Arrests Down: Brookline Police Release 2018 Year-End Report​

BROOKLINE, MA — There hasn't been a murder for more than a decade, arrests are down around town - as are assaults and larcenies and crime overall. But there's been slight increases in rapes, robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts when compared to 2017.

"This decline in arrests corresponds with the decrease in crime and signifies that our efforts to put resources in the areas they will have the greatest impact has been successful," said Police Chief Andy Lipson in a letter to the Town Administrator summarizing the data. "This decline also represents our commitment to divert youth from the criminal justice system when practicable and also to work with residents in crisis to get them the help they need."

He highlighted work the officers do to engage with the community as well as the Crisis Intervention Team, which assigns officers to be “case workers” for people who are struggling with things like mental illness, drug or alcohol dependency in the hopes they can help reduce the re-occurrence of a law enforcement intervention.

Between January 1 – December 31, 2018, there were 721 "Part A Crimes," which is a category of crimes that include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft, according to the 2018 Year-End-Review released Thursday by police.

Out of the 721 crimes, there were 5 rapes, 8 robberies, 127 assaults, 64 burglaries, 502 larcenies, and 15 motor vehicle thefts.

There were five reported rapes in 2018, up one more than the previous year. There were eight robberies last year, one more than the previous year. There were 64 reported burglaries in 2018, which is up from 60 the year before. And there were 15 stolen cars in 2018 up from 10 the year before.

There were a total of 127 assaults reported last year, down from the 131 the year before. Of those, 55 were categorized as domestic violence related and four were on police officers. Larceny, which includes package thefts, were down by 25 reported instances last year.

Of the 721 crimes, 133 cases were cleared by court action, 122 cleared by arrest, 70 cleared exceptionally, four cleared through a referral, four closed by completed service and four closed by "other means."

During the year, there were 290 arrests made, down from 360 in 2017.

In 2018, police conducted 26 field interrogations (down from 48 the year before). They issued 9,271 moving violations to drivers and 108,159 parking tickets. Police responded to some 76,000 calls in 2018.

And use of force was used 21 times, compared to 40 in 2017. There were three instances of an officer pointing a firearm at someone, and 17 instances where an officer placed his hands or wrestled someone using physical contact and one instance where someone shot an injured coyote with a varmint gun.

The number of complaints filed against officers with the Office of Professional Responsibility? Two. Compared with the number of calls and how often police are interacting with the public, "that correlates to a 0.00001% rate of complaints," according to the report.

One of the complaints against a white female officer by a white man, for neglect of duty and rudeness, was ruled unfounded. The other complaint was against a white man by an Asian woman for rudeness was listed as "not sustained," in the report.

Speaking of race, the majority of people Brookline Police officers arrested in 2018 were white.

When it comes to the number of times police stopped someone on the street to question them for suspicious activity - much of which is reported by residents - 10 white, nine were black, four were Hispanic/Latino, two were Middle Eastern/East Indian and one was not identified by race. Men accounted for the majority of the field interrogations and women accounted for only 12 percent.

It appears there's a slight uptick from last year in the number of Hispanic motorists who have been stopped or questioned during investigations, as one Patch reader points out. That number is still below the number questioned in 2016, according to the data.

Uptick in number of Hispanic motorists stopped and in # of Hispanics questioned during investigations, though. pic.twitter.com/TSt6wBHEhG
— C. Scott Ananian (@cscottnet) February 22, 2019

Read the full report by clicking on this:

RELATED:

• Crime, Arrests Down First Half Of Year: Brookline Police (2018)
• 5 Brookline Police Officers Recognized (2018)
• Larcenies, Car Theft Up, Most Other Crime Down: 2017 Year-End Report
• Brookline Police Release 2015 Year-End Report

((Have you signed up for the daily free Brookline Patch newsletter yet? You should probably get on that. ))