Boston Police Overtime Projected to Drop for Third Year as Budget Scrutiny Intensifies

BOSTON — May 7, 2026 — Boston City Council presses BPD on overtime and civilian flaggers during FY27 budget hearing. The Ways and Means Committee, chaired by District 6 Councilor Ben Weber, spent nearly three hours Thursday questioning Police Commissioner Michael Cox and command staff on overtime costs that have exceeded the department's budgeted line by a combined roughly $100 million over the past two fiscal years, according to a public commenter citing figures he attributed to city records. Chief of Bureau of Administration and Technology Lisa O'Brien said overtime is projected to fall for the third straight year, citing reduced injury leave — injured officers have dropped from nearly 300 after 2020 to 58 — and a move away from cookie-cutter event staffing; the St. Patrick's Day Parade alone generated 11,826 overtime hours at an estimated cost of $993,000. On the long-delayed civilian flagger program, O'Brien said the vendor, Extra Duty Solutions, is days from completing a testable product, with full launch targeted for late August or early September 2026, nearly three years after the council approved the initiative. Eight public commenters, most of them youth advocates from Mattapan, Roxbury, Dorchester, and East Boston, urged the council to reject any police budget increase and restore $6 million in proposed cuts to the city's school-year youth jobs program.