Two Boston City Workers Living in Salem, in Violation of Boston Law

Two Boston city workers live in Salem, in violation of a city law that requires Boston municipal employees to live in Beantown, according to an analysis conducted by the Boston Globe.

Historically, the law has not been enforced, and many, including the Boston Police Department's Superintendent Chief, who lives in Milton, live outside of Boston. Managers in the tech department and inspectional services, as well as school administrators, also violate this rule, reported the Globe, which said that 50 municipal employees were in the suburbs. 

The law, enacted more than 40 years ago, has not been enforced, but Mayor Martin Walsh told the Globe that in light of the findings, he would look at the situation.

The report does not name the workers that live in Salem nor does it say which Boston city department they work in.

More than half of the top dogs in the Boston Police Department live outside of the city. In fact, 13 of the 22 are technically violating the residency requirement for police officers. 

On bpdnews.com, the official website of the Boston Police Department, it states,  "You must be a resident of the City of Boston in order to work for the BPD. You also must have been a resident for at least one year before taking the Civil Service Exam required of all potential officers."

Using the Boston Globe's map of municipal workers residency, it showed many of the Boston workers that live outside the city are in neighboring and nearby communities. Milton had the highest number of workers living outside the city, with 18. Somerville has 6.

Salem wasn't the lone North Shore community cited in the study. There is one Boston city worker living each in Beverly, Hamilton, Lynn, Manchester-by-the-Sea and Wenham. Some live as far as Haverhill, Leominster and Newburyport. South of the city, Stoughton has 5, Sharon has 2, Braintree has 2, Randolph has 8 and 4 are living in Weymouth. Medford also made the list with six Boston city workers on the list.

Look at the Boston Globe map here. 

Do you think it's an issue that Boston city workers live outside the city? Is it a law that should have been enacted? Should it be enforced? Ignored? Removed? What are your thoughts? If you had a Boston city job, would you move out of Boston? Share in the comments section.