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Amid growing safety concerns, officials call for warrant sweep at Mass. and Cass
Multiple elected officials called on police to heighten enforcement at Mass. and Cass after Mayor Michelle Wu said the area had gotten more dangerous recently.
In the wake of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu sounding the alarm about deteriorating safety in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, various officials are calling for a change in strategy.
Mass. & Cass:
Mass. and Cass, the troubled area where mental health issues, the homelessness crisis, and the opioid epidemic collide, has been a focus of Wu since she took office. Despite previously reporting some progress, Wu said Wednesday that the city is planning a “major step” to increase public safety there.
“It has gotten to the point where, even those who are experts and do this every single day have said, ‘It has reached a new level that is untenable,’” Wu said on the online “Java with Jimmy” show.
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At least two elected officials representing the area have made public comments in the days since. State Sen. Nick Collins, in a statement posted to Facebook, said that police need more support there.
“Law enforcement needs to be supported so they can intervene appropriately,” he said. “We have the treatment options for those living at Mass. and Cass. We just need the will to change course from a strict harm reduction and containment policy that is clearly failing. This is a public health and safety emergency, so it requires a public health and safety response.”
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In a letter sent to state and Boston police, state Rep. John Moran called for officers to conduct a warrant sweep at Mass. and Cass, WHDH reported.
Moran also called for a ban on tents in the area, WHDH reported. During her interview, Wu said that much of the criminal activity in the area takes place inside tents and away from public view. This sometimes includes drug trafficking, human trafficking, and the storage of weapons, she said.
Another letter sent to police — signed by Collins, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, state Rep. David Biele, City Council President Ed Flynn and councilors Frank Baker, Erin Murphy and Michael Flaherty — also called for a warrant sweep, The Boston Herald reported. The sweep should specifically target those with histories of drug trafficking, human trafficking, and violent crimes, they wrote.
Tania Del Rio, director of the team appointed by Wu to coordinate the city’s response to the various issues plaguing Mass. and Cass, said in a recent interview with The Boston Globe that there is a definite need to “increase the safety measures.” More weapons have been found there in recent weeks by police and cleaning crews.
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Del Rio told the Globe that many of the people engaging in criminal activity at Mass. and Cass have housing, but travel to the area during the day. Along the same lines, Wu said that most of the people who gather there during the day have housing, whether temporary or permanent, but come to the area to engage in its open-air drug market.
The new public safety concerns could be tied to a spike in the number of people congregating in the area over the past month. After dropping in early July, the daily count shot up again later in the month, according to the city’s online Mass. and Cass dashboard. The city monitors the number of people on nearby Southampton Street everyday both in the morning and at night.
The city also releases data on the number of incidents that BPD officers respond to. There were 185 BPD incidents during the week of July 16, the highest amount since January. The number of BPD incidents fell to average levels the following week.
While they have voiced public safety concerns, both Wu and Del Rio pointed out that the city’s tactics have made progress as a whole. Nearly half the people who were originally living at Mass. and Cass when Wu came into office have moved through transitional housing to permanent housing, she said Wednesday. Del Rio told the Globe that housing efforts have helped “mitigate the size and the scale of the problem” to reduce the number of tents in the area.
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Still, many of those that have been placed into housing are not the people camping at Mass. and Cass now, according to officials. The success of services being offered there is likely drawing people from outside the city and the state, Wu said Wednesday.
“No single city can solve this because the better that any city gets at it, the faster they have to try to expand their services, and it’s just not possible,” she told host Jimmy Hills.
In May, Wu’s administration resumed enforcement of anti-encampment protocols, which banned people from setting up tents on the sidewalks. Many tents still lined the streets there in early August, the Globe reported, but they are regularly forced to move so that city workers can clean the area.
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