Mass Police Reform Timeline

This was a project that came out of years of research in collaboration with Mass Police Reform and the Blackstonian which has spearheaded efforts to reform policing locally in Boston and beyond. With this project we sought to provide context for conversations that were happening locally and nationally about policing, especially after the murder of George Floyd in MN. The goal with this timeline and websites like Shot by the Police and other public information initiatives we have done was to harness the energy and focus of the moment to look right in our own backyard at the long history of abuse and killing of innocent civilians by BPD, to look at their history since their inception as the first police force in the country and to point out the some of the consistent problems and how they have been addressed or more often, not.

Starting with the birth of policing in America as a public service of property protection in a time when humans were considered property, we walk through years of incidents, reports, political and bureaucratic developments and stories of the impact of policing on the people of Boston & Massachusetts.

I invite you to explore the full timeline and if you have data points to contribute to please reach out as this work continues.

Mass Police Reform Timeline