WU, local guides create a plan to tackle crime on Boston Common

Local news

When the WU management is a warehouse near mass. And Cass cleared, other areas in Boston saw an increase in drug use and criminal activities. The leaders gathered last week to create a plan.

Boston's officials said last week that they took new steps to end drug use and the associated criminal activities in the city. The heads of state and government, government officials and others met for an important meeting on this topic and soon promise more concrete measures.

The movements come because the residents and local guides continue to express frustrations about concerns about public security in areas such as the city center of Boston. After a concerted thrust to end tent camps and the crime in the area as a measure. And preparing Cass, Mayor Michelle WU and police commissioner Michael Cox are now working to tackle the Spillover effects in the city.

“It is really an update where we are now after three years of moving to the camp in Boston, offer supportive apartments, combine people with services and now work outdoors to the question of the end of the congregate substance use outdoors,” Wu told reporters last week.

We often throw Boston as the “safest capital in America”, with a breathtaking decrease in the murders under their observation. But for months, frustrations have been bubbling among those who say that other criminal activities are not taken into account and that the managed sidewalks are now littered with dangerous needles and other waste.

“We live in a big city and compared to many big cities, we are probably making ourselves really good. But that doesn't matter whether someone is afraid, ”said Cox last week. “We strive for a goal of perfection that does not exist. So we always have to push. “

Last summer, the city councilor Ed Flynn went so far that some already planned events in the city center are canceled due to public security concerns. BPD leader informed the city council in November that they would make a “very conscious pivot point” to adapt to the changing landscape.

“We cannot continue to allow violent crime, open drug trafficking or drug use and other activities in order to negatively influence public security, public health and quality of life for our residents, companies and visitors to Boston. It is important that we work together to ensure that people are treated with substance disorders, and those who pursue people in need or commit violence are arrested and received, if they are justified, a state sentence, ”Flynn said in an explanation to Boston.com.

Next week WU will submit a memo to the city council, in which the recent work on this topic and the steps that your administration takes. It was shared to media members last week.

In the document, the city officials admitted that “new communities of external substance users” and their activities had arisen as an urgent problem after the city was a remarkable warehouse near Mass. And had cleared Cass. The problems were concentrated in the city center near the Boston Common in Roxbury, the South End, Dorchester and South Boston. The increase in the needle pickups, the cleaning of human waste and other problems associated with a large part of 2024 until the weather became colder became an increase in needle collection and memo.

Rishi Shuckla, one of the founders of the city center of Boston Neighborhood Association (DBNA), said that the organization has spent more time in the past 18 months to deal with security than any other problem. He leads this directly to the “sporadic” actions of the city at Mass. And cass who led to the people living there migrate to other areas in Boston.

In November, the DBNA interviewed its members about the problems. They received hundreds of more answers than any other earlier survey, said Shucla. A total of 71% of the respondents stated that they were less secure than in early 2024.

“You effectively have a mini mass and cass on the Boston Common,” said Shucla to Boston.com. “The city simply did not take any measures. They had children who went to school and saw Stichbings on the common. They had human waste on the common. They had needles. Things that just don't belong in a park, certainly not in the oldest park in the nation. Things for which children should never be a witness. “

What the WU administration does

The BPD increases the use in the “wider mass and cass area” and prioritizes other locations of the assembly drug use around Boston. The department also extends the Street Outreach unit. In this unit, additional staff and “their cover capacity will expand to seven days a week. The new staff helps the unit to “develop” the necessary documentation for involuntary obligations. Other BPD officials who have received the right training, but the Street Outreach unit are not assigned, can report to help the unit under certain circumstances.

The goal, said Cox, was to ensure that the coverage of the department is “no holes”.

“We do everything we can to ensure that we are as agile as possible to deal with the development of crime and disorder that happens in the city,” he said.

There are changes in the city's coordinated reaction team (CRT), which helps to help with disorders and homelessness of substance use. The WU administration adds the staff while the team works with the police to prioritize “distraction and distraction” that combine people with recovery services and treatment. The CRT emphasizes “alternatives to the punitive justice system”, which offer treatment, such as: The CRT also expands public relations in the community and convene working groups with neighborhood managers in areas such as South End, Downtown and Nubian Square according to the memo.

The Boston Public Health Commission is expanding its Paaths program, with which people have access to recovery services. A team within the BPHC carries out regular morning and evening routes to help those outside the schools and parks. This team has been responding to calls in the city since last month. In addition, the team visits companies in Hotspots in Boston to offer an overdose prevention education.

The BPHC tries to decentralize the provision of services in order to reduce the consumption of drugs outdoors. BPHC workers are now referring to people who are at mass. Cass and Citywide refer to certain interiors with services instead of delivering materials according to the memo to places outdoors.

The Mobile Sharps team from BPHC is working on tidying up needles seven days a week, but will now have more help with the expansion of crews such as the Newmarket Bid -Back2work team that will use people to recover the streets. The city increases the use of this type of teams with a special focus on the early morning.

Despite the continuing problems, WU is firmly convinced that the city has made great progress during its term. A measure. And a “housing tax” aimed at the cashier, which she supervised shortly after the public lawyer, contributed to taking over more than 145 people in protection and more permanent apartments, and an increase in space with a low threshold lowered the number of people that were temporarily reduced outside of mass and cass.

However, a camp in the nearby Atkinson Street was resumed in 2023, which caused WU to initiate a main phase change. Public security quickly decreased there, and civil servants at that time said that as a non -profit organizations, their public relations work and the police discovered cases of human trafficking and other serious crimes in the camp.

The BPD enforced a new regulation that authorized it to remove tents and other temporary accommodations outside, while new protective beds were added nearby and the city's employees worked one to one with those who had lived outside to find suitable living space. Since November 2023, the city has protected 218 people affected by the regulation.

The violence crime by measure. And Cass sank by 26%after the implementation of the regulation according to the memo.

Reason for optimism?

In the past few months, Shukla said that he had worked with leaders such as MP Aaron Michlewitz, the district prosecutor of Suffolk, Kevin Hayden, and Flynn to find solutions. These conversations culminated by 92 people on Thursday evening, including WU and many from the city and state governments as well as Outreach workers and much more.

The meeting should not be intended to build up the past, but to put a way forward, said Shuckla. He described it as very productive without a “finger”. The DBNA plans to announce a number of formal actions next week that were published at the session.

Despite Boston's low murder rate, Shucla said that the city had to do more last year.

“The reason why we had the meeting of the last night was that the job was not done well,” he said on Friday.

But now at least the city guides and others recognize that more has to be done, said Shucla. His trust in the search for specific solutions is “higher than normally”, but the clock ticks. When the weather warms up, the problems in the city center and elsewhere will probably multiply.

“The failure is not an option,” he said. “We have a few weeks here and we don't have the luxury of time at this point, so it's time to act.”