From their stationhouse on Blue Hill Ave. and Morton Street, Boston police officers assigned to Area B-3 cover some of this city's most challenging "hot-spots", including the Morton Street corridor, Franklin Field and the west of Washington side of Codman Square. Unfortunately, so far, a disproportionate amount of the city's homicides and non-fatal shootings in 2004 have occurred on the streets of B-3. Domestic violence incidents- known as 209As- remain a very serious problem on B-3, just as they are in C-11, which covers much of the rest of Dorchester.

Although Area B-3 presently leads the city in homicides and gun-related incidents this year, it brings up the rear in the one category that it should not: Out of the city's 11 police districts, B-3 has the lowest ranking for its ability to clear - or solve and successfully prosecute - serious crimes. According to police statistics shown to the Reporter, B-3 has cleared only 21 percent of its cases since February 2001.

Thankfully, there is something that can be done about this and the answer is coming from the police station itself.

Last March, shortly after Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole took office as the department's newest leader, she made a series of staff changes. Locally, the most notable was the reassignment of Captain Tim Murray, who was asked to take command of Area B-3. Murray had previously commanded the relatively low-crime district D-5 (Roslindale-West Roxbury) and his appointment has been interpreted as a sign that O'Toole takes very seriously the importance of improving the quality of life in B-3.

Murray is a veteran homicide and drug detective whose high-energy reputation is clearly aimed at shaking things up. He knows how to solve very complicated criminal cases and for years has taught other cops the techniques he's developed and employed over the years.

For months now, Murray has pitched an idea that has proved somewhat controversial: He wants to "take over" a community room that dominates one side of the stationhouse's first floor and convert it into modern office space for his detectives. Murray insists that by doing so, he can do two things: First, solve a worsening space crunch in the facility that forces too many officers- and visitors- to share too little space. Secondly- and most importantly- the renovation will create state-of-the-art interview and interrogation rooms, complete with camera and taping equipment that is- now more than ever- critical to successful prosecutions. Murray thinks that by simply creating more private space to interview witnesses and suspects he can dramatically improve the station's clearance rate. That, in theory, would lower crime rates too, by taking offenders off the streets and preventing retaliatory incidents.

Victims, too, deserve private space to share the intimate details of what is often the worst moments on their lives. Doing so in front of other people, in an environment that seems insecure, is counterintuitive- and ultimately- unproductive.

Murray's proposal has been deemed controversial because it would halt the longtime practice of holding community meetings and other public events at the stationhouse. And the reluctance of some longtime community leaders to the change is quite understandable: many hail from a time when police relations with the community were abysmal. When the B-3 building was constructed in the late 1980s, it was considered groundbreaking to site a "community room" inside the police headquarters. Councilman Charles Yancey, who pushed for the station to be built in his district, recalls that the symbolism of bringing the community into the station for non-police related business was vitally important to the residents.

And so it was. But while times have changed, unfortunately, the B-3 building has not.

To his credit, Yancey has weighed both sides and come down in Murray's corner. "I know it won't be popular, but this is something we need to do," Yancey told the Reporter last week.

Yancey is right on the money- and the new police captain is too. Community meetings of all varieties can be housed at other public facilities for a while, including the new, $7 million Mildred Avenue Community Center in Mattapan.

The police department should authorize Murray to go ahead and expeditiously renovate the B-3 station and outfit it with the tools that he and his detectives need to get the job done. In the meantime, city leaders including Mayor Menino and Councillor Yancey, should budget for a more concerted build-out of the B-3 station to maximize some of the space that is still available on the site. When the more ambitious round of construction begins, it should include space for a community meeting room to allow public to share the space as originally envisioned.

For now, however, the priority must be placed on preventing and solving violent crimes on our streets. Captain Murray's proposal is a modest and cost-effective way to do just that.