Boston committee hears plan to let Dedham and Boston officers act across shared border

The Boston City Council Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice on Nov. 6 held a virtual hearing on Docket 0978, a local adoption to allow police from the Town of Dedham and the City of Boston to exercise police powers within 500 yards of the municipal boundary.

The measure, sponsored locally by Councilor Enrique Pepin and discussed with state Representative Rob Consalvo and Boston Police Superintendent Robert Ciccolo Jr., is intended to reduce response delays and limit legal exposure where the municipal line cuts through buildings, yards and roadways in Hyde Park and West Roxbury.

"We have places where the city boundary runs through woods, through swamps, and in some places directly through the middle of existing buildings," Superintendent Robert Ciccolo Jr. told the committee while showing aerial maps of split properties, including the former Stop and Shop warehouse and other large parcels…