Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox reported homicides are up nearly 30% this year, as Mayor Michelle Wu continued to tout Boston as the safest major city in the country at a year-end public safety briefing.

Cox said there have been 31 homicides in the city thus far this year, compared to 24 for all of last year, but said that number still reflects a near record-low for the city — and represents a 16% decrease from the city’s five-year average.

“In comparison to last year’s 67-year low in homicide rates in the city’s history, we have had an increase, although we don’t know what the final number will be,” Cox said Monday at the Boston EMS Training Center in West Roxbury. “This year still represents a 16% decrease from our five-year average, and the lowest number in the last 20 years, but for the 67-year low I made mention to.”

The 29.1% uptick in homicides was reported by the police commissioner at an end-of-year public safety briefing that was a more tempered affair than how 2024 police statistics were reported last December.

At last year’s press conference, Cox boasted that the “city has never been safer,” when joining the mayor in rolling out end-of-year crime statistics that featured a record-low number of homicides and shootings.

The number of murders in 2024 “appears to be the lowest since 1957,” and is “by far” the lowest amount since the Boston Police Department began tracking such data in 2007, when there were 68 homicides, Cox said at the time.

Wu, who was gearing up for a reelection campaign at the time, pointed to the data as evidence that Boston is the “safest major city in the country.” She stuck to that same refrain on Monday, despite the uptick in homicides, and a significant spike in shoplifting that was also highlighted by the police commissioner.

“Being a home for everyone means being there, not just during the good times, but all the time,” Wu said. “It means showing up for families, even when they feel the ground beneath them is falling through and when they’re having the worst days and the worst moments of their lives.”

Referring to the city’s public safety teams, including police, firefighters and EMS personnel, Wu said, “It’s because of the care, the hard work, and the empathy of these teams that Boston is the safest major city in the country.”

Isaac Yablo, Wu’s senior advisor for community safety and director of the Office of Violence Prevention for the Boston Public Health Commission, said the city’s approach to tackling gun violence has shifted from focusing solely on five hot-spot neighborhoods to “a city-wide focus, so that more residents are being met where they’re at and we’re addressing needs more holistically.”

“As we look into the new year, we will continue focusing on secondary and tertiary prevention, but the main goal will be primary prevention — preventing the violence from happening in the first place,” Yablo said.

Cox said the Police Department has “doubled our efforts in community policing,” following last year’s record-low gun violence, which he said has led to “historic lows” for this year’s number of shooting victims and gunfire incidents. Both are down more than 30% compared to the department’s five-year averages, he said.

Shoplifting, however, remains “an issue in our city,” Cox said, which has led to the police department making retail theft an increased priority alongside its efforts to “sustain lower levels of violence” — with the two sometimes overlapping.

He attributed that increased focus, by way of a Safe Shopping Initiative the department has partnered on with the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office, to a 113% increase in arrests for shoplifting this year — driven in part by a “substantial increase in timely, more detailed reporting from the retailers.”

“This increased reporting supports Boston Police Department’s ability to address repeat violent and high-volume offenders with the ultimate goal of keeping shoppers and retailers safe,” Cox said.

The police commissioner also shared statistics that suggest crime is down at the troubled intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, an area commonly referred to as Mass and Cass and known for being home to the city’s open-air drug market, as well as the downtown.

Police have targeted Mass and Cass and the downtown in recent years, following reports of increased violence and drug activity, Cox said.

Around downtown, violent crime has declined by 24% this year and police have increased patrols there by 31%, compared to last year. Officers have made 48% more arrests in the downtown, including 30% more drug arrests, he said.

The Miami Dolphins are historically a poor team in the cold. With the Pittsburgh Steelers welcoming them in a game that will occur in below-freezing temperatures, the Dolphins flew up to Pittsburgh early and practiced in a snow storm on Saturday.

The Pittsburgh area received anywhere from five-to-eight inches around the city and its suburbs, and the Dolphins practiced at Joe Walton Stadium on Robert Morris University’s campus near the Pittsburgh International Airport.

Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is trying to turn around a narrative that his team can not win in cold weather situations. They have run the ball well over the last four games, amassing over 160 yards in each game for the first time since the 1970s.

“(Practicing in Pittsburgh on Saturday night) was something that was considered in the offseason,” McDaniel said. “The odd part of the schedule is a Monday night on the road. It always feels like you’re so far removed from the last time you were on the football field. Doing it this way allows us to have our final full-speed practice about 48 hours from kickoff. It’ll be good, I think it’s an added bonus that we get to get ourselves into the environment, but realistically, that’s something we’ve been thinking about for a while to keep consistency about 48 hours from kickoff, having your last activity.”

When the temperature is below 40 degrees, the Dolphins have lost 12 straight games. That is the stat the Dolphins hope to crack by acclimating to the cold earlier than just Monday night, but the Steelers have also practiced outside at Acrisure Stadium as they prepare for this game.

HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) – Nearly 40,000 Connecticut residents will find some good news in their mailboxes this week: their medical debt has been erased.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Monday that letters are going out to residents informing them that some or all of their medical bills have been eliminated. This third round of the Medical Debt Erasure Initiative is wiping out more than $63 million in medical debt.

Since the program began in December 2024, nearly 160,000 Connecticut residents have had a total of $198 million in medical debt eliminated.

“Medical debt can delay healing due to stress and anxiety about how to pay these bills,” Lamont said. “This makes a real difference in the lives of our families, reducing fear and concerns.”

The state partners with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to buy large bundles of qualifying medical debt for pennies on the dollar. To qualify, residents must have income at or below 400% of the federal poverty level or have medical debt that equals 5% or more of their income.

There’s no application process — the debt erasure happens automatically through purchases from participating hospitals and collection agencies. Residents who qualify will receive letters from Undue Medical Debt over the next several days.

The first round erased about $30 million for roughly 23,000 people, and the second round eliminated more than $100 million for 100,000 people. Lamont plans to continue the program using $6.5 million in federal ARPA funding.

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