Police Update North End Residents About Neighborhood Safety

There was a responsive crowd of about 20 people at the Public Safety Meeting on January 3 in the Nazzaro Center on North Bennet Street.

Captain Thomas Lee, Sgt. Thomas Lema and Officer Teddy Boyle were reporting crime statistics that were met with uncommon pleasure by the North End’s faithful meeting goers.

One often sees the same faces at virtually every community meeting that takes place from week to week.

This particular night was no different with attendees like community activist Janet Gilardi, Phil Orlandella – the editor-at-large of The North End Regional Review – and Maria Puopolo, legislative aide to State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz. 

The police panel was peppered with questions.

But there were moments of levity set against the serious business of reporting crime statistics.

One man asked why the police do not do more to prevent thefts from cars, suggesting for example, that the police could stake out a target car in the North End.

He seemed mollified by the answers he received from Capt. Lee and Sgt. Lema.

A woman who also attended the meeting observed to Capt. Lee that since pepper spray or mace requires a $25 license fee, perhaps using bug spray instead was just as good a substitute (if not better) for solving the problem.

This caused quite a buzz of excited chatter throughout the meeting room.

Capt. Lee was a tad bemused (to say the least) and suggested that bug spray probably wasn’t a good alternative.

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