Burglars have more opportunities to steal valuables during the holiday season, making it a prime time for crime, according to Boston Police Department officials.
People tend to leave presents in their cars, said Eddy Chrispin, a BPD spokesman, and people also know if they break into houses there can be presents inside.
In the past few weeks cases of robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and larceny in the Allston-Brighton area have spiked, according BPD statistics.
The BPD recorded 83 cases of robbery and attempted robbery between Jan. 1 and Dec. 11. From Dec. 12 until Dec. 26, the area saw four more robberies, making the total 87 for the year.
Over the same two-week period, BPD collected one more report of rape and attempted rape, making the year’s total 19, the same number as last year’s.
BPD recorded five more cases of aggravated assault, 20 more burglaries and attempted burglaries, 39 more larcenies and attempted larcenies and one more case of vehicle theft from Dec. 12 until Dec. 26.
Overall, however, crime in the Allston-Brighton area decreased by about 10 percent during 2011. The total number of crimes reported from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 is 1,613.
At the same time last year the number of crimes reported stood at 1,783 in the Allston-Brighton area, marking a decrease of 170 incidents in 2011.
The only category of crime that had an overall increase this year in the Allston-Brighton area was vehicle theft, up eight reports from the 92 cases in 2010.
Crime decreased in every Boston neighborhood, marking a total decrease in Boston crime of nine percent in 2011. However, these statistics are only preliminary and have not yet been verified, according to the BPD.
“On a weekly basis, captains from all the different districts meet,” Chrispin said. “They try to pinpoint the locations they’ve had the most problems with.”
From there, Chrispin said officers try to create proactive solutions to these problems, such as having increased patrols in certain areas.
“They’ll try to come up with a solution that’s specifically targeted to deal with whatever the issue is,” Chrispin said. “A big part of our policing philosophy is this whole idea of community policing.”
The BPD tries to get residents involved by educating them on what types of things they should report and what the expected response is, he said.
Chrispin also said the BPD encourages people to call the police if they see something suspicious and they will be more than happy to investigate.
“People have a pretty good sense when something seems out of the norm,” Chrispin said. “Most people know when they see something that appears out of the norm and quote-on-quote suspicious.”
