Boston public-safety chiefs describe coordinated plans to protect large events

For the record, At-Large City Councilor Henry Santana, chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice, opened a Feb. 13 hearing on docket 0163 to examine “enhanced public safety measures during large events in Boston.”

The hearing brought together city emergency-management and public-safety leaders, who described detailed, cross-agency planning for parades, festivals and other mass gatherings and said they continuously revise tactics — including vehicle barriers, drones and staged medical units — based on intelligence and after-action reviews.

Why it matters: Councilors and agency chiefs said the city’s layered approach is designed both to protect attendees and to preserve citywide emergency coverage when a large event concentrates many first responders in a small area. Panelists also flagged funding risks: training, specialized equipment and some planning functions have been supported with federal grants that face uncertainty.

City officials said planning for large events is a year-round, coordinated process that uses the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) to assess threats, an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to centralize incident coordination, and detailed after-action reviews to change plans when problems occur. Adrian Jordan, chief of emergency preparedness at the Office of Emergency Management, described the EOC as “a centralized hub for coordination and communication during planned events and unplanned events,” and said it can model conditions, track resources and facilitate rapid decisions.

The Boston Police Department, Boston Fire Department, Boston EMS, Public Works and other agencies participate in event-permitting and operational briefings. Paul Burke, commissioner of the Boston Fire Department, said the department stations apparatus strategically when routes are blocked by parades or marathons so neighborhoods remain covered. Burke added that the department has about 264 members on duty at all times and over 1,500 total members, and that overtime hiring supplements staffing for major events.

Police said their Special Events Unit manages planning and maintains after-action files to guide future responses; the unit also coordinates language-capable officers and volunteers when events draw specific communities. Superintendent Bob Ciccolo, chief of the Bureau of Field Services for the Boston Police Department, said the department routinely recruits officers who speak relevant languages and that neighborhood ties help planners resolve issues with organizers.

Boston EMS described mass-casualty planning and on-foot and mobile medical assets used at large events: bicycle medics, small Class V “ASAP” ambulances, gators/golf-cart responders and a mobile treatment bus (“Tango 10”) with stretchers and on-board physicians. The EMS chief noted Boston EMS handled more than 140,000 clinical incidents in 2024 and transported 93,774 patients, and said the service treats large events as potential mass-casualty incidents and stages treatment areas accordingly.

Agencies discussed equipment and techniques they now use at events: heavy equipment and parked vehicles as protective barriers, drone surveillance, air-quality sensors, and smaller rapid-response vehicles that can move through crowds. Commissioner Burke said, “The drone is probably the most valuable tool we've had in years because it can see everything.” Officials described a long history of vehicle-based barriers in Boston going back to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and expanding after attacks in other countries.

Panelists emphasized mutual aid and redundancy. The fire department described prearranged automatic response assignments that name surrounding towns’ units to respond at each alarm level; police described a Boston-area mutual-aid radio and operational networks that allow immediate, dispatcher-level calls for help; and officials said hospitals run disaster plans and are notified via radio and phone trees when mass-casualty events occur.

Several councilors pressed officials on when the city “elevates” security posture for a given gathering. Police and other speakers said the decision is based on threat and intelligence, crowd composition and the presence of potential opposition groups rather than a single numeric threshold; a peaceful large crowd presents different needs from a smaller, contested demonstration.

Officials reviewed specific operational lessons from recent local events such as the Dominican Festival and the Evacuation Day parade. They described problems that followed high-attendance events — for example, cleanup and resetting city services — and said the city increasingly stages resources during and after events to reduce disruption. After-action reports and neighborhood meetings are used to revise future plans.

Speakers also raised community outreach and preparedness. The Office of Emergency Management said it runs neighborhood programs such as CERT, CPR training and “Stop the Bleed” courses to help bystanders provide immediate care until professional responders arrive. Councilors asked OEM to organize visits to the EOC for City Council members so elected officials better understand operational planning.

Funding concerns: several panelists warned that specialized training, equipment procurement and international peer exchanges were supported by federal grant programs — including Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) and other grant sources — and that uncertainty about federal funding could reduce capabilities over time. One panelist said lessons learned from international exchanges and grant-funded training are difficult to replicate without those funds.

On crowd risks, officials singled out unsafe rooftop viewing and overcrowded unreinforced roof structures as a hazard at parades; Boston Fire urged caution and described plans to locate rapid-response vehicles so crews can reach roof areas quickly. Agencies also described language-access efforts at events and the use of community liaisons, neighborhood organizations and permit-driven briefings to improve outreach.

The hearing produced no formal votes. Councilors and agency chiefs closed by reaffirming interagency coordination and promising continued planning ahead of upcoming large events.

The committee record notes no public testimony was registered for this hearing; the meeting was adjourned by Chair Henry Santana.