June 3, 2024 • 36 mins
As the Boston City Council debates Mayor Wu’s $4.6 billion fiscal budget for 2025, they have proposed amendments totaling $30 million, $18 million of which would be police cuts. Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, says talks of defunding the police at a time when social unrest is high and police departments are having a tough time retaining officers, is “absurdly irresponsible for the citizens of Boston. Calderone joined us to discuss.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray onWBS Boston's news radio. Well, I
picked up my Boston Herald this morning, saw an interesting article that involved cutting
funding for Boston Police Department. TheCity of Boston has a budget of four
point six billion dollars. Now,that's on top of a fifty eight billion
(00:24):
dollar budget for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So our budget is a little The
city's budget is a little less thanten percent of what the entire budget of
Massachusetts is. Of course, Massachusettshas much broader authorities and responsibilities than the
City of Boston. But the oneplace that the city council seems always willing
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to trim and to cut the BostonPolice Department. Last year, the city
Council slashed thirty one million dollars forthe Boston Police Department budget. That was
vetoed by Mayor Michelle wou Thankfully withus now is the president of the Boston
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Police Patrolman's Association. Larry called heronLarry, welcome back to Nightside. It's
too bad that I bring you backso often on these sorts of subjects and
these sorts of issues. What's goingon at the city council that we have
to kind of wave the flag hereand say, hey, you know,
let's stay ahead of this curve.Thanks for having me ondin. I appreciate
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it. And yeah, it's saidthat I'm always on your show talking about
something negative when it comes towards eitherour elected officials, attacking police officers or
passing blame on to the men andwomen that actually provide the safety blanket that
many of us enjoyed day and night. So here we are once again more
grand standing happening by certain city councilorsas they're threatened to take money out of
(01:53):
the police budget again. So therespending money. I don't have numbers,
but I can tell you that Iknow that it wasn't too long ago when
Boston for the first time exceeded abillion dollars in terms of their budget.
And there it's it's there's a lotof there's a lot of programs, a
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lot of programs, but the oneprogram that is absolutely essential to any city
is the police department. Uh,why is it that the police department specifically
seems to me to be the punchingbag for some of our counselors and I
and you probably can't say it,but I'm going to say it, some
of our uber progressive counselors who seemto really dislike police Department, members of
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the Police Department of whatever background ornationality they are. This department is a
much more diverse department in terms ofracial makeup, in terms of gender than
it's ever been in the history ofthis department. And yet these same councilors
seem to want to go after thepolice department, anyone who wears the who
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wears the color blue, whatever backgroundthey might happen to be. I'll say
it like that, I'm sorry,I'm sorry. No, it bothers me
too, and it bothers the menand women that are out there working doubles
all week long providing that safety andsecurity blanket. And you hit the nail
on the head. It's the samecity councilors that want to grandstand, that
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want to make police offices the punchingbag. And I don't know, it
was popular five six years ago,it was popular during the riots throughout the
country and even here in Boston.Sadly, and some of these councilors get
away with this type of nonsense.The name Colin, the blame that they
pass on to the police department.Look, we for the last I don't
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know, a dozen years or so, we've listened to city council after city
council bame blame the police department forgoing into the red on the overtime budget.
They wanted to cut the overtime budget. They want to talk about how
much money above and beyond the overtimebudget that we spend instead of properly funding
the overtime budget year over year,did rather go in the red. It
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gives them something to talk about,kind of look a bait and switch type
of thing as they spend money onother pet projects that they have. So
there's also the consideration Laryer and again, correct me if I'm wrong. We
haven't talked about this in a fewmonths. How many police officers do we
have in Boston these days? Iknow you guys, you folks, you
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men and women in the police departmentwere down in terms of line officers,
men and women who are out thereon the streets day and night. You
were down four or five hundred fromwhere you should have been. Has that
improved at all? Obviously? Whenyou're down four to five hundred and there's
an event in Boston, whether it'sthe Dorchester Day Parade or the Fourth of
July or Juneteenth or Christmas or whatever. People are ordered to do overtime because
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there aren't enough people to cover theregular shifts. Unfortunates are You're down right
now roughly Unfortunately, we are stilldown approximately four hundred police officers from where
we were, Like I said,thirty years ago when I got hired,
and just think about that. Thirtyyears ago we had roughly two thousand men
and women in uniform and right nowwe have approximately sixteen hundred. And absolutely
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we all know that the amount ofpeople living in the city of bus And
has increased tremendously. Just look atthe waterfront alone. So once again,
time and time again, police officersare asked to do more with less.
You talk about working doubles, Ourmen and women are out there working doubles
every week throughout the city. Thedepartment in the City of rob and Peter
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to play Paul, they've taken officesfrom every district and putting them in different
districts on different ships to cover thelow manpower that we have out there.
And it's a dangerous situation. Andthen to add insult on top of being
ordered doubles and days off on vacations. They insult these men and women even
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more by coming out and pretending thatthey need to cut the budget or that
they're going to take millions of dollarsaway from the police department for reasons that
they don't even understand. The realityis the current city council they're not suited
to make this decision. They shouldn'tbe involved in police department business when it
comes to the budget. Police CommissionerCox has testified himself so as as chiefs
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of Staff trying to make the councilunderstand there's different strategies, priorities that are
associated with the police budget. Thistasks that are constantly being added to the
police department, certain responsibilities that comeup, Like you just said, we
have championship parades, we have increasedprotests throughout the city, we have the
college campus unrest. There's potential issuesthat come up every day of the week
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that the city Council is just unawareof, and instead of working with the
Boston Police Commissioner and figuring out amore appropriate budget, they'd rather grandstand talk
about taking money away see if theycan create some headlines in the newspaper and
probably have me getting on the radioto talk about it too. But you
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know, you know here we havean upcoming presidential election at the end of
the year. Surely there is goingto be certain opinions around and the police
department must provide protection to the citizensthat live in the city. And that's
just the way it's going to be, my guess, Council, they don't
understand the job that the police commissionerhas in the priorities of the department.
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I guess Larry called their own presidentof the Boston Police Patrolman's Association. If
you have a question or you wantto ask Larry anything about police work in
Boston. When I get back,I want to talk with you, and
I don't expect you to give mespecific percentages, but I want to talk
to you about the changing face ofthe Boston Police Department that I have seen
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over my time in Boston. AndI also want to talk about the seniority
system, which means that at night, which is the more dangerous time.
