Rampant overtime spending, chronic understaffing, a failing crime lab and continuing racial discrimination are crippling the Boston Police Department.
The Daily Free Press investigative team analyzed nearly 1,000 hours of Boston City Council meetings with AI-assisted tools and manually verified each instance of BPD-related concerns brought up in the city council. The scope of the findings went beyond any single hearing or single incident.
Across more than 200 confirmed instances from Jan. 1, 2024 to Oct. 1, 2025, a consistent pattern emerged: Core police functions were breaking down simultaneously. Councilors repeatedly raised concerns about runaway overtime costs as a result of severe staffing shortages, the lack of a functional crime lab and the department’s promotional system that a federal judge ruled had discriminated against officers of color for more than 50 years…