Ohio University Police Department issued its annual compilation of crime statistics Friday, indicating a spike in burglaries on campus.
The annual Clery report is a federally required set of crime totals collected by University Police. This most recent report, examining the 2009 calendar year, showed an increase from 28 burglaries within on-campus properties in 2008 to 68 last year.
Burglary is legally defined as theft and trespassing.
Although he stressed that discussing the cause for this rise would be speculative, Police Chief Andrew Powers said the increase could be attributed to more prevalent portable electronics.
There definitely are a lot more high-value items that can be sold on places like Craigslist and eBay that can easily be stolen
he said.
Stealing a laptop or iPod from a student's room is simpler than taking large desktop computers and televisions from five years ago, Powers said. That also is different from about twenty years ago, when Powers began policing, when students often stole textbooks to sell later, he added.
Students are encouraged to watch their costly electronics and keep their residence hall doors locked, Powers said. Of the 44 reported burglaries in on-campus housing last year, only one was filed as forcible entry.
The other 43 were unlocked rooms and doors standing open that sort of thing Powers said.
Combined arrests and referrals for liquor and drug law violations both dropped from 2008 to 2009 in on-campus property. After 1,029 such cases of liquor violations in 2007, the number fell to 745 in 2008 and 678 last year. Drug violations followed a similar decline, dropping from 256 in 2007, to 235 in 2008 and 179 last year.
Powers suggests those results might be a product of the OU Division of Student Affairs' drug and alcohol education programs.
I would like to think what we're seeing here is the fruit of that labor and a shift in culture
Powers said.
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Ryan Dunn
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