I mean, danger can strike atany time, at any time of day
for a police officer, but atnight it's oftentimes the younger officers who don't
have the seniority who are out thereprotecting the neighborhoods of Boston, all the
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neighborhoods of Boston. I'd just liketo talk about that and make people understand
the way the world works. Myguest Larry called her on. If you'd
like to join the conversation, feelfree six one seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
You don't have to be from Bostonto call if you'd like to call and
offer a word of support. Ithink the time has now long since been
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overdue for people to step back andlook at police officers and say, yeah,
there were some incidents, there weresome bad incidents. We all understand
that those officers have been punished appropriatelyso, but it is now time to
take our foot off of the nextof police officers or out they're simply trying
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to do their job, which isto keep all of us safe in our
homes and on the streets of Bostonand elsewhere. It's obviously wherever you find
police officers. Six one seven,two, five, four ten thirty or
six one seven, nine three oneten thirty. We'll be right back on
Nights Side with Larry Caldrome now bentto Dan Ray live from the Window World
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night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Larry, I don't expect you to
pull out facts and figures here,but you you've been a police officer for
what thirty years? Correct? Okay? Tell us what the makeup of the
Patrolman's Association Again, these are thefolks that are out there. We're in
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the uniforms being seen by people.You're right, I'll be careful of the
numbers when we get to how howpathetically low the representation is on the midnight
shift throughout the city, dangerously atlow levels. But when it comes to
the ma cup of the men andwomen answering the calls for service, commission
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of Cox himself was just testifying onCouncilor Julia Maheir's open form last week that
we are the most diverse that theBoston Police Department has ever been. We
are very well represented in diversity.There are still numbers that according to the
Commissioner, he says he would liketo achieve better numbers, but he's on
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the record that we're the most ofus we've ever been. And this is
true in my thirty years, andI am I correct in saying that the
seniority system, which is important toany union, still applies, which means
that a lot of the newer policeofficers, by necessity the younger police officers
and also a greater proportion of minorityand women police officers who are newer to
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the department in the last five,ten, fifteen years, they're still pulling
a lot of the more dangerous overnightshifts. They are it's without a doubt
to younger crowdo and the overnight shift. But I think what's more important that
I'd like to hit on is thepathetically low numbers that we have on the
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midnight shift when we have too fewoffices to actually police the city. We're
not only putting the general public indanger, Dan, We're putting the men
and women that are out there wearingthe uniform in extreme danger when you and
again I have to be careful asthe numbers that I'm going to try and
talk about, but when you takeone of the biggest, biggest geographical parts
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of the city, that being inJamaica, Plain West Roxbury, Rossendale,
and you're staffing that with below andI stress that below the numbers that the
department themselves would consider manimum manning.That's very dangerous when you have a handful
of offices that are at a seriouscall and something else that we're ups in
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another pot in that district. You'renow activating what they call edts emergency personnel
from other parts of the city.Excuse me to come help, basically,
to come help and not only savethe people that need saving and interact with
the violence that may be happening,but to rescue the offices themselves that need
help. So well. As youdraw down from other parts of the city,
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those parts of the city are leftalso at great risk. That is
correct, and that's really what Iwant to get at. And this is
I don't want this to sound like, Hey, I'm attacking the department or
the mayor may have woos done agood job at hiring class after class.
Commission of Cocks consistently talks to thecity council and the mayor and openly talks
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about the lack of personnel that wehave the need to hire four to five
hundred police officers as quickly as wecan get them. You know, some
city councilors like Eddie Flynn and IronMurphy or even Frank Baker before consistently saying
how we need to hire hundreds ofpolice officers, not just three or four
hundred in the next three or fouryears. They need to hire two to
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three hundred for the next five toseven years. Because through attrition, we're
losing one hundred or so offices ayear. So when you're hiring one hundred
and twenty five and you're losing onehundred, you're only met in twenty five
extra bodies. Sure. In addition, you're also losing some officers are transferring
to the fire department. How manypolice Boston police have transferred to the fire
department? The last number I hadwhen I spoke to I think it was
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somewhere around eighteen that we've lost,and that was pretty fire department. How
many members of the fire department havecome into the police department. I don't
know of any, and I couldbe wrong, but I don't know of
anything. How did the city doa year or so ago, Commission to
Cox put out a call for officersfrom surrounding communities to come on to Boston
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and join the Boston Force. Doyou guys pick up a lot of officers
from other communities? No, thatwas an embarrassing test that the commissioner did
put out to get lateral transfers,and unfortunately, we had sixty to seventy
offices that were interested, fully trained, pull certified police officers that could have
lateraled over, but because of thecity's residency requirement, we only attained three.
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So you know, not only arewe struggling hiring people, dan the
amount of bodies going out the doorthat is all lost institutional knowledge that's hard
to come by experience. When youhave twenty five to thirty five year veteran
offices that had been through a marathonbomban who have been through numerous championship parades,
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protests, riots like we've had,you'll lose an experience personnel that really
a teachers, a mentors for theseyoungest officers coming on. And you know,
I'll give some credit here. Wewere able to settle a good contract
with Mayo Wu and there was someincentives to keep senior offices here. But
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you know, this contract's up nextyear and those senior offices, I'm sure
that they're going to head on theirway. So what do we do then?
What happens when we have a massexodus of maybe two or three hundred
more offices in the next two years. Well, I don't know where the
bodies are coming from, but they'regoing to have to figure something out.
And I'll tell you cut in thecity budget, is not it In my
little blurp in the Herald, Istand by that this is not a time
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to cut the police department budget.This is a time to add to it
by the millions. They should becoming up with strategies to hire not one
class at a time, but twoclasses at a time. They can have
a day academy, a night academy. We can use some of the state
institutional academies, like we're utilizing Randolphfor the post certification training. They need
to have two to three hundred officesin the academy at the same time to
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put a dent in the amount ofovertime in the overworked hours that our members
are being forced to put in thestreet. Well, the quote you're referring
to is in Gala Colley's piece inthe Herald today in which you said,
with social unrest so high and policedepartments across the country struggling to hire and
retrain officers, and he talked ofdefunding the police as absurdly irresponsible for the
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citizens of Boston. We should beincreasing the police budget and hiring more officers,
not decreasing it. And that isexactly what I saw in this morning's
newspaper, which has prompted me toinvite you real quickly before I go to
news, and then we will goto phone calls. I promise. You
said that there were eighteen officers wholeft and decided to go over to the
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fire department, which is their right. You said that there are only three
lateral officers coming in from other departments. How many officers, if you know,
in the prime of their careers,not those who were getting out at
sixty or sixty five, but inthe prime of those careers, have left
Boston to go apply their trade andtheir knowledge and their skills and their courage
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in other departments, even in otherstates. As there any total of how
many of those have said I've hadit with Boston and I'm going to Texas,
or I'm going to Florida, orI'm going to North Carolina, or
I'm going to New Hampshire. Well, Dan, over the least couple of
years I've known, if I'm toput a number on it, probably ten
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to twelve that have left to goto other departments. But let me give
you another alarm and number. Iknow several officers in the past year that
have left the police department. Theyhave less than fifteen years in as a
police officer and they have packed upand left to change careers. They've just
left policing all together. And I'msure there's many reasons, but one reason
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that these officers have shared with mepersonally is the lack of time off that
they get from this department. Theyare ordered to work doubles and as you
know, sometimes triples that have comeup. They just can't get time off,
not even vacation time. When theygrab a vacation, many times they're
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coming back into work or the department'scalling them to see if they can come
in, especially during the protest andthe unrest we had, and officers will
leave him because they can't get enoughtime off. And that is a sad
issue to report to you. Andthen we're faced with city councilors. I'm
going to take a shot here atChairman Ways and means Brian Warrel. Here's
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a city councilor represents Dorchester, Mattapan Pots at Jamaica plane in Rossendale,
who consistently and constantly says he doesn'thave enough police offices in and around his
districts. He wants more offices,more walking beats, more community policing.
