Crime is Down 7-percent in Back Bay and South End

In what will be the Boston Police Department’s last crime stats report before the end of the year, the report shows overall crime is down in D-4, which includes the Back Bay and South End. However, larcenies from motor vehicles and commercial burglaries are up 32 percent and 166 percent respectively.

Part One Crimes, the more serious crimes the Boston Police track, are down 7 percent overall in the area when comparing Jan. 1 2020 through Nov. 8 2020 with the same time period last year.

By this time in 2019 there were only 346 reported car breaks but that number has increased to 458. It seems the number of motor vehicle largencies, an opportunistic crime that only takes seconds to pull off, is up all over Boston. Citywide the number has gone from 2,332 in 2019 to 2,932 so far in 2020, a 25.7 percent increase.

“The Department obviously takes great pride in the fact that arrests were made in all three incidents, we would, nevertheless, like to take this opportunity to remind community members to employ common sense preventative measures to protect items of value when exiting their vehicles,” said the statement. “As simple as it may sound, protecting your motor vehicle from a break-in starts with locking the doors and closing windows. Simple? Yes. But, highly effective.”

In fact, simple steps can often spell the difference between your car being broken into and the would-be thief moving on to another, more desirable target.

“More than anything else, thieves look for the easy score,” said the police. “So, don’t make it easy. If you have items of value, be it a cell phone, charger, money or iPad, take them with you when you exit your car. Because if a thief can see it, you can be sure he or she will do everything they can to steal it.”

Commercial burglaries, which shot up 166 percent went from 54 cases in 2019 to 144 cases so far this year.

As for other Part One Crimes in A-1 there have been 2 reported Homicides for 2020, down from 3 last year; Rape or Attemped Rape is is down from 21 to 17; Robbery or Attempted Robberty is down from 128 to 119; Domestic Aggravated Assault is down from 53 to 44; Non-Domestic Aggravated Assault is up from 196 to 241; Residential Burglaries are down from 131 to 123; other Larcencies are down from 1,749 to 1,372; and Auto Theft is down from 131 to 124.

So far this year there have been a total of 2,644 Part One Crimes, down from the 2,829 reported during the same time period in 2019.