'Safest Suburbs' Survey Disturbs Cambridge Cops

Cambridge Police Department spokesmen said recently that a Boston Magazine article about crime in the Boston area in misleading and makes unfair comparisons between Cambridge and smaller towns.

The survey, published last month by the periodical, concluded that Cambridge is among the top five most dangerous communities in eastern Massachusetts.

The Cambridge statistics are accurate in terms of numbers of crimes for 1983, said Ray Santilli, a civilian police planner for the city, But the population figure, is distorted by' the number of students living in Cambridge and workers who fill the city during the day he added.

"There are anywhere from 200,000 to 250,000 people coming into this city on any given day," said Santilli, adding that this influx of people would have significantly altered Cambridge's standing in the survey.

In fact, statistics for 1984, to be released this week, show Cambridge has the lowest crime rate in 15 years, according to Richard Seveleri, a member of Cambridge's new crime analysis unit.

Touted as "the most complete report on Greater Boston crime ever published," the crime rate statistics place Boston, Lynn, Revere and Chelsea ahead of Cambridge in crime.

The report adds that the city has one of the highest ratios of police officers to residents--and one of the worst crime rates in Massachusetts.

The data gathered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety, shows that the more than 95,000 permanent residents of the city face the second highest number of murders and the third highest incidence of reported rapes in the metropolitan area.

Since 1981, crimes in Cambridge have fallen by 2000-despite reductions in the local police force, Sevelri said.

Police officials attribute the decline in Cambridge crime to an increase in crime solving, the creation of 18 neighborhood crime watches in four years, and a decrease in the juvenile population.

Harvard Square is safer than it has been in recent years, the department's crime watchers said, because of extra police assigned to the area due to recent Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority construction.

Businesses in Harvard Square did not report any break-ins for the first seven months of last year, Santilli said.

Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson also said that he disagrees with the Boston Magazine report, claiming the percentages for University crime are down.

Unlike MIT, Harvard does not volunteer its statistics to the Massachusetts Department of Public safety, Santilli added.