And then he has the audacity ofthe hypocrisory really to come out and say
that he wants to take money awayfrom the police department. You know,
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it's the hypocrites and the council thatreally rubbed me the wrong way. You
can't have it both ways, ChairmanWarrel. You can't cut the police budget
then behind the scenes ask for moreoffices and then turn around again and complain
about the overages and the red andthe overtime budget. I mean, give
me a break again. Somebody elsethat probably should not be the chairman of
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ways and means because he doesn't understandwhat a budget really consists of. All
right, He's Larry Calderone. He'sthe president of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association.
He is speaking from the heart.He believes in his in his uniform
force leaves in the city of Boston, and I think that he frankly is
pretty disappointed in some of these citycouncilors and you've heard him name some names.
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We'll take some phone calls. Theonly lines that are open right now
are the six one, seven,nine, three, one, ten thirty
number regular, the six month seventwo, five four to ten thirty,
a full six one, seven,nine three one, ten thirty. You
can talk about what we're talking about. If you want to ask Larry called
to her own any question about policework. We have him and we'll stick
with them until ten o'clock or untilall your questions are answered or comments are
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responded to. Back on Night's Side. Right after this Night Side, Dan
Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio, I guess Larry called herond the president
of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association.You're membership now, Larry, what's the
number? Roughly sixteen hundred men andwomen in uniform man's run those calls for
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service down? Sixteen hundred men andwomen and whose families you have to represent.
And again, you've been doing thisnow for a while, so they
must like the job that you've beendoing for them. I think you're a
great advocate. Let's for labor generally. Let's go to Tom in Lancaster,
Massachusetts. Tom, you are nextup on nightside with Larry called around,
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called around the president of the BostonPolice Patrolman's Association. Go ahead, Tom,
good evening, gentlemen. How areyou doing. We're doing just great,
say had to Larry. Go rightahead, Tom. What's your comment
A question? Okay, Dan,As you know when I check in on
the pregame show every day, andyou have to know when I'm working,
I work for time on Boileston Streetat a major retailer. Yes, I
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know that I would not like youknow who. I won't mention at the
moment. Uh. And I monitoredthe police, the police scanner app all
day while I'm working. And youalso, if I'm not mistaken, have
some experience in police work a littlebit, just twenty years in Brooklyn.
Okay, well, say had Larry. He's a brother in blue. Go
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ahead, Tom, Larry. Yeah, Larry, we've spoken before on your
show. Being being a retired Coparetti, I'm working security over there. I
want to know what's coming towards me, So I monitor your your folks working
all day, and it's like callafter coal after call for people shoplifting and
people in the middle of the streetattacking cars and this and that and it's
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the majority of the problems are thepeople from mass and Cash that got uh
you know, chase chased out ofthat one intersection and the spread out all
over the city now people who needmental health services. Indeed, let me
tell you. Let me tell you, I drove out of the Prudential garage
last Friday night and it was thispoor kid. I actually felt so bad
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for him. I was gonna callnine on one myself, and then the
call came over the scanner already asI was getting in the highways, and
he's running up and down Exeter Streetand banging the wall with his fist,
and he has no shirt on andjust jeans, and he may be only
twenty five years old at the most. So it's like, God only knows
what he took. But you know, don't these counselors realize that the drug
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drug epidemic is only getting worse andworse, especially because of the border,
and that is only going to causecrime to get worse, which it is,
And then therefore, you don't decreasea police budget in a major city,
you increase it. Well, John, first, thank thanks for calling.
Thanks for your years of service.Yeah, yeah, thank you,
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And I'll tell you that, No, some councilors don't see that. What
they see is a consistent opportunity totake a shot at policing because they think
that that's still the popular way togo. Exactly, the reason the city
of Boston is considered one of thesafest cities in the country is because we
have a highly educated police force.Their professional day in and day out.
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And obviously you'll work it over inthe district your people all day. I
see people all day when I'm workingthere, and their shoppers can be and
I'm men and women out there.Tom They've embraced everything that the city Council
has pushed on them, whether itbe civilian oversight boards, body cameras,
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you name it. They're doing it, and they do it like professionals,
day in and day out, eventhough they're overworked. And you know,
like I said earlier, we didsettle a great contract with Mayo Wu.
I've seen some members wanted to comeback, and hopefully next year, when
we have the next contract, we'llbe able to make this job super attractive.
And that's really what the city Councilneeds to understand, is policing needs
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to be a super attractive job.This way we can retain experience to teach
the younger offices and attract younger talented, educated men and women that want to
come out here and serve the public. They just don't get it, or
they get it and they ignore itbecause they think it's popular to point the
finger at someone else. So that'swhy we're here. But I thank you
for calling in and what you do, and appreciate your your work in New
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York City and Brooklyn, and andalways keep listen. One other thing I
wanted to mention is just keep inmind what's going on with the border because
the illegal Venezuelans shot two New YorkCity cops last night. Yeah, and
both of the police officers survived.One guy survived because he was wearing a
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vest, thank goodness. And allthis guy, all this guy was doing
was riding the legal scooter down thestreet the wrong way, which happens all
day long in Boston. So thenext time the Boston cop does that guy
forbid, that person has a gunalso, yep, and they know how
to get a gun. That's that'sfor sure. Tom. Love your calls.
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Thanks again for your work in Brooklyn. We talk soon. You work
here. Okay, I can tellyou this, Larry, if any Boston
police officer was in trouble, Tomwould have his back. Let me go
next to Lamar in Boston. Lamar, you're next on nice side with Larry
called wrong, Go right ahead,Lamar. Well, thank you gentlemen for
taking my call. Officer Calderone,do you have any idea to what extent
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a police response to noise complaints posefor your understaffed force? Unfortunately, with
Lamar, I don't have those stats. I don't know how many calls for
service for noise complaints. I wouldimagine that is a tremendous amount of noise
complaint calls throughout the entire city.And I can tell you that we do
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have a structured tiered system prior organizationof calls, and a loud noise call
would be at the lower level.So if your experience in a lack of
response or a long time after callingnine one one, it's because of the
lack of men and women on thestreet. We just don't have the bodies
to answer the amount of calls thatwe get, and sometimes that we're showing
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up an hour two hours late.So I sense of frustration in your voice.
I don't know if that's where you'regoing, but we just don't have
enough bodies on the street and wecan't get them fast enough. Well,
it's not so much that I'm frustrated. I know I have friends who do
complain that there is a tardy orno response from the police when they register
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a noise complaint. But you know, I tell them that, you know,
the police department, not only herebut throughout the country is understaff,
you know, so that also,UH understandably, noise complaints would be UH
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lower priority than than some of theother calls that you know, go into
into the police. Now, nowtell me this. If someone were to
call the police UH to register anoise complaint, would it be helpful if
the complainants gave the police the nameor the contact information, say of the
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homeowner or property manager of the propertyfrom which uh the excessive noise is coming
from. Could the police call theuh uh the management company or the owner
instead of police actually going out tothe property. You would have more success
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with that, WAMAR if you wentto the closest police station the following day
and filled out an official police reportand supplied that information. That way,
it could be followed up by anotherpolice officer or a detective that could reach
out to the management company. Theywouldn't be able to do that over the
telephone. But I do want youto stress to your residents or your neighbors
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that you are talking to where you'resticking up for the police officers, saying
that we're so understaff. Please expressto them that we want them to call
nine one one. This is aquality of life issue in the city of
Boston. As a taxpayer, thatyou have the right to some peace and
quiet. So you should be callingnine on one, and you should expect
that the men and women in bluewill show up and do their job,
which I have full fate that theywill. But unfortunately, sometimes there's so
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many calls you know they're hours behind, or in some instances the call gets
canceled by the department. And thatdoesn't mean not to call. If anything,
your fellow residents and neighbors, theyshould be calling their local city councilors.
