Annual Clery Act report

How does UF’s crime reports compare to others? 

By Kelsey Nevius
@kelnevs neviusk@findlay.edu

Each year the Clery Act requires universities like ours to send out statistics about campus crime and fire safety to all students. This year was no different, as in September, a new report for the past year was sent out documenting the crime reports close to home. While reports are beneficial to know for the University of Findlay, it raises a question: How does our report compare to other campuses?

In the latest report, it categorizes the last three years (2013-2015) with statistics from arrests, criminal offenses, hate crimes, unfounded crimes, and VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) offenses. Each category has its own specific subcategories, like differentiation from on campus to off campus crime.

As for UF’s latest crime reports from 2015, and with the new addition of the Police Department on campus, reports generated from both UF security and from Findlay Police are combined in the report.

“Moving forward, data from UF Campus Police reports will automatically be included,” said David Emsweller, vice president of student affairs. “Additionally, UF will continue to collect data from the Findlay Police and Hancock County Sheriff to ensure we reflect all the crime data required by the Clery Act.”

According to the report under Arrests and Disciplinary Actions, in 2015 there was a single arrest for drug abuse violation on campus, along with 12 disciplinary actions on campus for drug abuse violations, and 39 disciplinary actions on campus for liquor law violations. There were zero arrests and disciplinary actions on campus for weapon carrying or possessing.

In contrast, according to Tiffin University’s Clery Act Report for 2015, they had 53 disciplinary referrals for liquor law violation in both on campus properties and on campus student housing.

They also had 3 arrests for liquor law violations for both on campus properties and on campus housing. The arrests for drug violations were 1 for both on campus properties and student housing, and disciplinary referrals tallied 29 for both on campus properties and student housing. They also had zero arrests and disciplinary referrals for weapons.

Moving on to Criminal Offenses in UF’s report, there were reports on campus of forcible sex offenses totaling five reports, one of robbery, and 14 of burglary in 2015. In on campus student housing, there was one report of sex offenses and four of burglary. In both non-campus and public property, all reports were zero.

At Bluffton University, another university similar to ours, they had zero counts of sex offenses, but 14 reports of burglary. In all other categories, such as murder, rape, robbery, assault, and arson, they similarly tallied zero.

In the VAWA Offenses category, UF had three reports for both dating violence and stalking on campus, and three for dating violence and two for stalking in on campus student housing. They had no reports non-campus and on public property.

For the University of Northwestern Ohio in the VAWA category, they tallied zero reports for domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

Crime statistics will always differ from university to university, but our university and others around us remain as safe as possible while trying to decrease crime rates. To be aware of crime rates around our community, keep updated on current reports and how they match up to other universities.

If you’d like to see a full copy of UF’s Clery Act Report, go to www.findlay.edu/offices/student/safetysecurity/Crime-Statistics.

Additional links to the other reports if you’d like them: http://www.tiffin.edu/security/TU_Annual_Campus_Safety_and_Fire_Safety_Report_2016.pdf http://www.bluffton.edu/studentlife/handbook/security/

http://www.unoh.edu/files/housing/UNOH_Campus_Safety_and_Security.pdf