This week, the Boston Police Department released the year-end crime report for East Boston that compared the overall crime stats in 2020 with the overall crime stats for 2019.
The report shows larceny from motor vehicles, or car breaks, in Eastie skewed the overall crime stats in the neighborhood and were up 100 percent from the previous year.
Part One Crimes, the more serious crimes that the Boston Police track, was up 21 percent overall in Eastie when comparing Jan. 1, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2020 with the same time period last year.
According to District A-7 Community Police Officer Dan Simons the main culprit for the uptick in overall crime was larceny from a motor vehicle.
There were only 107 reported car breaks in 2019 but that number increased to 213 for 2020.
“We ended the year with a 100 percent increase in car breaks,” said Simons at a Harbor View Neighborhood Assoc. meeting Monday night. “Unfortunately I have the report that over this past weekend we did have some reports of some more car breaks up in the St. Andrew Road, Thurston Street and Bayswater Street area. The tough thing with these crimes is the victims that reported these car breaks also reported that they don’t think they locked their vehicles. Ultimately, the best way to put a stop to the car breaks is for everybody to make sure that they take all their valuables into their home or lock them in the trunk and lock their vehicle. Our detectives are finding that probably 90 percent of the vehicles that are victims of car breaks left their vehicle unlocked and there’s no forcible entry. We’re hoping, going forward in 2021, we can bring some of these numbers down.”
It seems the number of motor vehicle larcenies, an opportunistic crime that only takes seconds to pull off, is up all over Boston. Citywide the number has gone from 2,713 in 2019 to 3,348 in 2020 or a 23 percent increase.
As for other Part One Crimes, Eastie nearly ended 2020 with no recorded homicides, but the Christmas Eve killing of Kerwide Barthélemy in Maverick Square became the only recorded homicide of the year.
“We were doing really well with homicides and we didn’t have one until Christmas Eve unfortunately,” said Simons. “We had the assault in Maverick Square that resulted in a fatality. However, I can’t stress it enough that with the community’s help, the help of witnesses and the quick action of the police we were able to apprehend the suspect that was ultimately charged with the homicide. Unfortunately 2019 ended the way it did with just one homicide in East Boston which is one too many.”
Rape or Attempted Rape was down from 10 to 6; Robbery or Attempted Robbery remained the same at 57 for both 2019 and 2020; Domestic Aggravated Assault was up from 41 to 43; Non-Domestic Aggravated Assault was up from 49 to 67; Commercial Burglaries were up from 25 to 29; Residential Burglaries were up from 49 to 56; other Larcenies were up from 199 to 203; and Auto Theft was up from 44 to 51.
Overall there were 736 Part One Crimes, up from the 583 reported during 2019.