University Police release annual crime statistics

Although University Police officials said overall crime on the campus and in College Park is down, annual crime statistics released earlier this month show increases in aggravated assaults, arson, hate crimes and drug-related violations from 2009 to 2010.

University Police are required to report instances of specific crimes to the U.S. Dept. of Education as mandated by the Clery Act. While statistics released solely from the department show a decrease in violent and property crime on the campus, Clery Act data pools crime reports also made to Prince George's County Police, university coaches, mentors, faculty members and Resident Life officials.

"If someone went to the soccer coach and said a teammate grabbed his rear end in the shower, they may choose not report it to the police," University Police spokesman Capt. Marc Limansky said, explaining why the department contacts others to get more complete crime records.

The statute was named for Jeanne Clery, who as a 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman in 1986 was raped and murdered while sleeping in her dorm room. Although this year's Clery Act data shows an increase in some types of crime, burglaries and incidents of breaking and entering decreased from 2009 to 2010. While 152 such incidents were reported in 2008, only 90 requests were made in 2009 and 79 in 2010. Information for 2011 will not be available until next year.

Limansky said this decrease in crime may be attributed to changes in police officers' patrols.

"Before, officers could go wherever they wanted to go," Limansky said. "Now, we've started assigning people to specific areas for entire shifts. It's a more direct approach that helps with response time, becoming more familiar with problems in that sector, getting to know the people in that area. [Officers] become more approachable."

However, the report also shows the largest jump in reported crimes occurred in drug-related arrests. In 2010, there were 234 such incidents, while there were just 99 in 2009 and 64 in 2008.

"I don't know that it's that more people are doing drugs as much as it is we're out walking and see people openly smoking marijuana or have drug paraphernalia," University Police Chief David Mitchell said. "A number of times we get calls and complaints about it. We don't have a concrete reason for [the increase of reported incidents] except that we're out responding to these calls."

The data shows an increase in aggravated assaults, with 15 in 2010 — nine on the campus, two in campus residential facilities, two in non-campus buildings and four on public property — compared to 10 in 2009 and seven in 2008. Arson and hate crimes have both doubled from 2009 to 2010, with 6 arsons and 10 hate crimes last year.

Limansky added that most hate crimes are also recorded as other crimes, as well.

"If there was a burglary during which something led the victim or the officers to believe that the crime was racially charged, it's listed as a burglary and a hate crime," Limansky said. "It usually involves malicious destruction of property, like drawing a Swastika, but it could also be, for example, someone using the ‘N-word' and then hitting them with a bat. That would be aggravated assault and hate crime."

The Clery Act also requires University Police to report information on murder, manslaughter, forcible and non-forcible sex offense, robbery, motor vehicle theft, liquor-law violations and weapons possession.

No crimes were reported for murder, manslaughter or non-forcible sexual offenses. There were no increases in forcible sexual offenses — 10 were reported both in 2010 and 2009, a drop from the 17 reported in 2008. The majority of these reports were made to either the university's Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Program or Resident Life and not directly to University Police — meaning police are unable to investigate the crimes.

Junior bioengineering major Mozammil Chaudhry said he is not surprised by some of the reported crime decreases.

"Safety measures have increased, and the email system has definitely been a huge help allowing us to know when a crime on campus occurs," Chaudhry said. "I think it's helped increase security in appropriate areas making College Park a lot safer."

But some students said that as a suburb of Washington, the city will always see crime, no matter how vigilant police and students are to combat it.

"There's always going to be active crime in College Park," sophomore business and psychology major Garrett Yung said. "Even if crime is decreasing, it still seems inevitable here."

egan@umdbk.com