Brookline Police: Major Crimes Down 24 Percent in 2016

BROOKLINE, MA — Major crimes declined substantially in Brookline in 2016, according to updated numbers released by town police on Tuesday.

Those totals, from Jan. 1 through Dec. 26, 2016, are as follows:

• Murder: 0
• Rape: 4
• Robbery: 12
• Assault: 133
• Burglary: 59
• Larceny: 462
• Motor Vehicle Theft: 7

Adherent to past trends, "larceny" is the highest category, encompassing relatively petty thievery such as car break-ins, package thefts and shoplifting. Larcenies dropped precipitously to 462 in 2016, the lowest that number has been in at least the last five years. For comparison, Brookline police reported around 600 larcenies for each of the past three consecutive years.

Burglaries were also sharply down, with 59 reports in 2016 compared with 128 in 2015.

Brookline has not seen a murder since 2007, and that trend remained unbroken in 2016.

The only category that grew between 2015 and 2016 was rape, with four incidents recorded, according to police. In 2015, that number was one. The most reported rapes in any given 12-month period over the past five years in Brookline was six, in 2013.

Image via Brookline Police