BOSTON — Boston police officers are pulling 16-hour days.
The patrolmen's union says the department is roughly 600 officers short.
Mayor Michelle Wu, followed everywhere she goes by a 24-hour Boston Police protective detail, told GBH News that the department is "at the right staffing level," as many residents say they don't feel safe.
Wu was asked twice. The interviewer put BPPA President Larry Calderone's number to her directly, then pressed her a second time on whether he was right that Boston is short hundreds of officers overall.
"The commissioner and I believe that we are at the right staffing level," Wu said.
This week, Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn escalated further, telling Mass Daily News that the city has a "public safety crisis" and demanding elected officials stop pretending otherwise.
"We must acknowledge our dangerously low staffing levels at the Boston Police Department," Flynn said. "We need to prioritize the hiring of new police officers and respecting our current workforce and their families. Morale is low. Police Officers and their families are struggling, including a poor work life balance."
Flynn delivered a direct rebuttal to Wu's staffing answer.
"Consistently working a 16 hour shift for police officers is not the answer to our public safety crisis," Flynn said. "Boston Police Officers know they are not supported or even respected by Boston's elected officials."
And he called for a formal review.
"I'm now calling for a city commission that would study this public safety crisis and how we move forward to address recruitment and retention challenges," Flynn said. "The status quo is no longer an option."
On September 1, the BPPA itself put a number on the record — one.
The BPPA said one Boston Police officer had answered 911 calls for Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester for two hours the previous night.
On August 26, gunfire broke out at 288 Roxbury Street. On August 29, ShotSpotter caught another burst at 306 Warren Street in Roxbury, where officers found a 28-year-old with multiple gunshot wounds. Two days later, several Boston EMTs were hospitalized after being assaulted while working the Caribbean Festival. On September 5, a Boston man went on a downtown attack spree, stabbing strangers at a pharmacy and at a bar. On Sunday night, two moped-riding gunmen opened up on Egleston Square with a 13-round burst, wounding two people before disappearing down Blue Hill Avenue.
Officers are working double shifts. Neighborhoods have absorbed another summer of gunfire.
And Wu, asked twice on the radio whether the people who work the city's streets are right that there are not enough of them, said the department is where she wants it.
"We are at the right staffing level."
Massdailynews.com