They should be emailingnicity councilors and letthem know that you're disappointed with the
council's uh consistent assault on the policebudget. They're not working with police.
(29:11):
With police Commission of Cocks. They'renot understanding the budget and the intricacies of
what goes on at a day today basis at police headquarters. They need
to leave policing to the experts.We have and want a professional police department
to continue service and the citizens ofBoston and that's why you're a taxpayer,
and quality of life is what we'reabout. So that's what they should be
(29:33):
calling, is their local city councilorLamar. I appreciate it. Sure.
One thing, Dan, is itpossible that you could invite the members of
the city council who want to decreasedefund the police budget. Could you invite
them on to your show, andyou know, to so that they can
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explain their rationale. L they had, they have an open invitation. I
am delighted to have any of thecity councilors. We have more success with
some than the others. I willtell you that Tanya Fernandez Anderson has been
a guest on this program before.We have never been able to get Julia
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Mahea to come on the program.Ed Flynn Aaron Murphy have come on before.
We've had several of the other councilorswho perhaps are less higher profile.
I could go through the list withyou if you wanted to call or leave
your number, I can tell youexactly who's been invited and who has appeared.
You're a regular listener. Again,got to be honest with you.
(30:41):
We've had most of the Boston Citycouncilors on the program with different frequency to
be really honest with you during oftentimesit's during elections. They'll come on during
an election cycle because they want tobe on. But I can tell you
that if I can go through themreal quickly. Right now, Henry Santana
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haven't had him on yet, buthe has been invited. She's never come
on. Murphy's come on, Zapota, Gabriella Zavada has been on. At
Flynn John Fitzgerald hasn't been on yet. Brian Morrell has been on, Enriquie
Peppin he's not been on yet.Sharon Dirkin has been on, Liz Breden
has been on, Tan Your Friend, Ends Anderson has been on, Benjamin
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Webber has has yet to be on. We did have Kendra Lawer who was
on, who was caught in themidst of all of those crazy stories,
the car and all of that.She actually came on and had the courage
to come on at an embarrassing periodpoint in her career. So I have
all all different viewpoints and I'll continueto seek them and all of them,
(31:48):
have any of them that you know, they all they got to do is
get in touch with us and wewill put them on trust me. Okay,
Well, thanks so much. Thankscall, You're very welcome, Thank
you much. Take up real quickbreak here, go to wrap it up
with Jeff and west Roxbury and Joeand Cambridge coming up for Larry Calderone here
on night Side now bent to DanRady live from the window World night Side
(32:09):
Studios on w b Z News Radio. Are going to try to get two
in here real quickly if I canfile all the room, Jeff and west
Roxbury. Jeff, trying to getyou and Joe in as well. Go
ahead, Jeff, all right,first form call a couple of quick comments.
No one, I'll come the CityHall. The City of Boston doesn't
have a recruitment department for municipality workers. May be the police department of the
(32:35):
fine apartment. I know that alot of police apartments at the country do
what the problem is here in Bostonas you were saying before. Your hands
are kind of tie because you haveto be living in the city of Boston,
which is almost impossible for a lotof people that might want to become
police officers. So that's my firstthing. You know, they should have
(32:55):
some type of you know, insteadof I know you took it about the
budget. Let me say this.Let me say this, Jeff. It's
a great idea. What's your secondpoint, because I want to also try
to give Joe at least a minutego ahead. What's your second point?
Second point is? My second pointis is that there's always fact to be
trimmed. Can Larry give us oneexample of where they want to trim and
(33:20):
the bushet that's going to hurt policingand more so the citizens of Boston.
Thank you for taking my call.Thank you much, Jeff, very quick
quick comment on that. Yep,Hey Jeff, thanks for Carlin. Couldn't
agree with you more. They shouldhave a recruitment center and something set up
to attract the best the best candidatesfor the job. Unfortunately, I'm not
in charge of that second piece.As far as cutting the budget. So
(33:43):
far, I have not heard fromthe city council as to where they're technically
taking it from other than the overallbudget that they want to cut eight to
ten million dollars from Again, I'mwaiting to see that. But when the
police Commissioner consistently tells them he needsmore money and needs more officers, to
me, it's just totally responsible tocome out here and say they've gotta cut.
You know, their statu with shotspot er a couple of weeks ago,
(34:06):
turn to the budget. Now,clearly they don't understand what the police
Commissioner's rule is in the safety concernof the citizens of Boston. Larry,
I'm going to try to think Joein here. Joe sure, yeah,
you're late, Joe, and Iapologize. I can give you about thirty
seconds for a quick comment. Goahead, Joe, oh worries, Thank
you, Dan, and after Caldron, just real quick. As far as
(34:28):
the budget goes, I Boston needsto listen up and pay attention. Five
hundred thousand dollars to subsize ten newBlue Bike memberships, three point three million
to keep open emergency housing, whichthen is stilled by illegals, you know,
and they're in they're cutting the BostonPolice Department. Aside from that,
Sholto mayor. WU wants to giveeleven year olds and illegals the opportunity to
(34:49):
vote and dole out two million dollarsof the city budget in terms of what
services they want. Absolutely insane.My question to you too, is you
mentioned shot spot or. They claimedit's racist, so you've got to be
quick follow me me gone way pastthirty seconds. Yeah, that'd be great,
shots shot spotter. Where's that stand? And are you ready for the
elections in terms of the safety onthe city come November. Joe, thanks
(35:10):
for calling quick answers ShotSpotter. Weabsolutely think that that is an intricate part
of policing. Neighborhoods need to beprotected. The commissioners all on board protecting
that asset, and so we Asfar as the elections, the police department
will be the professionals that we alwaysand provide protection to anybody in and out
of the City of Boston. Asfar as candidates, they're on their own.
(35:31):
Policing is a professional organization and we'lldo what we're supposed to like we
do every day. Thanks, Joe, appreciate it. Larry Calderone appreciate it
very much. You're welcome here.Anytime, my friend. You know that
great job tonight. Thank you sovery much, appreciate it. Thank you
everybody, and thank the men andwomen that take those calls every night.
They're the ones doing the work.Thanks guys. Thanks. Levy called the
road back right after the ten o'clocknews, going to talk about fifteen dollars
(35:54):
for wait staff.
