I've just kind of sat in the background and I've heard at least two captains say that they think that getting best clinicians is the best thing the BPD has ever done um it's just it gives such confidence that officers were responding to mental health calls feeling so much more comfortable knowing they've got the tools of their tool belt knowing that they'll be able to get people referred to Services hopefully prevent future calls um I think it's it has really just taken fully like just kind of Taken hold of the way we police yeah because very often it's not a Law Enforcement issue it's more of a severe mental health issue the reality is that police are often the first to respond whether they want to be or not yeah um and so it's just such a helpful resource even just the information they provide it's hugely helpful that's wonderful thank you thank you Mr chair thank you councelor bradden councelor fitgerald you have the floor thank you chair um a lot of great questions of my colleagues already and thank you all for being here today I really appreciate it um as it relates to darket 1545 uh 1680 and 81 uh I think this would be great as uh I think this would help would a lot of this be focused on the mass and cast area or the things things of that nature it looks like by the the description right that that's where a lot of these Services would be coordinated for sure I mean they are Citywide I I think any office in any district is going to benefit from the skills they learn during that training sure and could possibly have get some benefit from the help of the recovery coach but for sure a lot of it is focused in and a lot of those skills get end up getting used in mass and cast yeah which is which is great and I think I think it should be Citywide as we're seeing um you know mass and cast it's in District three that I represent and so I'd love to see some efforts go there but as we've noticed as as that's sort of been broken up on ainson with the creep has gone into other neighborhoods so I think it's great that um all officers should should have that training cuz it's really starting to spread into other districts and precincts for you guys as well so uh that's great I just want to be sure I'm correcting this the CIT uh it is not the I think there's the same acronym for somebody else right you have the crisis intervention team and then the the community interaction team so CIT I think they've actually yes CIT has been around Forever This CIT The Crisis Intervention team training the Memphis model has been around for a very long time um the community integration teams and now what I see in Britain they've kind of dropped the CIT maybe they still use it internally but I think they realized there was some confusion there um but yes very different not very different in fact I'm sure that people on the cits would benefit from CIT training um but not the same we are we are looking at changing the name because of the confusion it would it would it would help yes but it was good uh no uh as for that and uh superintendent as for docket 1622 um I'm actually disappointed that it it's it's only 56 or you know roughly $57,000 because I think all of us uh in our day-to-day travels throughout the city and of course as counselors we hear all the time from our constituents about the dangers on the road people driving reckless speeding Etc uh you know we want speed bumps hey John we need speed bumps on this street ex every every family you go to ask for it um and I know $56,000 $57,000 can go a long way on getting some of the signage and things like like that um but is there a way that we can are there other grants out there to try and get that to go for more that that are focused on traffic enforcement because I know um aside from the mass and cast issues in my district which was probably the number one issue number two or one a uh or one B is is traffic enforcement so I'd love to try and support that more okay I think we can look at what what other grants are out there that could support this but even though this is a grant funded initiative um traffic enforcement is something that we do on a regular basis and so this doesn't take any Focus away from us putting efforts into areas where we're seeing issues around traffic this just enhances it um so we are you know looking strategically at areas that are experiencing um you know issues around traffic that's reported to us through the community um some of the things that may not necessarily result in Crash data but issues that we still need to be add addressing relative to traffic enforcement what would you see and forgive my uh lack of knowledge on this but I believe was there used to be a traffic enforcement department within strictly was that ever in the history of BPD I I actually don't know that was strictly around traffic enforcement we have Auto and um we have uh what we call Tango 55 cars um within the district stations uh so that's cars that are specifically focused on traffic enforcement we also have our mobile operations division which we often use for traffic enforcement as well doesn't mean that other officers aren't also focused on traffic enforcement but those two specific groups um do specifically focus on that area if if we had more officers do you think there would be a a huge hurdle to clear to make a traffic enforcement specific or to beef up what is the tango now and things like that um is that the issue is that where you would look to to try and put if we were able to recruit and retain better um is that where you would look to put some of them I mean I I really think that traffic enforcement is something that all officers should be doing throughout their tour of Duty um so it's something that we should be looking at departmentally as a part of what our duties and responsibilities are um would a unit that specifically focus on that help um yes in any unit that specifically focuses on an area that we've identified could help but we as a department should be focusing on that on a daily basis no appreciate it uh thank you chair I think that's my time thank you all for being here thank you councilor Gerald councelor Weber you have the floor thank you chair um I guess I'll start with uh lieutenant missina and and Jenna um I so this summer I represent Jamaica plane West Roxberry you know my office got calls about uh drug use around the Forest Hills t station and so we ended up end up working uh with BPD and and e113 and Transit Police and the coordinated response team so what what is your uh what is bpd's interaction with the coordinated response team can you just describe that we are a member of the coordinator response team so when uh let's say 301 calls come in um for on house individuals or for encampments uh we are involved in that response okay and but then there's also people outside of BP I I I just uh I found that people were more you know in the in the community were uh more willing to call a nonp police number they were sort of like I don't want to call 911 I don't want to send a police officer where somebody might be having like a mental health issue so the just having that non-p police response but uh and they are they're bringing you along or so when when I when a non-p police response comes in through 311 um I'm sorry I'm choking um we triage those CRT triage those calls so if uh police is not um part of that triage then the CRT will send their own Outreach workers out uh if we are then they will send us out as well I guess I'll also add that my I don't haven't done a lot of work myself with the coordinator response team but my understanding is that it's not intended as an alternative response that it's it's literally just supposed to be coordinated across the different city agencies and so there's no reason for the BPD not to be involved but the city as far as I know the Boston Public Health commission is I believe working on a community-led emergency response that is specifically non-p police involved as an alternative response so I think the city is working on addressing that need um but I don't think the coordinat response team was intended to be that response no okay and then so I guess uh in terms of responding to mental health calls what's BPD stance on on using you non-uniformed officers I mean obviously you know there's safety issues just you know what what do you tell folks who you know are looking for social workers or you know how we should be thinking about that issue so luckily now I mean we have Squad 90 which is the robost the MS uh and a lot of these calls when they come in through 911 the triage so some of them are EDP 3s and some of them are EDP 2s uh EDP 3s are are normally the non police response they are just primarily EMS sometimes Squad 90 Squad 90 consists of an EMT specially trained EMT along with a social worker and uh EMS can definitely explain more on that uh so when those calls are coded like that that unit goes out EMS goes out EDP 2 is more for the higher level uh calls that come in where uh there's a potential for violence if there's a potential for violence uh Boston police is dispatched to that call uh along with the best clinician um we are fortunate right now to have uh best clinician is at our disposal and if one's not assigned to that area or working in that particular shift it we go all out we call it that's Citywide so best clinician from East Boston could respond to Something in Jamaica plane uh that's that's triage as an EDP too uh we also did a social media campaign this past March I believe was U Mental Health Awareness Month where we kind of encouraged we're trying to get the word out through social media that you can request a best clinician so if you call 911 you can request a co-responder um so that's just something to kind let your constituents know that that is definitely something that if that person's available they'll they'll try to be there okay yeah I think we we ended up circulating numbers for people and I I I just thought we uh you know I think people wanted a non 911 type you know number uh to to call or even 311 there's also always a best has its own 1800 number that you can call 247 it won't be as fast as a response but that's what they've been doing forever as well so I could get back to this body with that number but there is a-800 number that is 247 for just mobile clinicians as well that would' be great yeah sorry and that is that is mobile clinicians so they Tri those calls at the 8 800 number and they will send a mobile clinician uh which is a non-p police response to that particular residence okay um yeah I guess just quickly for superintendent um on traffic uh you know I I guess you know I we I my office gets a lot of calls from folks who are like there's people speeding everywhere and the BPD just you know kind of watches and I I guess you know what can I tell people in the community about traffic enforcement as in terms of bpd's priorities well I think it's I I think it it is a priority and I think it's important for us to hear that and it's important for for me to hear that so that I can reach out to the district captains have conversations with them and we can strategize and figure out um the best way to address that so people aren't seeing um individuals speeding and it's not being addressed yeah I guess as a comment uh I mean among other issues something I've seen and people have complained to me about with with new bike Lanes uh cars are often if they make a right turn they see a bike lane there they'll go in even though they're Ballers or something they'll think oh that's the right turn lane and I I think uh I know I've spoken to the chief of streets about that and um uh I think there might be some something to do there where cars aren't squeezing through a 3 foot you know bike lane there a spot in West rockbury where I did that myself right getting into Ro Brothers exact % of the time that I go to ro Brothers somebody I'm coming from the other direction somebody making a right they think oh great it's it's my own turn lanane even though it was painted green and there's a bike and ballards and everything so anyway just throwing that out there thank you chair thank you councelor Weber um Council pres L Jen you have the floor thank you um very much Mr chair and thank you um to um Boston Police Department for being here um I just had a question um that was piggybacking off of the one that uh counselor Weber just asked uh if if and I believe Jenna and um uh Lieutenant Merc you were both responding if someone calls 911 for a best could they request just a best clinician but if they oh they can if they call no no no not just a best Clin sorry they can if you go it would be a it would beon and depend but there's there's co-respondents now with BPD which is as Lieutenant M mentioned is more like EDP twos when there's kind of more of a threat of violence or weapon on and also just keep in mind that obviously there's a thousand other calls that are mental health related that are coded as something completely different right um that co-respondents also go to um then there's also now EMS can take calls that are kind of those lower level no threat of violence no weapon and they also can have a co-responder with them they have their own best clinicians um and so I think anytime you call an i11 you're probably going to get some sort of uniformed response either EMS BPD or both depending um but either way you can certainly request a corresponding clinician to come with either SL both of those um but again and I wrote down I'm going to get back to you with the 1800 best number that is a mobile clinician only that's kind of how is that is that the that's not the number 1 1800 it's it's I'll get it okay okay like is the number 1800 best no no theide the idea being that best as a as a mobile clinician unit has existed for a long time for the wi bossen areio the problem is that they can take up to an hour to get wherever they need to go so co-response was a way of kind of taking a a few specialized positions that are now in embedded with the police so they can get there faster um so that's the that's the advantage the disadvantage is that you're coming with the police for sure for a lot of people that's a disadvantage which I understand um so yes you can always still call best directly uh Lieutenant m is working on getting the 800 number okay um but and I think also I could be wrong but I think when you call 800 number directly there might be more Insurance complications whereas I think they have an understanding that it comes through the BPD they'll take anything interesting um but I don't want to discourage anyone from ever calling I I do you think it's it's just kind of more more guaranteed Services I think through the BPD hope I'm not missp speaking no it's uh 1800 981 4357 4357 okay thank you very much um just want to Echo the sentiments of my colleagues in support of the best team and the work that they do um I'd be curious to to like do is there a review of the data to inform practices based on like the best like the the the calls that the best team is responding to and that how how that informs future responses or what's needed and I'm curious to see what the data looks like for the co-response and like what how is that informed the work going forward it's a great question we're actually working we have a we have a grant currently through the bja that is allowing us to actively uh coordinate and Link best co-response data with BPD data yeah uh because obviously like names can get shared on an emergency basis but there are these two separate databases that is we want to Focus mostly on high utilizers we want to understand who are the folks are kind of the highest users of services on both ends and what we can be doing differently to kind of better coordinate and prevent future calls so the first thing is always the data is challenging so we're trying to but we're actively working on it as we speak um we have done some evaluations of co-response but it hasn't been really utilizing the co-response data because we haven't been able to get it yet but we're now we've got m in place and data sharing and we're trying to kind of work on great getting that information and what's the what's when do you think that report or would be hope in a year okay I'm Cur I'm very curious because right it it also leads to more efficiency to better use of% everyone's resources so very very much looking forward to seeing that report I want to thank you again um my last questions are about um for superintendent Kain the grant so it's it's 56,000 and you said about three are for the the speed monitors yes uh what are the what's the remainder of the 56 for so uh for the overtime for the traffic safety mobilizations it's 26,5 62 uh for the uh pedestrian bicycle enforcement mobilization 16287 and then within that equipment there is also the cloud service as well as the the mounting brackets for the actual um radar are any of those Personnel like you said activation or normalization are any of those of personnel or are we just talking about equipment no the overtime is for personnel it's for personel yes um another question related to sort of like a efficacy so I don't know what you call the the speed monitors yes um have has there been data to show like do they have a det turn effect on on driver Behavior the pr I mean I'm assuming the answer is yes because hopefully that's why we're buying them but what have you seen like what is a det turn effect of having those you know your speed is and having the blinking lights or are we just are we going off of like we're assuming and we think that this is a good practice yeah I I I think I I'm sure we can get you um data research around it but I do know that um the intent is once people see that information uh flashing before them they slow down and it will allow us to kind of look at that data um in that area just to see and then work with other City agencies if