Chinatown

A community struggles as more drug-dealers move into Chinatown
By Tingting Zhao

Help from the police

The Safety Committee, the Chinatown Business Association, Chinatown Main Street and some other organizations have a meeting scheduled with police soon to ask for more security.

However, Smith thinks if people don’t call 911, more police resources will not help the problem.

Officer Kevin Smith patrols the Chinatown area daily from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In addition to regular patrols, Chinatown has two officers patrol on bikes around the clock. Smith is one of them. Every morning, he rides his bike through every street of this area.

“I let all the people see me, including good people and bad people,” he said. He talks to people and knows their problems.

After nine years on patrol, he has built relationships with many residents and businesses, which aids him in catching criminals. “Sometimes I got information from the businesses,” he said. “I like the bike,” Smith said. “I can sneak up.”

Smith said the biggest problem of the community is that people don’t call 911.

“Ninety percent of people don’t call 911 when they see something happen,” he said.

Chinese people are usually reluctant to call police.

When Smith began to patrol in Chinatown nine years ago, people didn’t want to talk to him. “Now many people talk to me,” he said. “But they still don’t call 911.”

However, some residents, like Wong, insist that calling 911 doesn’t help. “I called the police, they asked many questions,” Wong said. “When they came, the crime was over.” Wong said more on-site police will work better.

Almost everyone believes that the drug problem challenging Chinatown comes from many areas, such as shelters, liquor stores, trains, buses and hospitals. Rumors even say the cheap Boston to New York City buses bring drug dealers from the Big Apple.

Although people have different solutions to the problem, they all agree that acting now will prevent the problem from becoming worse.

Residents and police examine necessary actions to control drug activities.