'Enough is enough': Boston city councilors call for 'public safety summit' following holiday shootings

Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald on Jul 6, 2026

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BOSTON — Two city councilors are calling for a “Public Safety Summit” following a deadly Fourth of July night in Boston.

“Enough is enough ... I am outraged,” City Councilor at-Large Erin Murphy wrote in a statement after news that two people were killed and 11 others were injured in five shooting incidents that began late Saturday night. The shootings occurred in Roxbury and Dorchester.

Murphy wrote it was, “heartbreaking, unacceptable, and a stark reminder that the status quo is not working.”

She called on Mayor Michelle Wu to brief the full council on an updated Summer Public Safety Plan and to convene a citywide “Public Safety Summit” that would include elected officials, neighborhood organizations, violence prevention advocates, first responders, and residents, as well as state and federal partners.

“We cannot continue reacting after tragedy strikes,” Murphy wrote. “Boston residents deserve action, not talking points. They deserve fully staffed police shifts, safer neighborhoods, and leaders willing to put differences aside before more lives are lost.”

In a letter to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, District 2 City Councilor Ed Flynn also called for a summit “to address violence and crime in Boston.”

“It’s clear we need a new, comprehensive public safety plan that includes hiring hundreds of police officers every year,” Flynn, whose district includes parts of Downtown, the South End and South Boston, wrote.

Murphy noted that she, too, has been calling for hiring more officers.

Both councilors had also spoken out last week after another spike in city violence that included an assault on a police officer and a triple shooting.

Murphy, Flynn and the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association had said that staffing issues were in part to blame for a recent uptick.

“I hate to be the person who told them so,” BPPA President Larry Calderone said, “each week, the city is becoming more violent.”

In addition to the shootings, two people we also stabbed during the same time period, while other crimes like larceny, rape and aggravated assault are seeing an upswing so far this year. Calderone said the department hasn’t been fully staffing shifts or hiring enough new officers to replace retirements.

At a press conference to address the July Fourth violence, Cox pushed back on criticism that there aren’t enough officers on the streets.

“Contrary to the word out there, since FIFA, we’ve got many, many officers working, probably far more than any other time period,” Cox said. “We had a lot of people working, that being said there were a lot of parties last night ... that kind of volume, we’re probably not used to.”

District 7 Councilor Miniard Culpepper, who represents parts of Fenway, Roxbury, Dorchester and the South End, told the Herald in an interview that it was a “terrible night for everyone.”

Culpepper said that, “all hands, all people need to be working on this problem.”

“All of us will work on peace in the city,” he said, adding that he expects to work with Murphy and Flynn. “We want a peaceful summer.”

Culpepper, a pastor who has worked in the community to decrease violence, wants to see a return to a focus on peace, mutual respect and community policing.

“They can’t arrest their way out of this,” Culpepper said, explaining that he believes seeing clergy and community members out with the police, working together, is better than just seeing more police on the streets. “Strong community policing works best.”

Calderone agreed that he’d like to see Boston police return to a community policing approach.

He said that community policing means, “the same officer, on the same beat, in the same neighborhood,” explaining that right now, “we don’t have the bodies.”

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