there are other types of things that we need to put in place to um slow down traffic in that area so I think it's kind of twofold um it's going to you know serve a purpose of having people um look at their own behaviors and then as a city we can look at what we can do and put into place to address some of those issues because those numbers are they F even though I know there's not enforcement on them but are those numbers fed back to to to you to to determine like what the average speed is going down the street to like help it with like placement of speed bombs further traffic enforcement issues that's my understanding so that's what that the purpose of that cloud service isect to have that information perfect thank you so much thank you Mr chair thank you Council president um I would also like to acknowledge that we've been joined by um counselor um graa k sabata um you have the floor right now thank you thank you chair and thank you all so much for being here I apologize that it was late but I was listening in um I have no questions just want to uh Echo support for these grants and just thank you for all the work that you do thank you to the best team Matthew in East Boston we're very very lucky in East Boston and in the North End I went on on a walkthrough with folks um to to check out some spots where they've provided services so I feel like you know we're well served um serviced in my district especially with neighbor Health we have a emergency care for um Behavioral Health we also have North suff mental health so just um a wonderful team and it's been great to see the progress in this space uh even in the Last 5 Years to really service our folks going through Mental Health crisis um or substance use disorder so uh no uh questions or further comments just gratitude and thank you so much thank you thank you counselor um at this time I will go now for a second round of questions um starting with counselor Flynn thank you Mr chair for liutenant missina lieutenant what are you seeing in the downtown area and how are we getting Recovery Services to people in the Boston Common and Downtown Crossing as well and what's the latest developments that your team is observing there so we are downtown I have offic sign down there each day of the week um and we are interacting with individuals on the ground there uh we're we we are also working with uh the CIT teams down there uh the both day and evening CIT teams uh and that's been very effective so far thank you um Lieutenant col I was at the South Boston Waterfront last night meeting with residents from the seport neighborhood association about speeding vehicles um traffic enforcement related issues in that particular neighborhood um do you have any thoughts or ideas on what we can do specifically in the seport area on pedestrian safety traffic enforcement issues yes so we have a traffic analyst that works in the Boston Regional Intelligence Center and I actually just had them um gather some data um in the Seaport area and so we're we're working with um our mobile operations unit as well as the district to come up with some strategies in that area I was also present at that meeting so I heard those concerns and we uh we take it very seriously and so we are working on ways to address some of those issues oh you were at the meeting today I'm sorry no I'm sorry the the meeting uh okay South Boston no yeah thankk thank you super superintendent um then my my my final question superintendent is I think one of my colleagues mentioned it but how are we providing the best pedestrian safety to our residents knowing that electric bikes many of them don't follow the rules of regulations of the road including um just kind of going through the stop sign going through through lights including bicycles how are we able to enforce that and ensure pedestrian safety in in almost every neighborhood I think you have to look at it um from a very strategic standpoint I think it's a it's it's a much more difficult issue to address than um motor vehicles um you know which you have a license plate things of that nature um but we are looking at ways of of having people so even within this um within you know this this funding period we we um have operation we we'll be doing some operation crosswalk which is something that we haven't done so we'll actually be having people you know that are out there that can address some of those issues that um may be much more difficult to address um if you're in a motor vehicle and the person is you know in a bicycle lane different things so we're we're looking from a strategic standpoint um just in different ways to address some of those issues issues that we that we see and a lot of that um is education as well and so we're looking at um ways to educate people on safe operation of ebikes of you know pedal bikes of motorcycles um just all of the things that we're seeing that we're having issues with um from a traffic enforcement standpoint yeah than thank you my final Point not really a question is I I would support making sure that ebikes or bicycles they do have some type of way where they're able to be identified so that they you know it's critical that they also follow the rules of the road to ensure pedestrian safety but it's very difficult for the police to or anyone really to identify them when they don't have U when they're not licensed or they don't have any type of uh registration I guess but I think that's something in the interest of pedestrian safety and Public Safety I think it's important that we we review that thank you Mr chair thank you councelor Flynn do any of my yep councelor Murphy you have the floor Council Flynn mentioned a specific neighborhood and you said is it the brick there's somewhere where you can pull data about the traffic that's correct yes can you pull data for a specific Street like how granular can you get that data um I would have to speak with the uh the analyst about that um if there is um information where we've um citation information we're looking that at that as well um how to best collect citation information um so if there is a street associated with whatever enforcement has taken place yes we would be able to pull that information okay I can follow up with you after because there's definitely certain streets Citywide where people might you know call and concern so it would be great to know if there's already data just to kind of match that with the support that we're trying to get you know other departments to step up and support with but thank you thank you for all you do thank you thank you councelor Murphy um at this time um that's that wraps it up for Council questions for the second round um I do want to thank um our panelists I don't know if you have any final remarks you want you may want to say um but if not um we can dismiss you just want to uh thank you for um taking the opportunity to hear um you know our comments on the grants that we're looking to have funded I think that you know overall when we think about community and Public Safety um and our mission of community policing um these grants will help us further um our mission great and if you ever want to learn more about anything mental health related that BPD is doing it's my favorite topic of conversation so always happy to meet with anybody anytime anywhere awesome thank you thank you thank you so much at this time I'd like to provide an overview of the second set of four dockets that we will be reviewing along with the panelist the committee invited to testify on behalf of the administration on on these dockets and again for members of the Boston Police Department and administration who are here to here to testify today I kindly ask that you only be seated at the panelist table right now if you are testifying on one of these spe specific four dockets our second panel will be on docket number 1546 fy4 DNA capacity enhancement and backlog Reduction Program 1548 fy2 24 Port security 1770 Federal burn Justice assistance and docket number 1676 um securing the city's um continuation for dockets number 1546 the committee invited Maria chers director of research and development with the Boston Police Department for dockets number 548 and 1770 the committee invited Sergeant Christopher Bailey Harbor Patrol unit with the Boston Police Department and for dockets 1676 the committee invited Anthony Rizzle uh Metro Boston securing the cities with the Boston Police Department for the panels who are here today I'd like to ask each of you just to state your name and title for the record and once everyone has to introduced themselves we'll move forward with opening remarks I think that you listed me for Kevin's gr I'm with I'm doing the sub grd which is the sexual is that the last is that the last one uh 77 177 Z jocket sorry okay no no so you 1770 so stay here yep you can stay here I just mess right I think I just that's mistake on my end um so if um for the people for the panels who we have today if you can just introduce yourself in your title um and then we can proceed with open remarks hi uh my name is Kevin lad I'm the director quality assurance for the forensic division in Boston C Boston Police Department Sergeant Chris Fey Boston police H Patrol unit and H Master for the city good afternoon Mr chair members of the council Anthony Rizzo program manager for the securing the city's program good afternoon Maria ch's director of research and development for the Boston police great thank you all at this time I'd like to invite our panelists to please proceed with opening remarks I kindly is asked that in order to allow time for counselor questions and discussion that you please limit your opener remarks um to 5 minutes per Grant with that please proceed with open remarks in whatever order you prefer um covered in these four grants who's going to go first I I can start quick um yeah um so the grant I'm here for is the fy2 24 cever application um and it's to fund it's a grant we've had for 20 plus years it um funds capacity enhancement backlog reduction uh for our crime lab to do DNA work with it we typically and we have for quite some time um funded two full-time criminalists to do uh screening in our evidence um section of the crime lab and DNA testing we use it to support overtime hours to do work on um untested DNA cases we use it to buy DNA testing supplies for the people that we hire as well as the people that are working on overtime and we use it to support our continuing education needs it's mandated through accreditation to um have certain degree of education with our DNA analysts and we to support that as well for both travel and registration costs awesome afternoon um I stand today or I speak today on behalf of the har Patrol unit for the Bost Police Department uh in reference to docet 1548 um this particular Grant is uh is basically a maintenance upkeep to maintain um the efficacy in the uh the operational Readiness of the H Patrol unit um we utilize these grants uh annually to augment uh our maintenance budget and uh and so that's why I'm here uh today to give witness to docket 1548 thank you uh in regards to docket 1676 the securing the city's Grant the securing the city's Boston program is a federally funded grant program from the Department of Homeland Security Securities countering weapons of mass destruction office it mission is to prevent the successful possession movement deployment of a nuclear or radiological weapon and component materials by an adversary within the United States the goal of the program is to develop and enhance sustainable radiological and nuclear detection capabilities among all participating Partners in the region those Partners include the Boston Police Department the Boston fire department Boston Emergency Medical Services the office of emergency management Massachusetts State Police Massachusetts environmental Police Massachusetts Port Authority the Massachusetts Department of fire Services quiny Police Department Hingham police department and over 20 other uh local police fire departments and several bomb squads throughout the New England region the program is entering its fifth year this will be the fifth award granted to the program the continuation funding will be allotted to the purchase of detection equipment and backfill and overtime for all Personnel who receive training on that equipment the equipment will be worn by First Responders outfitted in Marine vessels and aircraft to be used to passively detect radiation during daily operations thank you I'm here to discuss today uh an annual grant that we received from the Massachusetts um sex offender registry board uh this program allows us $8,000 $8,700 this year to have um police officers visit the addresses that sex offenders note as their place of residence within the city uh to check that they in fact are in those residents um there's also indirect cost involved so that's 10% so 73360 of the dollars go to the overtime cost for this for the um for the sexual uh offender registry board police offices to do the visits and $734 are used for the city of Boston's administ expenses the grant will go from November 5th which is when the contract was signed through June 30th 2025 um the Boston police department will identify investigate and locate offenders known to be in violation of their registration obligations and Those whom law enforcement has reason to believe may be in violation by virtue of providing inaccurate addresses and inaccurate information the sex offender registry board will reimburse the Boston Police Department for the overtime hours where worked to perform these functions um and I could go on if you'd like or yeah I'll however much information you want to provide and then we'll go into clal questions okay uh I thought is this just a summary or is this the whole thing this is a summary for okay for that okay so the AV intends to focus on communities with the largest populations of offenders and violation of their registration duties the city of Boston has the largest number of offenders in violation of the sex offender registry law in Boston currently has more than doubled the number of offenders in violation of their registration duties than the SE than the next highest city in the Commonwealth the Boston police department has the capacity in the infrastructure to carry out investigations within the scope of the program it has extensive access to private criminal history information necessary for locating sex offenders in addition F fulfillment of the purpose and the mission of the AVB in Boston in past years based on TR partnered with other police jurisdictions and several investigations for this coming year it will likely work with other jurisdictions again thus the BPD will act in the most efficient manner through the use of limited resources to verify the accuracy of addresses of the largest number of offenders as possible thanks awesome thank you uh very much for those opening remarks um we're not going to pass it out to um to my colleagues for counselor questions um we will give 5 minutes per counselor including panelist responses um and we will start with counselor edlin okay thank you Mr chair and thank you to the panelists for being here Kevin I know we've had several conversations in the past about the crime lab it's an issue I've focused on for many years who who is the current director of the crime lab the permanent director so so the permanent director position is currently open it's been posted we're reviewing applicants as they can but the acting directors we have a panel of directors and we have a commander the sworn Captain Steven Claflin and then we have Nina Jefferson who's the director of the Firearms unit how long has the um director position been open for it got how long has it been open or how long has it been posted open uh it's been open since August of 23 is the previous director of the crime lab back in in the crime crime lab he is in what position in quality Assurance do are we still testing uh sexual assault kits every 30 days yes we are are we in compliance with that uh 100% how often does the Boston police crime lab receive sexual assault kits um we get them we typically have a delivery once a week but we get on average 13 kits a month so so the deliveries are once a week Y what day of the week is that on I believe it's on Monday and when do they get tested we start testing them on Monday all of them will get all of them get tested that same day we'll start the processing of the kits yes so we do serological testing first and then if they test positive they get put forward through the DNA our average DNA turnaround time is 16 days right now but all of them when they get when you receive the sexual assault kits they were all tested on Monday we begin the testing yes no I I understand your beginning but when are they all tested on Monday that's the question I'm asking like are some of them tested on Friday or Thursday or Wednesday well the kids will be assigned and they begin testing so we start our testing process it might not be completed on Monday no I mean I guess I'm not understanding question okay when the when the test when the sexual assault kits arrive on Monday are they all tested on Monday or are some of them tested later during the week if we get 10 kits on Monday they might not all be necessarily be opened on Monday they'll be assigned to the analy and they may open them on a Tuesday okay I I don't know what the current schedule is for individuals I mean I just want to make sure that they're I want to make sure that they're tested every 30 days all the kits are tested within 30 days so the track it report has been the annual report has been sent to the governor for review should be released soon and I can provide you a copy when that's released is there an outside consultant doing any work in um on the crime lab related issues with respect to any type of office policy or what's happening the in