More than half of residents feel unsafe in downtown Boston amid crime spike, study shows

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-percent 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.