Boston City Councilors are expressing concern over how the Boston Police Department is using and pursuing surveillance technology.
“We should be able weigh in on that,” said District 6 Councilor Ben Weber.
“The city council should play a leadership role,” said District 2 Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn.
A 2022 ordinance requires BPD to receive City Council approval before forging ahead with new surveillance. But in the city’s 2025 report, councilors say the city and department were using an ‘exigent circumstances’ loophole.
Social media monitoring and two license plate reader trials raised red flags. The report shows 30 license plate reader cameras from Axon in 2026 and 45 from Motorola in 2025.
“We did use Flock, we had a pilot last year and the pilot was stopped,” Weber said, “But the city started using two other vendors to do the same thing.”
As a result, Weber says the loophole needs to be closed, and language changed to allow proper oversight going forward.
“Instead of just approving just technologies in general, the council should have approval of vendors,” said Weber.
Boston Police did not respond to our requests for comment, but the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association did.
BPPA President Larry Calderone wrote in a statement, “We appreciate technology and the impact it can have on public safety when used correctly and with proper safeguards. However, Police officers utilize compassion and empathy when interacting with citizens and we should demand no less. The Department’s overuse of AI, Drones and future robots needs to be kept in check.”
Others on council also indicated their concern.
“Surveillance is important, but equally and more important is having the necessary police officers,” Flynn said.
“It’s a fine balance that we really have to look at,” said at-large Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy.
The issue was referred to the Committee on Government Operations and a hearing will be scheduled in the future.