the crime lab not that I'm aware of now okay um how is the morale in the crime lab right now the same it's it's fine are we are we using the most advanced testing in the in the crime lab I mean we're we just finished our accreditation assessment and we did not have any findings or non-conformances with that so they're the one that test the quality of the work being done are we using the most advanced uh testing for um the sexual assault kits I I I guess I don't really know we use testing that's appropriate for the kits and if if Advanced testing do you mean like y screening is that what you're exactly so we don't currently have y screening in place now when going to start using wide screening so we did submit a Grant application to seek funds for equipment to start performing that type of testing I mean it would obviously take a long time um to implement something like that with the training the validation everything like that that goes on but um we to date we've not been awarded the funding for that so once that's been officially did we did get money in the budget for for that I I specifically advocated for that so we could get y screening in the city budget right um I I want us to use the most advanced testing um on sexual assault kids that's that's important we I also know in my district and actually throughout the city there's a lot of people that are reporting to hospitals and into the police that are that are getting stuff dropped in there uh drank at various bars and restaurants um and being and being assaulted as well um that's why we need to have the the best crime lab in the country um when we're not using this Advanced Equipment we're not using the um Advanced um testing equipment and that's I want us to start doing that okay I'll come back U Mr J for a second on thank you councelor Flynn um councelor Murphy you have the floor thank you um Maria um and thank you all for the panelists for being here is that grant that you spoke about for the is it just to check on addresses is that money supposed to cover tigations um there's certain compliance so you have for example through September 30th of this year there were 1,2 um offenders that had registered in the city of Boston but through the checks that have taken place uh they found that 882 of those were in compliance uh again this isn't through the end of December M this is just through September 30th and does in compliance mean that you're living at the address you're registered exactly and the a of compliance just means they're not where they haven't updated their address or they no longer live there and you're not sure where they are yeah when they when they do update their address by law they're supposed to inform uh law enforcement of the new address so if they do not do that they're in non-compliance and then they would conduct an investigation as to where that person may be living so some of those funds include the investigation not just the visiting and are you required to tell Boston you moved or required like say you moved to wouth are you required to tell the wouth police that that's your new address and then the wouth police like is it a Statewide update for the different cities and towns I believe when they move to the other location they're supposed to inform the new place yeah and then so it might take a little time to connect but and it could be as well as the Boston Police I'd have to check on that if they have to inform both in these police positions oh so is this just to cover like overtime or like what extra money because this isn't obviously to cover the salaries of the Poli right it's just for the extra support so these detectives are already in the sexual assault unit conducting investigation so this is overtime to make sure that they take the time also to go to these addresses and dou check so it's not something they can't get to exactly right um thank you um Kevin is this a new Grant or is this also is this the first time we got this grant no so we've had this grant for 20 plus years um it's a formula grant so we just have to provide a justification for it the state and it's a pass through from the state so the state gets like 1.3 million and I believe we get approximately 20% of that around 280,000 um okay and is that because Boston needs it more like no uh so we get less than they do they get more money than we do um and the reason it's just based on UCR crime part one crime I think okay so and has it always been named backlog Reduction Program so is there always historically been a backlog issue uh yep so and it's across the nation it's not just unique to like every state gets a minimum of I think 600,000 and then depending on what your UCR numbers you report to the FBI then they it's all formulas they just assign each state however much money um the formula spits out thank you um and Sergeant Bailey I mean yours is a small Grant is that does that cover all the maintenance you need to make sure and I know I would I'm glad I'm not in your position when the cold weather comes I saw you when you were all in Charlestown right the other night it's a tough job in the winter I agree yes uh good afternoon um one second he barely scratches Sergeant just give me just one second just oh there you go pardon me you hear me now yeah um excuse me um it barely scratches the surface this particular particular Grant through Port security uh it comes to the captain of the port um the port security as well as our uh uasi grants our urban area security initiatives um are vital to maintaining operational Readiness um unfortunately in what I try to tell people who want in a maritime environment everything breaks and it breaks often and none of it is cheap so um we do uh we do count on these grants to the feds uh quite a bit whether it's to augment existing equipment to buy new vessels um which we are currently under the uasi program are going to acquire a new vessel hopefully it'll come online by 2026 with sale Boston uh and to today's matter um this particular item is a collar which is vital to the fendering and flotation of our primary response vessel a 38t safe boat which we acquired to my predecessor uh Sergeant Joe Chas um that is like the newest vessel right now and uh it's important to maintain its uh flotation how many vessels do you have right now at present we operate eight vessels uh 58 for twin Diesel and seven Outboards ranging 38t down to 25t and is the South Boston Waterfront at the Marine is is that the only place they're all docked or are they spread out in other places that is our only location at uh n terminal street and um one quick question I know I was um on one of the vessels in the summer and I was speaking to EMS is there always EMS working alongside when you go out or is that only staff during summertimes I would ass that's correct just sum during our high season come moral day to Columbus Day um working on that actually they want to propose a full-time medic with our unit because most I mean almost all calls that you're called out on they're still going to need probably medical support if they're most cases especially if cold water yeah okay I will advocate for that in the EMS budget yeah thank you thank you chair thank you councelor Murphy councelor bradden you have the floor um thank you Mr chair I was unfortunately had to step out for a few minutes I uh missed the presentation so I will I will uh pass my time to someone else who was here thank you thank you councelor bradden councelor Fitzgerald you have the floor thank you chair uh and thank you all for being here today good to see everybody um don't have a lot of questions just want to say that very supportive of all of these love to see the backlog uh Reduction Program go uh you know echoing councilor Flynn and his uh I love to hear that it's a 100% uh being tested and we're we're on the path to uh more efficiency there that's great uh the port security prior to this uh my job was to take care of the Marine Industrial Park and working with uh Sergeant Chivas prior and then M Sergeant Bailey when when you came on towards the ladder end um but I understand that everything not only do your stuff break but also the Marine Industrial Park and everything around it breaks all the time too so uh you're absolutely right about that um nice to see updates there always want to see the sex offender address verification be up to date um I know uh many families would like like to make sure that that uh that info is uh correct uh and then Anthony thank you doing for the for the securing the city's continuation um and all the the hazardous waste and uh I believe it was uh nuclear stuff as well so it seems like it's all good stuff so thank you all uh for continuing to keep our city safe and clean I appreciate it thank you chair Thank You councelor for Cher councelor Weber you have the floor okay thank you chair uh I guess uh Mr Rizzo the securing the securing the cities um so do we already have the detectors or is is this you're talking about radiation detectors is this to you know put them in we already have the detector cons oh okay yep there you go okay uh we already do have the detectors counselor uh we've had the detectors for about the past two years um uh some of the detectors are smaller worn on individual uh police Fire EMS in the city outside of the city with the other agencies I mentioned uh there are some larger detectors that are worn inside backpacks and then the largest devices that are installed uh currently in the Massachusetts State Police airwing and installing one in the Boston fire department's vessel right now uh so the equipment is out there uh the Personnel who deploy the equipment have received on it this will be purchasing additional equipment making sure that we have everything we need inside of the city then also pushing out our detection capabilities as far outside of the city as possible uh and I guess so what happens if there's uh a trigger alarm so the first the initial tier are the individuals that are wearing uh devices day-to-day operations they receive training on not only how to use that but how to adjudicate those alarms or if it needs to be elevated to whom to elevate it to uh they one of the things that's emphasized in the training is the fact that there are radiological materials that are being used for industrial medical purposes so there's plenty of innocent reasons why they may come across something like that on their shift if it ends up being an alarm uh that for whatever reason they think may not be for innocent purposes could be criminal could be nefarious they'll Elevate that to the more specialized units uh if it happens within the city that would be the Boston Police Department bomb squad hazardous materials unit and the Special Operations unit with the Boston fire department they have more advanced equipment that when they deploy they can determine what that actual isotope is determine if it's in Regulatory Compliance and then if they need to elevate it from there uh that would could potentially go to the Department of Justice Department of energy okay and so uh I'm assuming any detections in the last two years has been medical you know or industrial not you know a weapon you know so I uh but there they do detect those uh you know for medical uses also there have been alarms uh that have been adjudicated uh the majority if not all have been for I'm sorry the majority have been for medical purposes it's adjudicated at that level right there uh just a quick uh question of the individual sometimes hospitals the documentation sometimes they don't um there have been a few instances where it's industrial soil density gauges uh and again those are pretty quickly adjudicated because in their initial training those officers are taught uh that that is a possibility that they may encounter there have not been any alarms that have ended up being for criminal nefarious purposes um and I just last question on on this just um in terms of chemical weapons do we have ability to detect or are we working on that I do the I can't speak too much of that counselor only because this is for um explicitly exclusively for radiation however it's the same units that are that are out there for biochemical threats as well uh this grant doesn't provide it but I do know from working with them that those units do have chemical detection capabilities they are receiving training on it I don't know the extent of it but it's it's the same units that we're working with for this grant okay okay thank you very much thank you chair thank you councilor Weber council president Nan you have the floor you okay thank you um thank you Mr chair um I actually don't have any p uh questions for this panel but want to thank you for all the work that you do um for our city so just want to thank you and I will um ask questions the next panel thank you Mr chair great thank you um we're going to go to a second round of questions for only the councelors who want um to ask second rounds councel Flynn does so we're going to go over to councelor Flynn you have the floor and thank you Mr chair and again thank you to the panel um Chris thank you for the work you're doing in the port of Boston um let me ask you a question Chris how important is it for the Boston Poli the maritime unit the Patrol to work closely with cities and towns in and around um Boston and provide assistance to them in need is that part of your job as well uh it is we act as a force multiplier due to um the vast majority of Marine units across the Commonwealth um are very U sply manned for lack of better word um I presently um have 11 off nine nine men and one female uh to man the city for 24/7 coverage um we are the only maritime law enforcement agency uh in Boston Harbor at present so it it's it's crucial that we all work together be it uh a group from quiny over to Cambridge on the Charles up to Chelsea and Winthrop uh we all act together we all try to work uniformally in our approach to Maritime safety and law enforcement thank you and I just want to say thank you to the men and women of of the unit for their professional work um critical work that they provide not just um here in Boston but it's also about supporting our partners throughout Greater Boston as well so thank you thank you sir um and Maria I just want to say thank you you've been an outstanding um dedicated police employee for so many years and anytime we've had questions and issues relating to any type of issue at Boston police especially on grants you've always been there providing excellent uh communication feedback professionalism so I just want to acknowledge the work you do every day on behalf of the police but on on behalf of the residents of the city as well thank you very much um thank you um Kevin I'm going to go back to the crime web it's just it's just issue I I feel very strongly about I've been involved in this issue for a long period of time I'm also trying to advocate for a standalone domestic violence committee as well I think it's all it's all related um what can we what else can we do to ensure we have the best crime lab in the country like like New York City does like New York City Police Department does or um I know Massachusetts State Police also have the wi screening program but we don't necessarily have it but what else can we do to ensure that we have the best crime lab in the country I mean that's an excellent question um one I'm not sure if I'm prepared to answer that today but uh we can definitely put together a list of things um I think we're pretty good as it is I don't think there's ever been a question of the quality of the work coming out of the lab um and I think we can all stand behind that we're very proud of the work that we do um I do think that the volume has increased over time the red tape has increased over time and not in a bad way just like there are more checks and balances in place that I think that we've struggled with maintaining a the same siiz Workforce with more responsibility it's just it's some stuff kind of gets pushed and it takes a little bit longer so unfortunately I know you'd mentioned before that we were in the news for the track it thing but then once we had been able to rearrange our workflow and adjust our um process then all of a sudden we were able to meet that I mean I think it would have been nice had we been invited to be involved in um reviewing or at least being aware of the fact that the statute was going to come into place before it was implemented I mean the 30-day turnaround time is pretty tricky um it is the most aggressive one of the most aggressive in the nation typically Labs have 180 day turnaround time so 30 is pretty tough but as we said before when we had talked um I think we're all proud to say that we don't have any backlogged R kits I mean it's a badge of honor we have where at least we don't have anything that hasn't been tested it might not necessarily and it's not to say we're proud of the fact that it's not being tested in a timely manner it was being tested in a timely manner anywhere else in the country I think the problem was it wasn't meeting the standard here which was 30 days now we're meeting that standard of 30 days since we had that last that issue mid January and since then everything has been done on an average of 16 days so I think but the the standard is actually law we're required to meet that meet that law we don't we don't have a choice of whether or not we um respect the 30 days or not we have to meet that 30-day um time period um I would like to ask the the chair if we could hold a follow-up hearing specifically on the crime lab maybe in in February if that if that works um with scheduling I think it's important that we we do get back to um hearing from the crime lab professionals on exact how we can help them um in what challenges they're currently facing so I do want to respectfully ask the chair maybe in February if we have another city