Your Car Is Now Less Likely To Be Stolen in Boston

While Colin Kingsbury continues to walk back his pro-car story from Boston‘s March issue, there’s actually a new reason for motorists to celebrate these days: Your car is 23 percent less likely to be stolen this year than last. That news comes from the Boston Police Department’s survey of crime from January 1 to March 18, 2012, and unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Most other types of crimes have increased in frequency over last year. Here are five takeaways from the BPD’s findings:

You’re less likely to get shot, but more likely to get shot to death. To date, the city has recorded five homicides this year, versus four last year. The number of non-fatal shootings has decreased from 29 last year to 22 this year. Moreover, firearm arrests have plummeted by 20 when compared to last year (92 versus 72). As for killings that don’t involve guns, there have been two to date this year.

Rape still happens. And at the same essentially the same rate it did last year. (We’ve had 48 to date this year, versus 47 last year.)

Keep your possessions close and your iPhone closer. Robberies and attempted robberies are up 6.7 percent (from 343 in 2011 to 366 this year).

Don’t worry about the rest of your things, though. Combing the three categories for stealing (burglary, larceny, and theft), you are 4 percent less likely to have someone try to take what’s yours than last year (3,412 this year, versus 3,535 last year).

Keep calm and carry on. The totals of these stats actually show a 3 percent decrease in crime over the same time period last year. Most of that comes from a pronounced decrease in larceny, which decreased 4 percent over last year. So, you know, everything’s cool here.