In Pedestrian Safety Month, Boston Police Logged Four Pedestrian-Injury Crashes and 15 Hit-and-Runs in One Day

The Boston Police Department's public journal for Monday, Oct. 26, into Tuesday morning lists 269 incident reports, and a count of the entries shows that traffic incidents made up a larger share of the day than any single crime category, including four crashes in which a pedestrian was injured. The Boston City Council has recognized October as Pedestrian Safety Month.

Boston Uncut counted the entries in the department's District Journal for Oct. 26-27, a PDF the department publishes daily alongside its "Boston 24" summary. The file is dated Oct. 27 at 9:56 a.m. and covers reports filed from 12:00 a.m. Monday to 8:04 a.m. Tuesday. It lists the report time, complaint number, location and the nature of each incident. The journal is a log of reports, not findings: an entry means police took a report, not that a crime was proven.

By category, the most common entries were "investigate person" (30), "sick assist" (26) and "assault - simple" (17). Motor vehicle entries were spread across several categories. There were 15 reports of a motor vehicle leaving the scene after property damage, six crashes with property damage only, five listed as "other," two with personal injury and four labeled "M/V accident - involving pedestrian - injury." Twelve entries were towed vehicles and six were violations of auto law. Together, those traffic-related categories account for at least 50 of the 269 entries.

The four pedestrian-injury reports stand out because of the month. The Boston City Council adopted a resolution recognizing October 2026 as Pedestrian Safety Month and supporting "continued investments in pedestrian safety infrastructure and policy," according to a council release posted on the city's news page. The journal does not describe the severity of the injuries, and Boston Uncut is not publishing the locations, since the log does not show whether those addresses are where the crashes happened or where reports were taken.

Property crime was a smaller but steady share. The journal lists 11 shoplifting reports, six "larceny all others," five thefts from buildings, four bicycle thefts and two thefts of vehicle parts. Auto theft entries included three motorcycle or scooter thefts and one other auto theft. There were nine vandalism reports, two wire-fraud reports and two false-pretense fraud reports.

Violent and weapons entries were few. The journal lists three aggravated assaults, four reports of threats to do bodily harm, four harassment reports and one weapons violation. There were six drug-related entries and one report of operating under the influence of alcohol. The department's own Boston 24 summary for the 24 hours ending 10 a.m. Tuesday, which uses a different window and different categories, reported zero homicides, zero robberies and four aggravated assaults.

Medical and welfare calls were a large part of the workload. Beyond the 26 sick-assist entries, the journal lists four "sick assist - drug related illness" reports, three "sick/injured/medical" entries, two death investigations and several missing-person reports, most marked as located.

The numbers describe one day and should not be read as a trend. A single day's journal can be affected by weather, events and staffing, and the categories reflect how officers coded each report at the time. The journal also does not include reports still being written when the PDF was generated.

What the log does not show: the outcome of each report, whether the pedestrian crashes involved drivers who stayed at the scene, or how Monday compares with an average October day. The department publishes the journals daily, which would allow that comparison over time.