On the campaign trail in 2021, the majority of candidates for city seats advocated closing down the infamous gang database maintained by the Boston Police Department and putting a stop to the department’s cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Michelle Wu, a progressive candidate for mayor, was one of those who opposed the motion and was a member of the opposition. As Wu seeks approval from the city council for a three-year, $3.5 million grant that would enable the Boston Regional Intelligence Centre (BRIC) to hire additional staff, she finds herself in the position of standing in opposition to a variety of civil rights groups, councillors of colour, and advocates for criminal justice reform. This is because the grant would allow the BRIC to hire additional staff.
The contentious gang database maintained by the Boston Police Department (BPD) and information shared with immigration officials by the Centre.
“Expanding BRIC with these grants will expand its harms, which have predominantly impacted Black, Muslim, and immigrant communities, as well as activists across the region,” stated Fatema Ahmad, executive director of the Muslim Justice League, who spoke during a hearing held by the City Council on September 29. Ahmad was one of the witnesses.
When asked about her change of position on BRIC the week before, Wu told WBUR that the organisation has gotten better since she took office as mayor two years ago.
She stated that there is new leadership within the police department as well as new structures that have been implemented. “Since that time, the city of Boston has established the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, which is abbreviated as OPAT. In addition, there is the POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) commission at the state level, which is yet another tool for ensuring the responsibility of law enforcement officials across the state.
The Border Regional Intelligence Centre, or BRIC, is what is known as a “fusion centre.” It is one of 79 such centres that have been recognised by the Department of Homeland Security and is intended to expedite the sharing of information between local and federal law enforcement, intelligence, and immigration authorities.
The BRIC serves Boston as well as eight of the surrounding communities and municipalities in its coverage region. Critics of the fusion centres argue that law enforcement agencies, such as the Boston police, have used them to track nonviolent social justice activists, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, while ignoring threats from neo-Nazis and other white extremists. The fusion centres were initially intended to help federal authorities detect and track terrorist threats.
Activists with Occupy Wall Street and other left-leaning groups have been tracked by Boston police officers. However, a white nationalist Proud Boys march that took place in downtown Boston in July of the previous year appeared to catch Boston police officers off guard. As dozens of marchers made their way through the city, they at one point assaulted an activist named Charles Murrell. After a year, no one has been charged with anything in connection with the assault on Murrell.
Officers in the Boston Police Department are responsible for keeping the gang database, which is where they compile information on persons whom they have determined to be members of gangs. This database is maintained by police officials and civilians who work with BRIC. In 2018, the department’s collaboration with federal authorities was brought to public light when agents from the federal Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a teenager from East Boston whom BPD investigators had identified as a member of a gang and launched deportation proceedings against him.
“an erratic point system built on unsubstantiated inferences” is how the Boston Police Department (BPD) determines whether someone is a member of a gang or linked with a gang, according to a decision made by a panel of judges in the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022. This decision was made in the context of a planned deportation of a teenager.
Andrea Campbell, the Attorney General of Massachusetts, made the announcement in May of this year that an inquiry would be conducted into charges of bias within the Boston Police Department’s Youth Violence Strike Force, also known as the gang unit. African Americans account for 66% of people listed in the gang database, although making up only 22% of the city’s total population. According to an analysis of the data that was conducted by WBUR and published by the department in 2019, white people, who make up 45% of the city’s population, account for only 2.3% of individuals who are in the database.
According to Ahmad, the episode that took place in 2018 was only a piece of the larger issue involving the department’s gang database and its information-sharing with federal authorities.
At the hearing held by the Council, she provided testimony in which she stated, “There are countless others impacted by BRIC who will not be able to testify to the Council — and many who may not know that BRIC played a role in their harassment, incarceration, or deportation.” “Expanding the Real Time Crime Centre or any other parts of BRIC with these grants is a massive step in the wrong direction and would undo some of the progress that was made in 2020 by this Council in response to the demands of thousands of community members,” said the council. “The Real Time Crime Centre is a vital resource for our city, and we need to protect it.”
Jillie Santos, the community engagement coordinator for Citizens for Juvenile Justice, testified as well. In her testimony, she mentioned that Lawyers for Civil Rights discovered more than 140 instances in which BRIC shared information about BPS kids with ICE.
According to Santos, a designation of gang affiliation is the proverbial “kiss of death” in immigration court.
Although supporters of criminal justice reform are opposed to BRIC and the gang database, it appears that several councillors are on board with these initiatives. During an earlier meeting of the Council, At-large Councillor Michael Flaherty made a motion to approve the $3.5 million in grants to BRIC without a hearing. However, his colleagues opposed the motion, and it was ultimately defeated by a vote of five to seven. On Friday, Flaherty restated his commitment to the BRIC initiative.
He stated that “public safety is paramount for our city,” and I agree with him. It is what differentiates us from other cities located all throughout the United States.
Ed Flynn, the President of the Boston City Council, shared the sentiment that the agency is essential to ensuring the safety of Boston.
He referred to Boston as an international metropolis in his statement. If these grants and this money are made available to the Boston Police Department, it will ensure that they are able to carry out their vital role.
Others, such as Councillor Julia Mejia for the at-large district, have pointed out that the rate of violent crime in Boston has been going down for several years.
She questioned Superintendent Michael Cox of the Boston Police Department, asking, “Because crime is down, why the urgency to secure this funding?”
Cox noted that the crime figures in Boston have decreased, but he stated that greater resources and manpower at BRIC will be required to assist the department in responding to new threats.
“Crime and criminals — they develop, they grow, and they change,” he explained. “All we’re trying to do is keep up,” they said.
During his speech in front of the public, Alex Marthews, the national chair of the police reform group Restore the Fourth, voiced his displeasure with BRIC for expanding beyond its initial goal of countering terrorism.
He stated, “In terms of threatening groups, in terms of terrorist groups, there is not enough to sustain an office of fifty people.” “There is not enough,” “What we’re seeing is a lot of’mission creep,'” which includes the surveillance of protestors, the data-fueled harassment of young people of colour, and a lot of what you would gently term bureaucratic entrepreneurship, which is an effort to extend the mission.
At the meeting on October 4, the Council is going to vote on whether or not to give BRIC awards totaling $3.5 million.
