DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE
CONTEXT
WHERE/WHEN APPLICABLE
HISTORY
RESPONSES
TESTIMONIES

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE:
Crimes committed in parks and open spaces in the Heart of the City include littering, motor vehicle abuse, using illegal drugs, violent crime, sexual assault, and murder. The crime in a park is closely related to how much people will use the park and how comfortable they will be when they are there. Crime in a park also relates to the conditions of that park -- whether it is well cared for or neglected.

However, there is a difference between actual crime statistics in a park and the perception of crime in a protected area. People's perception of crime in the Heart of the City can be distorted by old information, ignorance of the facts, racism, or other influences. Perception of crime is typically identified as the most significant concern that prevents outsiders from visiting the Heart of the City and from using the open space resources in the area, particularly Franklin Park. Actual crime statistics in Heart of the City parks reflect that the parks are as safe or safer than those in other neighborhoods of Boston and that crime incidences have plummeted since the 1970s.

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CONTEXT:
Although in the 1970s the media did a great deal to create and reinforce Franklin Park's negative image, in recent years the news media has not portrayed the park in negative terms or associated it with crime in an imbalanced manner. Since 2000, the vast majority of newspaper articles that reference Franklin Park are positive, highlighting cross-country races and festivals, plans for the revival of various historic elements, or the arrival of exciting new species at the Franklin Park Zoo. One Boston Globe article in 2000 even poked fun at suburbanites who "for some reason...think a trip to the Franklin Park Zoo is on par, difficulty-wise, with a trip to Iceland" (Julie Hatfield, "Suburbanites heed the call of the wild," The Boston Globe, June 12, 2000). Some articles have provided neutral information about administrative issues. Few have been entirely negative or associated with crime.

Nevertheless, many outsiders still consider the parks and open spaces in the Heart of the City to be dangerous. According to Simone Auster, director of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, perception of crime is the most significant obstacle to citizen involvement and private investment in the Emerald Necklace (including Franklin Park, the Arborway, and Jamaica Pond). Auster says that the perception of Franklin Park remains markedly negative in the minds of potential visitors to the area.

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WHERE/ WHEN APPLICABLE:
Overview:
According to the Boston Police Department 2000 Summary Report, there were no homicides in the major protected areas (Franklin Park, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Pond, Forest Hills Cemetery, and the Boston State Hospital site) during that year. Three aggravated assaults occurred in the parks (two in the Arboretum and one in Franklin Park). Two robberies/ attempted robberies occurred in the parks (one in the Arboretum and two in Franklin Park). No rapes/ attempted rapes were committed in 2000 in the parks. However, one incident occurred within a block of Jamaica Pond and six rapes/ attempted rapes occurred around the perimeter of Franklin Park. Several aggravated assaults and robberies/ attempted robberies also occurred along the perimeter of Franklin Park over the course of the year.

Boston Nature Center and Forest Hills Cemetery:
The Boston Police Department records crimes that occur in the city by dividing up the neighborhoods into reporting areas. Police include Boston State Hospital site and the Forest Hills Cemetery in a single reporting area. (Reporting Area #565). Between 1999 and 2002, reported crime in Reporting Area 565 was low in comparison to reported crime in other protected lands in the Heart of the City. Violent crime in Reporting Area #565 dropped significantly between 1999 and 2001. 

Between 1999 and 2001, there were nine times as many property crimes reported in the Arnold Arboretum area as there were in the Boston State Hospital site and Forest Hills Cemetery combined. There were also more violent crimes in the Arnold Arboretum over this same time period. While the average number of total reported crimes per year in the Arboretum between 1999 and 2001 was 126, the average number of reported crimes in the Boston State Hospital site/ Forest Hills Cemetery was 46.

Boston State Hospital site/ Boston Nature Center:
The Boston Nature Center is a state-owned property that is monitored by an on-site security guard. The security guard focuses on preventing dumping on the property. Undercover police patrol the area surrounding the Nature Center.

The West Campus of the former Boston State Hospital was the site of a high profile murder of a 14-year-old girl and her unborn child in 1999. According to Gary Clayton, vice president of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, this incident, coupled with the fact that much of the site has gone unused for decades, contributes to the lingering reputation of the area as dangerous. However, as noted above, both violent and property crimes on the entire Boston State Hospital site are less frequent than in other areas that are perceived as safer, such as the Arnold Arboretum.

Franklin Park:
According to Boston Police Department statistics, Franklin Park had less criminal activity than any other large public park in Boston in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Franklin Park Master Plan, 1991).

