Editing Lowell, Massachusetts (section)

===Anti-crime efforts===
In the 1990s, Lowell had been locally notorious for being a place of high drug trafficking and gang activity, and was the setting for a real life documentary, ''[[High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell]].''  In the years from 1994 to 1999, crime dropped 50 percent, the highest rate of decrease for any city in America with over 100,000 residents.

Within one generation, by 2009, Lowell was ranked as the 139th most dangerous city of over 75,000 residents in the United States, out of 393 communities.  Out of Massachusetts cities, nine are larger than 75,000 residents, and Lowell was fifth.<ref name="City Crime Rankings, 2009-2010">{{cite web|url=http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/2009/CityCrimeRankings2009.htm|title=CQ Press: City Crime Rankings 2009|access-date=April 27, 2010|archive-date=September 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901124312/http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/2009/CityCrimeRankings2009.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> For comparison Lowell was still rated safer than Boston (104 of 393), Providence, RI (123), Springfield (51), Lynn (120), Fall River (103), and New Bedford (85), but rated more dangerous than Cambridge (303), Newton (388), Quincy (312), and Worcester (175).<ref name="City Crime Rankings, 2009-2010" />