council hearing on the crime line yep no happy to work with you and your office counselor um to make that happen thank you Mr chair great thank you councelor Flynn um with that unless any of my other colleagues have any follow-up questions um I'm just going to no councelor fritzgerald you have the floor I I just want to correct something on my last statement um one of my colleagues I won't say who uh reminded me that it is the Flynn Marine Industrial Park as I should have referred to it but we will that that colleague will remain anonymous but rightfully so I should say it is the felin Marine Industrial Park thank you councilor for Jerald for the correction um with that I think um if if this um panel I I really want to thank you um for coming and um testifying whether that's an answering our questions um do you have any final remarks no sir no okay thank you all right can I can I just say one thing I do appreciate the support you guys have given us for sure um you did mention that you had earmarked money for us we didn't get any money for wi screening councilor friend you you have the floor I know during the budget process we were able to get I advocated for a million dollars and we were able to get a million dollars into the budget specifically for the crime lab and our goal was for wi screening technology so the money is in there um at some point there's it's probably important to have a conversation of how it can be how it can be implemented but I do know we advocated for it on the city council and my colleagues advocated for it as well okay um I can I can follow up with you as well yeah that'd be great because if we have a million dollars sitting somewhere we'd like it thank you thank you don't we all thank you very much um really appreciate this panel um I'll will dismiss you all and I'll call now the third panel um at this time I'd like to provide an overview of the last um set of three dockets that we will be reviewing along with a panelist the committee invited to testify on behalf of the administration on these dockets and for the members of the Boston Police Department and administration who are here to testify today I again kindly ask that you are only be seated at the panelist table right now if you are testifying on these specific four dockets our final panel will be on dockets number 1673 FY 2024 urban area security initiative docket number 1675 FY 24 Regional um cast uh preparedness Grant I can't pronounce that word um and then docket number 1772 Federal FY 2024 emergency and management performance Agency for these three dockets administered by the office of emergency management the committee invited Matthew Kerney Deputy Chief of the off office of emergency management Andrew Bai assistant Deputy Chief of the ad of administration with the office of emergency management and TI um Timothy Conley captain of the Boston Police Department with the penist who here today I'd like to I'd like to ask each of you to just state your name and title for the record and once everyone has introduced themselves we'll move um to opening remarks sure good morning or good afternoon everybody uh my name is Andre blars I'm the assistant Deputy Chief of administration with the office of emergency management good morning uh good afternoon uh Matt Carney deputy chief office of emergency management uh good afternoon everyone uh Tim connley Boston Police Department I'm a captain great thank you at this time i' like to invite our panelist to please proceed with opening remarks I just kindly asked that in order to allow times for counselor questions and discussion that you please limit your opening statements to five minutes per Grant thank you thank you so much um I'll begin with docket 1673 the urban area security initiative grant for fy2 24 um this is an annual grant that is passed from FEMA and DHS to the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security uh as the state administrative agency down to the city of Boston uh managed by the office of Emergency Management um this grant provides around $12 million a little under that uh for uh Regional preparedness and enhancing capabilities and high threat highdensity urban areas uh priority areas include Safety and Security critical infrastructure protection intelligence and info sharing interoperable Communications uh suburn response which is chemical biological radiological nuclear and explosion uh medical surge planning and Community preparedness recovery and cyber security uh Boston is the fiduciary for this grant so OEM receives the money from the state or spends the money and then is reimbursed by the state for spending uh but we manage it on behalf of an entity called the Metro Boston Homeland Security region uh that is Boston Brooklyn Cambridge Chelsea Everett Quincy Riv Somerville and winr I have to say them in alphabetical order otherwise I forget one um in terms of uh what Boston receives specifically from this we get about $1.4 million to staff the office of emergency management that's a mix of management Administration funds for the grant and then uh a cat or a Cadre of Emergency Management planners that support the region uh they do major event planning Citywide coordination during extreme weather events and communicate to the public during emergencies uh we also are able to fund our Mass notification system for the city alert Boston uh as well as the community emergency response teams which is community members being empowered to uh help out in times of Crisis um and then additionally we support a number of Public Safety initiatives uh equipment and training for first responder specialized teams including Hazmat uh EOD which is Bomb Squad uh SWAT K9 team structural collapse Swift water rescue and the like uh now I'm going to pass it over to uh deputy chief Carney who will talk about the regional catastrophic Grant preparedness program thank you so uh dockit 1675 is the FY 24 Regional catastrophic preparedness grant program uh so the regional catastrophic program provides funding to eligible state and local governments uh to close known preparedness capability gaps encourage Innovative uh Regional solutions to ensure related um to catastrophic incidents and build on existing Regional preparedness efforts uh so most recently we have been awarded this funding from the fy19 and FY 22 grants uh with a focus on disaster housing and in the 22 Grand on community resilience uh the fy2 24 Grand is is building off of the work done in fy22 to continue uh continue that work so uh some of the the main areas in which we're focusing that Grant is on uh extreme weather operations planning uh continuing to build out our public education materials uh to include climate uh adaptation and mitigation uh programs for uh residents uh business owners uh homeowners uh as well as partnering with both private and nonprofits to help build out uh a robust resource uh Network to help aid at the um neighborhood level during emergencies often times that uh uh entities will will step up and and want to support in in different ways and we hear about it so through this grant we're hoping to more formalize that partnership with the city uh to allow for more resources to be made available during uh extreme weather events I can take and then uh docket uh 1772 is a FY 24 Emergency Management performance Grant uh this is a non-competitive annual grant that we get awarded by uh Mima the Massachusetts Emergency Management agency uh and it's awarded to all municipalities uh in the Commonwealth so the award amounts are based on population and intended to provide support for Emergency Management activities in the municipality uh we typically use this funding to help support uh the technology uh within our emergency Operation Center professional development for our staff uh to grow both within the field as well as uh professionally and then extreme weather preparedness items uh such as cooling towels hand warmers and uh the missing tents and Towers that we were able to deploy uh throughout last summer thank you do you have any I do not sir thank you okay great just wanted to make sure um thank you um really appreciate that now we're going to turn it over to my um Council colleagues in order of arrival for questions starting with councelor Flynn again we're going to do five minutes thank you Mr chair and thank you to the for being here for the important work that you are doing in the city also want to recognize um Captain connley for your outstanding work as a police officer for so many years um my question relates to the $12 million Grant and I asked um Chris from the Hara Patrol earlier but basically my question is how important is it for Boston to work with surrounding cities and towns uh throughout Greater Boston neighboring towns as well on public safety security related issues and is that a major focus of this grant as well and how how is that communication in inter agency collaboration going yeah definitely I'll start that and then I'll throw it to Captain Connelly absolutely um to begin I mean that is the whole basis of the grant is regional collaboration so those nine municipalities that receive funding have to work in concert in able uh in order to spend that money effectively and to respond to emergencies in a coordinated manner um you know we're all so close together these small municipalities such that if something happens in Everett there's no way that Chelsea River and Boston are not going to be there in a heartbeat to help out um you know whether it's on land or something in the Harware as sergeant Bailey had mentioned before um Captain connly represents the city of Boston in that so there's eight other jurisdictional points of contact uh one each for each municipality in the region and and I'll let Captain connly speak to a little bit more of that Regional collaboration well I appreciate that um as you know this we've accepted this grant for over two decades and uh one of the things I'd like to highlight speaking to the maritime component is that there's a Boston Maritime radio frequency that was developed as a result of this Grant and prior to this grant we were not able to talk amongst each other let's say for the uh arrival of the LNG when it comes in uh into the City and and as this um I'll call it a robust Maritime uh communication system that was developed by the Boston police dep Department through this grant now allows all of our um Partners within the with the Grant to speak to one another among uh these these transits that come in as well as other things and they're looking to have that be a best practice throughout the country and other areas and ports are starting to look to Boston uh specifically as the result of this grant that was an opportunity to um to to flourish yeah thank you um I think what I think you mentioned what happens in Chelsea has an impact in East Boston has an impact in South Boston and WTHR and other neighborhoods and this is this is an issue I've worked on on the city council but also serving serving in the Navy for 20 something years I know this issue very well um what is the biggest challenge we have as a city or as a region as it relates to security and safety issue and and how are we dealing with that with with the focus on this money is it about communication is it about training is it about understanding the working relationship we have with people knowing that Boston's a a large city and an important city across the world I I'll uh again I'll jump in with the beginning here before I defer to Captain Connelly I think that's one of the most beautiful and complicated parts of this grant is that the representatives represent all different fields of Public Safety so depending on who you ask you'll get lots of different answers about what the most important thing is uh so we have Captain Connelly from the police our alternate is Chief Julie of em um and then other communities have fire and police Representatives as well uh so I'll let Captain connly speak to kind of his take on that from the the jpo perspective but that's why this funding is so critical because there are so many high priority needs in the region uh and you know everything is getting more expensive and the funding amount has gone down a little bit in recent years as well that's a good point the funding has gone down I'm going to answer with all of the above counselor um and that's an easy way to say it because when you take a look at you know what matters and you want to build and sustain capabilities right and we also want to address the those capability gaps so that's done through training uh we just um did a training in Boston over at the um South Bay and um it was it was a great exercise it was something called Asher and Asher stands for active shootter hostile environment response and it's one of the mandates by this grant um to to be you know functional and have an interoperability so we brought in into this this exercise one of the key components was the 911 response we intentionally overloaded 91 one to see what would happen we also intentionally um made the interoperability so we have these communications that we that we've spent millions of dollars on we actually tested it to see if it works and how robust it actually is and we found that through this testing that it actually worked as it was intended to work and the command and control of the exercise was exactly as we intended it and we brought in some equipment that was uh funded through uasi uh most specifically a drone that flies indoors and one of the commanders there uh mentioned that this is incredible to be able to send a drone in and not police officers and he actually said I was able to get the number of count that was on the floor without sending officers in so so that's why I'd like to say all the above sir thank you um thank you Mr chair thank you councelor Flynn councelor Murphy you have the floor thank you for the information on these grants um I saw you out there during the summer at many events and definitely the um you know the Heat and that side of it not you know the weather and the changes in climate are also um part of this but also you know the catastrophic preparedness like how much is it you just kind of touched on it um Captain about the training that was happening over at South Bay but how much is needed as things change so quickly and we just want to make sure because we're will'll be putting you know our offices or whoever else needs to get out there our First Responders and such Harms way so how much is needed for the training part of it and do we support the training part enough I believe this grant definitely supports a training part enough they focus on um fulls scale exercises which is kind of putting real life situations to play and have a Playbook um and I can say that uh being part of something called Urban Shield which was through this grant years ago we sort of gotten away from it but it was definitely something where we were able to get every single person who was injured in the Boston Mar Marathon to a major Trauma Center within and I know it's under a half hour I don't know the exact time I want to say between 23 and 26 minutes and that was a direct result of our planning and our training and our full scale exercises right and are all offices trained in that is that like something too and is there any training maybe at a less of a scale though but in the academy for our new offices coming in for all of the academies even EMS and Mike fire so yes and I forgot to mention that EMS and fire are involved in the Urban Shield as well the full scale so if it's a full scale it'll all First Responders will have a piece of it um a different training component um incident command system known as IC that's done at the Academy so they know how how all this works and how it unfolds but once they graduate they would get you know to parti excuse me to participate in a fullscale exercise that's good that's helpful um thank you I have no other questions yeah thank you thank you councelor Murphy councelor Bren you have the floor good thank you uh good afternoon thank you for being here um I think in the menu of extreme events that we have to deal with has expanded quite considerably with climate change uh wildfires we had a drought this fall and we had wildfires in in brentry had a big Wildfire uh not a wildfire they called it a brush fire I don't know what what's the difference between wildfire and brush fire um I'm just uh very cognizant of the fact that you almost have to be prepared for anything um and the the the coordination like in terms of training to all the different municipalities sort of participate in those those training exercises they have in the past yes yeah and um and the Urban Shield um is that an ongoing is that still in place or is that something that has sort of been um integrated into the whole um range of things that you prepare to respond to I can say we did get away from it it was a cost Factor right it became very expensive uh and um but it was definitely uh something that we're looking at as a jpo a joint point of contact and we have a meeting coming up it's one of the issues I'm going to raise at the next issue that we have to get back to full scale exercises in the training among uh the agencies and that's what this grant is fully funded for so that's one of the issues I'm going to raise at the next meeting mhhm um then in terms of um you coordinating with the other municipalities do you weat meet quarterly or what's what sort of frequency do you Council woman we meet monthly you eat monthly and then in terms of uh emerging threats or climate uh like I think climate's probably one of these ones that's going to creep up on us and hit us before we know what we're dealing with um in terms of emerging threats like are you able to um predict or not even predict is not the right word because that has a level of certainty with it but just anticipate a whole menu of