As crime has reached a 7-year high in Boston's Downtown Crossing and the areas around the Common, Boston’s mayor, top cop and prosecutor are planning to focus on treating, rather than arresting, many drug users and dealers, the Boston Herald reports. Mayor Michelle Wu, Police Commissioner Michael Cox and Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden outlined what they called an “evolution” of the city’s plan to tackle its open-air drug market — which spilled into the downtown and other neighborhoods after an encampment was cleared in the fall of 2023. While the plan includes more police enforcement, it will largely focus on getting drug users and dealers into addiction treatment. “At the end of the day, this issue is about sobriety,” Hayden said. “Incarceration is not the answer to help get them sober, and if we don’t get them sober, then they’re coming back. If we don’t address the underlying issue, then we don’t solve the problem, and they will continue to commit whatever crime they were committing, whether it’s drug use, whether it’s drug dealing to support the habit, whether it’s shoplifting, whether it’s robbing somebody, whatever it may be, that’s what we’re trying to deal with.”
Asked whether drug dealers would be prosecuted by his office and incarcerated, Hayden said it depends on the situation. He said his office would look to hold “people who prey on the vulnerable” accountable, but would aim to largely divert drug users and people who deal drugs to feed their addiction, to treatment. “People that are preying on the vulnerable on our streets, that have drug addiction problems and are dealing drugs in the streets, should be held accountable, and yes, they should be incarcerated,” Hayden said. “But if substance abuse disorder is the underlying problem, we need to address that.” Hayden described the plan as a “targeted and balanced approach towards accountability and enforcement, and treatment and diversion at the same time.” Cox said the Boston Police Department would “probably” enforce violations involving “open-air drug use” and “things of that nature” that are against the law, but noted that each individual case and person is different. People could be dealing with health issues or have other things going on, he said. “But the fact is, we are making a conscious effort to try to enforce, to deter the people that are coming down there feeding these people — and when I say feeding, I mean drugs and other means — to not be there and actually arrest them because those are the people we’re really looking for,” Cox said.
Comments