It's Night Side with Dan Ray onWBS Boston's news radio. Well, I
picked up my Boston Herald this morning, saw an interesting article that involved cutting
funding for Boston Police Department. TheCity of Boston has a budget of four
point six billion dollars. Now,that's on top of a fifty eight billion
(00:24):
dollar budget for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So our budget is a little The
city's budget is a little less thanten percent of what the entire budget of
Massachusetts is. Of course, Massachusettshas much broader authorities and responsibilities than the
City of Boston. But the oneplace that the city council seems always willing
(00:46):
to trim and to cut the BostonPolice Department. Last year, the city
Council slashed thirty one million dollars forthe Boston Police Department budget. That was
vetoed by Mayor Michelle wou Thankfully withus now is the president of the Boston
(01:07):
Police Patrolman's Association. Larry called heronLarry, welcome back to Nightside. It's
too bad that I bring you backso often on these sorts of subjects and
these sorts of issues. What's goingon at the city council that we have
to kind of wave the flag hereand say, hey, you know,
let's stay ahead of this curve.Thanks for having me ondin. I appreciate
(01:29):
it. And yeah, it's saidthat I'm always on your show talking about
something negative when it comes towards eitherour elected officials, attacking police officers or
passing blame on to the men andwomen that actually provide the safety blanket that
many of us enjoyed day and night. So here we are once again more
grand standing happening by certain city councilorsas they're threatened to take money out of
(01:53):
the police budget again. So therespending money. I don't have numbers,
but I can tell you that Iknow that it wasn't too long ago when
Boston for the first time exceeded abillion dollars in terms of their budget.
And there it's it's there's a lotof there's a lot of programs, a
(02:13):
lot of programs, but the oneprogram that is absolutely essential to any city
is the police department. Uh,why is it that the police department specifically
seems to me to be the punchingbag for some of our counselors and I
and you probably can't say it,but I'm going to say it, some
of our uber progressive counselors who seemto really dislike police Department, members of
(02:38):
the Police Department of whatever background ornationality they are. This department is a
much more diverse department in terms ofracial makeup, in terms of gender than
it's ever been in the history ofthis department. And yet these same councilors
seem to want to go after thepolice department, anyone who wears the who
(02:58):
wears the color blue, whatever backgroundthey might happen to be. I'll say
it like that, I'm sorry,I'm sorry. No, it bothers me
too, and it bothers the menand women that are out there working doubles
all week long providing that safety andsecurity blanket. And you hit the nail
on the head. It's the samecity councilors that want to grandstand, that
(03:20):
want to make police offices the punchingbag. And I don't know, it
was popular five six years ago,it was popular during the riots throughout the
country and even here in Boston.Sadly, and some of these councilors get
away with this type of nonsense.The name Colin, the blame that they
pass on to the police department.Look, we for the last I don't
(03:43):
know, a dozen years or so, we've listened to city council after city
council bame blame the police department forgoing into the red on the overtime budget.
They wanted to cut the overtime budget. They want to talk about how
much money above and beyond the overtimebudget that we spend instead of properly funding
the overtime budget year over year,did rather go in the red. It
(04:06):
gives them something to talk about,kind of look a bait and switch type
of thing as they spend money onother pet projects that they have. So
there's also the consideration Laryer and again, correct me if I'm wrong. We
haven't talked about this in a fewmonths. How many police officers do we
have in Boston these days? Iknow you guys, you folks, you
(04:27):
men and women in the police departmentwere down in terms of line officers,
men and women who are out thereon the streets day and night. You
were down four or five hundred fromwhere you should have been. Has that
improved at all? Obviously? Whenyou're down four to five hundred and there's
an event in Boston, whether it'sthe Dorchester Day Parade or the Fourth of
July or Juneteenth or Christmas or whatever. People are ordered to do overtime because
(04:55):
there aren't enough people to cover theregular shifts. Unfortunates are You're down right
now roughly Unfortunately, we are stilldown approximately four hundred police officers from where
we were, Like I said,thirty years ago when I got hired,
and just think about that. Thirtyyears ago we had roughly two thousand men
and women in uniform and right nowwe have approximately sixteen hundred. And absolutely
(05:19):
we all know that the amount ofpeople living in the city of bus And
has increased tremendously. Just look atthe waterfront alone. So once again,
time and time again, police officersare asked to do more with less.
You talk about working doubles, Ourmen and women are out there working doubles
every week throughout the city. Thedepartment in the City of rob and Peter
(05:40):
to play Paul, they've taken officesfrom every district and putting them in different
districts on different ships to cover thelow manpower that we have out there.
And it's a dangerous situation. Andthen to add insult on top of being
ordered doubles and days off on vacations. They insult these men and women even
(06:00):
more by coming out and pretending thatthey need to cut the budget or that
they're going to take millions of dollarsaway from the police department for reasons that
they don't even understand. The realityis the current city council they're not suited
to make this decision. They shouldn'tbe involved in police department business when it
comes to the budget. Police CommissionerCox has testified himself so as as chiefs
(06:25):
of Staff trying to make the councilunderstand there's different strategies, priorities that are
associated with the police budget. Thistasks that are constantly being added to the
police department, certain responsibilities that comeup, Like you just said, we
have championship parades, we have increasedprotests throughout the city, we have the
college campus unrest. There's potential issuesthat come up every day of the week
(06:49):
that the city Council is just unawareof, and instead of working with the
Boston Police Commissioner and figuring out amore appropriate budget, they'd rather grandstand talk
about taking money away see if theycan create some headlines in the newspaper and
probably have me getting on the radioto talk about it too. But you
(07:10):
know, you know here we havean upcoming presidential election at the end of
the year. Surely there is goingto be certain opinions around and the police
department must provide protection to the citizensthat live in the city. And that's
just the way it's going to be, my guess, Council, they don't
understand the job that the police commissionerhas in the priorities of the department.
(07:30):
I guess Larry called their own presidentof the Boston Police Patrolman's Association. If
you have a question or you wantto ask Larry anything about police work in
Boston. When I get back,I want to talk with you, and
I don't expect you to give mespecific percentages, but I want to talk
to you about the changing face ofthe Boston Police Department that I have seen
(07:51):
over my time in Boston. AndI also want to talk about the seniority
system, which means that at night, which is the more dangerous time.