things like I think you know when we think about terrorist attacks we didn't ever anticipate that we'd be seeing planes flying into skyscrapers that's that was way beyond our imagination but know are do you have scenarios that you you prepare for we try to take a look at real world event that happened and as they emerging so now the currently mass shootings they're they're on the rise so we're taking a look at one of the six National priority areas are protecting soft targets and crowded places right so we want to make sure that we're in alignment with the Federal grant but I can tell you our philosophy is we have an all- hazards approach whether it's man-made or natural disaster so we're trying to think you know covering everything um you know from an total perspective from all from all aspects m is pretty much the philos whether it's manmade or it's a natural disaster yeah um and then you know this past summer and this last few Summers we've seen extreme weather events that had a lot of uh flooding um I I don't know we're a coastal city um if we get 15 Ines of rain land on us we're going to be in trouble do you have what sort of um amphibious sort of you've got we've got boats on the water but what sort of capacities do you have for amphibious vehicles going flooded streets or whatever you know what's that capacity look like from a Boston Boston police perspective I'm not I'm not uh qualified to say I can over I can Jare uh so yeah again I can't speak to necessarily resources in Boston but I know that this grant in the last couple of years has funded high water rescue vehicles and windr and rever and again anything funded by this grant has to be part of an emergency management assistance compact where if someone you know from the region calls on it and asks for it uh it has to be provided if it's not currently in use uh so I think quinsey has a high water high water rescue vehicle as well funded by this grant in previous years um so yeah within the region there is capability for that okay I think the whole of us will all be underwater that's the problem um and then um the uh technology a part of this the the emergency performance agency that last Grant uh for technology and professional development for so that will go for that's not a huge amount 71,000 um what sort of technology and and and uh professional development does that pay for so so in in our Operation Center uh making sure that the phones uh laptops devices that we use when we're activated for extreme weather events or other uh major plant events are are functional so typically every year there's a need for a life cycle replacement of a handful of them so that's typically what that uh Tech refresh uh fun goes towards and then as you mentioned the the new and emerging threat so that professional development ensuring that we're getting our staff out to conferences or other professional development trainings uh to network with folks who are more familiar with dealing with wildfires or other type of threats that we might not be as uh acclimated to the other thing I just wanted to ask about um um if um my chair will allow us to have the grace um cyber security we had that uh worldwide sort of do doctors were going back to the good old days when they had a good pencil and paper to take notes and and they went back to paper records and that like in terms of I I ask this of do it a lot of the times when we have budget hearings but how are you coordinating with do it in terms of of cyber security threats as well yeah so I'll just I'll briefly address that we have one of the many subcommittees under the grant is the cyber security subcommittee which is headed by Greg mcarthy the Chief Information Security Officer here at do it uh so he leads that effort for the region uh and we were in touch with him over the crowd strike issue as well very good thank you and I believe we funded um maybe $75,000 for two tabletop exercises under this grant here okay for for do it specifically man' okay thank you thank you Mr chair thank you councelor Bren councelor F jerd you have the floor thank you chair uh and thank you all for being here today um assistant deputy chief uh bonier I just I believe in your opening statement you rattled off a list of sort of what this would be useful could you just repeat that list again if you I think you had it written down so hopefully I'm not asking to do this from memory but if you could please just repeat uh what this is useful absolutely so we we have it broken among uh eight subcommittees is how we kind of Define this group so we have Safety and Security which is SWAT team Special Response teams kind of law enforcement focused uh critical infrastructure protection that includes Maritime response uh three is Intel and info sharing that is kind of coordinating information uh that was a big part of the grant post 911 was coordinating info among agencies uh number four is interoperable Communications that's making sure radios can talk to one another that's the maritime response channel that uh Captain Connelly had mentioned five is that suburn acronym chemical biological radiological nuclear and explosives that's bomb squads K9 Hazmat teams and urban search and rescue squads uh six is medical surge so that is when we uh have a mass casualty incident how do weord among the local hospitals make sure that we're getting people to care as quickly as we can uh seven is planning and Community preparedness that's a little bit of a step back to say how do we coordinate for these efforts um and then get our community members involved so that's where the community emergency response teams lie uh and then our final is uh cyber security the sub commmittee great out of those uh out of this approximate 12 million is it already predetermined uh in this grant of what how it's broken up amongst those eight categories that you've listed yes exactly so uh I can read this off here there about 8% or $1 million going to enhancing cyber security uh 3% of the grant going to community preparedness and resilience 26% going to enhancing protection of soft Targets in crowded places uh 1% going to combating domestic violent extremism 6% going to enhancing information and intelligence sharing and 3% to enhancing election security so those are a little different because those are the six National priority areas that the grant outlines um our subcommittees overlap a little bit with them like election security falls under Intel and info sharing for us um but that is the approximate breakdown then I have uh some more detailed information as well if you'd like uh no great no further questions thank you guys appreciate it great thank you councelor Fitzgerald councelor Weber you have the floor thank you chair um okay yeah along the same lines uh I guess uh so we're looking at the Boston Regional Intelligence Center um you know is it is is it where does that fit in the Committees is it the intelligence does it fit under any of these committees um if you can explain like so and I guess the question is how much of the money is going to the to to the regional Intelligence Center yeah absolutely um turn my numbers here so yeah the the regional Intelligence Center is under our goal area three of intelligence and info sharing so you picked that out correctly um that is identified in the notice of funding opportunity that one of the investment justifications we provide has to go towards supporting a regional Fusion Center um so that's predetermined by the grant uh and about $2 million in this fy2 24 Grant is going towards that so I think that's a little bit around 16% we had identified um it does change year-to year as the funding amounts change and as the priorities change among these nine members that allocate the funding uh but this was voted on in the spring of this year when the notice of funding opportunity was made public and then we are only just receiving it from federal government to state government to us now in December okay um and I guess you know I think um my concern is uh and we've we've passed a resolution in this Council reaffirming the Boston trust act uh and that money is going into something that might go against that that mission I guess uh so you know what what kinds of commitments can the uh the Boston Police Department make that uh you know with increased funding or receiving this grant that you know with with a an Administration that I think it's as outwardly said they're going to try to increase enforcement and and even go after cities that don't share information you know what we're going to do um to make sure that money is not used to uh you know Aid immigration uh actions yeah I'll uh I'll begin with that and then I'll throw it to Captain Connelly um we are you know as with these federal grants that are passed through the state down to the local we are required to follow the most stringent requirements of any of those which often ends up being the local so for Boston we are fully in line with the surveillance ordinance the city council has passed um as well as any other policies about the trust uh the city council trust act you said um but I will defer to Captain con for more specifics well thank you um it's a really tough question right um and I think that in addition to the surveillance Act and the trust act that we meet and have these conversations as well right and you put us on our on our toes and what we need to do what we don't need to do as far as you know what's best for the community so in the spirit of community policing like we work for you right and that that's why we're here to answer these questions you know um so I think this this organization here right this Council will enforce exactly what will be spent and what it won't be spent on okay um yeah I mean I just looking at the Boston trust act you know uh it it says that uh you know a law enforcement off official or employee uh you know will will not perform you know quote perform the functions of an immigration officer uh will not make arrests based solely on Ice administrative warrants um uh and we'll provide personal information so I guess uh you know with for for this grant will will does any of that impact your ability to satisfy those Provisions not currently no okay uh and is there any language in in the grant that you know makes it difficult to follow the Boston trust act at this time we're not of any but there has been some hubub from the state level about what new Administration coming in in January might do to current and future grants around cities and states that don't comply with particular Federal orders uh so right now we don't know of anything but we are certainly on the lookout for anything that might come up okay yeah and I think I mean this did come up in the last Trump Administration and generally the courts said that uh cities can you know City police departments can't be Commander to enforce Federal immigration standards so I I I I hope that we'll continue continue to you know uphold that um uh sorry and um I guess uh in terms of um you know we we talk about the the gang database here you know and you know what kinds of protections are in place I know the in Prior hearings the police department has talked about you know eliminating very young kids changing the formula um I what can you tell us about efforts to make sure that that that part of uh the brick is is sort of you know is Equitable it's not just used to pull people over who don't even you know who may have talked to a gang member in the past or something right I know that I believe it was in uh 2021 there were revisions placed in that rule um and I believe that they were satisfied by by everyone um I'm not sure if the city council but I'm pretty sure that that was satisfied and I know I think it's rule 355 in the Boston Police Department uh emerged as a result of the conversations that happened before that and that's a result of those conversations those changes okay thank you very much I have a second round um thank you chair thank you councelor Weber council president new Jan you have the floor thank you Mr chair and thank you for being here um I see you up there director Walsh you know some of my questions are going to be for you so um yes um just want to thank you all for being here uh I understand the regional importance of this grant um and you also know that it draws a lot of scrutiny as it should because of the potential harm especially for communities we know that especially with respect to brick um involved in the past deportation of of wrongful deportation of uh a member of our community and so we just want to make sure that we're always getting it right um I and Andrew it looked like you were reading from it but um in year at the hearing for this last year I asked for the version of the EOP the 20 the the 23 and 5 years prior version of the eops plan the notice of funding opportunity and the jpo plan we don't have that but it also looks like you are reading from it it's it's this that lays out the nine categories do we have it for fy4 yeah we don't have a I mean I can share that with you after can can you please share it and then the chair could please share it with the council because I think for a lot of the questions that people have like what is this grant what does it cover what does it look like you Andrew you did a great job outlining the nine uh cities but it this actually also does a a a pretty decent job of of giving uh the breakdown and I'm just going to say it for the record it should be in here but if you could submit a written line item breakdown of how the money will be spent including specific sof software Staffing and fees as you have in years past that would be helpful um and then a sub question of that this may be directed uh to director Walsh I know that when I um is just a information question I know that I asked this when I came and visited the brick but uh just for the record what um how many positions at Brick are funded through this uasi Grant and how many are currently filled and how will BPD sustained Personnel positions if you you UI funding were to decline which uh Captain you stated that that funding is already declining and I know that there is an issue generally in the city when we are funding permanent Personnel positions with federal grants that's correct Madam president certainly um sorry I was going to turn on the mic in the back test there we go sorry Ryan Walsh director of the Boston Regional Intelligence Center um thank you for your question counselor um so we currently fund uh 12 full-time positions and two part-time positions off of the grant um there are I believe three of those that are vacant right now um and we're sort of in the hiring process to to refill those positions uh certainly long-term sustainment is a concern we've begun um so sorry 12 full time two part-time yep and two vacancies uh three total vacancies across those three to okay that's just within the the Brick should say what percentage of the brick is funded through uasi grant grant uh about 20% oh okay okay okay and then so um the sustainability if this funding were not to continue it's certainly a concern of ours for sure um that we're we've been actively talking about for a couple years now is the funding has sort of slowly declined um we are sort of talking about it internally we've been talking about it with Federal Partners as to sort of how critical the funding is for us um you know I think right now we would not be able to sustain all of those positions um through you know regular budgeted funds um but we have been looking at different ways to sort of begin to move some of those things in future budget requests um to to bring them you know more of that onto the city uh budget sort of anticipating in future years um I will say we've also because of the three-year spending period of the grant we've been able to sort of structure ourselves to have a little bit of um a Time lead uh if the funding were to go away next year uh we would not sort of immediately be in a in a problem uh we'd have two or so years uh to sort of work on that uh sustainment challenge thank you director Walsh um can you just submit through the chair the complete list of the positions of brick that are funded through this grant um the part full-time parttime whether they're a sworn or civilian also that's a question that I usually ask but forgot all civilian you'll submit okay thank thank you um as you know i' I've been um uh pretty critical of the brick uh again for the harm that it causes to our community um for problems with um the gang database which I know that you are director Walsh there's currently um in the process of Reform um and uh again the issues of deportation and what what prior courts have stated you know uasi poses uh interest uh particular uh interesting questions because of the regional nature of it and because it's not just about brick um so whereas a few weeks ago I voted against a grant that was specifically about brick and until I'm able to see those metrics of about the reform that we've been coming to Brick about and that we've been asking about and that Community been asking about this one incompasses more than just the brick it's about all of these components that are found in the jpo final allocation summary that are really important to the region and we know that when you go to those monthly JP meetings it's not just about Boston um my last my last question for this round will be uh I think there was a comment that stated that you know there are some um like uh being able to purchase equipment for SWAT teams like there's one police department does that does that under this uasi grant could another Police Department that's also covered by OSI could they then could they use that equipment most of the equipment is regional depends on the equipment if was something that would say um issued to a police officer probably not but if it was something called a Bearcat which is an