Crime rates in the neighborhoods surrounding Harvard's campus rose in 1998, but not enough to signify a trend, according to the Cambridge Police Department (CPD)'s annual crime report.

Statistics in the report, released last week, showed that Cambridge's total crime rate increased less than 1 percent last year. Violent crime rose 6 percent, partly because of an increase in nonstranger rapes and in strong-armed robbery.

But the level of crime was still around the lowest it has been in thirty years, the statistics show, and the perennial problem of car thefts declined 18 percent.

"None of the statistics, however, mitigate the fact that in 1998, there was a reversal of a positive trend," wrote CPD Commissioner Ronnie L. Watson in his introduction to the report. Cambridge last saw a rise in crime in 1992.

Police said the most disturbing glaries and 18 percent rise in robberies, they said.

But CPD Spokesperson Frank Pasquarello said that the numbers can be deceptive.

"It looks like there's a crime pattern, but overall crime is down in Cambridge," he said, discussing long-term crime trends.

Stranger rape declined nearly 90 percent, from eight reported incidents to only one. But non-stranger rape jumped 60 percent, from 15 to 24 occurrences.

Overall, the CPD reported a 4 percent increase in rape.

The 25 reported incidents are still well below the city's 30-year average, which is 33 rapes per year.

CPD statistics show that an arrest was made in 92 percent of all rapes reported.

The massive increase in reported robberies centered primarily around three Cambridge neighborhoods: Area 4 near Central Square, Riverside (which includes some of Harvard's river houses) and Cambridgeport.

Police classified almost half of street robberies as "predatory," or involving threats to hurt the victim.

In the Harvard Square area, the statistics show commercial robberies increased slightly from 1997 to 1998.

However, there has been a large increase in the number of smash-and-grab burglaries-which aren't accounted for in the statistics-in the first two months of 1999.