Recently Released FBI Report Shares Crime Stats on Chelmsford and Other Mass. Towns

A recently released report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows that Chelmsford’s crime rate in 2012 was fairly comparable to what it saw in 2011.

According to the FBI’s “2012 Crime in the United States” survey of Massachusetts towns, Chelmsford saw a decrease crime in six of 10 categories from 2011 to 2012, seeing an increase in property crime (547 to 520), larceny-theft (463 to 441), burglary (69 to 60) and robbery (5 to 4).

Both years had no reported murders or manslaughters in Chelmsford, there were no reported cases of rape or arson in 2012, with violent crime dropping from 32 to 25, motor vehicle thefts dropping from 19 to 15.

Among neighboring communities, Chelmsford fared worse than Westford but had only half the violent crime of Billerica and over 20 times less violent crime than Lowell.

When it came to communities of comparable size, Chelmsford (pop. 34,460) was also in the middle of the pack, with four times as much violent crime as Shrewsbury (pop. 36,048) but over twenty times less than Chelsea (35,966).

However, the FBI indicated that differing municipalities may have various thresholds for reporting crimes.

The annual report includes information submitted by local law enforcement agencies. The information is compiled and released to the public in the fall of the year that follows the reported year.