Murphy Warns of Dangerous Public Safety Staffing Levels

Boston City Councilor

At-Large Erin Murphy on Monday called for renewed urgency around emergency services staffing levels, citing unacceptable risks to public health in all of Boston’s neighborhoods resulting from a response system pressured to a dangerous extent.

Along with City Councilor Gabriel Coletta, Murphy filed for a hearing to explore increasing emergency services. Murphy, who chairs the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness, and Recovery, said the strain that has been placed on the city’s frontline response system poses an array of dangers, from overworked first responders to unnecessary burdens on the municipal budget through costly overtime expenditures.

“As a Council, we’ve dealt with difficult budgeting conversations in recent months,” Murphy added. “But no Bostonians are thinking about how the Council debated the public safety budget when they’re waiting for an ambulance to help themselves or a loved one.”

In the hearing order, pointing to anticipated population growth, they called it “incumbent upon the City to review and analyze how this anticipated growth will impact our ability to provide basic city services such as public safety responses under fire, police, and emergency services.”

Murphy said that the summer in particular presents challenges, from annual spikes in violence to the health risks to seniors and others from oppressive heat. She noted that, recently, at least one Boston Police officer had been forced to work a 24-hour shift. Additionally, emergency calls to 911 have been met with delayed responses in multiple neighborhoods due to staffing shortages.

“Particularly in neighborhoods that have been

Fallen Branch Blocks O’Connor Way

A sizeable tree branch just fell on O’Connor Way near Andrew Square, between the intersection with Dorchester Avenue and the tennis court. The Way is now blocked off. Fortunately, no one was injured and the branch did not seem to damage any of the numerous power lines in the area. However, one or two cars parked underneath the tree that held the branch may have sustained damage to their bodywork.

historically underserved, we need to be able to provide rapid, top-quality emergency responses,” Murphy said. “That’s very hard to do with thinnedout staffing or with cops, EMTs or 911 who are working the tail end of an overtime shift. I’m in community meetings every week across the city, and people want a more robust public safety and public health presence, not a depleted one.”

Murphy said the city must do a better job of hiring and retaining first responders, citing Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox’s statement to The Boston Globe that the city was “definitely evaluating” leaving the state’s civil service system. Pointing to Boston’s rising cost of living, Murphy affirmed her support for some residency rules, but said the worsening emergency response situation warranted a full evaluation of the civil service system.

Murphy had issued a similar warning last July, when several Boston Police officers were mandated to work round-theclock shifts as a result of major events across the city, including the Open Streets festival in Jamaica Plain, a Red SoxYankees game at Fenway, and a festival in the Seaport District.

Such demands, Murphy said at the time, both impaired officers’ mental and physical health, and created a public safety liability for residents. Murphy has also previously called for increasing class sizes at the Boston Police Academy.