armored vehicle then that would definitely be shared among the the different agencies okay so currently Boston Police Department shares their bomb squad uh with the region as well as the SWAT team but it's only within the region like how does that actually work the sharing of it this object it's determined usually at the jpar meetings when it's purchased what the requirements will be for that purchase okay thank you I have additional questions about information sharing via federal agencies along the lines of questioning that councelor Weber had and I have a few more questions that I'll share from I'll say for my second round thank you Mr chair and thank you to BPD and OEM and for everyone for all the work you do thank you madam president great thank you council president and counc Kata you have the floor thank you chair and thank you all so much for being here thank you for your work um my first question well I guess I'll I'll start with the brick uh and then I'll go to the emergency preparedness um emergency preparedness Grant I think I just have have a comment because uh my colleagues questions were um were very thorough but uh the uh wrongful deportation of a student happened in these BOS in 2017 I think 2016 and um that happened by Miss categorizing him as a um as a gang member and so that information went from a school resource officer to uh directly to the brick right and there's been some safeguards that have been put in place uh since then um and then that student was uh deported and so I as my colleague mentioned I know that the gang database and um you know and other aspects of brick are currently in the process of Reform um I want to uh say thank you to the director who you know has um entertained many conversations I've actually spoken to the commissioner about this as well uh I I want to make sure that we are protecting our most vulnerable here in in uh in this city and making sure that um no one is is wrongfully deported and we are upholding all aspects of of the trust act so I feel like that was important for me to say on record um I want to zero in on the emergency preparedness Grant I think it's uh oh the the catastrophic preparedness Grant um you had mentioned that uh you intend to utilize this uh this grant to work with private entities and nonprofits um to help aid during an emergency uh and we know that these wonderful organizations will step up they actually already have for example Noah and East Boston is actively trying to organize a climate preparedness Summit I would love for that Summit to uh educate what we do with this uh money moving forward um I and you also said you know you want to formalize those Partnerships provide more resources during extreme weather events my district is um very vulnerable if not the most vulnerable to severe uh weather events like hurricanes if hurricane Milton or Helen were to ever hit to Boston or were to ever hit Boston um and so this work is very important to me can you just chalk through what um what you mean by providing more resources and how you will formalize that those Partnerships yeah yeah so this um actually came about uh unfortunately as a result of a fire in East Boston where the the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center opened their doors for probably 12 plus hours while we were waiting to try and uh secure housing for folks that were displaced uh and kind of through that uh we're we're looking to more formalize how do we partner with uh East Boston neighbood Health Center and then expanding it to other uh nonprofits and and entities in the city that are are willing and able to step up uh and provide whatever resources they have so uh but we want it to be uh done in a way that is not we're just not taking just from them so well what are some of the barriers to entry you know is it Staffing is it space you know what are they able to provide what they need the city to help step up and help uh support with um so trying to understand how we can help get some of these um nonprofits that maybe want to partner but just aren't able to right now so that's kind of what we mean by you know what resources can we collaborate on uh to help build up that capacity whether it be um you know uh the Staffing the space uh the ability to utilize some of the other resources that they have and what can the city do to incentivize them to make it a you know a fair partnership okay and so in my mind reading this this was more for like weather events right but this was a direct um allocation based on a fire e Boston do you happen to know which one what street can you get back to me with that information yeah absolutely um and then the health center had open up their doors and it just this is just to um house those folks in the interim while we try to find them long-term housing y so that was the example that happened in this instance because it happened to be around the around the corner from um where where the fire took place and we we view this as not just extreme weather but you know an all hasard we take an all hazards approach as well so um whether it's um fires uh flooding uh extreme heat extreme cold uh how do we augment the the community centers uh and libraries that we utilize uh to to make sure that there are more resources available to Residents in their neighborhoods in the places that they already tend to go to um you know every day how do we make those space is more resilient for residents okay and with the climate Summit that's potentially going to happen in in the community um under no or whoever could that could we utilize that to inform how this money is going to be spent or is it already is it already laid out and allocated yeah so so actually through the fy22 grant uh we're working on um rolling out uh resilience Hub so what um the BCF centers and schools in the city that we already utilize for a lot of these emergency response functions how do we then make a a standard list if you will of of what sites might need in order to participate uh and through that we're going to be reaching out to nonprofits and getting the ball rolling on uh how we can partner um and and so that Outreach is going to begin early in uh 2025 and then continue through the 2024 Grant thank you so much and really thank you for your work on this we are light years ahead of um many other City so I just want to thank you and and thank you sir for coming as well too thank you ma'am thank you counselor um before we go over to second round of questions because I know my colleagues do have second round going to ask one question um and just great so you know my office has been receiving a lot of emails and social media messages from um members of the public asking for more opportunity to testify at a later date um specifically to Doc number 1673 um if the council were to provide um additional opportunity for public testimony um at a date earlier in January prior to voting on this docket um specifically again to docket 1673 um with those few weeks of opportunity for additional public Comon significantly um jeopardize um the programs funded by this grant so unfortunately yes we we are on a tough timeline with when we get the contract from the state Executive Office of Public Safety Security in terms of when we can get it before you before the council takes their break at the end of the year um we are up against the gun in terms of getting some programs funded starting in early January we wish we got the uh the noo earlier from the federal government so we could move faster on this um we're certainly open to providing more uh information and attending those uh opportunities for public testimony uh but that would uh jeopardize the access to the funding for the rest for the city of Boston and the programs that are funded by it and uh for the region just personally we get a lot of flak when uh we end up having to delay things from the rest of the communities in the grant yeah know just follow up on that I mean I understand the region part aspect of it and the pressures getting from out the out outside cities and I mean you're saying yes this will have an impact um on the can you just talk about I mean if this was to be brought up tomorrow versus um early January for a vote can you talk about what's actually being jeopardized there absolutely uh so the number one is lead time on large vehicle procurements and just large procurements in general is that a lot of communities have gotten quotes from vendors uh with estimated prices that have an end date of December 31st that they anticipate price increases going into 2025 as a lot of these vendors do um so we've been getting told that there's uh a lot of money that's planned to be allocated under this grant um would not be sufficient for those procurements they'd have to kind of uh reimagine what their original plan was um additionally the money that funds OEM staff the 1.4 million out of each Grant um because of different extensions that have come out of covid on these past grants we're going to bit of a funny spot where our staffing levels are usually anywhere between January and April is when we can sustain funding um so I can look into uh an exact drop dead date for our office in terms of that but there's a number of Staff in the office funded by this grant that the funding from the uh previous Grant year will end and we ran up against that last year where we were you know down to the couple of pay periods left uh before the new money was accepted and uploaded in the system um so we don't want to have an interruption in uh pay for staff and what what what date what is that like for this upcoming year for this upcoming year I can look into more specifics it would be sometime in in probably early February okay I mean I I I ask because I I I do want to leave opportunity I mean obviously for my Council colleagues to um be able to um you know you know and ask any questions and and then do their own research but I think there is a big component to this about um the public having questions and um Wanted to also have time to um discuss it with their District counselors and their counselors so that's why I ask and I appreciate the transparency Andrew absolutely um if I could just add one more thing we we do work on this constraint timeline pretty much every year so if it's helpful for us to schedule something in advance next year whether or not we have the grant we're always open you know we we anticipate the Grant on the same timeline sometimes the state is a little bit delayed we're happy to have that conversation in November or December of the upcoming year if whether that's in advance of the council hearing or not if that's helpful no absolutely I think it will be so um we'll be happy to work with you all to to get that done great so I'll turn it over to second round of questions um starting with councelor Flynn councelor Flynn you have the floor thank you Mr chair um Captain Conley has Boston ever been in violation of the trust act not to my knowledge sir thank you into um to the OEM team our are cities and towns across Massachusetts that are part of this grant are they waiting for us to provide leadership to get these funds allocated to them is that your is that your understanding certainly so we make them well aware of the process that it takes to get from the federal government to the state government then to us and then out to the region um they often meet that with a little bit of chrin that they want the money as soon as they can get it so we try to speed that along um but we also respect the process in place in the city of Boston for accepting these funds um but yeah the eight other communities um are often chomping at the bit this time of year to to get us to pass it I spent considerable time last year at the same time almost three weeks advocating for support of this grant for I hope we're able to vote on this tomorrow and provide the leadership to cities and towns in Greater Boston in our partners they're counting on Boston to provide the critical leadership that they provide they've always provided um Captain Conley I have a followup question Boston's bomb squad do you mention that Boston's bomb squad is shared with other um we support other cities and towns in and around the region is that accurate that's accurate sir okay and was there another um another Duty that we help on as well you mentioned uh the bomb squad but was it I mention the SWAT team also oh the SWAT team okay um and then Captain can you talk briefly about how important is it for your team for the OEM team for the Boston Poli how is it important for you to work with the Coast Guard that plays a critical role in in Boston but also certainly the Navy as well yes so I can speak to that sir um especially with the LG Transit that comes in every so often in Boston um that's a multi-jurisdiction uh you know federal state local response um Boston police being the Boston Harbor Master of course um we have a command control component that goes to the Coast Guard to manage every time it comes in we work under their Direction uh with the state police I know the state police brings in a helicopter for the transit and we work with all our uasi partners as well with the Marine most of the Marine vessels that were purchased through the uasi grant to close that capability Gap bringing those uh those LG vessels in sir thank you Captain and I guess my final question is what is the role of civilians across the city when there's a an emergency or how are we preparing civilians to respond to get engaged to be active I represent represent a lot of a lot of constituents in public housing how are we ensuring that they're part of the uh discussion that their voices are heard and maybe they don't speak English how are we communicating and ensuring that they're part of the process yes so I I can speak to that the the regional catastrophic preparedness Grant uh was mainly focused on uh putting together all hazards uh public education material and those are translated into all 11 languages and they're currently building out the 2025 uh Community engagement scheduled to make sure that they're hitting every neighborhood and every uh neighborhood association as well across the city uh through the uasi grant we also fund the community Emergency Response Team program so this was a program that had existed in Boston and I believe it took a uh got set aside for like 20 years and we brought it back last year uh and that really aims towards getting um residents trained on how to help support during a disaster and provides them with you know basic life safety skills and other ways that they can help support their uh neighbors uh and folks around them during an emergency as well as uh during like major plan events to help utilize them to help uh augment you know the volunteer Workforce to work alongside us so that's another program that I can share more information with you after this as well excellent uh my final question um maybe Captain if you want to try to answer this a lot of colleges and universities in and around Boston but also Greater Boston what role do we play in working with colleges and universities whether it's their security team their facilities team the Office of the President um how does that communication work one of the um unique things that we have here in you know the Metro Boston region um is an areawide bike response right and that's made up of Boston Police Department Mass state police our uasi partners as well as the local colleges and universities um so they get get this response so they'll help us and in turn we help them respond to issues around the campuses as well thank you for um thank you for the leadership you providing the residents of the city uh Mr chair uh thank you very much thank you Council Flynn see councel Weber you have the floor thank you chair uh I guess uh so for um you know the uh it's the the $1.9 million Grant uh do you know if if is any of that money going to be used uh to pay to pay for shot spotter or uh whatever it's called now SoundCloud or sorry yeah sound thinking these days we're trying to keep up as well um yeah so in this information that I'll send out uh to the council through the chair as requested by council president Len um in goal area 2.2 critical infrastructure there is about $600,000 earmarked for the regional gunshot detection contract again this is a contract that is currently held with sound thinking Technologies on behalf of the region so the breakdown of which municipalities have certain square miles is all lumped into that contract um so Boston has a part of that contract it is lumped in with the Region's contract for gunshot detection okay and then is that how it usually works I thought we you know uh we had a hearing just on shotspotter uh and uh I thought do it usually come in through through this grant there's two two separate funding streams for okay uh and uh okay and then do you have data on you know essentially like what percentage of the uh shot spot alarm arms are correlated to actual gunfire I can provide you with that sir okay yeah I mean I I think there have been a number of studies that come out of Chicago and New York which show you know you make of it what you will but uh you know 80 plus percent being false alarms you know I I I'm not I don't have to get into a debate about whether right you know 10% is is worth the 85 whatever uh but yeah do you have any anything I do know it worked as intended last night Sir okay um uh and then uh I guess I'm not sure you can answer this question but um in terms of the Boston trust act uh and and this grant um you know so there's a it's something called it's it's section 287g of the immigration and nationality act grants the department of home and security the the ability to enter into agreements with law enforcement agencies to to enforce immigration law um you know this this provision is found across the country to sort of basically encourage racial