Wu, Cox Highlight Reduction in Murders, Shootings in 2024

 Special to the Times-Free Press

Boston Mayor Michele Wu and Police Commis­sioner Michael Cox, along with Isaac Yablo, a se­nior city advisor for pub­lic safety in the mayor’s office, held a press con­ference at Boston Police Dept. (BPD) headquarters this past Friday to high­light the significant re­duction in the murder rate and shootings in the city in 2024.

Cox began the session by noting that the 2024 statistics represent “an historic run” (which has resulted in Boston being named the safest big city in America by the Econ­omist magazine and the Gallup poll survey), high­lighted by a 33% reduc­tion in homicides year-over-year to a record-low total of 24 and a 14% re­duction in total incidents of gunfire to 307, which also is a record-low.

“We thought it import­ant to lay out what we have done and what we plan on doing about crime and safety in the city,” said Cox. “Our mission is to partner with the com­munity to reduce crime — our mission is commu­nity policing. The goals of the Police Department are to build trust through community partnerships, improve professional­ism among the Police Dept., and to engage the community to find out the best way to use our re­sources to improve public safety.”

Cox then recited a num­ber of statistics, including the 14 percent decrease in gunfire incidents year-over-year and a 37 per­cent decline over the past five years. He said 2024 saw the lowest number of gunfire incidents since 2011 when the city began tracking those stats. In ad­dition, shooting victims have declined by seven percent compared to 2023, by 18 percent compared to the five-year average, and by nearly 40 percent compared to the 10-year average.

Over the previous 20 years, the city has aver­aged 260 shooting victims per year, but over the past three years this has de­clined by more than 100 victims per year; 2024 saw the third consecutive year of declines and the third consecutive year of fewer than 200 persons being shot in the city.

Most significantly, the 24 homicides thus far in 2024 are the lowest number since 1957 and by far the low­est total since in-depth da­ta-keeping began in 2007, representing a decrease of 33 percent compared to 2023 and a 37 percent decrease compared to the average over the past five years.

However, Cox noted that so-called Part 1 crimes, which include aggravated assaults, commercial bur­glaries, and larcenies, have increased by one percent, but overall violent crimes are down by two percent, despite the three percent increase in aggravated as­saults, which is attribut­able mainly to an increase in domestic violence inci­dents.

He said property crime has increased two percent, driven mainly by a 30 per­cent increase in shoplifting. Commercial burglaries are up six percent, but Cox said the data shows the six percent increase is entirely related to shoplifting inci­dents being reclassified as burglaries by perpetrators who have been previously trespassed. Cox said com­mercial burglaries actual­ly are down by 17 percent without that quirk in the stats.

“In the entire time I’ve been a police officer, the city has never been safer from violent crime. I’ve never been more proud of the city and our leadership in terms of crime and crime reduction,” Cox concluded.

Mayor Wu (who began her remarks by speaking in Spanish) said, “Boston is recognized as a national leader in community  safe­ty with numbers far lower than comparable cities.

“Safety is the founda­tion of everything we do in making Boston a home for everyone,” Wu continued. “Safety is not merely the absence of harm or fear or violence. It is the positive affirmation of belonging, of people feeling excited to be part of a community where they are welcome and able to use every op­portunity and every part of every neighborhood.”

Wu then highlighted some of the innovations undertaken by the BPD in­cluding: the sharing of data (that previously had been privy only to the police) with the local communities that provide a shared under­standing of the trends in the city, which in turn has re­sulted in suggestions from the community that have been helpful to the police; the largest and most diverse academy-training classes in many years; a new contract that adheres to the high­est-professional standards; the deployment of com­munity intervention teams that increase visibility and presence; and the rein­statement of weekly youth safety meetings to prevent violence.

Wu also emphasized the interconnection between the reduction in crime and violence with programs in­volving other city depart­ments, particularly those conducted under the aus­pices of the Boston Center for Youth and Families. Wu also mentioned paid summer jobs for youth that reached a highest-ev­er level of 10,000 this past summer; more program­ming in the parks; a dou­bling of the level of univer­sal pre-K; expanded early college through the school system; investments in small businesses; the in­crease in enrollment in the public schools for the first  time in more than a de­cade; and the reduction in chronic absenteeism in the schools.

“It has been an all-hands-on-deck effort,” said the mayor. “This is about saving lives. The most im­portant investment of all is to stop cycles of trauma and violence. When we do well at keeping violent crime down, we do well at doing everything else.

“But most of all,” Wu concluded, “we know there is more work to do. Today is not a victory lap. It is a report out, a reflection of the type of results we can see when we all view com­munity safety as a collec­tive responsibility that we share together and that ev­eryone has a part in.”

Yablo emphasized some of the points made by Cox and Wu. “This has been a tremendous year of suc­cess, particularly in the reduction of firearm vi­olence,” said Yablo. He said that the city has ad­opted three strategies: Fo­cusing on individuals who engage in firearm crimes; looking at how a person’s environment contributes to crime; and positive polic­ing initiatives.

“We have done con­stant monitoring of what the problem is,” said Yablo. “We don’t go into any solu­tions without a constant and up-to-date understanding of where the problems lie. But we are not done. We will continue to get better. We cannot rest well until we are at zero.”

In response to a ques­tion from a reporter about the single-biggest reason for the good numbers, the mayor replied, “Strong co­ordinated leadership, the dedication of everyone moving in the same direc­tion on the cityside and in the community, and having that commitment every day of the year to make this the focus.”

In response to a question about the open drug use that is evident in many commu­nities, Cox responded, “We do drug investigations all the time and have become highly-responsive to our communities.” However, he added, “We’re not going to criminalize mental health issues. But we are doing more with the DA’s office and through the courts to get help for individuals. We didn’t invent the opioid cri­sis and we cannot arrest our way out of it, but we do need to do more to make people in our communi­ties feel safer and we are trying to do that by becom­ing more agile with these teams of officers going into places to make sure that in­dividuals know they will be held accountable.”

Cox also noted that repeat offenders are responsible for committing an outsize number of violent crimes. Yablo added that there is a dedicated unit — whom he labeled, “The ‘stop shoot­ings team’,” — that is fo­cused on preventing firearm crimes by certain individu­als. He said the unit has been tasked with reaching out to young people, typi­cally ages 18-24, who have been involved with firearm crimes in the hope of reach­ing them while they’re still young. He noted that this is important because the typi­cal age for both firearm-re­lated criminals and their victims is between 27-30 years old.

“Boston’s steady decline in violent crime reflects the collective efforts of the Boston Police Department, the Office of Public Safe­ty, community organiza­tions, and strategic invest­ments, including historic funding for youth summer jobs. Community safety requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, addressing cycles of trauma and vio­lence through every facet of city services. Thank you to our police officers, first responders, and advocates for their unwavering com­mitment to protecting our communities,” said District 1 Councilor Gabriela Colet­ta Zapata.