Cambridge Crime At 40-Year Low

Cambridge crime is at a 40-year low, according to the Cambridge Police Department, which released a report last month as part of a new initiative launched this summer to increase transparency.

Total crime reports dropped 10 percent in 2009 with 3,566 crimes, and fell another 7 percent since the beginning of the year.

But larceny from persons and bicycle thefts have increased 17 percent and 54 percent respectively, with a notable increase in Harvard Square.

“Theft in Harvard Square is a seasonal issue related to the type of people that frequent the square,” CPD Lieutenant Daniel Wagner wrote in an e-mail.

Wagner said large groups of tourists and incoming students, who frequent the Square starting late summer, are prime targets for larceny because they tend to be less aware of their surroundings.

The overall decrease in crime is part of a national trend, and Wagner emphasized the Cambridge Police have “taken proactive steps to make our city a safer place to live and visit.”

The BridgeStat program launched this summer requires that police meet twice a month to devise strategies and tactics to reduce crime, such as deploying extra bike patrols to areas that are more susceptible to crime.

Wagner wrote he believes that BridgeStat resulted in an immediate decrease in crime in Harvard Square since its implementation.

“After implementing directed strategies devised during BridgeStat meetings at the beginning of the summer, we are proud to announce that only three unrelated incidents have been reported in Harvard Square since the end of July,” Wagner wrote.

The report also stated that violent crime in Cambridge has dropped 58 percent since its peak in 1990, with only 449 incidents reported in 2009, the second lowest number in four decades.

Incidents of property crime are the lowest they have been in forty years, dropping 68 percent since their height in 1974, with 3,121 incidents reported in 2009.

These trends in lowered crime rates continued through the first half of 2010, with a 17 percent decrease of violent crime and a 6 percent decrease in property crime since January.

No murders have occurred in the past 14 months, and robberies have decreased by 38 percent.

Reported incidents of rape have increased by 12 percent with 16 reports in the first half of 2010, all of which were acquaintance rapes.

The Cambridge Police Department will release its second BridgeStat report with updated numbers this week, according to Wagner.

—Staff Writer Sofia E. Groopman can be reached at segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.