By Laurel J. Sweet and Brian Ballou, The Boston Herald
Operation Neighborhood Shield - the Boston Police Department’s violence-crushing shock and awe campaign - has “worked so well, I don’t see us abandoning the concept,” Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole told the Herald yesterday.
Since Aug. 6, Boston and state police in an uncommon union with federal agents have made 186 arrests, conducted 1,203 intelligence-gathering interrogations and confiscated 20 firearms, two knives and some 800 rounds of ammunition.
Three murders occurred in the first seven days the Shield was up, but non-fatal shootings nose-dived 82 percent from the previous week. Firearm recoveries rose by 57 percent, firearm-related arrests climbed 160 percent and drug arrests, 27 percent.
“I’d rather look at a month’s worth of statistics to see how it works out,” O’Toole cautioned, “but at least the early indications are that it’s making a difference.
“We’re trying to tap into as many grant funds as we have available to us so we’re not depleting our operating budget funds in the first couple months of the fiscal year. We’re trying to be as creative as possible.”
O’Toole and Superintendent James Claiborne said approximately 80 percent of this year’s shootings have occurred in the “hot spots” of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and the South End where, year to date, the department’s Youth Violence Strike Force has also made 80 percent of its arrests.
In addition to 54 sector patrol cars, roving “umbrella” cruisers, 33 two-man rapid-response cars and 140 special ops, O’Toole said a dozen four-man units of undercover officers are deployed daily based on where trouble might erupt next.
“You try to remain flexible,” Claiborne said. “Every part of the city is entitled to their fair share.”
Police, meanwhile, are pulling together an advisory committee to discuss networking some 50 portable cameras they hope will serve as another set of eyes for them on the streets with existing private security cameras.
Goings-on could be monitored from headquarters or district stations, but Claiborne stressed, “We’re not going to put cameras in anyone’s community over their opposition.”