In recent years, Franklin Park and its immediate surroundings have experienced a higher number of violent crimes than other parks and protected areas in the Heart of the City. Between 1999 and 2001, an average of 22 violent crimes were committed per year in and around Franklin Park, while only four violent crimes were committed in and around the Arnold Arboretum. On the other hand, the Arnold Arboretum had an average of 18% more property crimes over the same time period than did Franklin Park. An average of 55 property crimes per year were committed in and around the Arboretum and 48 property crimes were committed in and around Franklin Park.

Drug use, littering, and animal sacrifice were all regular problems in Franklin Park in 2002. Between 1999 and 2001, there was an average of 16 reported drug incidences per year in Franklin Park. Littering is problematic in areas of the park that do not appear cared for, such as the area next to Shattuck Hospital between Cemetery Road and Morton Street in Jamaica Plain. Despite these problems, informal surveys of walkers indicate that over the past several years, people have felt increasingly comfortable and safe walking alone in most of the wooded areas of the park during the day.

Arnold Arboretum:
Vandalism and larceny/ attempted larceny have been the most frequently reported crimes in this area, according to the Boston Police Department. Between 1999 and 2001, there have been an average of two or three reported drug incidences in the Arnold Aboretum per year.

Because of the special nature of the living plant collections in the Arnold Arboretum, vandalism that affects the trees and shrubs on display is particularly onerous to the botanical research staff there. In the early 1960s, an entity calling itself the "Shot Brothers" set fires in the Arnold Arboretum that damaged and cut down entire groves of trees. A large part of the extremely valuable bonsai collection was also stolen in the 1980s. In the 1990s, people peeled the bark off of entire trees and drew on them. Littering and vandalism have been sporadically problematic throughout the years.

Jamaica Pond:
In 2002, most users of Jamaica Pond say that they feel confident of their safety while they are walking or running around the perimeter of the pond. Even in the early mornings in the wintertime, walkers and joggers are typically found circling the 1.5 mile loop. The loop is visible and there is a sense that people are constantly walking by. Despite this, in 2002, according to the E-13 Police District that patrols the Pond, there was a sexual assault by a repeat sexual offender in the daytime at Jamaica Pond that shocked many park users.

Erie-Ellington Playground:
A 15-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet at the Erie-Ellington Playground in Dorchester in August 2004. She was treated for non-life threatening injuries.  The girl was with friends at the playground shortly after midnight when a gunman emerged from a minivan and opened fire on the group ("Girl Grazed By Bullet In Shooting In Boston Park," The Associated Press, August 4, 2004).

Other parks:
The fatal shooting of 10-year-old Trina Persad as she left a neighborhood park in Roxbury in July 2002 exemplified the problem of unsafe civic spaces and harked back to the similar shooting of Tiffany Moore in the 1980s. Both Moore and Persad were unintended victims of gang violence in the Grove Hall area.

In addition to the 2004 shooting at the Erie-Ellington Playground, and the murder of youth basketball coach Biggie Gaines in Roxbury that same summer, there were other incidents of shootings in parks around the city during the summer of 2004.  Another 15-year-old girl was grazed by bullets in the hand and neck at a playground in Dorchester while waiting for a pizza.  An 11-year-old boy was struck by a stray bullet as he was trying out for a youth football team at a Roxbury playground, seriously injuring him. (Chase Davis, "2 Teens Are Shot Playing Outside Neighbors Say Gunfire Came From Vehicle," The Boston Globe, September 11, 2005).

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HISTORY:
Detailed histories of crime in protected areas are not always available in the Heart of the City. However, the story of Franklin Park serves as a window into policing and crime in protected areas of the city, and how they have changed over time.

Through the first half of the 1900s, minor policing problems existed in Franklin Park, but the area was generally considered safe. In 1921, residents insisted on good policing in the park. Boston Parks Department Annual Reports for Franklin Park (1911-1926) recall that "Franklin Park is a favorite gathering ground in the evening, for "gangs" or youth on mischief bent. Often their pranks take the form of cruelty and vandalism" (p18). In comparison with later crime that occured in Franklin Park, this "mischief" was mild. Frank O'Brien, who grew up playing in the park as a child in the 1930s and 1940s, cannot remember any problems with safety. According to O'Brien, children explored and played baseball in the park without adult supervision at that time.

Public safety in the park degenerated in the late 1960s. By 1969, according to a history of Franklin Park entitled "Franklin Park: A Century's Appraisal," in the wake of race riots and poor relations between communities and police, the police publicly declared a "hands-off policy" for Franklin Park and left the park to police itself. Crime was further facilitated by the fact that, at the time, motor vehicles had almost unlimited access to the park. Public safety began to improve only after the Parks Department blocked old carriage entrances and internal spaces of the park to vehicular traffic. By 1984, the City had assigned ten Park Rangers to Franklin Park. Although the rangers had no police powers, they helped to bring about order and had a positive impact on decreasing crime (Mirsky, Who lost the Emerald Necklace? In search of Franklin Park, 1979).

