Crime & Safety
Coronavirus In MA: Crime Drops As Residents Stay Home
Crime across the state dropped dramatically starting in mid-March, as coronavirus-related shutdowns were put in place.
The coronavirus shutdown has restricted activity in general, and that includes illegal activity.
Police departments around Massachusetts report major declines in crime over the month of March, as businesses shut down and residents increasingly stayed inside. According to Boston Police Department data, crime fell by a third over the course of March.
From Tuesday, March 24 to Monday, March 30, Boston police filed 1202 crime incident reports. In the same seven-day period in 2019, they filed 1901—over 50 percent more.
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Since the start of the year, the department consistently reported at least 200 crime incidents per day, until the middle of March. March 29, there were just 127 incidents. The biggest declines were in driving violations, as the shutdown has taken drivers off the roads. Robbery, theft and drug-related crimes also saw dramatic declines.
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Boston data shows the declines began around March 15, when serious social distancing efforts began. On that day, Gov. Charlie Baker ordered schools to close statewide and required restaurants to operate solely on a takeout and delivery basis. A week later, he issued a statewide stay-at-home advisory.
Other departments have seen similarly dramatic declines. Worcester police spokeswoman Kathleen Daly said that declining interactions has clearly led to less crime.
"The Worcester Police Department is averaging about 94 fewer incidents per day than we did at this time last year," Daly said in an email. "That seems to be largely driven by circumstances…. government ordered physical distancing measures (school closures, limited gatherings to <X people, shutdown of non essential business, banning of dine-in at restaurants, etc)."
Cambridge Police Spokesman Jeremy Warnick reported the same thing.
"We're reporting a reduction in crime and calls for service," Warnick said. "People are staying home, and businesses are shutdown."
There are exceptions: some departments report upticks in certain types of calls. In Worcester, police report more calls for non-criminal domestic disputes. North Andover police spokesman Eric Foulds said the only type of calls to increase are those directly related to the virus.
"We're starting to get calls from people reporting on groups gathering out in public," Fould said. "Before this, we'd never get a call like that. For the most part, we just talk to them, they understand, and they break up."
Police also said they expect to see more domestic violence calls, but representatives of several departments said that hasn't happened yet.
Cambridge is preparing for a potential increase in domestic abuse, Warnick said. The city has prepared resources for survivors of abuse and others who are in fear, "being at home with potentially abusive partners or roommates," he said.
The Massachusetts State Police has not responded to a request for comment for this story, but MassDOT data shows that with many people working from home, crashes on the state's roads have plummeted.
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