Community CompStat, one of the newest Community Policing initiatives of the Boston Police Department (BPD) in Boston, Massachusetts, brings together police leaders and neighborhood residents within local districts for a presentation on recent police data and what it means, a discussion of community concerns, and exploration of problem-solving strategies. Mirroring BPD’s internal CompStat meetings, Community CompStat serves as a platform to exchange information and directly engage with community members to ensure that BPD’s service aligns with the needs of specific communities. 

Community CompStat meetings are held at the district or neighborhood level, allowing for a localized approach. This helps to address specific concerns relevant to each area and ensures that solutions are tailored to the unique needs of each community. These meetings begin with the presentation of crime and incident data, including detailed statistics on recent criminal activities, trends, and patterns. The data is often visualized through charts, maps, and other tools to provide a clear picture of the current situation. Unlike traditional CompStat meetings, which are more focused on internal police department performance, Community CompStat meetings actively involve members of the community. Residents, local business owners, and community leaders are invited to discuss the data presented, identify emerging issues, analyze trends, and provide feedback.  

BPD works with the community to better understand the root causes of crime and other safety concerns and to collaborate on potential solutions with those most impacted. Based on these discussions, BPD develops action plans to address the issues raised. These plans often include specific interventions, resource allocations, and strategies to tackle the identified problems. Additionally, Community CompStat meetings emphasize follow-up activities on previous action plans to provide ongoing accountability to the community. The progress of newly implemented strategies is reviewed, and adjustments are made if necessary to improve outcomes. A significant goal of these meetings is to build and strengthen relationships between the police and the community. By involving community members in the discussion and decision-making process, the BPD fosters engagement and collaboration using transparency to build trust. 

The BPD has a long history of working proactively with the community and forming partnerships to prevent crime and solve problems, as well as connecting those in need with services and support. Serving as a resource to support builds trust with the community, especially marginalized communities in need.  

YouthConnect, a nationally recognized partnership between the BPD and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston for over 28 years, has placed masters-level, licensed clinical social workers in police stations and specialized units with front-line officers. Through this partnership, police officers can refer at-risk youth to social workers, who work skillfully and compassionately to build trusting relationships with the youth and their families and help them make positive life choices. YouthConnect social workers intervene at critical moments when young people are either engaged in or at risk of engaging in delinquent activity by connecting young people and their families with the most effective social services for their individual situations.     

In recent years, BPD has started to center relationship-building between police and community into various aspects of their department. This is best shown by how community engagement is engrained into all 31 weeks of BPD’s Academy curriculum. Every academy class is exposed to distinct groups within the greater Boston community from the time they enter the academy and are strongly encouraged to forge their own, one-on-one connections with community members. This may include academy class trips to mosques, elementary schools, youth centers, and more. In addition to taking academy classes out into the community, BPD has also realized the value of bringing members of the community into the academy space. Academy curriculum frequently allows for community members to come in and speak to academy classes about their lives, perspectives on police, and the realities of their diverse lived experiences. These community members are not simply individuals who are inherently trustful of police, but also are individuals who have had previous encounters with the justice system, are loved ones of violent crime victims, and those who have been vocal or critical about the state of policing in the United States. BPD also invites representatives from local organizations of diverse backgrounds, service providers, activists, and faith-based groups. By inviting in this variety of community members and organizations, academy classes are exposed to diverse perspectives and learn to make one-on-one connections with those they might not normally. 

BPD continues to create innovative opportunities to assist individuals with mental health issues and/ or substance use disorder. For Mental Health Month, in May of 2024, BPD implemented a mental health social media campaign to educate the public on helpful initiatives including:

• Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST): Through BPD’s ongoing partnership with the Boston Medical Center’s Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST), Master’s-level mental health clinicians are assigned throughout the city to co-respond with police to calls involving a mental health component, helping to ensure that individuals experiencing a mental health crisis can avoid further criminal justice involvement while providing them much-needed therapeutic interventions.
• The Street Outreach Unit oversees BPD’s response to mental health, homelessness, and substance use. The unit provides a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training to BPD and other local police, focusing on de-escalation and referral to local resources. The SOU has also standardized BPD’s Section 12 (involuntary hospitalization) responses, and BPD has implemented a new response protocol through Operations (911 Dispatch).  This protocol will be enhanced to allow CIT-trained officers to respond with service units to mental health-related calls.
• The Hub Model is a new way of utilizing and mobilizing resources already in place in different, unified, and dynamic ways to address specific situations of elevated risk before there is an incident that requires emergency response.[1] Hub organizations, such as Mass Housing, East Boston Health Center and up to 50 other service providers, assist individuals and families facing complex challenges that may require services from community agencies or resources. Organizations work together to ensure families and individuals are safe, healthy, and thrive. The model currently operates in five districts in Boston.  These districts convene weekly meetings with multiple service providers based in those areas to discuss critical situations. Service providers then engage in immediate outreach to individuals and families in need of support and services, as needed, to resolve these situations.