More than half of residents feel unsafe in downtown Boston and are asking for the city to deploy more police to the area on a regular basis to counteract crime, according to a new survey. The survey, released Friday by the Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association, shows a 22% increase in residents who feel unsafe downtown and on Boston Common, from 34% last year to 56% this year. A whopping ...

Boston skyline seen from Quincy, Massachusetts, Oct. 22, 2025.

Matt Stone/Boston Herald/TNS

More than half of residents feel unsafe in downtown Boston and are asking for the city to deploy more police to the area on a regular basis to counteract crime, according to a new survey.

The survey, released Friday by the Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association, shows a 22% increase in residents who feel unsafe downtown and on Boston Common, from 34% last year to 56% this year.

A whopping 90% of survey respondents rated downtown Boston public safety as an “urgent issue,” up from 81% last year. More than half, or 53%, gave the issue the highest level of urgency, by rating their concerns at a 10 on a 10-point scale. The other urgency ratings encompassing the 90% pool ranged from 7 to 9.

“Drugs and needles remained the most frequently cited concern, while violence rose considerably as a top issue,” the DBNA survey results state. “When asked what they would change if they had a ‘magic wand,’ 45% of respondents called for more visible police and patrols. This is the highest share in the three years of the survey.

“Respondents frequently emphasized foot patrols and sustained presence rather than short-term surges,” the downtown group added.

Residents are most concerned about their safety at the Boston Common and Park Street corridor, per the survey results.

While 56% of respondents said they felt less safe last month when the survey was conducted, compared to how they felt at the beginning of the year, only 6% said they feel more safe downtown compared to the outset of this year, per the results.

Forty-five percent of respondents listed drugs and needles as their top safety concern, followed by homelessness and loitering (30%), violence (20%), scooters/e-bikes and traffic (15%), and mental illness or erratic behavior (13%).

Violence nearly tripled as a top cited safety concern over the past year, from 7% in 2025 to 20% this year.

Boston Common and the Park Street corridor drew the most safety concerns among respondents, at 46%, followed by Tremont Street (31%), Downtown Crossing (27%), Washington Street (22%), and Winter Street (21%), per the survey.

The results mirror the concerns raised in recent months by the Downtown Boston Neighborhood Association and some elected officials. Their concern is a spike in violent crime and public drug activity in the city’s core this summer represented a regression from the progress the city made in getting a handle on safety there two years ago.

City officials began convening meetings to address downtown crime again this summer, after hearing concerns from downtown stakeholders.

DBNA co-founder Rishi Shukla had sent a letter to the mayor and police commissioner ahead of those meetings that touched on the uptick in violent crime and drug activity downtown, highlighted by five people who had been shot over a 16-day span, from June 29 to July 15.

“We turned downtown around once by acting with urgency, coordination and shared purpose,” Shukla wrote on July 15. “We believe this moment calls for that same commitment. Together, we can ensure downtown Boston remains a neighborhood where residents, workers, visitors, and businesses are not only safe, but feel safe.”

His group’s new survey results show that the number of respondents who reported feeling unsafe downtown improved dramatically last year, when those numbers fell from 71% in 2024 to 34% in 2025, before rising again to 56% this year.

Mayor Michelle Wu maintained throughout the summer crime spike that downtown remains safe, and stood by her claim that Boston is the “safest major city” in the country.

Statistically, there has been a general decline in crime rates downtown compared to the five-year average.

The latest statistics released by the Boston Police Department covers the year through Sept. 27. The numbers show that officers from District A1, which covers downtown, responded to more reports of domestic aggravated assaults and miscellaneous larceny compared to the five-year average for the same period of the year. There had also been two homicides downtown compared to one in the same period last year and an average of 1.8.

Non-domestic aggravated assaults are higher in the district this year, with 163 year to date compared to 148 during the same period last year, though the five-year average is higher at 166.8.

Every other category showed a decline not only against last year, but against the five-year average. That includes fewer rapes or attempted rapes — 10 year to date, compared to 17 last year and an average of 16.6. Thefts other than miscellaneous larceny are also down. That includes a decline in both commercial burglary and residential burglary compared to both last year and the average.

The DBNA said its latest survey results highlight “the importance of sustaining the coordinated public safety efforts that have produced measurable improvement” in past years, to counteract the regression in safety perceived this year.

More clearly, the DBNA said the results show residents feel a more consistent police presence is needed to maintain safety downtown.

“Respondents repeatedly described progress as possible but fragile,” the group wrote. “They credited visible police patrols and community programming when conditions improved, while expressing concern that gains fade when the intensity of attention falls.”

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(Herald reporter Flint McColgan contributed to this report.)

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