In a departure from its usual agenda of reviewing requests for variances for construction projects, the West Roxbury Neighborhood Council (WRNC) welcomed Boston Police Department (BPD) District E-5 Sgt. Nicole McMullin to her new position as District Captain and heard the crime report for the district from Police Officer Mark Loewen and late updates from Lieutenant Detective Michael Kern.

While McMullin is the new captain, she is not new to the district.

“I appreciate you guys having me here. I started here as a captain in March, but I was the overnight lieutenant here for the last four-and-a-half-years.”

While she grew up in Hyde Park, she said her family ties are in West Roxbury.

“My children went to St. Theresa’s, and I met my now-husband working at Blanchards.”

McMullin encouraged community feedback. “I look forward to being able to work with you guys in this group specifically. Please reach out.”

Loewen is the night Community Service Officer Mondays through Fridays and gave statistics from January 2025 to April 15, 2025 and compared them to January 2026 to April 28, 2026.

“Aggravated assaults are up 44 percent; auto thefts are down 33 percent; commercial burglaries are up 100 percent, and residential burglaries … robberies are down 50 percent,” she said.

McMullin clarified some of what the numbers meant.

“Just look at when we say that we're up or things have changed like 100 percent, we went from two incidents to four … or we're looking at numbers like we went from nine to six. None of these things had a drastic change in that year-over-year time … the stats have improved on more than half of those.”

Stephen Smith, WRNC board member, asked McMullin if there was anything she was worried about.

“So far, since being here in March, the Part 1 crimes have been very low,” she said.

According to the Boston Police Department Part 1 crimes are serious offenses tracked for the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system, classified by their prevalence and severity. They include violent crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) and property crimes (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson). “We do see sort of isolated incidents of the attempted breaking into cars,” said Loewen.

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McMullin said a good number of cars that are reported to have been broken into are the result of unlocked cars.

“That's part of why those flyers that we give out is to try to prevent people from becoming victims, reminding people to lock things, reminding people that we want people to feel safe in their neighborhood, but at the same time we should take that extra step and lock our houses, lock our cars, all that stuff, so you don't become a victim,” she said. McMullin added that she encourages everyone who has a Ring camera to let police know if there appears to be something suspicious.

McMullin also gave what has become a continuous warning from all E-5 officers against scams which are becoming more frequent and creative in their attempts to separate people from their money.

“We try to prevent folks from becoming victims because these scams have become very elaborate,” she said. “We always caution people to not give any information over the phone to folks, and if there's any immediacy that's told to you, like, ‘I need this right now,’ or ‘something's happening to your family member,’ to take a pause, try to contact that family member, verify that information.” Tip-offs that indicate a scam are those who pressure you to provide your personal information or money very quickly.

Kern’s update included information on two robberies. “Just to tell you about the search warrant we're working on upstairs. Last week we actually had two unarmed robberies, a guy on a moped, one woman was a victim in that alleyway going from Centre Street by the post office, back to the Roche Brothers.”

One community member asked about the recent antisemitic incidents reported in West Roxbury.

“Yes … LaGrange on the 9th and the 10th of April, I believe, people were finding some slips of papers about ‘Boycott the Jews’” he said. “That, because of it being a civil rights issue, went to the Civil Rights Unit so we don't investigate it.”

Kern said he did review the notes on the incidents and they were looking to talk to possible witnesses.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of a hate crime (due to race, ethnicity, religion, disability, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation) report it to the Civil Rights Unit of the Boston Police department at 617-343-4527.