Marblehead police handled 1,158 logged calls in October, according to the department’s monthly dispatch log, a 71-page document printed November 4 and posted this week on the town website. The month produced a single arrest, 21 entries labeled as motor vehicle crashes plus a handful reported after the fact, 16 larceny, forgery or fraud complaints, two reported break-ins, 14 traffic citations and two trips to the hospital. The bulk of the log, as in most months, is routine: property checks, building checks, alarm calls, lost and found property, and the traffic details that officers work at construction sites across town.
The log records the time, the reason for the call, the location and how it was closed. It does not include narratives, so the entries below describe what was dispatched and how it was resolved, not what investigators later found. Names appear in the log only when someone is arrested. A charge is not a conviction.
The arrest
The month’s only arrest came at 3:14 p.m. on Sunday, October 18, on a call logged as a general complaint on Sunset Road. The entry lists the arrest of Nicholas A. Spagnola, 38, of O’Connor Avenue in Holyoke, on a single charge of violating a harassment prevention order. The call was closed with a report taken, and the log cross-references an incident report and an arrest report. No other entry in the month lists an arrest, a summons issued at the scene or a protective custody.
Two other October entries involve court paperwork rather than new cases. Officers served or attempted to serve a summons on Humphrey Street on October 22 and on Green Street on October 23; the first was closed with a report taken and the second with services rendered. A separate call on October 23 on Prospect Court was logged as a possible restraining order violation and closed with a report taken.
Crashes: Atlantic Avenue and Pleasant Street again
Atlantic Avenue appears more often than any other street on the crash list. It was the scene of a minor crash the morning of October 1, a second crash at Ocean Avenue the same day, a crash reported after the fact on October 13, two crashes within an hour of each other on the morning of October 15, a crash on October 20 and another at Smith Street on October 22, and a crash on October 27. Pleasant Street recorded crashes on October 1, October 3 and October 11 and a late report on October 20.
Two crashes ended with a vehicle towed: one on Humphrey Street at 8:10 a.m. on October 6 and one on West Shore Drive at 2:39 p.m. on October 20, the second of which also produced a citation and an incident report. Other crashes were logged at Washington and State streets on the evening of October 2, School Street on the night of October 4, Hawkes Street on October 6, Elm Street on October 11, Creesy Street on October 14, Bessom and Anderson streets on October 20, Washington Street on October 21, Tedesco and Maple streets that evening, Bessom Street and Clark Lane on October 26, and Tedesco Street at Brookhouse Drive on October 27.
Officers made 42 motor vehicle stops and took 24 complaints about moving violations. Of the 14 citations issued during the month, eight were written on Humphrey Street, at Birch, Cedar (twice), Maple, Rose, Ida, Thompson and Shetland, several of them during the morning commute. Two were on Lafayette Street, two on Pleasant Street and one each on Tedesco Street and Atlantic Avenue; the West Shore Drive crash produced a further citation. Twenty-eight stops ended with a verbal warning.
Larceny, fraud and two break-ins
Sixteen calls were logged as larceny, forgery or fraud, a category that in a dispatch log covers everything from a stolen package to a phone scam. Reports were taken on Pleasant Street on October 6 and again just before midnight on October 22, on Jersey Street on October 20, and on Mohawk Road on October 26; others on Leicester Road, Atlantic Avenue, Nahant Street, Market Square, Elm Street, Edgemere Road, Humphrey Street, Alden Road, Farrell Court and West Shore Drive were closed as services rendered or investigated. Clifton Avenue appears twice, with a larceny call on October 8 and an entry on October 16 labeled as ongoing fraud issues.
Two calls were logged as burglary or breaking and entering into a structure. The first came at 2:48 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, on Prospect Street and was closed as investigated. The second was reported at 5:24 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, on Foster Street, with a report taken. Five vandalism calls were logged, on Ocean Avenue, Broughton Road, Rowland Street, Tower Way and Green Street, with only the Green Street call on October 30 closed with a report.
Disturbances, a missing teen and two hospital runs
Thirteen calls were logged as disturbances. Reports were taken on Wyman Road on October 2, Sunset Road on October 16, Waldron Street on October 20, Lincoln Park in the early hours of October 28 and Hawkes Street that evening. A neighbor dispute on Washington Street on October 24 and a complaint of loud music on Devereux Street on October 17 were also logged, the latter closed with peace restored. A call for a missing teen on Gerry Street at 3:23 p.m. on October 25 was closed as no action required.
Two calls ended with someone transported to the hospital: a 911 hang-up on Pleasant Street at 12:39 a.m. on October 4 and a call to assist a citizen at Gerry Street and Atlantic Avenue at 11:51 p.m. on October 21. One call was closed as a documented refusal of care. The log also shows officers assisting other agencies 14 times, including a report taken on Barnard Hawkes Court on October 7 and one on Ocean Avenue on October 19, and nine calls routed in from 911 centers in other towns.
Halloween
Saturday, October 31 produced 44 entries, and the end of the night was the busiest stretch of the month for noise and neighborhood complaints. Between 9:20 p.m. and 11:04 p.m. officers restored the peace on Orchard Circle, twice on Wyman Road, on Stramski Way and on Pinecliff Drive, with incident reports attached to three of the five. Earlier in the day the log shows a larceny or fraud call on West Shore Drive at 3:26 a.m., a fraud call on Atlantic Avenue at noon and an assist on Gregory Street at Waldron Street.
The routine that fills the log
Property checks were the single largest category, with 172 entries, followed by 90 general complaints, 53 lost or found property calls, 43 requests to assist a citizen, 42 motor vehicle stops and 42 911 hang-ups, 18 of which were confirmed as unintentional dials. Thirty-six burglar alarms were dispatched and 31 calls of all kinds were closed as false alarms. Thirty-one building checks were logged in addition to the property checks, and 79 entries were closed as building checked and secured.
Roughly 220 entries, close to a fifth of the month, are police details at road and utility work sites. Most are logged at 6:50 a.m. under the names of the streets where crews were working, Laurel, Washington, Gregory and Neptune, with others on Cottage, Commercial, Chestnut and Prospect streets and at paving and water main jobs. The department also logged 14 utility calls for downed wires, trees and street issues, tree or branch calls on October 1 and October 31, four boat complaints, three fingerprinting appointments and two notary services.
The busiest days were Friday, October 2, with 56 entries, and Friday, October 23, with 52. The quietest were Sundays: 15 entries on October 4, 16 on October 25 and 19 on October 18, with 18 on the Columbus Day holiday Monday, October 12. Of the 1,158 entries, 732 were closed as services rendered, 92 as no action required, 62 with a report taken, 23 as could not locate, 23 as investigated, 20 as taken or referred to another agency and 12 as unfounded.
The department posts its dispatch log monthly, usually about three weeks after the month ends, on the police logs page of the town website. The September log remains available there as well.
