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Boston Mayor Marty Walsh declared racism to be a public health crisis in the city and on Friday initiated a number of sweeping changes to significantly change the Boston Police Department.
Walsh released a statement announcing the creation of an eight-member task force focused on police reform, and a pledge to reallocate 20 percent, or $12 million, of the Boston Police Department's overtime budget for 2021 to a number of public programs.
"In Boston, we embrace the opportunity this moment and this movement offers us," Walsh said. "We stand with our black community and communities of color to lead the change toward a more just and equitable society. With these actions, we will increase equity in public safety and public health, and launch a conversation that can produce lasting, systemic change to eliminate all the ways that racism and inequality harm our residents."
The eight-member task force will include Dennis White, Chief of Staff, Boston Police Department; Tanisha Sullivan, President, NAACP Boston Branch, and a member designated by the president of the Boston City Council.
The task force will have the role of creating new policy recommendations to reform the Boston Police Department and those suggestions will be reviewed this fall.
Meanwhile, Walsh said that he plans to resubmit the 2021 budget on June 15, and reallocate those funds to reinvest in programs that create equality and inclusion in the community.
The overtime funds will be used to fund several local projects and programs, such as supporting trauma teams that provide counseling services at the Boston Public Health Commission; funding for violence intervention grants, youth programming, language, and food access, immigrant advancement; support economic development initiatives to support minority and women-owned businesses, and creating programs to deal with homelessness.
Walsh's executive order, signed on Friday, recognized racism as a public health crisis and ordered the Mayor's Health and Human Service Office to work in concert with the city's public health commission and other city departments to incorporate new strategies.
Those include dismantling systematic racial barriers to public health services, identifying problems in historically marginalized communities and developing a Boston Health Equity Now plan that helps city leaders identify and address health inequities and disparities.
As part of the city's commitment to end racism, Walsh also signed the Mayor's Pledge, a program initiated by the Obama Foundation's My Brother's Keeper Alliance. The Alliance calls on mayors and city leaders to conduct a comprehensive review of use of force policies from local law enforcement and to solicit community input with the goal of making changes to those policies.
Nearly 250 U.S. cities have signed the pledge since the program was launched in 2014 by former President Barack Obama.
Walsh said Boston Police Commissioner William Gross, who'd been tasked with reviewing the department's use of force policies, outlined the Boston PD's commitment to de-escalation techniques, versus use of force.
Gross said in a statement that the state of civil unrest following the death of George Floyd while in custody the officers from the Minneapolis Police Department has brought the need for police reform to the forefront.
"At the Boston Police Department, we are committed to ensuring accountability and transparency, and building trust with our community," Gross said. "These actions that we are taking demonstrate that we are in lockstep with the community who are calling on us to review and reform our policies, and take our community policing model that has positive engagement at its core to the next level."
When contacted by Newsweek,the Boston Police Department declined to comment for this story. Requests to comment from Walsh's office were declined as the mayor was unavailable by publication time.
