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On December 16, police officers and detectives from the Boston Police Department and the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) shared information about the latest trends in crime within Allston-Brighton at the District 14 Community CompStat.

The event drew approximately 15 attendees, who gathered at the Harvard Ed Portal and was led by District 14 Captain Wayne Lanchester, Sergeant Edward McMahon, and BRIC analyst Jillian Berte.

According to Berte, total Part 1 crimes, which include violent and property crime, are down by 22 percent in Allston and by ten percent in Brighton from 2024. Larcenies were, by far, the most common type of crime with 158 total cases in Allston and 180 in Brighton.

Within the district, Berte also said that District 14 recorded a 4.1 million dollar loss due to fraud. The most common types of fraud are stolen checks followed by scam calls and stolen credit cards. Many of these checks are stolen from mailboxes outside of resident’s homes that may not have a lock or key, making them “easy targets” according to Captain Lanchester.

Lanchester also says that the department is putting cameras around postal boxes that are frequent targets for theft.

Berte also pointed out specific streets where complaints were especially prevalent. For instance, complaints about noises and parties were clustered around Harvard Avenue and the area between Gardner, Ashford and Pratt streets, known as GAP. Cases from proactive patrols in Allston encompassed the intersection between North Beacon Street, Cambridge Street and Brighton Avenue as well as Harvard Avenue and the entranceway to GAP.

In Brighton, residential burglaries, which saw a decrease in cases from 33 to 26 this year, were concentrated around Kirkwood Road, Kilsyth Road, and Allston Street.

Aside from sharing the crime analysis, the CompStat meeting also gave residents opportunities to ask officers and detectives questions about specific cases and concerns about police enforcement, ranging from immigration enforcement to traffic safety to graffiti. 

In response to one question about the District 14 police department’s relationship with Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), Lanchester says that department does not participate in any of ICE’s operations, including transport and intelligence.

“We are very secular as far as not helping with any of that based on state law and Mayor Wu’s directives,” he says.

The Community CompStat is a recent police initiative that aims to share police intelligence and data with the community. The first District 14 Community CompStat meeting was held earlier last year in Brighton, and Lanchester says that he will provide the neighborhood with updates when the next meeting is scheduled. ■