Boston police look for help in battling crime

A Boston police superintendent pleaded yesterday for the public's help in battling crime, calling on witnesses to step forward following the city's recent wave of deadly street violence.

``This idea of witnesses not stepping forward -- the only person that helps is the criminal," said Superintendent Robert Dunford, speaking after the 18th annual National Night Out poster contest award ceremony yesterday afternoon at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston. ``The number one thing that is needed now is a total collaboration," he said. ``It starts in the homes, churches, and schools. Crime is like an illness, and we need to focus on the symptoms."

In the past nine days, in which there have been six homicide deaths, Dunford, Acting Police Commissioner Albert Goslin, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino have said that police work has been frustrated by the refusal of witnesses to talk. So far, there have been no arrests in any of the six homicides by gunfire since July 19, and police have solved less than a third of the 47 homicides this year.

``A lot of the violence is retaliation by people who would rather take matters into their own hands than tell police," said Nicole Johnson, 30, of Dorchester. Her daughter, Keyara Nolan, a second-grader at Cathedral Grammar School in the South End, won one of the 15 merit awards for her crayon drawing depicting a safe neighborhood. Nolan, dressed in a pink summer dress, smiled as she held her plaque and stood alongside Menino and Dunford as cameras flashed. Her poster, and those by 22 other award winners, were displayed in the back of the large dining room.

``These posters show us that even the youngest members of neighborhoods know that by working with police and watching out, we can reduce violence and crime," Menino said.

Approximately 200 people attended the ceremony and luncheon, organized by Judith Wright, director of the Boston Police Department's Neighborhood Crime Watch Unit. ``Crime watches are a valuable tool for residents and they do make a difference," she said.

On Monday, the unit will announce the city's top ten crime watches of 2006. Tuesday is the 23d annual National Night Out, and Menino and Goslin are scheduled to tour neighborhoods throughout the city.

``With everything that's been happening recently, it just shows there is more of a need for residents to stand up," Wright said.

Tim Geistlinger, organizer of the Dalrymple Egleston Boylston Crime Watch in Jamaica Plain, said an episode last fall in which two people were shot created an opportunity for residents to clean up the Egleston Square area. ``We held a cookout right where the shooting took place. It took a while for some people to come out, but they did, and so did some of the troublemakers. Residents started spending more time on the street, gardening, picking up trash, and just talking. It's made a huge difference."

He said police recently raided two drug houses in the area, after being tipped off by residents.