Stats show rise in campus crimes

But Penn police attribute the increase to a growth in their patrol area. Campus crime statistics released this week by the Division of Public Safety show significant increases in several categories of crime over the past three years, including robbery, simple assaults and auto thefts. But according to University Police officials, the statistics -- the release of which is mandated by both federal and state law -- don't paint an accurate picture of the crime situation on campus. Specifically, they say, the increased number of 1999 incidents reflects the growth of police jurisdiction and several key changes in reporting procedures. "The reason for our increased numbers isn't an increase in crime," University Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Thomas King said. "It was just a matter of the change in [Department of Education] reporting requirements." Congress passed legislation in 1998 designed to close loopholes allowing colleges and universities to underreport campus crime by claiming that many incidents occurred in what is technically off campus. Penn was the subject of a year-long federal government investigation into its crime reporting procedures in 1997. That review found several minor violations into reporting procedures, but absolved the University of charges that it had systematically covered up campus crime. According to the statistics -- which count campus-wide crime according to the nature of the offense -- the number of on-campus incidents has increased in general over the past three years, with robberies rising by 29 occurrences since last year, thefts by 246 and simple assaults by 14. But officials said the higher statistics reflect an expansion of the University Police's patrol area as well as an increase in reports brought about by some ambiguities in new reporting terminology. "Most of the changes involved new federal definitions of what was campus and what was not," University Police Chief Maureen Rush said. "The changes in breakdown made things somewhat more complicated, but we still reported those crimes affecting the University covered by the Uniform Crime Report." "The numbers look deceptively higher," King added. "We're more inclusive about counting [crimes] inside our geographic area." He said the police are responding to the regulatory changes by cautiously reporting crimes previously considered out of jurisdiction. "We're absolutely going beyond the requirements to make sure we're in compliance," King said. "This is very much a transition for the DOE requirements as we all try to figure out the meaning of [geographic reporting guidelines] like 'adjacent' and 'reasonably contiguous.'" The numbers are especially misleading, officials say, because the crime rate in the campus neighborhood has actually been falling dramatically in recent months. "Major crime is definitely down," King said. "[The actual crime rate] is really impressive." Police are so pleased with the drop in violent crimes like homicide and aggravated assault, in fact, that they have been able to spend more resources in the fight against smaller, quality of life-related incidents. "We're at the point right now where we're really concentrating on thefts from inside buildings," King said. "Our robberies are way down, as are our aggravated assaults. Any student-related assaults are virtually non-existent, where we used to have a high percentage of alcohol-related incidents. Burglary has been on the decrease as well." Police further say one of the tools they plan to employ in the fight against minor crimes is education. "An obscenely high percentage of internal thefts, 95 percent or more, are the result of items left unattended," King said. "We're trying hard to increase awareness in that area."

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