Campus crime report gives crime statistics for 2019
Photo by Ethan Pellegrino.
The University of Rhode Island police department has released their yearly Clery Act Report, containing new information on crimes committed at the University over the previous year.
The Clery Act Report, which compares on-campus crimes in 2019 to those committed in previous years, has been released every year since 1990.
The purpose of this report is to inform the public about campus security and crimes, among other data. The Clery Act was passed in 1990 and requires all schools which participate in financial aid programs to release data pertaining to crimes on campus.
The 90-page report was released in December 2020 and shows data on a wide variety of subjects from drug and alcohol-related crimes to those related to dating violence. It also explains the steps involved in reporting these crimes and the repercussions for the offender of the crimes committed.
A noteworthy increase in alcohol referrals among students on-campus in dorms was found in the 2019 report; in one year, the number of referrals increased from 486 to 602 on campus.
“Arrests have been declining but the referrals increased over the previous year,” Stephen Baker, the University chief of police and director of public safety said. “I believe that this is due to proactive patrols by police and increased enforcement by Housing and Residential Life personnel. Almost all of these violations occurred inside residence halls.”
The data also includes information about sex crimes, such as rape, and violent crimes like robbery. The number of rapes reported has decreased from 15 in 2018 to eight in 2019.
Baker added that the University has been taking additional measures to decrease the likelihood of these crimes occurring. One such measure has been bystander intervention, which may have contributed to the decrease in rapes reported, although Baker pointed out that it does not necessarily mean that these crimes have gone down.
“We know that [rape] is under-reported and we can only report on the crimes that are reported,” Baker said.
According to the report, in 2019 there were five burglaries on campus, compared to the 10 that happened the previous year. These numbers have gone down each of the past three years in the corresponding reports.
However, Baker said that the University and police department need to continue working until the number of sex crimes and robberies on campus is zero.
In addition to the Kingston Campus, the report also includes data on other campuses such as the Providence and Bay Side campuses.
University Police Lieutenant Paul Ricci said that this report is a team effort for the department and takes work from everyone.
“I submit the report and supply police information, [Baker] approves the report and Christiana Molinsky works with the Clery team in student conduct to compile statistics,” Ricci said. “[Molinsky] then has the daunting task of putting all the information together into our report that gets submitted to the Department of Education.”
Outside of the Kingston campus, there was only one crime committed on the report— a stalking crime on the Narragansett Bay campus.
Other useful information for students can be found in the report, such as the contact information for emergency medical services and police as well as where fire extinguishers and smoke detectors are located in residence halls. This information is for students as well as those in charge of safety.
Baker said that there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to safety on campus, but he believes that he, the campus police and the campus community are up to the challenge.
“The entire department of public safety is committed to making this campus and all URI campuses as safe as possible,” Baker said. “It is our belief that we need the entire URI community to assist us in keeping our campuses safe. We will continue to look for ways to keep our campuses safe.”