Thefts at University Are 40% Below Harvard Police Estimates For the Past Twelve Months

Crimes against property have dropped 44 per cent below University police projections for the year ending July 1, bucking a long term trend of increasing thefts.

Robert W. Mudge, coordinator of records and communications for the University Police, said yesterday the decline in theft is attributable to stricter enforcement of trespassing laws, resulting in a higher number of arrests.

In November, David L. Gorski, University police chief, broke precedent by requiring University police to arrest all trespassers, rather than simply order them off campus.

As an example of the decline, Mudge cited the week of June 11 to 18--"fiscal week 50," he called it--when 28 of 32 projected thefts occurred, two of four projected violent crimes occurred, and no sex crimes out of 1.5 projected occurred.

The projected amount of crime is calculated by computer, using a sample of the average incidence of crime for three periods within the last 18 months.

Jack W. Morse, acting University police chief while Gorski is on vacation, said yesterday that crime usually increases during the summer, and added that the heat is probably the most important factor in the rise, citing the higher number of sex crimes taking place in hot weather.

Morse said that open windows and vacant houses invite thieves, but he said that lack of student concern over security is also an important factor.

Security Not a Priority

"Security isn't given high priority, since many students' concerns are in other areas. However, after something is stolen the problem becomes very real," Morse said.

It is not possible to compare statistics on crime before and after early 1975, when Gorski took over from former chief Robert Tonis, Mudge said. Mudge added that he discounts Tonis's figures as inaccurate, and cites the lack of computer analysis in the Tonis figures.

Tonis said yesterday that crime during his tenure as chief steadily increased.

Morse said yesterday that he could not point out specific areas in the vicinity that are particularly dangerous statistically. He said, however, that "your chances to be a victim in Cambridge are less than in many other areas in and around Boston. The chances, however, are still unacceptable," he added.