I mean, danger can strike atany time, at any time of day
for a police officer, but atnight it's oftentimes the younger officers who don't
have the seniority who are out thereprotecting the neighborhoods of Boston, all the
(08:16):
neighborhoods of Boston. I'd just liketo talk about that and make people understand
the way the world works. Myguest Larry called her on. If you'd
like to join the conversation, feelfree six one seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
You don't have to be from Bostonto call if you'd like to call and
offer a word of support. Ithink the time has now long since been
(08:39):
overdue for people to step back andlook at police officers and say, yeah,
there were some incidents, there weresome bad incidents. We all understand
that those officers have been punished appropriatelyso, but it is now time to
take our foot off of the nextof police officers or out they're simply trying
(09:00):
to do their job, which isto keep all of us safe in our
homes and on the streets of Bostonand elsewhere. It's obviously wherever you find
police officers. Six one seven,two, five, four ten thirty or
six one seven, nine three oneten thirty. We'll be right back on
Nights Side with Larry Caldrome now bentto Dan Ray live from the Window World
(09:22):
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Larry, I don't expect you to
pull out facts and figures here,but you you've been a police officer for
what thirty years? Correct? Okay? Tell us what the makeup of the
Patrolman's Association Again, these are thefolks that are out there. We're in
(09:43):
the uniforms being seen by people.You're right, I'll be careful of the
numbers when we get to how howpathetically low the representation is on the midnight
shift throughout the city, dangerously atlow levels. But when it comes to
the ma cup of the men andwomen answering the calls for service, commission
(10:03):
of Cox himself was just testifying onCouncilor Julia Maheir's open form last week that
we are the most diverse that theBoston Police Department has ever been. We
are very well represented in diversity.There are still numbers that according to the
Commissioner, he says he would liketo achieve better numbers, but he's on
(10:24):
the record that we're the most ofus we've ever been. And this is
true in my thirty years, andI am I correct in saying that the
seniority system, which is important toany union, still applies, which means
that a lot of the newer policeofficers, by necessity the younger police officers
and also a greater proportion of minorityand women police officers who are newer to
(10:48):
the department in the last five,ten, fifteen years, they're still pulling
a lot of the more dangerous overnightshifts. They are it's without a doubt
to younger crowdo and the overnight shift. But I think what's more important that
I'd like to hit on is thepathetically low numbers that we have on the
(11:09):
midnight shift when we have too fewoffices to actually police the city. We're
not only putting the general public indanger, Dan, We're putting the men
and women that are out there wearingthe uniform in extreme danger when you and
again I have to be careful asthe numbers that I'm going to try and
talk about, but when you takeone of the biggest, biggest geographical parts
(11:31):
of the city, that being inJamaica, Plain West Roxbury, Rossendale,
and you're staffing that with below andI stress that below the numbers that the
department themselves would consider manimum manning.That's very dangerous when you have a handful
of offices that are at a seriouscall and something else that we're ups in
(11:52):
another pot in that district. You'renow activating what they call edts emergency personnel
from other parts of the city.Excuse me to come help, basically,
to come help and not only savethe people that need saving and interact with
the violence that may be happening,but to rescue the offices themselves that need
help. So well. As youdraw down from other parts of the city,
(12:16):
those parts of the city are leftalso at great risk. That is
correct, and that's really what Iwant to get at. And this is
I don't want this to sound like, Hey, I'm attacking the department or
the mayor may have woos done agood job at hiring class after class.
Commission of Cocks consistently talks to thecity council and the mayor and openly talks
(12:39):
about the lack of personnel that wehave the need to hire four to five
hundred police officers as quickly as wecan get them. You know, some
city councilors like Eddie Flynn and IronMurphy or even Frank Baker before consistently saying
how we need to hire hundreds ofpolice officers, not just three or four
hundred in the next three or fouryears. They need to hire two to
(13:00):
three hundred for the next five toseven years. Because through attrition, we're
losing one hundred or so offices ayear. So when you're hiring one hundred
and twenty five and you're losing onehundred, you're only met in twenty five
extra bodies. Sure. In addition, you're also losing some officers are transferring
to the fire department. How manypolice Boston police have transferred to the fire
department? The last number I hadwhen I spoke to I think it was
(13:24):
somewhere around eighteen that we've lost,and that was pretty fire department. How
many members of the fire department havecome into the police department. I don't
know of any, and I couldbe wrong, but I don't know of
anything. How did the city doa year or so ago, Commission to
Cox put out a call for officersfrom surrounding communities to come on to Boston
(13:48):
and join the Boston Force. Doyou guys pick up a lot of officers
from other communities? No, thatwas an embarrassing test that the commissioner did
put out to get lateral transfers,and unfortunately, we had sixty to seventy
offices that were interested, fully trained, pull certified police officers that could have
lateraled over, but because of thecity's residency requirement, we only attained three.
(14:13):
So you know, not only arewe struggling hiring people, dan the
amount of bodies going out the doorthat is all lost institutional knowledge that's hard
to come by experience. When youhave twenty five to thirty five year veteran
offices that had been through a marathonbomban who have been through numerous championship parades,
(14:35):
protests, riots like we've had,you'll lose an experience personnel that really
a teachers, a mentors for theseyoungest officers coming on. And you know,
I'll give some credit here. Wewere able to settle a good contract
with Mayo Wu and there was someincentives to keep senior offices here. But
(14:56):
you know, this contract's up nextyear and those senior offices, I'm sure
that they're going to head on theirway. So what do we do then?
What happens when we have a massexodus of maybe two or three hundred
more offices in the next two years. Well, I don't know where the
bodies are coming from, but they'regoing to have to figure something out.
And I'll tell you cut in thecity budget, is not it In my
little blurp in the Herald, Istand by that this is not a time
(15:20):
to cut the police department budget.This is a time to add to it
by the millions. They should becoming up with strategies to hire not one
class at a time, but twoclasses at a time. They can have
a day academy, a night academy. We can use some of the state
institutional academies, like we're utilizing Randolphfor the post certification training. They need
to have two to three hundred officesin the academy at the same time to
(15:43):
put a dent in the amount ofovertime in the overworked hours that our members
are being forced to put in thestreet. Well, the quote you're referring
to is in Gala Colley's piece inthe Herald today in which you said,
with social unrest so high and policedepartments across the country struggling to hire and
retrain officers, and he talked ofdefunding the police as absurdly irresponsible for the
(16:07):
citizens of Boston. We should beincreasing the police budget and hiring more officers,
not decreasing it. And that isexactly what I saw in this morning's
newspaper, which has prompted me toinvite you real quickly before I go to
news, and then we will goto phone calls. I promise. You
said that there were eighteen officers wholeft and decided to go over to the
(16:29):
fire department, which is their right. You said that there are only three
lateral officers coming in from other departments. How many officers, if you know,
in the prime of their careers,not those who were getting out at
sixty or sixty five, but inthe prime of those careers, have left
Boston to go apply their trade andtheir knowledge and their skills and their courage
(16:55):
in other departments, even in otherstates. As there any total of how
many of those have said I've hadit with Boston and I'm going to Texas,
or I'm going to Florida, orI'm going to North Carolina, or
I'm going to New Hampshire. Well, Dan, over the least couple of
years I've known, if I'm toput a number on it, probably ten
(17:15):
to twelve that have left to goto other departments. But let me give
you another alarm and number. Iknow several officers in the past year that
have left the police department. Theyhave less than fifteen years in as a
police officer and they have packed upand left to change careers. They've just
left policing all together. And I'msure there's many reasons, but one reason
(17:38):
that these officers have shared with mepersonally is the lack of time off that
they get from this department. Theyare ordered to work doubles and as you
know, sometimes triples that have comeup. They just can't get time off,
not even vacation time. When theygrab a vacation, many times they're
(18:00):
coming back into work or the department'scalling them to see if they can come
in, especially during the protest andthe unrest we had, and officers will
leave him because they can't get enoughtime off. And that is a sad
issue to report to you. Andthen we're faced with city councilors. I'm
going to take a shot here atChairman Ways and means Brian Warrel. Here's
(18:22):
a city councilor represents Dorchester, Mattapan Pots at Jamaica plane in Rossendale,
who consistently and constantly says he doesn'thave enough police offices in and around his
districts. He wants more offices,more walking beats, more community policing.
