Boston’s Police Commissioner Michael Cox discusses Boston violence with Anchor Vanessa Welch

BOSTON — New Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox says the community needs to work together to help the department address the recent rash of violence in the city. 

In a one-on-one interview with Boston 25 News Anchor Vanessa Welch Cox says crime statistics reflect Boston is a safe city despite that recent uptick in violence, “It just emphasizes the need that we continue to need to partner and we need to be vigilant about making sure our community stays safe by us coming together.”

Cox says the summer was very quiet and the force is doing everything they can to make sure violence doesn’t explode. The Commissioner says there is a strategy to use community policing which he explains as a plan to gather information, build trust in the community, and know where to deploy resources. Cox says the department is making a larger number of arrests by placing officers in communities where people are driving crime up.

Cox also says fighting back against violence has been difficult as the department is down more than 100 officers due to things like vacancies and officers on medical leave.  Cox says this is a tough job, “it’s hard to do this job and we don’t have enough resources even to do the job in the way that we need to do it right now.”

When asked what the community can do to help law enforcement, Cox tells Welch, “Back to that see something say something.  Things happen sometimes, arguments, beef, things of those nature(s), how about let us know, maybe there’s a way we can intervene before it escalates to something more than that.”  The Commissioner says the department will do all it can to protect the identities of people who come forward with information.

Cox was sworn in as Boston’s top cop on August 15th. As a native of Roxbury, Cox says serving as police commissioner in the city where he grew up is an honor. When asked if he was happy he took the position, Cox laughed, and said “this job is an honor, regardless of how hard it might seem with what’s going on, the opportunity to give back, the opportunity to be in a department where I both love and grew up in so many ways, I can’t emphasize enough the love that I get from it.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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