BOSTON (AP) – Boston police will be out in force this holiday season as the number of officers in busy shopping districts gets a boost.

Starting today, the unofficial beginning of the holiday shopping season, residents and tourists strolling the streets of Downtown Crossing and Newbury and Boylston Streets in the Back Bay are among those who will see stepped-up patrols by Boston police officers.

Those areas, as well as Fields Corner and the Codman Square area in Dorchester, have been deemed as robbery hot spots.

The districts will get additional officers through Jan. 1, according to The Boston Globe, which viewed the holiday deployment plan.

The newspaper reports that the police department will pay for nearly 4,600 hours of overtime over the next five weeks, primarily as part of the effort to add walking patrols in the heavy shopping areas.

Some community leaders complain that the deployment plan ignores other high crime areas, including Roxbury, in favor of posh tourist spots.

“I would hope that there would be more balance,” said Darnell Williams, president of the Roxbury-based Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.