And then he has the audacity ofthe hypocrisory really to come out and say
that he wants to take money awayfrom the police department. You know,
(18:47):
it's the hypocrites and the council thatreally rubbed me the wrong way. You
can't have it both ways, ChairmanWarrel. You can't cut the police budget
then behind the scenes ask for moreoffices and then turn around again and complain
about the overages and the red andthe overtime budget. I mean, give
me a break again. Somebody elsethat probably should not be the chairman of
(19:07):
ways and means because he doesn't understandwhat a budget really consists of. All
right, He's Larry Calderone. He'sthe president of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association.
He is speaking from the heart.He believes in his in his uniform
force leaves in the city of Boston, and I think that he frankly is
pretty disappointed in some of these citycouncilors and you've heard him name some names.
(19:33):
We'll take some phone calls. Theonly lines that are open right now
are the six one, seven,nine, three, one, ten thirty
number regular, the six month seventwo, five four to ten thirty,
a full six one, seven,nine three one, ten thirty. You
can talk about what we're talking about. If you want to ask Larry called
to her own any question about policework. We have him and we'll stick
with them until ten o'clock or untilall your questions are answered or comments are
(19:56):
responded to. Back on Night's Side. Right after this Night Side, Dan
Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio, I guess Larry called herond the president
of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association.You're membership now, Larry, what's the
number? Roughly sixteen hundred men andwomen in uniform man's run those calls for
(20:19):
service down? Sixteen hundred men andwomen and whose families you have to represent.
And again, you've been doing thisnow for a while, so they
must like the job that you've beendoing for them. I think you're a
great advocate. Let's for labor generally. Let's go to Tom in Lancaster,
Massachusetts. Tom, you are nextup on nightside with Larry called around,
(20:41):
called around the president of the BostonPolice Patrolman's Association. Go ahead, Tom,
good evening, gentlemen. How areyou doing. We're doing just great,
say had to Larry. Go rightahead, Tom. What's your comment
A question? Okay, Dan,As you know when I check in on
the pregame show every day, andyou have to know when I'm working,
I work for time on Boileston Streetat a major retailer. Yes, I
(21:03):
know that I would not like youknow who. I won't mention at the
moment. Uh. And I monitoredthe police, the police scanner app all
day while I'm working. And youalso, if I'm not mistaken, have
some experience in police work a littlebit, just twenty years in Brooklyn.
Okay, well, say had Larry. He's a brother in blue. Go
(21:25):
ahead, Tom, Larry. Yeah, Larry, we've spoken before on your
show. Being being a retired Coparetti, I'm working security over there. I
want to know what's coming towards me, So I monitor your your folks working
all day, and it's like callafter coal after call for people shoplifting and
people in the middle of the streetattacking cars and this and that and it's
(21:48):
the majority of the problems are thepeople from mass and Cash that got uh
you know, chase chased out ofthat one intersection and the spread out all
over the city now people who needmental health services. Indeed, let me
tell you. Let me tell you, I drove out of the Prudential garage
last Friday night and it was thispoor kid. I actually felt so bad
(22:11):
for him. I was gonna callnine on one myself, and then the
call came over the scanner already asI was getting in the highways, and
he's running up and down Exeter Streetand banging the wall with his fist,
and he has no shirt on andjust jeans, and he may be only
twenty five years old at the most. So it's like, God only knows
what he took. But you know, don't these counselors realize that the drug
(22:34):
drug epidemic is only getting worse andworse, especially because of the border,
and that is only going to causecrime to get worse, which it is,
And then therefore, you don't decreasea police budget in a major city,
you increase it. Well, John, first, thank thanks for calling.
Thanks for your years of service.Yeah, yeah, thank you,
(22:57):
And I'll tell you that, No, some councilors don't see that. What
they see is a consistent opportunity totake a shot at policing because they think
that that's still the popular way togo. Exactly, the reason the city
of Boston is considered one of thesafest cities in the country is because we
have a highly educated police force.Their professional day in and day out.
(23:19):
And obviously you'll work it over inthe district your people all day. I
see people all day when I'm workingthere, and their shoppers can be and
I'm men and women out there.Tom They've embraced everything that the city Council
has pushed on them, whether itbe civilian oversight boards, body cameras,
(23:40):
you name it. They're doing it, and they do it like professionals,
day in and day out, eventhough they're overworked. And you know,
like I said earlier, we didsettle a great contract with Mayo Wu.
I've seen some members wanted to comeback, and hopefully next year, when
we have the next contract, we'llbe able to make this job super attractive.
And that's really what the city Councilneeds to understand, is policing needs
(24:03):
to be a super attractive job.This way we can retain experience to teach
the younger offices and attract younger talented, educated men and women that want to
come out here and serve the public. They just don't get it, or
they get it and they ignore itbecause they think it's popular to point the
finger at someone else. So that'swhy we're here. But I thank you
for calling in and what you do, and appreciate your your work in New
(24:26):
York City and Brooklyn, and andalways keep listen. One other thing I
wanted to mention is just keep inmind what's going on with the border because
the illegal Venezuelans shot two New YorkCity cops last night. Yeah, and
both of the police officers survived.One guy survived because he was wearing a
(24:47):
vest, thank goodness. And allthis guy, all this guy was doing
was riding the legal scooter down thestreet the wrong way, which happens all
day long in Boston. So thenext time the Boston cop does that guy
forbid, that person has a gunalso, yep, and they know how
to get a gun. That's that'sfor sure. Tom. Love your calls.
(25:08):
Thanks again for your work in Brooklyn. We talk soon. You work
here. Okay, I can tellyou this, Larry, if any Boston
police officer was in trouble, Tomwould have his back. Let me go
next to Lamar in Boston. Lamar, you're next on nice side with Larry
called wrong, Go right ahead,Lamar. Well, thank you gentlemen for
taking my call. Officer Calderone,do you have any idea to what extent
(25:33):
a police response to noise complaints posefor your understaffed force? Unfortunately, with
Lamar, I don't have those stats. I don't know how many calls for
service for noise complaints. I wouldimagine that is a tremendous amount of noise
complaint calls throughout the entire city.And I can tell you that we do
(25:56):
have a structured tiered system prior organizationof calls, and a loud noise call
would be at the lower level.So if your experience in a lack of
response or a long time after callingnine one one, it's because of the
lack of men and women on thestreet. We just don't have the bodies
to answer the amount of calls thatwe get, and sometimes that we're showing
(26:18):
up an hour two hours late.So I sense of frustration in your voice.