profiling and um uh and I know you know uh there those the number of agreements 287g agreements went down uh but then Trump first Trump Administration increased them I imagine they'll be looking to to increase them before I if if uh I guess and it's not expressly prohibited by the Boston trust act I read it as prohibiting it because it it would doesn't allow our our Police Department to be used to you know enforce immigration law or perform the functions of an immigration officer um but you know if this if the city tr entered into a 287g agreement like would would uh the Boston would the city council uh be notified of that I'm not qualified to answer that question I I I would have to speculate so I I want to make sure I get it to the right person and get back to you sir sure and I guess my my other question which is is just does the Boston Police Department read the Boston trust act as prohibiting the city from entering into a 2 287g agreement I'm not sure I would imagine they are but I don't want to again it' be speculation on my part okay um uh okay sorry so that's um I guess last thing is in in terms of the the $1.9 million Grant is any of that earmarked for purchase of new surveillance equipment do you know um not that I know of I know in uh again you'll get this information uh following the meeting but winr is putting some security cameras on their emergency Operation Center I believe those are internal though um but in terms of Boston I don't believe any is uh earmarked for additional surveillance equipment okay uh thank you very much uh chair um yield the rest of my time great thank you Council Weber council president Lu Jan you have the floor thank you um Mr chair and thank you to everyone for their questions that came before um how many times in the past year has BPD or brick shared information from the gain database with ice DHS or the FBI I'm not qualified to answer that maybe the director can I see director Walsh walking down he knows he knows that my questions are targeted I think you could have answered that last one too but you know that wasn't me so I just let you do your thing um so yes um how many times in the last year has the BPD or brick sheded information from the gang database with ice DHS or the FBI so I I will say that we're fully in compliance with the trust act uh I'm not aware of any sharing of information related to civil immigration enforcement I I don't have the exact number off the top of my head though of sort of law enforcement requests from those agencies great um and I know that there's every year you file a trust act uh a report pursuant to um the trust act and you file it with the city council um I I do think that this question is a little bit different than what is covered under the trust act and I'd love to get that answer and I think part of the reason and what causes confusion rightfully so to members of the public uh in General is that brick is a regional Fusion Center that different agencies have access to is it correct to say that uh federal agencies have access to information that's in the brick I guess I would ask you to Define further what you mean by access okay you're not a lawyer but you're a good one um uh under what circumstances would a federal agency be able to access information that is in the brick including the gang database so we receive a variety of requests from a variety of law enforcement and also non law enforcement entities throughout the year uh and we have a process uh that that we go through to validate the reason that they're asking us for that information uh pursuant to a ongoing criminal investigation or a valid law enforcement purpose uh and then we sort of evaluate that request against all of our local ordinances state and federal laws of course uh and then only then do we ever provide information back to that entity once we've satisfied all of those requirements okay thank you what M us exist between brick and feder agencies are there any M us that exist uh so we are party to the department is party to anou uh regarding the Joint terorism Task Force uh that the brick directly supports uh and I'm aware of several other uh task force related M that are mostly housed out of our Bureau of Investigative Services um okay and I believe there's also anou with um DHS in Office of Intelligence and Analysis okay um I'm going to have some additional questions but um uh would BPD be willing to submit you submit a rule through 5 report every year to the Boston Police Department um and it's annual report where you talk about compliance with the gang assessment database and it reads in part Brook will report by January 31st of each year to the police commissioner on the total number of individuals added to and purged from the database in the previous calendar year these totals will then be released to the public it's important because again when we back hearken back to that case in Ed Boston U the over identification of black and brown uh community members with the gang databases is important for the council to know and know that it's a it's a report that you file is is there a possibility that's aort that's a report that you could file with the city council at the same time that you file it with the commissioner documenting sorry yeah documenting um the um reporting the people who are purged and um added to the gang database oh certainly I think I think we could include that yeah is that something that we're able to do without I'm asking through the chair that's something that you do at the same time I'm not sure if there's anything that we need to do to ify that request but I just want to make sure that I'd have to confirm the commissioner is comfortable but certainly I can ask him okay thank you um how many individuals have requested redress or Corrections of errors in the game database in the past 5 years uh the fast past five years I'm not aware of off the top of my head I believe this year we've received approximately five redress requests right and uh director we've talked about making sort of the information about how to access whether you're on the database and how to remove yourself on the database making that more accessible where are we in that process certainly so we have a we've been going through our annual sort of policy update process as we do every year uh one of the updates that we're uh looking to make to the privacy policy uh is to add an email address uh for our privacy officer so that U members of the public could submit their requests currently it's sort of by mail or you know through other other mechanisms um but we are looking to make an email address available for folks to submit uh more easily electronically directly we've always receive request be email through different mechanisms to bpd's office of legal adviser and different things like that but we're looking to make a specific address available for this a specific email and is there a place on a website somewhere where folks know that this is an option available to them and what is that uh it's posted on a couple places on the department web page um under the bureau's tab on the new BPD web page it's been posted publicly uh you know for the Brick's entire existence uh but it's up there uh currently and then that version gets updated um so it's at least posted there and then uh it may be a couple other places um at one point the national Fusion Center Association hosted a web page that had all of fusion Center um privacy policies on it um I could double check to make sure that that's still uh active but okay thank you dere Jos that's my time I have a a a few more questions I'm going to refine um and then I'm going to ask you them after okay thank you thank you Mr chair thank you council president um councelor um glata you have the floor there we go I'm GNA keep it simple I don't have any other questions thank you chair thank you counselor um CL sapata all right um I do want to give an opportunity just if anyone has any final questions um just please turn on your mic um and you can feel free to ask them okay councelor Flynn you have the floor thank you Mr chair and I know I asked um Captain cly if Boston was ever in violation of the trust act um and I know it it seems like no but I I want I wanted to give um you guys some OEM do you have any updates on do you know if Boston's ever been in violation I want to give you a chance to answer as well no we don't have any information about that the director up there up at the top um I just want to be sure and get it on the record if we were in violation or we're not in violation certainly councelor I'm not aware of any violations of the trust act okay what would the process be if there was if boster was in violation or if they were um being investigated for a violation What just walk us through that process How would how would that work uh so I I can say we do annual training um on on uh several different ordinances state federal laws our privacy policy uh for all Personnel on the brick I can speak to you directly uh and were we to find any violations uh in in that process or just kind of in our day-to-day work we would certainly uh you know report that up the chain um appropriately and um you know see what types of certainly I think we would start with you know additional training making sure uh that that everyone sort of understood their responsibilities under the ordinance and then kind of escalating it through there through um bpd's you know Bureau professional stand ards if we needed to go that route is the training ongoing for all Boston police offices or and civilians to ensure that they're always in compliance with the trust act I believe so okay um thank you sir thank you Mr chair thank you councelor Flynn council president L Jen you have the floor thank thank you um so thank you to my staff too that got me the trust act report last year because that's sort of where I wanted to base my questions on because it says no later than December 31st the commissioner shall submit a report to the uh Clerk of the city council um reporting on a sual breakdown of the total number of civil immigration detainer request Lodge of the city's law enforcement officials organized by the reasons given for the request um and when we look at the actual report um that they the reasons were given for the Civil immigration removal of someone and it's a a list of about 19 civil requests and um it was not acted upon per the Boston trust act ordinance which is great and I the again I'll say the BBD has done a great job complying with the Boston trust act the reason why my question is different is because um the request coming from Ice FBI or federal agencies sometimes aren't always with respect to what's governed and covered by the trust act and so you get requests from the FBI for a number of whether it's counterterrorism whether it's for um uh someone who's alleged to have been involved in in in a criminal in criminal activity which would not be covered um uh by the trust act and so those are the ones that I'm trying to get a sense of what the requests are for those um and that's why we asked about ice DHS and the FBI um a fear is uh the reasons given people can get creative with what those reasons are and so I'd like to have an understanding of the out then this is outside of the trust act which is why this was an independent Standalone question I mean if we don't have it now for the chair would love to get it in the future of what it has looked like um you know how many times in the past year has B or brick shared information from the gang database with ice um and the difference is ice HSI right versus um the ice arm that's responsible for REM uh civil detainment um and uh DHS or the FBI right and that's outside of the trust act I like to get an understanding of that um to know what what is normal for projection in the in the future right um and so I think that's why it's important information for this body to have um over for over the let's just say over the past four years what those requests have looked like um and and and for what purpose just they could be broad categories but I think it's important for this Council to know because people will likely get creative on their requests that come to the brick and whose discernment will it be whether it's for civil detainment removal or if they say it's because there's you know criminal AC happening who makes that that determination so I will say uh we always maintain the right and the ability to not respond to any requests that we receive and we do actively deny requests where we are uh either unsure or not confident enough in the reason uh that the requestor is asking or certainly if we had any um you know information to suggest that they were not being you know truthful or acting in good faith with us um I will say that you know we generally do believe that other law enforcement agencies act in good faith uh and are Guided by by you know legal and other principled actions when they make a request of us uh I will fully admit um that you know we do you know have that Faith generally uh for our law enforcement Community uh but we do validate that they are a valid law enforcement entity and we do ask um additional questions usually around you know for looking for case numbers and things that kind of give more sense that there is a valid criminal investigation uh going on around the the request um and then we also I would say we try to make sure we're only providing the requester you know with the The Limited set of information that they're really looking for we're not trying to provide you know um large you know data exchanges uh to these entities in response to requests thank you but it is up so it's it's up to your discretion to respond to these federal agencies and how 100% even okay with Federal funding and again I just want to up uplift that h i HSI when we're talking about human smuggling trafficking narcotics and web weapon smuggling and trafficking like those are outside of the bounds of the trust act I just I can see someone alleging they're criminal this is criminal activity and that not being the case and I want to make sure that we have enough safeguards in place whether that be our discretion or otherwise and I I don't want to discretion is a hard thing to trust sometimes so that's why I'm requesting through the chair us to get a sense of those requests would would have been filed would have been denied what have been the reasons for the requests and for the denials i' I'd love that information uh so via the chair I'd like to request that from from certainly thank you and then my last question is actually not for you so you're so very good thank you uh Captain I think I I heard you state that there's a new drone that flies in doors that that we have used some of the uasi money to to PCH purchase is that correct did I miss hear that yes Madam president you did the Boston fire department purchased one um not sure the name of the uh drum but I know it's it has capability of of flying indoors they use it a lot for search and rescue Urban search and rescue to either have a recovery Mission or a rescue mission okay so that's via BFD but it is also used the uasi funds I know how are targeted towards the fire department as well yeah so what that was the way I was trying to show that First Responders showing up to something with the different tools that they purchased through uasi how it can all be um you know pulled together to to resolve problems and issues and to close capability gaps that we currently are faced with okay do you know is that a new technology that would be required to be uh revealed through the uh ordinance I wouldn't Define it as new technology I think it's old technology I just think it's smaller and it's uh more robust so um they make them now where they can break class and fly into buildings okay yeah um those are my questions thank you Mr chair thank you council president coun do you have are you that okay great um with that oh so you do okay councelor Weber you do have um you have the floor okay um uh I guess just uh I mean there's comments today in in the media about you know uh cities like Boston are sort of encouraging I think you know fentel dealers and and and people to commit sex crimes I mean we're can you just respond Captain to you we're still enforcing criminal law here in the city of Boston even though you know we're trying to prevent our Police Department from being used used to enforce Federal immigration law uh that that's correct sir yes we we we enforce criminal law yes um okay and uh yeah no I I appreciate that thank you very much thank you chair thank you great um thank you councelor Weber just want to make sure coun C us about that you're off at yep okay um I do have one final question I think it might be for director was I'm sorry to make you walk up and down so many times um but yeah this is a hypothetical just trying to get my steps in you know bear with me with this hypothetical situation here but um you know assuming it was a criminal offense so that's first right um if the federal government passed a law Banning wearing blue shirts and brick received a request for information on a person um being investigated for wearing a blue shirt would the brick comply with this request I certainly hesitate to speculate on a on a um assuming it's a hypothetical it's a criminal offense I believe that violations of federal laws would would count in our sort of evaluation process if that was a federal law that was being violated criminally great I guess I would say right thank you direct that was that was my question um all right with that um I would like to Pro oh sorry council president um you have the floor and it might be for director off um it's cuz you're hypothetical was like that's like actually a very solid hypothetical what about in the case of someone violating an abortion law in like Texas or Florida or another state um and that's considered