Last night Chief Richard Wells addressed a gathering of approximately 100 residents at St. Mary’s of the Hills. He was there along with Lt. Charlie Paris and Detective William West to speak about the rash of home and car robberies that have occurred. His message was clear: The mission of public safety is everyone’s responsibility. It was a lesson he learned at a community meeting at the glover School back in 986 and he hasn’t forgotten. “The public is in the mission of public safety.”

Milton has seen a quite a few burglaries recently. Lt. Paris noted that the vast majority occurred at homes that robbed were left unlocked. The same is true of car thefts. So what to do? “I can’t say it enough. Lock your cars at night,” said Chief Wells. Lock your doors, especially back doors.”Thieves will come around the back and during the day when kids are in school and parents at work.” Secure your first floors. An open window with only a screen preventing entry is not a deterrent.

In addition police officials also offered the following observations and advice:

• Get to know your neighbors and communicate with them. Let them know when you are away for a week-end or on vacation
• If you suspect something is amiss, call the police. Call 911. Chief Wells related a personal anecdote. His father who is getting on in years experienced an episode at a local restaurant. His mother promptly called her children who were scattered far and wide. “As I told my mother,” said Wells, “Call 911.”

The problem is not local to Milton. It is regional. According to Wells an increase began to appear in Brockton in 2007 and has spread. The root of the problem is Oxycontin, a highly potent and expensive painkiller. Users have migrated off Oxy onto heroin because it is much cheaper. $80 vs $5. Majority of thefts are from drug dependent individuals and they are opportunistic. That is, they see an open car, they rifle it. If the car is locked they will move on to the next car.

Milton is a good target for B&Es becuse as Wells noted, “When fishing for trout, go to a trout pond.” This is a residential community. Almost every house has a computer, flat screen tv, jewelry etc. These robberies are from folks out-of-town; but car theft is largely people here in town. They are rarely armed and they range in age. Police recently arrested a mother and daughter on drug charges. One in her early twenties, the other in her forties.

Wells also expressed sympathy for the perps and their parents. He related that often people under arrest are often taken to the hospital within hours as result of withdrawal reactions. And parents? “They’ll do anything to get their kids off junk.”

Two groups that came under criticism are Glaser’s Towing out of Hyde Park and a recent corps of door to door magazine sales people. “Do NOT let them in your house.”

Other advice includes:

• Do not allow people to cut through private property.
• Give the impression that your house is occupied even if it isn’t. Leave a radio or TV on.
• Be attentive.
• Keep your garage door closed.

One suggestion that the Police intend to follow-up on is using Town Meeting Members as a communications channel back to the community. They will also make themselves available at block parties, neighborhood association meetings and the like. You can stay abreast of notices on the MPD’s Facebook page here. The department is in constant contact with neighboring departments. They all feed information to massmostwanted.net.

There is also the police tip line at 617-698-cops (2677). Call if you have information that you believe may help the police. And there is also a “mail box” at the front of the station. Prescription drugs and narcotics can be safely dropped in there at any time with no questions asked.

Here is most recent case listed in massmostwanted. Click on image to view actual case and access related links.