Medford Looks to Collect More on Police Details

The city council approved a measure last night that could allow the city to charge more for police details.

The city pulled in just over $100,000 in revenue last year through a 10 percent administrative fee tacked on to any police detail in Medford. Mayor Michael McGlynn submitted a request to the city council to increase it to 15 percent through a home rule petition, which needs to be approved by the state's legislature.

The thought of increasing the fee, which has been done in other communities, was first brought to the table in Medford by City Councilor Robert Marks who has supported the increase since 2009.

Marks said he was pleased to see the mayor make a move on the increase, which is expected to provide a slight boost to city coffers.

“Any little bit helps when you’re talking adding a teacher in a classroom or a firefighter or a police officer,” Marks said.

Councilor Paul Camuso was also pleased with the request, but said he felt it should have been done sooner. With the "Fast14" bridge project - a $96 million MassDOT project that will replace I-93 bridge in Medford - already underway, having the increase in place earlier could have brought more money to the city, he said.

“Shame on the mayor on this particular one, because this is revenue we could have received a long time ago,” he said.

The city council unanimously sent the home rule petition to the legislature for consideration.