On Wednesday, September 4, Curtis Hall in Jamaica Plain hosted the monthly police and community relations meeting organized by District E-13 of the Boston Police Department (BPD). Normally, meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month.
Every month, Officer William Jones from the Community Service Office and Captain John Greland update the community about local crime statistics from the previous month. They also take the opportunity to provide common sense advice for how to prevent crime in Jamaica Plain and to answer questions from community members. Also invited to these meetings are officials from MBTA’s Transit Police and Massachusetts State Police.
As usual, Officer Jones provided copies of a chart comparing the year-to-date Part One crime statistics from 2019 with those from 2018. Part One crimes are those that are more serious in nature, and don’t include lesser crimes such as vandalism, drug dealing or possession of firearms.
In order to interpret the Part One crime statistics, it’s important to know the difference between robbery, burglary and larceny. Robbery is the taking of someone’s property directly from that person using intimidation or force. Burglary, also known as breaking and entering (or B&E in law enforcement shorthand), is unlawfully accessing a building with the intent to commit theft. Larceny deprives someone of their property but it doesn’t include force (like robbery) or breaking and entering (like burglary.) An example of larceny would be bike theft, stealing items out of a car or pick-pocketing.
According to Officer Jones’s chart, so far in 2019 there were 612 reported Part One crimes in Jamaica Plain, down from 696 this time last year, a 12% decrease. Crimes that saw an uptick in 2019 included homicide, rape and attempted, and non-domestic aggravated assault. Crimes that have seen a decrease so far in 2019 compared to the same time period in 2018 included domestic aggravated assault, robbery and attempted, all burglary, all larceny and auto theft.
Officer Jones also provided a comprehensive list of the individual Part One crimes reported in the area the previous month, including the date, time and location of each incident.
According to this list, the month of August saw 9 burglaries (down from sixteen in July), one robbery (down from four in July), 12 aggravated assaults (down from 19 in July), seven motor vehicle theft (down from eight in July), 38 larcenies (down from 54 in July), and one kidnapping (up from zero in July). There were no reported incidents of rape, murder or arson in August.
The police and community relations meeting is on the first Thursday of every month at 6:30pm at Curtis Hall at 20 South Street. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, October 3. A Spanish language version of this meeting is also held on the second Thursday of every month at 6:30pm at 155 Lamartine Street. These meetings are open to the public and all interested residents are encouraged to attend.