I don't know if that's where you'regoing, but we just don't have
enough bodies on the street and wecan't get them fast enough. Well,
it's not so much that I'm frustrated. I know I have friends who do
complain that there is a tardy orno response from the police when they register
(26:45):
a noise complaint. But you know, I tell them that, you know,
the police department, not only herebut throughout the country is understaff,
you know, so that also,UH understandably, noise complaints would be UH
(27:07):
lower priority than than some of theother calls that you know, go into
into the police. Now, nowtell me this. If someone were to
call the police UH to register anoise complaint, would it be helpful if
the complainants gave the police the nameor the contact information, say of the
(27:36):
homeowner or property manager of the propertyfrom which uh the excessive noise is coming
from. Could the police call theuh uh the management company or the owner
instead of police actually going out tothe property. You would have more success
(27:56):
with that, WAMAR if you wentto the closest police station the following day
and filled out an official police reportand supplied that information. That way,
it could be followed up by anotherpolice officer or a detective that could reach
out to the management company. Theywouldn't be able to do that over the
telephone. But I do want youto stress to your residents or your neighbors
(28:21):
that you are talking to where you'resticking up for the police officers, saying
that we're so understaff. Please expressto them that we want them to call
nine one one. This is aquality of life issue in the city of
Boston. As a taxpayer, thatyou have the right to some peace and
quiet. So you should be callingnine on one, and you should expect
that the men and women in bluewill show up and do their job,
which I have full fate that theywill. But unfortunately, sometimes there's so
(28:45):
many calls you know they're hours behind, or in some instances the call gets
canceled by the department. And thatdoesn't mean not to call. If anything,
your fellow residents and neighbors, theyshould be calling their local city councilors.
They should be emailingnicity councilors and letthem know that you're disappointed with the
council's uh consistent assault on the policebudget. They're not working with police.
(29:11):
With police Commission of Cocks. They'renot understanding the budget and the intricacies of
what goes on at a day today basis at police headquarters. They need
to leave policing to the experts.We have and want a professional police department
to continue service and the citizens ofBoston and that's why you're a taxpayer,
and quality of life is what we'reabout. So that's what they should be
(29:33):
calling, is their local city councilorLamar. I appreciate it. Sure.
One thing, Dan, is itpossible that you could invite the members of
the city council who want to decreasedefund the police budget. Could you invite
them on to your show, andyou know, to so that they can
(29:56):
explain their rationale. L they had, they have an open invitation. I
am delighted to have any of thecity councilors. We have more success with
some than the others. I willtell you that Tanya Fernandez Anderson has been
a guest on this program before.We have never been able to get Julia
(30:18):
Mahea to come on the program.Ed Flynn Aaron Murphy have come on before.
We've had several of the other councilorswho perhaps are less higher profile.
I could go through the list withyou if you wanted to call or leave
your number, I can tell youexactly who's been invited and who has appeared.
You're a regular listener. Again,got to be honest with you.
(30:41):
We've had most of the Boston Citycouncilors on the program with different frequency to
be really honest with you during oftentimesit's during elections. They'll come on during
an election cycle because they want tobe on. But I can tell you
that if I can go through themreal quickly. Right now, Henry Santana
(31:07):
haven't had him on yet, buthe has been invited. She's never come
on. Murphy's come on, Zapota, Gabriella Zavada has been on. At
Flynn John Fitzgerald hasn't been on yet. Brian Morrell has been on, Enriquie
Peppin he's not been on yet.Sharon Dirkin has been on, Liz Breden
has been on, Tan Your Friend, Ends Anderson has been on, Benjamin
(31:27):
Webber has has yet to be on. We did have Kendra Lawer who was
on, who was caught in themidst of all of those crazy stories,
the car and all of that.She actually came on and had the courage
to come on at an embarrassing periodpoint in her career. So I have
all all different viewpoints and I'll continueto seek them and all of them,
(31:48):
have any of them that you know, they all they got to do is
get in touch with us and wewill put them on trust me. Okay,
Well, thanks so much. Thankscall, You're very welcome, Thank
you much. Take up real quickbreak here, go to wrap it up
with Jeff and west Roxbury and Joeand Cambridge coming up for Larry Calderone here
on night Side now bent to DanRady live from the window World night Side
(32:09):
Studios on w b Z News Radio. Are going to try to get two
in here real quickly if I canfile all the room, Jeff and west
Roxbury. Jeff, trying to getyou and Joe in as well. Go
ahead, Jeff, all right,first form call a couple of quick comments.
No one, I'll come the CityHall. The City of Boston doesn't
have a recruitment department for municipality workers. May be the police department of the
(32:35):
fine apartment. I know that alot of police apartments at the country do
what the problem is here in Bostonas you were saying before. Your hands
are kind of tie because you haveto be living in the city of Boston,
which is almost impossible for a lotof people that might want to become
police officers. So that's my firstthing. You know, they should have
(32:55):
some type of you know, insteadof I know you took it about the
budget. Let me say this.Let me say this, Jeff. It's
a great idea. What's your secondpoint, because I want to also try
to give Joe at least a minutego ahead. What's your second point?
Second point is? My second pointis is that there's always fact to be
trimmed. Can Larry give us oneexample of where they want to trim and
(33:20):
the bushet that's going to hurt policingand more so the citizens of Boston.
Thank you for taking my call.Thank you much, Jeff, very quick
quick comment on that. Yep,Hey Jeff, thanks for Carlin. Couldn't
agree with you more. They shouldhave a recruitment center and something set up
to attract the best the best candidatesfor the job. Unfortunately, I'm not
in charge of that second piece.As far as cutting the budget. So
(33:43):
far, I have not heard fromthe city council as to where they're technically
taking it from other than the overallbudget that they want to cut eight to
ten million dollars from Again, I'mwaiting to see that. But when the
police Commissioner consistently tells them he needsmore money and needs more officers, to
me, it's just totally responsible tocome out here and say they've gotta cut.
You know, their statu with shotspot er a couple of weeks ago,
(34:06):
turn to the budget. Now,clearly they don't understand what the police
Commissioner's rule is in the safety concernof the citizens of Boston. Larry,
I'm going to try to think Joein here. Joe sure, yeah,
you're late, Joe, and Iapologize. I can give you about thirty
seconds for a quick comment. Goahead, Joe, oh worries, Thank
you, Dan, and after Caldron, just real quick. As far as
(34:28):
the budget goes, I Boston needsto listen up and pay attention. Five
hundred thousand dollars to subsize ten newBlue Bike memberships, three point three million
to keep open emergency housing, whichthen is stilled by illegals, you know,
and they're in they're cutting the BostonPolice Department. Aside from that,
Sholto mayor. WU wants to giveeleven year olds and illegals the opportunity to
(34:49):
vote and dole out two million dollarsof the city budget in terms of what
services they want. Absolutely insane.My question to you too, is you
mentioned shot spot or. They claimedit's racist, so you've got to be
quick follow me me gone way pastthirty seconds. Yeah, that'd be great,
shots shot spotter. Where's that stand? And are you ready for the
elections in terms of the safety onthe city come November. Joe, thanks
(35:10):
for calling quick answers ShotSpotter. Weabsolutely think that that is an intricate part
of policing. Neighborhoods need to beprotected. The commissioners all on board protecting
that asset, and so we Asfar as the elections, the police department
will be the professionals that we alwaysand provide protection to anybody in and out
of the City of Boston. Asfar as candidates, they're on their own.
(35:31):
Policing is a professional organization and we'lldo what we're supposed to like we
do every day. Thanks, Joe, appreciate it. Larry Calderone appreciate it
very much. You're welcome here.Anytime, my friend. You know that
great job tonight. Thank you sovery much, appreciate it. Thank you
everybody, and thank the men andwomen that take those calls every night.
They're the ones doing the work.Thanks guys. Thanks. Levy called the
road back right after the ten o'clocknews, going to talk about fifteen dollars
(35:54):
for wait staff.
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