Map Source: University City District (click to enlarge).
Crime dropped in the University City District (The Schuylkill River to 50th Street, Spring Garden Street to Woodland Avenue) last year in comparison to 2011, according to a report issued this week. Specifically, this concerns such crimes as unarmed robberies (down by 30%), aggravated assaults (down by 35%), and residential burglaries (down by 36%).
One area though is a cause for concern – the number of auto thefts dramatically increased in 2012 – by 43%, from 100 to approximately 150 incidents. The UCD is asking residents and visitors to “use common sense when parking or leaving your car for the night” and “make sure you lock up and remove any valuable objects from plain sight.”
Other serious crimes, like armed robberies and thefts from automobiles have slightly decreased (by 6% and 9% respectively). There are still about 100 robberies with a gun per year and almost 250 thefts from cars in the neighborhood (see photo below).
In January, 2013, 18 serious crimes were committed within the University City District boundaries (see the map) and three related arrests have been made, according to the report.
To sign up for UCD’s monthly Crime Update please email: mark@universitycity.org
A neighbor, Vinicio Guevara, snapped this photo last Sunday, at the corner of 44th and Spruce. One of the windows was smashed and a stereo was stolen from this car.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:23 am
My car was stolen in West philly, nothing special, a piece of junk really. No valuables inside. I reported it stolen immediately. The thief left it on a sidewalk in Center City the next day. Even though it still ran fine, the cops towed it & then charged me over $100 bucks to get it back. A year later I was pulled over because the cops failed to remove my car from the stolen car list. That was a whole other headache. In the end, the police were more of a pain in the butt than the original thief.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:32 am
Statistically speaking crime may be down. But if your home was burglarized like mine was in 2012 it feels like crime is up.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:52 am
Probably a dumb question, but it changes a lot: When the article says “auto thefts” are up, is that referring to breaking into cars and stealing things inside them? or stealing the car itself?
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:59 am
Thefts of vehicles went up. Thefts from inside of vehicles decreased.
February 22nd, 2013 at 2:29 pm
I had my vehicle stolen a couple months back. When it was recovered I had to go to a tow yard and pay for it to be released. The cops didn’t do anything, as they presume insurance will cover. I lost a lot of time and money in the process. The part that pissed me of the most was the lack of effort on the police part once it was recovered. They didn’t bother fingerprinting, anything.
So what exactly are the cops doing in the neighborhood to make me safer??
Considering they take up 1/3rd of the city budget, and the other 1/3rd goes to pay city pensions…
February 22nd, 2013 at 4:17 pm
More crime is down, some drastically, then up. Good news I would think, yet the article and the commentors persist on dwelling on the increases. Why?
February 22nd, 2013 at 7:12 pm
I know of at least one homicide (by firearm) that happened within UCD in 2012. Why no mention of homicide or rape within the district? It seems like the public is not being given the full picture.
February 25th, 2013 at 12:32 am
My mother had the exact same experience in West Philly as Robyn a few years back. Car stolen and abandoned, police don’t bother fingerprinting, only person arrested is my mother a year later because the police never took it off the stolen car registry. (A real nightmare for her because the car was in my father’s name and so the police treated her like a regular thief until they were able to get in touch with him.) She never got an apology of course.
February 25th, 2013 at 10:38 am
@Lauren- There were four homicides in University City, south of Market in 2012. There were two in 2011. That’s a 100% increase, but it really isn’t fair to characterize it as such, since we’re dealing with such a small number. That’s not to make light of the issue, certainly one homicide is one too many.
February 25th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
“West philly diamonds”