The highest-ranking supervisors in the Boston Police Department are expected to receive 14 percent salary boosts, which city officials say is necessary to keep their pay on par with that of the officers they oversee, says the Boston Globe. Commissioner Edward Davis recommended the salary increases, which are expected to be approved by Mayor Thomas Menino.
Taxpayer watchdog groups said such hikes are increasingly difficult to sustain in an economic climate that has caused the city to cut services and threaten to close community centers and libraries. “We're in a very strange period of time to be offering such an extravagant increase at a time when most people are looking for jobs,'' said Matthew Cahill of the Boston Finance Commission, a state- appointed fiscal watchdog agency. The increase would affect 20 superintendents and deputy superintendents, who currently make a base salary of $113,000 to $137,000 and directly supervise the department's captains, lieutenants and sergeants.