FBI agency record
Boston Police Department
Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Serves ~671,262 residents · UCR reported
The Boston Police Department (BPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1854, the BPD is the oldest municipal police department in the United States. It is also the 20th largest law enforcement agency in the country, with 2,713 sworn and unsworn personnel.
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Crime & staffing trends
Summary Reporting System counts from the FBI Crime Data Explorer.
Police employment counts reported to the FBI UCR program.
NIBRS incident detail
Incident-based victim counts reported through NIBRS, from the FBI Crime Data Explorer.
Top 6 of 17 categories shown.
Top 6 of 32 categories shown.
Top 6 of 18 categories shown.
Top 6 of 27 categories shown.
Open data
Analyze BostonPortal
Possible sources (1) — portal matches not yet confirmed
Staffing
- Full-time sworn
- 2,119
- Population served
- 691,531
Source: BJS LEMAS 2020 (ICPSR) · all waves 1987–2020
- Sworn officers (2025)
- 2,172
- Civilians (2025)
- 585
Reported annually to the FBI UCR program; full history charted above.
Open data
POP conference activity
Safe Street Teams ProblemOriented Policing Initiative
2012 · Finalist
District D14: Breaking Entering Solution Plan
2008 · Finalist
Home Safe
2006 · Submission
Operation Cloak and Dagger
2005 · Finalist
Boston Reentry Initiative
2004 · Submission
Unsolved Shootings Project
2003 · Submission
School Impact Project
2001 · Submission
Operation Cease Fire
1998 · Winner
Agencies like this one
Compared by size, crime mix, rates, and staffing within the same agency class · precomputed from FBI trend and NIBRS data. Methodology: agency-metrics/metrics-spec.md
Assessing a response? These agencies double as informal comparison groups: if your trend falls while comparable agencies hold steady, the case that your response worked is much stronger. See the project report template.