Notice from the Milton Police Department (Note: You can “friend” them on Facebook.)

Update to post of 9/4. We appreciate greatly all of your feedback from our post on Wednesday. You raised some good points so we are going to try and address some of them here. The issue of burglaries as we have stated many times is effecting the entire Metro-Boston Region. There are (3) prime reasons why these continue to occur. The main one is the number of dependent prescription and heroin users. This type of daily user which was so low 10 years ago, has increased drastically in a decade.. Oxy use and Percocet’s are the main drugs of choice followed by several others. The second motivator for these criminals is the rise in the price of precious metals. This is why jewelry is commonly a prime target of thieves. The third is the increase in the number of pawn shops. These shops are locations where suspects are able to pawn stolen goods. Law enforcement scrutinizes these locations, but there is difficulty identifying many items that have no serial numbers or significant marking patterns.

Crime Stats:

In Milton, we usually average 45-50 housebreaks in a year. In 2012 these breaks happened on 33 different streets in our town. Of the suspects charged in some of these crimes, they range in age from 19-46 years. They resided in 8 different communities and were of various ethnic backgrounds and comprised of males and females. In 2011 and 2012 there were 69 breaks.

Car breaks up until 2009 were about 70 a year with almost all of them being entered at night into unlocked vehicles. In 2011 that number jumped to 96 but in 2012 dropped to 60.

This year 2013, for the first (8) months both categories are up. The same is true in Boston and other neighboring communities. There have been 78 residential breaks and 131 car breaks. We have made several arrests and identified suspects in others.

The important factor for all of us as we have stated so often, involves the collective effort of residents and the police department working to maintain the quality of life we enjoy in Milton. There is no arguing that society today brings complex issues. One of them is drug dependency. Anyone who works in public health, social service, education, emergency medical care, law enforcement or the judiciary understands this.

In closing. there is no need for fear. This category of crime is not going to shake the foundation that supports our great community. We appreciate all of your help. One statistic that shows just how much residents get involved is the number of citizen initiated calls we do get for “suspicious activity.” In 2009 that number was about 1400 annually, by 2011 that number had risen to almost 1900. In 2013, as of 9/1 that number was already 1200. While many of these calls turn out not to be of criminal nature, this statistic indicates to us that residents of Milton are attentive to their neighborhoods and care about their quality of life. Working together, we will have success with these crimes. We hope this insight is helpful, and thank you again for your help and daily assistance.