Crime & Safety

Police, Municipal Workers, Live Outside Boston (And It's Technically Against the Rules)

It's against the law to be a city employee and work outside of Boston. But many do it. Think this is OK?

According to an analysis conducted by the Boston Globe, more than half of the top dogs in the Boston Police Department live outside of the city. In fact, 13 of the 22 are technically violating the residency requirement for police officers. 

On bpdnews.com, the official website of the Boston Police Department, it states,  "You must be a resident of the City of Boston in order to work for the BPD. You also must have been a resident for at least one year before taking the Civil Service Exam required of all potential officers."

Historically, the law has not been enforced, and many, including the department's Superintendent Chief, who lives in Milton, live outside of Boston. Managers in the tech department and inspectional services, as well as school administrators, also violate this rule, reported the Globe, which said that 50 municipal employees were in the suburbs. 

Find out what's happening in Braintreewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The law, enacted more than 40 years ago, has not been enforced, but Mayor Martin Walsh told the Globe that in light of the findings, he would look at the situation. 

Using the Boston Globe's map of municipal workers residency, it showed that Milton had the highest number of workers living outside the city, with 18. Other suburbs on the residency map included Somerville with 6, Stoughton at 5, Sharon with 2, Braintree with 2, Medford had six, Salem with 2, Randolph with 8 and 4 living in Weymouth. 

Find out what's happening in Braintreewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Look at the Boston Globe map here. 

Do you think it's an issue that Boston city workers live outside the city? Is it a law that should have been enacted? Should it be enforced? Ignored? Removed? What are your thoughts? Share in the comments section. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.