Marseille current safety and crime

I’m an English guy who’s been living in Marseille since July 2014 and am offering an update on the crime and safety situation from a local perspective.
As a visitor you’re unlikely to be in the city long enough to be a victim of crime so don’t be put off coming. However, myself and every resident I speak with here has first hand experience of crime with the most common being snatch thefts, pickpocket, theft from cars, theft of bicycles / motorbikes. I’ve had a bag snatched, I saw the thief take it and I chased him. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me, I’m almost fifty years old and have lived in some dodgy areas of major UK cities with the worst that happened being a bike stolen from the entrance hall of some flats where I lived.
Certain parts of Marseille are a lot more dangerous than others. The forest of CCTV cameras recently installed may have made areas like the Vieux Port and Panier safer but based on my experiences and what I’ve heard from long term residents, here are some points to bear in mind:
Snatch thefts of jewellery, especially neck chains occur on the tram and the metro. Also thefts of watches, so if anyone asks you the time, you don’t know. Why would they ask you the time when they almost certainly have a mobile phone?
Pickpockets operate all over the city but especially on the metro. St Charles station is nowadays crawling with security guards and soldiers. Be very wary of people bumping into you, groups of young people kicking a football around which happens to cross your path...and as the young man goes to get the ball he somehow bumps into you while his accomplice is reaching for the mobile they saw earlier on outlined in your trouser pocket.
I nowadays use various concealed wallets when I’m out and about in the city centre, because I’ve lost count of the number of attempts at theft that have been made. I have a shoulder bag that can carry a smartphone, wallet, set of keys and can be concealed under clothing. Local people I know never carry a bag with them in the evening.
I suggest leaving your nice designer watch, gold jewellery and smartphone behind and when you’re on the street, use one of the free maps available from the tourist information.
The area bordered by Allee Gambetta, Rue de la Grande Armee and la Canebiere should be avoided as should the side streets running down from St Charles station. There’s nothing of any interest around there in any case. One exception might be the vegetarian restaurant Grain du Sable on rue Baignoir, open lunchtimes. The area running from Cours Belsunce, around Rue Colbert up to Port d’Aix is extremely dangerous and notorious for snatch thefts. An ambulance crew, collecting a patient recently had their smartphones and the works phone stolen from the front of the ambulance while they were getting the patient in to the back. This was where I had a bag snatched in broad daylight. So if you’re thinking of strolling up to the Arc de Triomphe and having a picnic on the grass under the trees – don’t. This area is also the end of the motorway A7 and there are reports of motorists being robbed who’ve come off the motorway and stopped the car to check directions.
Every day I see at least two or three cars with the rear window smashed in. If you bring a car with plates from outside the city, especially foreign ones, it’s just a matter of when, not if, it will get broken into.
The beaches are also notorious for thefts. Plage Prophete, Catalans and Prado have free cloakrooms from June to September and you are well advised to use them.
As a visitor, you may well end up around Cours Julien, which is a lively area with some great cafes, bars and several excellent venues for live music. Unfortunately it’s also become a magnet for druggies, street drinkers and aggressive beggars and care should be taken in this neighbourhood.
Some music venues you might find your way to are the Docks de Sud which is a superclub holding techno, drum and bass all nighters and Nomad Café. Both are in the beginnings of the quartiers nords, the nearest metro station is Bougainville although Docks de Sud is on the tram network. You should organise transport back to wherever you’re staying (unless you’re planning on an all nighter) this is definitely not a neighbourhood to wander around in after dark.
Bougainville is also pretty sleazy day or night with drug dealers openly operating under the noses of the security guards.
There are lots of free festivals, open air cinema in the summer and again, be careful with bags, belongings in these situations.
Another venue, not very easy to access, is the Friche Belle de Mai, a former factory with a spectacular rooftop bar which opens on Fridays and Saturday nights during the summer, it hosts some of the best club and live music nights the city has to offer. It's in a poor neighbourhood, some consider dangerous, although I've never experienced problems around there or felt unsafe. Nearby is a repertory cinema, the Gyptis, which has films in their original language.
Don’t be put off coming here, I love the city and I’m very happy here, but it is dangerous, violent and crime infested and is somewhere you need to be on your guard to a much greater extent than in other places. Much of the serious crime is gang and drug related and is most unlikely to affect a visitor unless you take a bus out to one of the housing projects in the notorious quartiers nord and look for trouble. These are like the favelas of Latin America, entire housing projects or estates controlled by criminal gangs which the police can only enter when there are several vanloads of them, armed with assault rifles and body armour. If you’re curious, google the Hotel du Nord project which offers homestays in the North of the city and guided walks. Some efforts are being made to improve the lives and chances of people in these areas but to a large extent whole sections of society are disenfranchised.
Talking of the police, there are news reports in France at the time of writing of robbers posing as fake police, using a blue flashing light on their car, pulling over drivers to then demand wallets, mobile phones and other valuables. These thefts are occurring on motorways during the early hours, between 2 and 6 am and are reported to be taking place in Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur and Languedoc Roussillon. There was a spate of these thefts a while ago between Paris and Normandy, it seems the perpetrators have moved South. Something to be careful of if you’re driving.
I’m sure plenty of people will now respond by saying how they visited the city and never felt safer, all I can say is these are my views based upon lived experience of twelve months in Marseille. I hope it’s helpful.