With many students home for the summer during the COVID-19 pandemic, most University of Minnesota-area neighborhoods are quiet and saw a decrease in overall crime compared to the same time frame last year.

Crime Trends

Overall property crime has gone down in all neighborhoods around the University.

Marcy-Holmes property crime from May 22 to June 22 decreased from 76 in 2019 to 57 this year. In Southeast Como, the number dropped from 31 to 18, and Prospect Park saw 49 reported incidents in 2019 decrease to 35 this year. Cedar-Riverside’s number decreased by seven incidents, with 37 property crimes reported in the past four weeks. 

Theft of personal property and theft from motor vehicles has accounted for the bulk of the decrease in property crime. 

Marcy-Holmes saw 26 larceny incidents, Cedar-Riverside saw 13 larceny incidents, Prospect Park saw 16 and Southeast Como saw nine. Last year, larceny incidents were respectively 43, 23, 34 and 13 in those neighborhoods. 

Additionally, Marcy-Holmes and Prospect Park each saw seven incidents of theft from motor vehicles, Cedar-Riverside saw five thefts from vehicle incidents and Southeast Como saw four this year. Last year, theft from motor vehicle incidents were respectively 15, 10, 10 and eight.

Alternatively, burglary has climbed in all campus neighborhoods besides Southeast Como compared to last year. The largest increase was in Cedar-Riverside, where two incidents in 2019 grew to 12 this year. 

Cedar-Riverside and Southeast Como both saw a significant decrease in reported auto theft compared to last year. Southeast Como reported only one incident this past month after five incidents last year. Cedar-Riverside reported six total incidents, a drop from nine last year. Marcy-Holmes and Prospect Park spiked in auto theft incidents, from nine to 13 and two to seven, respectively. 

While all four neighborhoods saw a decrease in property crime from this time last year, they differ when it comes to violent crime. 

Cedar-Riverside’s violent crime from this past month dropped from six incidents in 2019 to one this year. In Marcy Holmes, the number increased from 13 to 15, and Southeast Como saw an increase by one incident, with only three reported incidents. 

Bucking a usual trend, Prospect Park had an increase in violent crime. Last year, the neighborhood saw no violent crime from May 22 to June 22. This year, Prospect Park recorded a total of two rapes, one robbery, three aggravated assaults and two domestic aggravated assaults for a total of eight reported violent crimes in the last four weeks.

Notable Crimes

A robbery occurred early Saturday morning, according to an all-campus alert. The incident occurred near Radius Apartments at 3:50 a.m. The suspect — described as wearing black pants, a white shirt and a medical mask — was armed with a handgun and took the victim’s wallet. 

This is the fourth alert involving robbery last week, following both an attempted robbery last Monday and a robbery last Tuesday and an assault and auto-theft incident Thursday.