The enterprise neighborhood is urging the City Council to approve hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in grant funding for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, saying that the cash is required to “quell recent violence” that has put public security at a “crisis point.”
James Rooney, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter in assist of advancing $3.4 million to fund the BRIC, cash that has been earmarked by the state for the previous 4 years, however held up by the council.
The City Council is anticipated to vote on funding the intelligence arm of town’s police division on Wednesday, three weeks after rejecting three $850,000 grants put aside for the BRIC. A fourth $850,000 grant was later filed by the mayor.
“The Chamber continues to hear from concerned workers, residents, community leaders, business owners and the broader public about the recent rise in shootings and violent incidents,” Rooney wrote in a letter to the Council. “Funds for appropriate and necessary technology utilized for anti-crime and emergency response will help address the violence in all of Boston’s neighborhoods.”
Rooney mentioned the funding would bolster “data-driven policing that will support the highest quality of life and healthier business climate.” His letter states that crime elevated by 7% in downtown Boston for the primary half of 2023.
During the earlier 19 months, the Boston Police Department was known as to the Macy’s division retailer in Downtown Crossing practically 150 occasions for reviews of disturbances, threats and acts of violence. In different neighborhoods, shootings and violence proceed and stay unsolved, the letter states.
“Community leaders have expressed that the safety and well-being of the public is at a crisis point, and police funding is needed to quell recent violence,” Rooney wrote.
The BRIC grants, from fiscal years 2020-23, would go towards bettering expertise aimed toward preventing crime, gangs and terrorism. It would enable the division to rent eight analysts, Police Commissioner Michael Cox mentioned at a Friday City Council committee listening to.
The Chamber joined Mayor Michelle Wu and City Council President Ed Flynn in posturing forward of Wednesday’s vote on the BRIC grants, in mild of the opposition raised by progressive-leaning councilors and members of the neighborhood eventually week’s listening to.
Most of the opposition centered across the BRIC’s gang database, which critics say is racially discriminatory, in that it disproportionately tracks individuals of coloration.
Rooney’s letter, whereas despatched to the Council final Thursday, was shared by way of one of many Chamber’s social media pages on Monday. Wu’s workplace shared a letter the mayor despatched to the City Council on Tuesday, explaining why she flipped on her prior opposition to the BRIC, which included voting down an $850,000 grant in 2021.
Flynn’s workplace additionally shared an announcement, saying that the council president could be voting in favor of the grants on Wednesday. Flynn joined Councilors Frank Baker, Liz Breadon, Michael Flaherty and Erin Murphy in voting in favor final month.
The mayor’s letter reiterates what she said on a radio look final week. Wu wrote that new management on the metropolis’s police division and efforts to clear names that have been now not related from the BRIC’s gang database brought about her to vary her earlier view.
As a mayoral candidate, Wu said assist for abolishing the BRIC and dismantling the gang database.
In 2021, the mayor’s letter states, new laws have been put in place that required BPD to take away inactive people regularly, which led to 609 names being purged from the database in 2021, and 1,836 in 2022. Wu additionally pointed to a metropolis ordinance that created the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency.
“In order to most effectively deploy our investments and resources to reduce gun violence and other types of crime within our neighborhoods, we must invest in public safety intelligence and analysis,” Wu wrote.
During Friday’s listening to, Councilor Julia Mejia, who known as for abolishing the BRIC in 2021, had requested that the mayor present an evidence “on the record,” saying that she wouldn’t think about voting in favor of the grants in any other case.
“Many of us do not believe that BRIC is operating with the best intentions of Black and brown and Muslims and people of diverse experiences,” Mejia mentioned. “We do not have that data that affirms us, that makes us believe that you have our best interests in mind. This is not about an anti-police situation. This is about people’s civil liberties.”
Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune expressed comparable sentiments. Citing prior courtroom rulings made in opposition to the gang database, she mentioned, “I don’t see a reason to trust the data the BRIC is collecting.”
Cox mentioned, nevertheless, that the data-driven work accomplished by the BRIC “is not about vilifying people of color. It’s really about identifying … the people who are driving the crime, violent crime in our city, and keeping track of that information.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”