JPNA Concerned About Muggings

East Boston resident Steve Holt looks for ways to improve safety in the neighborhood following the recent muggings near Jeffries Point.

East Boston resident Steve Holt looks for ways to improve safety
in the neighborhood following the recent muggings near
Jeffries Point.

Jeffries Point Steve Holt, like many of his neighbors, was shaken up by the recent muggings in his neighborhood.

“I witnessed one of the muggings,” said Holt at Monday night’s Jeffries Point Neighborhood Association (JPNA) meeting. “So I became concerned about the safety of myself and my family.”

While Captain Kelley McCormick was at the JPNA to reassure residents that arrests have been made in one of the cases and there are leads in the others, Holt said he simply wants to work with police and the city to find ways to improve safety for residents.

“The area where the mugging happened is a part of the neighborhood that is a bit iffy and not well lit,” said Holt. “It’s a place where bad stuff can happen.”

Holt said he wanted to hear suggestions from JPNA members and the police on how residents can band together and help improve safety.

Boston Police Community Service Officer Danny Simons suggested forming a Neighborhood Watch Group. Similar groups, like the one of Princeton Street in Eagle Hill, have proved to be successful according to Simons.

“Crime watch groups have led to arrests in the neighborhood,” said Simons. “For example there was one guy peaking into cars where there was a crime watch group and members of the group called and it turns out he had broken into five cars that evening.”

Under the theory that there is strength in numbers, Simons explained that crime watch groups set up phone trees so if one neighbor hears or sees something they call other members of the group.

“Then all those people call 911 and we find when 9 or 10 911 calls are made it seems to work better if there is only one,” he said.

However, Simons said that Crime Watch groups tend to work better in a smaller geographic area within the neighborhood.

“It’s better to do a Crime Watch on a block to block basis,” he said. “We find this works better than doing a whole neighborhood wide effort because the concerns at one end of the neighborhood may not be the same as the concerns at the other end.”

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