By Kathryn Walters |
The Department of Public Safety’s Annual Security Report for 2012 reported a significant increase in campus drug law violations, while liquor law violations continue to decline from past years.
Aside from these violations, the report indicated few to no incidents of crime overall.
“Really, our incidences of most violations are pretty low, and we like it that way and would like to be even lower,” Director of Public Safety Gerald Gregg said.
Each year, the University publishes this report in accordance with the Clery Act, which requires all colleges and universities to disclose their crime statistics to the public. The statistics reflect crime reported on and adjacent to campus from January to December 2012 and also lists statistics from 2011 and 2010. Public Safety gathers these statistics with the help of Residence Life and the Portland Police.
However, these statistics do not completely account for all crime at UP. Only cases that happen on campus, in residence halls, in UP-owned houses or directly bordering UP, such as the sidewalk on Willamette Blvd., are included in the report. The Clery Act requires the University to report certain categories of crime, which means that bike theft and theft from a motor vehicle, which do not fit the Clery Act’s definition of burglary, are not included in the report.
One of the biggest changes from recent years was a sharp increase in drug law violations. While drug law violation referrals have increased from year to year, the report showed that these numbers doubled from 15 campus disciplinary referrals in 2011 to 33 referrals in 2012.
Gregg said that increase accounted for a significant group of students last year that was involved with marijuana.
“We take a pretty firm line against drug use in the university community, and we basically got information and started investigating and referred them to the student conduct office,” Gregg said.
According to Natalie Shank, associate director for Community Standards, marijuana is the most commonly used drug on campus. Her role in the disciplinary Student Conduct Process allows her to collect statistics of student conduct violations and share them with Public Safety.
“I think we are seeing more marijuana issues come to the surface, and I think that’s been common for our region in the last several years,” she said. “So I think we are on trend with what’s happening with colleges and universities across the Pacific Northwest.”
Shank’s claim is substantiated by a nationwide trend in the increase of marijuana use among college-age young adults. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, marijuana use in 18 to 25-year-olds increased from 16.6 percent in 2008 to 19 percent in 2011.
However, despite the rise of drug law violations on campus, senior Gabby Gorence hasn’t personally seen this trend at UP.
“I actually don’t notice it, to be honest,” she said.
The report also indicated a continuing decrease in liquor law violations in the last few years. There were 66 campus referrals, down from 81 in 2011.
Gorence believes the decline in liquor law violations may be connected to the increased drug law violations on campus.
“I don’t think it’s surprising that alcohol’s gone down because I feel like Public Safety has been really strict about it,” she said. “But maybe because they’ve been strict on that, people have been going to other things.”
Reported forcible sex offenses, which include rape, unwanted fondling and other forced sexual offenses, fell from two to one in 2012. However, the report does not include off-campus incidents of sexual assault unless they occurred on University-owned property and the victim reported it.
Although Gregg credits campus programs like Green Dot for increasing awareness of sexual violence, he still believes sexual assault is underreported at UP.
“Obviously I would like zero incidences and thus zero reports, and part of the reason for the effort on Green Dot is to reduce sexual violence, so if they see something, they have the tools to intervene,” he said.
The number of reported burglaries decreased from four to zero in 2012. This statistic reflects the University’s strict definition of burglary, which adheres to the Clery Act’s specifications. For example, the theft of a cell phone from the library or a public area of a dorm could not be counted as a burglary because it happened in a public place where unlawful entry is not an issue. Also, a student who does not formally file a theft report cannot have that theft reported as a burglary.
According to Michael McNerney, Public Safety communication and technology coordinator, who co-authored the Annual Security Report, thefts originally reported as burglaries, on further investigation, could turn out to be unreportable because of circumstances not originally taken into account.
“It’s entirely possible that there were findings in the cases that made it unreportable,” he said. “What can happen, because we don’t spell this out, is that the theft could have occurred in a non-residential part of the residence hall.”
But overall, low crime statistics reflect common opinion that UP is a safe place to be.
“I feel pretty safe here all the time,” Gorence said. “I mean, it’s probably bad to walk around campus all the time feeling invincible, but I feel really safe.”
Gregg said even though UP has few crime incidents, there is always room for improvement.
“We think it’s a safe environment but we’re not complacent about it and we’re going to work to make it better all the time,” he said.
| 2012 Crime Stats | Campus | Residence Halls | Public Property | Non-Campus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murder | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Manslaughter | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Forcible Sex Offences | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-forcible Sex Offences | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Burgulary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aggravated Assault | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Arson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Liquor Law Violations Arrests | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Disciplinary Referral | 62 | 52 | 4 | 0 |
| Drug Law Violations Arrests | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Disciplinary Referral | 33 | 27 | 0 | 0 |
| Weapons Policy Violations Arrests | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Disciplinary Referral | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Keeping UP Safe
Public Safety emergency: 503-943-4444; 24-hour non-emergency: 503-943-7161
University Health Center: 503-943-7134
Campus SAFE Advocates: 503-943-7233
Portland Women’s 24-hour Crisis Line: 503-235-5333
Portland Police Bureau: 911; non-emergency: 503-823-3333