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RESPONSES:
Overall Police Jurisdiction:
The three primary Police Districts in the Heart of the City are B-3 (Mattapan and Dorchester southeast of Franklin Park), B-2 (Roxbury and Dorchester northeast of Franklin Park), and E-13 (most of Jamaica Plain). Parts of E-18 and E-5 are also included. Franklin Park is part of B-2; Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum are part of E-13; the Forest Hills Cemetery and Boston State Hospital site are part of E-18, which extends south to encompass Hyde Park and the city limits; and Franklin Field is part of B-3.

In the summer of 2004, Mayor Menino, responding to a four-day wave of gun violence in Boston neighborhoods, ordered city parks and playgrounds closed a half-hour earlier each night, in addition to increased patrols of the areas.

Menino and former Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole met with community leaders to create a plan to keep the parks safe and accessible for those who wish to enjoy themselves.  Menino was quoted as saying, "It's frustrating because these playgrounds should be safe havens."  ("Girl Grazed By Bullet In Shooting In Boston Park," The Associated Press, August 5, 2004)

Boston Police said they may move high-powered surveillance video cameras to the parks that are considered hot spots for crime.  These surveillance cameras were used for security during the Democratic National Convention (Donovan Slack, "Menino Boots Patrols After Girl Shot In Park," The Boston Globe, August 5, 2004).

Police District B-3 is infamously known as "the corridor." The corridor is a one mile stretch from Talbot Street in Dorchester to Morton Street in Mattapan. In 2004, 16 people were murdered and another 26 were shot in this area, making up 39% of Boston's murder victims. For the fiscal years of 2005 and 2006, a $500,000 State grant pays for the overtime of police officers at this dangerous location. The increased police protection may have attributed to the decrease in violent crimes, as the rate dropped down to 12% in the last few months of 2004 (Michelle McPhee, "Blitz tackles Violent Crime; Deadly 'Corridor' Becoming Safe Again," The Boston Globe, January 14, 2005).

Franklin Park:
Multiple, uncoordinated law enforcement groups patrol various parts of Franklin Park. These include municipal police, state police, B-2, B-3, and E-13 City police, the City's Park Rangers, Shattuck Shelter private security guards, Franklin Park Zoo security, and MBTA security (Christine Poff, director of the Franklin Park Coalition, pers. com. 2002). The entirety of Franklin Park technically lies within the jurisdiction of B2, but both E13 and B3 police forces have responsibility for the edge of Franklin Park. State Police are responsible for Shattuck Hospital (and the prisoners being treated there) and Shattuck Shelter. Some of these entities are unclear about their jurisdictions within the park and the public does not know where to report crimes.

As one officer put it, "Franklin Park is no where in particular -- sort of somewhere in the middle." In 2002, the Franklin Park Coalition is bringing these various law enforcement officials together to coordinate their coverage of the park and share ideas and information.

Boston Nature Center:
According to Gary Clayton of Mass Audubon, policing the property and decreasing crime are not part of the mission of his organization or the Boston Nature Center. However, personal security is important to both and the Center contributes to transforming the image of the area.

Arnold Arboretum:
The Boston Police Department is responsible for patrolling the Arnold Arboretum during the day. Unlike all the other parks in the Heart of the City, the gates of the Arnold Arboretum are closed at night, which means illegal activity is somewhat hindered at that time. 

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TESTIMONIES:
"But already, yielding to the charismatic American hatred of restraint, and willingness to take chances of robbery and even murder, this theory of shutting the greater part of the park during the latter half of the night has been abandoned, even to the extend of tearing down the gateways" (John Olmsted, 1905).

"Franklin Park is no where in particular -- sort of somewhere in the middle" (E-13 Police Officer, 2002).

"Parks are for kids, not for guns" (Luis Fernandes, stepfather of Trina Persad, who was killed in July 2002 next to a neighborhood park, from an article in The Boston Globe, July 2002).

"If the neighborhood and the city don't feel comfortable with one another, regardless of how safe [Franklin Park] is, how can people in the city of Boston, outside the neighborhood, feel comfortable about going there? In these circumstances, Franklin Park will never get the support it needs as a great park not only for Boston but for Massachusetts" (Mark Jay Mirsky, "Who lost the Emerald Necklace? In search of Franklin Park," The Boston Globe Magazine, 1979).

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