After two kidnapping cases raised questions about safety in Boston’s nightclub scene earlier this year, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Boston Police Commissioner William Gross presented a report Thursday that they hope will help make clubs and bars safer and prevent future tragedies.
“No one should feel unsafe in our city,” Walsh said at a press conference Thursday. “So we're making sure that our bars, our nightclubs and other establishments know how to improve safety, whether it's nightclubs installing more surveillance cameras or bars training their staff to look out for inappropriate behavior.”
The report, “Best Practices in Public Safety for Nightclubs & Other Licensed Premises,” is a collaborative effort between the Boston police, the mayor’s office, the city’s licensing board and local establishment managers and owners, like Ed Kane, one of the founders of Big Night Entertainment Group.
“Cooperation between the licensing board and the police and nightclub owners is just so important, to make sure that everyone gets home safe,” Kane said Thursday. “These are just guidelines to help us be more aware of things we can be doing to prevent danger.”
The collaboration to create the report began in March, after two tragic events involving nightclubs in early 2019. In February, 23-year-old Dorchester woman Jassy Correia disappeared after an evening out at a nightclub in the Theater District. Her body was discovered in a vehicle in Delaware owned by Providence resident Louis Coleman, who later pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
The month prior, a 23-year-old woman and Jamaica Plain resident went missing after going out with friends at a bar near Faneuil Hall. Police found the woman alive three days later, in Charlestown resident Victor Peña's apartment. Peña pleaded not guilty to one kidnapping charge and 10 counts of aggravated rape in Suffolk Superior Court in March.
“We have a vibrant nightlife, and we're excited that it draws people from all over our city and beyond,” Walsh said. “But we've seen cases where people have been victimized. This past year, we tragically lost a young woman who was kidnapped outside a nightclub, and one tragedy is too much to have to deal with.”
For club-goers, Walsh and Gross recommend a buddy system, designating one sober driver to chaperon the group, and guidelines for rideshare safety, including checking license plates and requesting the car before leaving the building.
The guidelines for businesses include recommendations about creating a safe atmosphere, training staff to notice and prevent sexual assault, respond to a crime scene, and even respond to situations involving fires or acts of terrorism. A major recommendation from all groups was to install security cameras in clubs and bars.
“In my opinion, you should have as many cameras as possible, because if you're adhering to good policies and procedures and practices, then cameras are really beneficial to you,“ Kane said. “We love them. I mean, at Big Night Live, we put 76 high-definition cameras, the majority which can pivot and move and zoom, watching the whole place. And then when you go back and can see what actually happened in the actual incident, so they're our friend.”
Walsh and Gross say they hope to pass out the 32-page booklet of guidelines to all nightclub owners and nightlife licensees in the city.
“What is paramount is that we should be working together,” Gross said. “We should … work together to protect the people in this city.”
