City Boasts No Murders in ’04

While the number of robberies in Cambridge spiked in 2004, the city saw no murders for the first time in nearly two decades, according to preliminary numbers from the Cambridge Police Department (CPD).

Across the river, Boston’s murder rate climbed to its highest in a decade, with 63 murders reported as of Dec. 5, according to the Boston Globe.

“We were lucky,” said CPD spokesman Frank T. Pasquarello. “As much as we would like to go out on the streets and celebrate, we don’t.”

Complete numbers for 2004 will not be released until the end of the February, according to CPD’s Crime Analysis Unit. Statistics cited reflect the period from January to September of 2004.

Pasquarello said a spate of 25 robberies around Central Square in October and November accounted for much of the year’s total increase. Cambridge saw 165 robberies in the first nine months of last year—already a 1 percent increase from the 2003 figure.

“If you get two or three kids that come into an area, and they do 10 or 12 robberies, that would cause a big spike in the increase of crime,” Pasquarello said.

The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) also monitors local robberies, according to spokesman Steven G. Catalano. He said HUPD has not yet compiled its 2004 data.

“Most of the robberies were occurring in other parts of the city, so that direct impact was very limited,” Catalano said. “We were watching the patterns to see if they would develop closer to Harvard.”

Since the start of the 2004 school year, only one Harvard affiliate has been the victim of a robbery—when two armed men held up a freshman walking near Pennypacker Hall in November.

CPD’s numbers through the end of September showed a 7 percent increase from 2003 in a category of crimes that included murder, rape, burglary, larceny, aggravated assault, and auto theft. There were 10 reported rapes, an increase from seven in 2003.

The frequency of crimes in a second category—including fraud, sex offenses, disorderly conduct, drinking in public, vandalism, blackmail, and hit-and-run accidents—fell 4 percent for the same period.

The murder rate has decreased for the past two years. There were six murders in 2002, and the number dropped to three in 2003. The last time there were no murders in Cambridge was in 1985.

Pasquarello said that even though the murder rate was zero, the number of shootings last year was similar to 2003. The exact number of shootings has not been compiled, he said.

The decline in murders can be partly explained by effective medical care, which saved victims who might have died otherwise, said Pasquarello. He added that targeted policing—when patrol officers are concentrated in high-risk areas—has also led to less street crime.

“Cambridge is a safer place than it was many years ago,” Pasquarello said.

Still, he said, policing local streets can be frustrating when the same criminals escape arrest multiple times.

“I see [the] same names when I came in 30 years ago that are still popping up,” he said.

Around Harvard’s campus, the year in crime had mixed results. Auto theft and vandalism numbers were down from January to September 2004 as compared to the same period in 2003 in Mid-Cambridge, a region bordered by Mass. Ave. to the south, Harvard Yard to the west and north, and Central Square to the east.

Street robbery and drug-related incidents decreased in that area for the third year straight, and auto theft dropped from 27 incidents in 2003 to 23.

In Riverside—the area bounded by Mass. Ave., the Charles River, John F. Kennedy Street, and Central Square—rates of vandalism fell for the third year straight, down from 85 incidents in 2001 to about half that number in 2004, despite a September tire-slashing spree targeting police cars. Housebreaks rose from 28 to 35.

Citywide numbers indicate that indecent assault incidents doubled in 2004. CPD’s statistics analysis cites two sexual assault patterns in Harvard Square during the early months of 2004. The arrest of Geremias Cruz Ramos, a Harvard University custodian, largely put a stop to this spike, according to CPD.

But as warmer weather approaches, crime tends to increase, said Pasquarello.

“There’ll be car doors left open and windows left open, and we’ll start seeing a spike in some crime,” he said.

—Staff writer April H.N. Yee can be reached at aprilyee@fas.harvard.edu.