Logic (?) Behind the Names of the Boston Police Precincts

Submitted by sithteacher t3_yf0exm in boston

Does anyone know why the BPD precincts are numbered the way they are?

A1, B2, B3, D4, E5, C6, A7, (no 8), (no 9), (no 10), C11, (no 12), E13, D14, A15, (no 16), (no 17), E18

Are 8, 9, 10, 12, 16, and 17 former precincts that no longer exist?

Are the numbers in order of creation?

Are the letters geographical? It seems to work for some like A, C and E, but not for B and D.

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TheLamestUsername t1_iu14k3p wrote

I can sort of explain it. But I have tried to find an old list of when the previous stations were closed and where they were, and have never found one.

So yes, those numbers that are missing are previous stations that closed. If you look at Dillon's at 955 Boylston, you will see it has Boston Police Division 16 inscribed there. I do not know where the other previous ones were, but that is a good example.

The letters are for the area of the city and figures into command structure

Map

see also - https://bpdnews.com/districts

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TheLamestUsername t1_iu152n9 wrote

More on former Division 16 here

https://lostnewengland.com/2015/10/division-16-police-station-boston/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/941%E2%80%93955_Boylston_Street

closed in 1976. i would imagine it was a budget and need kind of thing. Probably a lot of the other stations that closed were closed for the same reason. No need to have as many as before.

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TheLamestUsername t1_iu15d7g wrote

Division 17 was in West Roxbury (not sure where)

https://bpdnews.com/news/2019/9/4/bpd-remembers-hplcj

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TheLamestUsername t1_iu16y8y wrote

Here is an old list of divisions from an annual report done in 1953. 8, 5, & 12 are missing. Not sure if those were specialized facilities and not districts. Also, it looks like things got renumbered at some point. 2 & 3 are in Downtown areas rather than in Roxbury and Mattapan.

https://i.imgur.com/QPw5axd.png

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TheLamestUsername t1_iu18o2j wrote

Division 8 - appears to be Harbor Patrol

https://www.alamy.com/annual-report-of-the-police-commissioner-for-the-city-of-boston-service-fleet-51-patrolling-bostons-waterways-harbor-service-the-duties-performed-by-the-harbor-police-division-8-comprising-the-harbor-andthe-islands-therein-were-as-follows-number-of-vessels-boarded-from-foreign-ports-number-of-vessels-ordered-from-the-channel-number-of-vessels-permitted-to-discharge-cargoes-in-strea-number-of-alarms-of-fire-attended-on-water-front-number-of-fires-extinguished-without-alarm-number-of-sick-and-injured-persons-assisted-number-of-cases-investigated-number-of-dead-bodies-recovered-image369625294.html

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