a crime like what is what safeguards do we have or is that in the in the Wheelhouse of discretion so at the state level I believe I would say that's in the Wheelhouse of our discretion and um our current I I you know I wouldn't speak for the BPD legal adviser's opinion here but we would certainly seek advice and from them uh in that scenario but I believe we would likely not comply with that request okay thank you it would be great um we we talked about Theus that that that exist and I think you mentioned the one the counterterrorism one um it are those me are those um uh M us that this Council has access to can have access to can be made part of the record I I believe so so I think I've asked a lot through the chair but I'd like to add that one if Theus can be made part of the record absolutely well we'll make that request council president okay thank you and um yeah you leave me a lot to think about in terms of like the bandwidth for what discretion looks like especially in a case like in a situation such as that which leaves me with a little bit of trepidation in terms of what guard rails we placing around what what do we do we want to mandate certain things rather than leave them to discretion thank you I I would say certainly council president that we would seek guidance from the commissioner and you know our leadership internally within Boston Police Department and I would also just want to say you know while the grant is regional uh we view that you know our leadership is within the Boston Police Department the commissioner is sort of the final decision maker we don't take into account other Town's opinions on uh these different topics necessarily when responding to our request so we would follow the guidance from the commissioner and bpd's legal adviser and the the city law officials um you know if it were to come down to that um US versus one of the other Regional agencies thank you thank you Mr chair thank you for nudging my final question I appreciate it thank you and thank you again to all the work that you do and for taking the council's questions at this late hour um we really appreciate it thank you madam president thank you at this time I'd like to just um want before I dismiss you just want to give you an opportunity um for any final remarks that you may want to put into the record yes um I just want to say why this matters for Boston right Boston faces unique set of threats including terrorism cyber security risks in the need to protect crowded public spaces the uasi grant ensures that Boston and its Regional Partners remain prepared proactive and resilient in the face of these challenges programs supported by UI funding have a proven track record of success making Boston a model for Public Safety and Homeland Security and the fiscal year 2024 uasi Grant is an investment in Boston's safety and future I just want to say thank you for the opportunity Mr chair Madam president and council members thank you captain and um thank you thank you to this panel um for indulging Us in so many questions um so I'm really appreciate um you all being here all right with that you thanks for the opportunity dismissed um we will now U move forward with um public testimony um Central staff has informed me that there are members of the public signed up to testify so we will move forward with that when your name is called um if you are here in person please come to one of the podiums at the back of the room and speak into the microphone um or if you are on Zoom please unmute yourself please state your name neighborhood and or organization affiliation and please keep your comments to 2 minutes um so I have Alex Matthews followed up with Melissa DeSanto sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name um but those are the two that we'll start with and then I think we also have some virtual signups so um Alex good to see you um thank you for being here you have two minutes thank you chair Santana my name is Alex marthews I am the chair of digital 4th um I am a resident of Belmont Massachusetts and um digital 4th is a civil liberties organization with members um in Boston and the surrounding communities um I would like to state that for many of the uses in the grants that you've been discussing this afternoon we have no objection to them at all we have no objection to Grants for EMS or for promoting wmds or improvements to man Maritime Communications or for extreme weather resilience these are all good things we have written testimony there have also been letters from residents that support what we support here which is a delay of consideration of this grant this item must be delayed first because as we have seen from this hearing it is not the case that all counselors have received a line item breakdown and have had time to review it it is not the case that a line item breakdown has been made available to the public and the fault for that information not having been provided lies with JP Park and lies with Boston PD they had the chance to do this and if it is as critical in timing as they say they ought to have provided reasonable information to the council ahead of time instead of doing this rushed process second despite the discussion that we've had this afternoon and the excellent questions from Council we do not yet know for sure whether there is any existing surveillance technology approved by this grant that is being used in a new purpose or Manner and we need to know that in order to know whether the terms of the surveillance ordinance are to be triggered there is no hurry on these funds we are aware from jok's own discussion that prior year money has not been dispersed yet and jok has authority to reallocate between line items and has money outstanding in those accounts thank you thank you Alex Melissa Melissa D yeah hi I'll make this brief I actually have questions I'm wondering if the city council can maybe take note and ask some of these folks um I just uh councelor Flynn I really thank you for uh pressing those questions about the crime lab and the why uh why screening and the um everything else like that and I hope there's actually another hearing on it I know I came to a hearing here on uh June 16 2022 um and hardly anyone of the panelists had any information and data so it was really encouraging to hear uh Miss Maria chever uh she's kind of it's kind of Star Struck because she actually took it seriously like two years ago it was about what sexual assault in Boston public schools and asking for data and city councils were here laughing like it was a joke um but I do had some questions I just wanted uh first number one um how are we increasing the line item uh the budget for operation hoody cup because who doesn't love ice cream uh my second question is has covid uh as a as a virus itself uh POS any specific challenges and implementations of of the efficacy of wi screening considering that Co is believed to or it's been shown to change this serological behavior in peoples and how does that change DNA profiles um the second one was regarding uh there's been a number of incidents in the past four years regarding um dog attacks and uh Boston police officers having to respond to them sometimes having to put the animals down so between Boston fire department getting cats out of trees with the extension ladders the mass environmental police and Animal Control how is it that like residents are suffering fatalities people are losing their pets or um and like city employees are like getting attacked so um how does that how is that coordinated um and I think the was it the third question um oh question number three has former mayor Marty Walsh been taken out of the brick database because apparently in 2014 he was in there and does that like implicate anybody as far as Boston city council um if if you guys are a gang um and I think the last question was uh yeah that was it um if you could just ask those when you guys get a chance and thank you so much thank you Melissa we're now going to move um to Virtual signups I've been told that there are two people who are signed up um to virtually testify with us we have Heather oroo and Fatima almed we're going to start with Heather um following and then we're going to go with Fatima um Heather do we have you on the line yes I'm here can you hear me okay we can hear you okay um you have 2 minutes thank you so much for being here great thank you so much for having me Heather Roo I'm a senior immigration attorney at the Massachusetts law reform Institute and also a resident and voter in Jamaica plane um at Mass law reform we have a coalition of over 400 legal service providers who serve the Immigrant Community the oasi grant which includes a substantial amount of funding for Brick and other police surveillance programs should not be put forward for a vote tomorrow if it is we are urging the city council to vote vote no this is nearly $12 million to surveil black and brown residents of Boston with a hearing one day before the vote there are not enough safeguards in place there has not been enough Community input there are so many people missing from the conversation today the council should want to hear from our members our Coalition partners and the community as a whole on the harms of brick with the hearing a day before the vote that's just not possible and to rush through this process without meaningful opportunity for feedback with disregard the privacy and civil rights of bostonians at a time when the need to protect privacy civil rights and to be intentional about racial and immigrant Justice is at an all-time high the incoming Trump Administration has already promised to conduct Mass deportations including those who are US citizens we were talking about a president-elect who just two days ago reaffirmed that his plan is to deport everybody who is undocumented over the next four years saying quote you have to do it and you have no choice he will use every tool that he has and to think that he will not use federally funded programs to meet this agenda is a mistake we as a city should not voluntarily be a part of this plan um you know they say that their information is not shared but as an immigration attorney I know that it has been shared with DHS in my experience DHS has not only known who is in the gang database they have know they know who used to be on it my client was removed from the gang database but DHS still used the fact that he used to be on it against him and it resulted in his deportation last year these are the exact types of concerns that our communities should be heard on and for those reasons we urge the Boston city council to vote no on docket number 1673 and again thank you for the opportunity thank you so much Heather appreciate you joining us next up we have Fatima amen hi I'm FAA I'm the executive director of Muslim Justice League I'm also a Boston resident and I want to express um you know gratitude to the counselors who are asking questions of brick and acknowledging that so many communities community members reached out and reached out on very short notice because we all received very short notice of this grant um you know being put up for today's hearing and and being put up for a vote tomorrow so also really frustrated that this would be you know that this is attempted to be you know rushed through given over a decade of organizing and Community concerns that have been shared again and again and this Council has expressed many of those concerns and should really take seriously trying to rush through a grant like this when we're facing you know exponentially increased surveillance and policing um coming up after the inauguration as you just heard from Heather immigration attorneys have said again and again that this has led to deportations in fact two other attorneys just wrote in the Boston Globe about how between 2014 to 2017 135 children had their information shared from brick to ice not all of those lead to deportations that you were hearing about but all of these things have led to harm in the community and it's not just about immigration enforcement I think that is obviously taking um you know a spotlight in this moment because we know that we're hearing a mass deportations that are planned and we know how what that has look like in the past but as other folks have mentioned right brick has also surveilled activists for quite some time from occupy Boston to Black lives matter also just Muslims using Arabic terms on social media have been part of um you know brick surveillance I will say in the past 14 months our organization has been busy fighting a genocide and while we have been busy doing that brick has been busy sending um essentially daily reports about the protests and events of not only our organization but many of our partner organizations like Jewish organizations Jewish voice for peace if not now Boston um and students on campuses which we also know how BPD ended up responding to students on campuses particularly Emerson and Northeastern University but especially what happened um at Emerson which many of you you know expressed concerns about um we know as they mentioned earlier that they have been working with campuses and we think that that deserves so much more um you know conversation we have also been busy in the past year actually doing research on brick because brick has not given you all that transparency because this has been a concern for so long we have been taking that upon ourselves to do that that report is not finalized yeah we would love to meet with you all to go over those um key findings including the expenditures from the wasi grant that is before you today but urging you councelor Santana to please postpone this thank you thank you for coming and testifying K do you do you have you want to testify yeah absolutely you have two minutes uh thanks good afternoon everyone Kade crockford from the ACLU of Massachusetts really appreciate the counselors who are still here thank you guys for sticking it out on a late um Tuesday today's Tuesday um so we have a lot of concerns about these issues at the ACLU foremost among them um the what fman was just mentioning about the Boston Police Department's long uh ugly history of spying on people for their you know protected First Amendment expression speech and Association um and also concerns about um the BPD sharing information about people's protected speech and association with the federal government with the FBI others uh DHS Etc also want to Echo the comments FAA made about how you know we've heard a lot from counselors today um about concerns related to the trust act and sharing information pertaining to immigration enforcement the Tru Trust act really is quite limited to um information sharing that's relevant to the enforcement of civil immigration law and I think the council ought to look much broader than that when it considers what the brick is doing in terms of information sharing with the federal government and with outof state agencies I was really troubled to hear the director of The Brick say earlier that um the Boston Police Department assumes good faith when they uh receive information requests from out of state and federal law enforcement agencies I don't think that's appropriate um in an in an environment in which you almost half of states have criminalized abortion um as the council president mentioned a few minutes ago um when we see numerous and growing frankly attacks on transgender Americans across the country in many states through the legislator's legal attacks um and in an environment when we are about to witness a federal Administration coming in who has pledged to Target his political enemies with arrest and prosecution and so this is a new environment we're not in you know 1992 anymore um we are dealing with Rising fascist sentiment we are dealing with laws that criminalize the bodily autonomy of of human beings in many parts of this country and those laws are being enforced through police powers and so I I really think it's important for this Council for the administration and for the police department to start to look Beyond uh mere civil immigration enforcement when it comes to scrutinizing the practices of the Boston Police Department Department with respect to its collection and sharing of information um we strongly believe that the BPD should not be voluntarily sharing information about People's First Amendment protected activity unless it's directly connected to a crime that is a crime in Boston um we believe that the Boston Police Department should not be sharing information with outside law enforcement agencies that may pertain to the provision of healthc care that's lawful here in Boston um these are really important issues that this Council and this Administration have thus far failed to adequately adequately address and so you know we understand that time is tight you are likely to you know you're going to do what you're going to do on this grant it's my recommendation that you wait and you know hear more about some of these issues before making a decision um no matter what you do on this question related to this particular Grant I would ask that this Council you know continue these conversations and make maybe even step into a lawmaking role um to improve some protections uh with respect to how the Boston Police Department collects sensitive information about people's political expression and activities and then shares that information and information about healthc care and and uh immigration related issues with outside entities entities outside of Massachusetts thank you very much thank you um really appreciate you you testifying um at this time I just want to thank um the panelists members of the public my colleagues um and Central staff for your participation and assistance um with today's hearing um this hearing on dockets number 1545 15461 15481 1622 1673 1675 1676 1680 1681 177 70 and 1772 is a jour [Music]