Three days after the Ohio University Police Department released its 2013 Clery Report, university officials say they are taking the results in stride.
The annual report, which details crime statistics on and near campus from the past year, shows OU’s drug and alcohol arrests increased since 2011. Those figures are higher than some other Ohio public universities, including Kent State University, Bowling Green State University and Miami University.
According to the report, OU had 258 liquor-related arrests in 2012, compared to Miami’s 126, Kent State’s 250 and Bowling Green’s 157.
Despite the increase in drug and liquor-related arrests, OU Police Chief Andrew Powers and OU Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi agreed that the findings aren’t out of the ordinary.
“I don’t think I see anything here that … alarms me or causes me to say, ‘gosh we are having a crime wave,’ or something like that,” Powers said. “I see something that I would say are fairly typical numbers.”
Lombardi said the report’s figures are “one piece of the puzzle” to help gauge OU crime patterns. Officials also use data from community standards, counseling services and other OU data sources, he said.
Lombardi’s biggest concern, he said, is the spike in drug use.
“My concern is marijuana usage, and I think there is a problem with prescription drug usage and abuse,” Lombardi said.
The Clery Act numbers are situational, Powers said, and a lot of different things affect crime rates.
“For me the takeaway point from the Clery numbers is big picture,” Powers said. “It’s a reminder to all of us that crime does occur in this community. It’s sometimes easy to get into a false sense of security in a college town.”
Looking ahead, Powers said he doesn’t anticipate any drastic changes to the way he runs his department.
“From this Clery data that was just published … it’s all good information to have,” Powers said. “But there’s nothing here that alarms me and nothing here that causes me to think we need to radically change the way we’re doing business.”
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