The Metrowest Daily News reports a home on Flagg Road was broken into on Tuesday:
Lt. Sean James said the home at 70 Flagg Road was ransacked and police are still waiting on a list from homeowners detailing what was taken.
He said the break in was similar to others this month. Per policy, the department doesn’t release more specific information, such as the method of entry.
Yesterday’s burglary marks the seventh home break-in this month. Police shared tips on protecting your home and property at a community meeting last week. They ask for continued vigilance from residents in reporting anything that seems suspicious in your neighborhood.
If you anything about the most recent break-in, or to report suspicious activity, call the Southborough Police Department at 508-485-2121.
The last report we had on this blog (and perhaps she was also quoted in the newpaper?) mentioned that our police chief made it clear that we do not have the resources in town to put extra patrols on and she also said “Southborough’s location along major commuter routes like Route 9 and Route 495 make it more attractive to these types of criminals.”
Am I crazy? Do these types of remarks make it clear to criminals to come on over to Southborough, you will probably get away with it? She has been quoted saying that she thinks we are understaffed on our police force…a lot….I can’t help but believe that those kind of remarks only encourage criminals to look at our town as an easy mark. Whether it is true or not, I believe she should find a better way of communicating when the public will hear these types of comments.
Please!
Do you really think that criminals spend their time reading town blogs to try to find the best town to commit their crimes?
The Chief is probably right regarding the influence the major commuting roads have on some crime in Southboro. Maybe the robbery of the Wendy’s and the Liquor store on Rt 9 west were the work of folks traveling on Rt 9 and robbed those stores as a spur of the moment kind of thing.
The 2 robberies of the Mobil gas station on Central station were committed by folks who fled (geez – I sound like an old re run of 1 Adam 12) on Central Street towards Ashland.
We live in an affluent community. Many people go away in the summer so we, as a whole, are less vigilant during summer months than the rest of the year.
Every affluent community suffers its share of house breaks during summer months. Its probably the work of sad folks who are addicted to drugs. A true American tragedy.
Let’s cut the Chief some slack on this. She’s doing her best with the budget we voted her at town meeting. If you don’t think she has a large enough budget, get to the next town meeting and exercise your right to vote!
If any one of the Chief’s critics has a helpful suggestion or a constructive criticism, by all means tell her! Don’t just vent here.
She did find a better way….did you attend the meeting that was held at the fire station? She was very clear about what she thought then. You can’t have it both ways in saying she shouldn’t post it and that the residents aren’t getting any answers to their questions. I did attend and I will say there was probably only about 50 people from town there and most were from one particular neighborhood. Many neighborhoods were not represented at all.
Although I have not made a systematic study of crime in Southborough, Boston.com claims to show FBI data (http://www.boston.com/news/massfacts/crime/safest_massachusetts_communities/) that says that we are in the 10% of reporting communities with the least amount of total crime among 270 communities reporting in Massachusetts. In the table in which reporting community number 270 has the most crime, we are number 25. Note also that our “zero” in violent crime compares to a median prediction of about 36 violent crimes for a national average community of our population. I have not proven to myself that there is not better data available, but this information was at hand.
Also note that the Chief’s statement about our location at these highway intersections, while it may account for some of the crime we do experience, is not a new characteristic that could explain anything uniquely going on today. Rt 9 was first built about 200 years ago and all the other highways are 50 years old or more. While it is possible that we are experiencing a crime wave, the old highways can have no role in explaining a current wave, if one exists. With the very limited anecdotal data that has been presented, it is impossible to know if we are experiencing an unusual wave of crime or an unusual wave of crime awareness.
Mr Butler wrote : “While it is possible that we are experiencing a crime wave, the old highways can have no role in explaining a current (crime) wave, if one exists.”
How the heck do you think they are coming to Southborough is they aren’t using the highways? Do you think these property crimes are all committed by locals?
I think Mr. Butler is way off on this one. Way off.
A crime wave is a change in the crime rate. It is not possible to use a factor that has not changed (in this case the highways) to explain the change in something else. Yes, of course, the highways may be used to enter the community to commit a crime. That has always been true. If there is a sudden increase in crime here, does the presence of the 50 year old highways explain the increase? No.
If there were a larger regional increase in crime and the highways increased the chance that Southborough were victimized, then we would expect the base level that preceded the increase to reflect the same higher crime rate, since the highways are not new. All boats would rise with the tide. However, Southborough according the FBI data in the link has the lowest crime rate of any of our adjoining communities even though we have arguably the most highways. Westborough, with nearly the same highway situation as Southborough had almost three times the crime rate in the reporting period. Sudbury with almost no highways has almost 20% more. Northborough, with far less highway, has 30% more. I do not see that we can draw any conclusions about any recent crime events, or our crime level, based on the old highways and the available data.
Again, this is a quick analysis on one set of Massachusetts FBI data, not a thorough review. It someone has more comprehensive data that would be interesting.
Commuter train maybe? They are only taking small things from the houses. Just a thought.
I suspect these burglars are not doing a whole lot of census tract, demographic, or socioeconomic analysis when choosing their targets.