Boston City Council approves police intelligence unit funding despite progressive pushback

The vote caps off a political fight that’s pitted the body’s left wing against Mayor Michelle Wu, who was once the council’s progressive standard-bearer.

“We are moving backwards on police reform,” said Councilor Kendra Lara, one of the measure’s opponents. Lara argued that increased spending on the police intelligence unit will contribute to the targeting of Black, Latino, and Muslim residents by law enforcement.

The intelligence center has a broad mission to assess for “all threats and all hazards,” and the data it collects is routinely used in everything from homicide investigations to probing recent bomb threats at local hospitals.

But it’s faced criticism from civil liberties advocates for years, who accuse the center of disproportionately surveilling minority communities. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office is investigating allegations of racial bias in the Boston Regional Intelligence Center’s gang database.