That’s no doubt true, but Curran’s remark at a Friends of Downtown meeting shows something of a tin ear for the concerns that many people are voicing. Some just don’t feel safe walking Chapel Hill streets, downtown and beyond, and that’s unacceptable, even if the numbers might tell a different story.

It will be hard for major downtown property owners, including the university, to attract new tenants if safety concerns are keeping people away. It’s even more unsettling that residential break-ins rose 34 percent between July 2007 and June 2008 compared to the previous fiscal year, a reminder that crime is by no means confined to the central business district.

Townwide, rape and aggravated assaults were down 47 and 30 percent, respectively.

But robberies rose 11 percent, and homicides doubled to two when UNC Student Body President Eve Carson was gunned down on a quiet Chapel Hill street.

It only takes a few shocking incidents — like Carson’s murder, the recent brazen hold-ups at shotgun-point, or 505 home burglaries last fiscal year — to make people frightened in their own homes, much less walking on Franklin Street at night.

The Police Department, and the town’s political leaders need to acknowledge that and take more visible action.

We applaud efforts like better lighting and the new five-officer downtown patrol. But we’d like to see police form citizens’ watch patrols to get more eyes on the street and reinforce the message that the community is united against crime.

We also would urge the town to add two or three new officers to focus on gang activity to address that growing concern.

Curran said in April, “You can’t just bury your head in the sand and hope that gang problems are going to pass you by, because they’re here.”

It was surprising then that the chief didn’t ask the Town Council to add a few gang officers in this year’s budget. There’s only one officer assigned to gang investigations now, and he does that part time.

Curran says competing budget concerns convinced him this wasn’t the year to shore up the police force.

We beg to differ.

There’s never been a better time to send a loud-and-clear signal that Chapel Hill will not tolerate violence.