On Wednesday, November 6, Curtis Hall in Jamaica Plain hosted the monthly police and community relations meeting organized by District E-13 of the Boston Police Department (BPD).
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 statistics on Part One crimes in October. Part One crimes are the most serious in nature, and don’t include lesser offenses such as vandalism, drug dealing or possession of firearms.
According to Officer Jones, the month of October saw nine robberies (up from eight in September), 19 aggravated assaults (up from 18 in September), and four burglaries (down from 11 in September). Additional public documents provided by district E-13 shows that there were two auto thefts (down from six in September), single incidents of arson and murder (up from zero in September), and zero incidents of rape or kidnapping. There were no reported incidents of rape or kidnapping in October.
In order to keep our streets safe, the Boston Police Department depends on the willingness of everyday citizens to participate in community policing efforts. Successful community policing initiatives have included the use of “phone trees”, a way to alert all residents of the same street at the same time in the event of a crime in process. Residents who dial 9-1-1 to report a crime should know that they may be asked to identify a suspect or to testify in court. Failing that, the suspect would likely go free. While residents have expressed concern about possible retaliation, incidents of this nature are rare and would bring a charge of “intimidating a witness” on top of the original charge.
Boston does have an anonymous tip line where residents can report suspicious persons or activities while also maintaining their privacy. The tip line is not affiliated with the BPD and no identifying information is stored. Tips can be submitted via call or text. Because tips take awhile to get to the right individuals, the tip line should only be used to report recurrent criminal activity such as drug dealing at a certain locale, and not be used for emergent situations. For crimes in progress, 9-1-1 is always the best choice. Learn more about how to submit an anonymous tip at bpdnews com/crime-stoppers-text-a-tip-program.
The BPD puts out real-time crime updates via its Twitter account @bostonpolice. Roughly 530,000 people follow this Twitter account.
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, December 5. This meeting is open to the public and all interested residents are encouraged to attend.