Brookline's investigation into whether the town should remain part of a regional intelligence-sharing network took its first public step Wednesday night, Aug. 6, when four subcommittees delivered status reports to the Police Commissioners Advisory Committee.

Why Brookline is even asking this question.

The PCAC's review centers on the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, a law enforcement "fusion center" that lets police departments in nine municipalities share criminal intelligence, threat assessments and gang database information. Town Meeting voted in May to direct the PCAC to determine whether Brookline should stay in BRIC at all, amid growing concern that shared data could reach federal immigration authorities. "Whether or not Brookline uses it responsibly, we have zero control over how that data gets shared through its existing channels with ICE," Town Meeting member Alec Lebovitz, a co-sponsor of the resolution, told Brookline.News ahead of the vote.

Police Chief Jennifer Paster pushed back on withdrawal in a May letter, arguing BRIC doesn't engage in civil immigration enforcement and that leaving would cut off access to important criminal intelligence, including terrorism-related threat assessments. The stakes feel personal locally: nearly one in three Brookline residents is foreign-born, the second-largest immigrant share in Massachusetts behind Everett.

What the four subcommittees are actually digging into.

The PCAC split the review into four tracks: whether BRIC provides transparent, accurate information; whether its operations meet Brookline's standards on non-discrimination and due process; whether individuals are accurately identified for inclusion in its databases; and whether civilian officials meaningfully oversee the center at all. That database question carries real weight — BRIC's Boston Gang Assessment Database uses a 10-point scoring system factoring in clothing, proximity to suspected gang members, and anonymous tips, and 2019 records showed 97.7% of people in the database are people of color.

What BRIC actually is.

Established in 2005, BRIC is one of roughly 80 federally inspired "fusion centers" created after 9/11, operating within Boston Police's Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis and serving nine communities including Brookline. It received about $2 million in federal Homeland Security grant funding in 2024 — roughly 22% of its budget, according to a Brennan Center for Justice investigation. A June policy memo from Boston's police oversight board found that DHS officials actually have desks inside Boston Police Headquarters as BRIC team members, and recommended separating BPD from federal law enforcement entirely.

Wednesday's session was only a progress check — no final recommendation came out of it. The PCAC must deliver its findings to the Select Board before the next annual Town Meeting, expected in spring 2027.