"They see us and they feel safer," he says.
Bounded on the east by the B&A railroad and on the west by Prospect Street, Area 4 runs from Mass. Ave north to Hampshire Street.
One corner sits on Central Square, home to an MBTA stop, a homeless shelter and many of Cambridge's bars.
"We have a high number of homeless people and transients," Gamble says.
Gamble has worked Area 4 for 18 months, first in a two-person car, responding to crimes in progress, before striking out on his own. Now, working alone, he mostly takes reports of past incidents.
"During the day it's not so bad," he says. "But when people come home at night, it becomes a different area."
Area 4 is Cambridge's poorest neighborhood and is the only one to contain a majority of non-white residents. Its residents have an average annual income of only $24,665--half that of some of Cambridge's wealthier areas. Unemployment stands at more than 10 percent, double the rate in most of the city's other neighborhoods.
But Gamble says the situation isn't as bad as it may seem.
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