Patrick announces anti-crime initiatives

Banner Staff

Responding to a recent wave of homicides in Boston, Gov. Deval Patrick announced last week a series of anti-crime initiatives, offering $900,000 of immediate funding for Boston and a promise to file anti-crime legislation that would limit gun sales and provide stricter bail guidelines.

Of the money given to the city, $550,000 will go toward accelerating the hiring of police officers and funding community policing efforts. The rest will go to summer jobs programs for at-risk youths, increasing the state funding for summer programs to $2.25 million.

The initiative also provides for $5.4 million to fund a statewide summer jobs plan.

“Violent crime is not just a Boston problem, and it is not a new problem. It is a constant threat to the security and safety of all our families in communities across Massachusetts and requires a coordinated and comprehensive approach in order to provide and ensure stability for our streets,” Patrick said. “This is critically important to this administration and we must step up our efforts not just in law enforcement, but also in community-wide crime prevention, particularly as summer approaches, to allay fears of a further spike in violence.”

Patrick announced the anti-crime initiative last Thursday at a press conference at the John P. Holland Elementary School on Olney Street in Dorchester, an area that has been plagued by murders in recent months.

The package also provides $250,000 in matching grants to support violence intervention advocates in emergency rooms statewide.

“The entire Commonwealth has a stake in our cities,” Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray said. “We must view crime and violence in our urban neighborhoods as a problem that requires shared responsibility between all of us — including neighborhood residents, community leaders, religious leaders and, of course, government. And not just city government, but the state as well. It is only by coordinating our governmental resources — between the city and the state, and between particular agencies and departments of both – that we can successfully address this epidemic of crime and violence.”

Patrick said that his administration would be sending anti-crime legislation to the legislature, including a “one-gun-per-month” law that is aimed at eliminating “straw purchasers” — gun buyers who legally buy large quantities of guns to resell them to convicted felons.

Several states, such as Maryland, California and Virginia, employ similar laws. In others, such as Pennsylvania, one-gun-per-month-laws have failed to overcome conservative resistance.

Another piece of legislation would add firearm offenses to the list of crimes considered in the “dangerousness hearing” statute, meaning a person arrested for a firearm offense could be held without bail pending trial.

The legislation package also includes an initiative that would require all prison sentences to include a period of post-release supervision in an effort to address recidivism.

Patrick also announced that he would issue an executive order creating an Anti-Crime Council that would be charged with exploring the best way to integrate efforts to help at-risk juveniles — including school officials, court personnel and probation officers, district attorneys’ offices, social workers and others.