CONSTANT VIGILANCE

Instead, many of the candidates underscored the need for an institutionalized response system for everyday criminal activity.

While crime in Cambridge overall has dropped by nine percent compared to last year, Cambridge has seen a jump in violent crime this semester to the tune of an 18 percent increase from last month, according to a report by the Cambridge Police Department.

City council candidates stressed that they believed most of the violent crimes taking place in Cambridge lacked a pattern and as such are more difficult to control.

“Isolated incidents are hard to deal with except on a case-by-case basis. It's easy if the same street corner is producing assaults, but that’s not the way it works,” Mello said. “They’re almost random—you are not seeing them on a regular basis in a regular place—so how are the cops going to deal with that?”

Still, several candidates said that Cambridge needs stronger policing, conducted by both law enforcement officers and the community in general. Candidate Dennis Benzan, for example, said that he would welcome the establishment of a new Cambridge Police Department station in Harvard Square or Central Square.

“We have to keep increasing police presence,” Benzan said. “People feel afraid even in Cambridge.”

Candidate James M. Williamson also suggested incentivizing collaboration between police and residents to reduce crime rates.

Even as candidates offered recommendations for reducing crime, several said that Cambridge is already significantly safer than its peer cities.

“There is no neighborhood in which I hesitate to walk,” said candidate Elie Yarden.

IMPROVING INFRASTRUCTURE

For candidate Dennis Carlone, improving safety infrastructure should begin with the more isolated areas of the city, which he said are loci for crime. One of those places for Carlone was the Christian Science Center in Boston, where he said that he was robbed and mugged on one of his first trips to New England. At the time, Carlone was a New York resident.

“The difference in Manhattan [was that] there were many people around,” he said. “When I was mugged there was nobody there.”

In order to reduce such isolated incidents, some candidates suggested improving public transportation hours and routes in Cambridge. Phillips said she thinks running public transportation all night and “criss-cross[ing]” routes across the city could prevent opportunistic crime, for example.

“Cambridge Street is busy all night long. It’s a very safe street to be on,” she said. “Broadway isn’t.”