Despite rising crimes rates in neighborhoods surrounding Harvard, the City of Cambridge is safer now than it's been in nearly 30 years, according to Cambridge Police Department (CPD) statistics.

Following a national trend, crime rates in the city continued a steep decline in the first nine months of 1997, says a CPD report released in December.

The report, produced by the CPD's crime analysis unit, was distributed to Cambridge residents at the department's community meetings in late December. Selected statistics are also available on the department's Web page.

Violent crime in the city has declined 24 percent in the past two years, and total crime was down nearly 20 percent, the report shows.

Murder is one exception.

Three Cantabrigians were killed in the first 10 months of 1997, whereas none were killed in the similar period in 1996.

A 19-year-old homeless women was killed by a companion in March, a 19-year-old man was shot in Hoyt Field in August and 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley was kidnapped, raped and murdered in October.

The report notes that cities of 100,000 residents, like Cambridge, usually average 10 murders each year. With just under three murders a year, Cambridge is more safe than the average American city.

The rate of assault increased just over five percent in the first 10 months of 1997, but remained down nearly 18 percent since 1995.

The report notes that the increase in assault is "abating." At the end of March, it was up 21 percent; at the end of June, it had scaled back its rate of increase to 12 percent. By September, assaults increased only five percent, the report says.

Rapes are becoming more infrequent in the city.

In the first nine months of 1996, 31 sexual assaults were reported, compared with 17 for the same period a year later, a decrease of more than 45 percent.

Property crime, such as car theft and larceny, has declined 18.4 percent since 1995, although the rate of auto theft did not significantly decline from 1996 to 1997, the report shows.

According to Lt. Steven Williams, coordinator of the city's community policing unit, the decline in crime is in part due to shifting demographics.

Noting that most crime is committed by 15 to 25-year-old males, he said "it's natural to assume that when there's been a reduction in that age group, there's been a reduction in crime," he says.

While the report does not include statistics for crimes committed on University property, it does include the four Cambridge neighborhoods that surround Harvard.

The Mid-Cambridge neighborhood includes the area around Harvard Yard, including parts of Mt. Auburn streets and Mass. Ave. and extends to Prospect Street.

The CPD report notes that street robberies are declining in the neighborhood, and "judicious use of directed patrols to curtail larceny from motor vehicles" has contributed to a significant decrease in car thefts.

The Riverside neighborhood includes all of Harvard's undergraduate houses along Memorial Drive.

Drug arrests and street robbery all saw increases in the first nine months of 1997 in that area, although car theft was down nearly 18 percent, the report shows.

The West Cambridge neighborhood includes much of Harvard Square, and saw a 225 percent increase in street robbery for the first nine months of 1997.

"The only trend to be identified is the temporal concentration of between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. on weekend nights," the report notes.

The Peabody neighborhood including the Quad and parts of Radcliffe, saw a rising rates of street robberies in 1997 over a similar period in 1996, although drug arrests and auto thefts were down.