The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released its 2013 Crime on Campus report on Friday, April 4.
“The report is based on data submitted to the TBI through the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System, TIBRS, program that collects data on all crimes occurring in Tennessee. All law enforcement agencies as well as colleges and universities are mandated to report crime statistics to the TBI,” said TBI Director Mark Gwyn.
The Crime on Campus report gives a detail description of all crimes, which occur on all college campuses across the state of Tennessee.
Each campus is broken down into two sections: Group A offenses and Group B offenses.
“Group A is the most serious by category, and then they are further broken down,” said Capt. Ray Coleman of the UTM Office of Public Safety.
Group A includes offenses such as homicide, kidnapping and abduction, sex offenses (forcible), robbery, assault, arson, extortion and blackmail, burglary, larceny and theft, motor vehicle theft, counterfeiting and forgery, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property, destruction, damage and vandalism, drug and narcotic violations, sex offenses (non-forcible), pornography and obscene material, gambling, prostitution, human trafficking, bribery and weapon law violations.
All reported numbers are based on an average of per 1,000 students. This allows for as accurate of a comparison across the state as possible.
“If you look at sex offenses (forcible), we had two reported. Then, look over in the next section, it says ‘cleared.’ Those are ones that have either been arrested or the person has been identified as being the culprit. They are cleared by either arrests or having knowledge of where the person is who committed the crime,” Coleman said.
Thirty-nine drug and narcotics offenses were reported, of which 24 were drug and narcotic violations and 15 were drug and narcotic equipment violations.
“A lot of times those tie in together. A lot of times if you have marijuana, you have a pipe, but we have to report those separately,” Coleman said.
The second largest number of offenses in Group A was larceny and theft. A total of 30 offenses were reported with 19 of those being in the “theft from building” category with 5 of those being cleared.
According to the crime on campus report, the next highest Group A offenses were those in the assault category.
“We had 21 assault offenses, that’s the total. They are broken down to aggravated assault, simple, intimidation and stalking. … Even if a person doesn’t want to press charges, we still report it,” Coleman said.
One aggravated assault offense was reported and that offense was also cleared. Four intimidation offenses were reported with two of those being cleared. There were 16 total simple assault offenses reported with 11 of those cleared.
There were no offenses of stalking reported.
“Stalking has to have more than one occurrence of somebody being in the area or taking action against a person. Mostly, those go into intimidation,” Coleman said.
There were 20 destruction, damage and vandalism offenses reported with five of them being cleared; five burglary offenses were reported, one of which was cleared. UTM had one reported stolen property offense reported, and it was cleared. There were four reported weapon law violations, three of which were cleared.
“Weapons can involve a lot of things. It could involve firearms, bow and arrows or anything used in the commission of a crime. The simple possession of it could also be a crime,” Coleman said.
Group B offenses are those that are less serious. Group B involves writing bad checks, breaking curfew or vagrancy, disorderly conduct, DUI, drunkenness, family-non violent, liquor law violations, peeping Tom, trespassing and all other offenses, which are not included in Group A.
In 2013, there were 75 reported liquor law violation offenses.
“Those include referrals to student affairs or where we issued citations. They are both recorded as arrests,” Coleman said.
UTM ranks in the top 4 in Group A offenses per 1,000 population and first in index crimes. Index crimes are those, which are identified as serious crimes against a person and include murder, robbery, sexual assault, arson, motor vehicle theft, burglary, theft, aggravated assault and kidnapping.
“We are highest in clearest rates in Group A and index crimes; the state average is at 33 percent at clearance rates for Group A offenses, and we are at 57 percent. The clearance rate for index crimes is 13 percent, and we are at 29 percent. Understand, the vast majority of those are opportunity thefts, and they are hard to solve sometimes,” Coleman said.
UTM experienced a drop in several of the sections compared to the 2012 report. In 2012, there were 41 reported offenses of larceny and theft, 17 burglary offenses, two kidnapping offenses and 105 liquor law violation offenses reported.
Coleman says he believes the drop in offenses is based on nothing that Department of Public Safety has done, rather that it is based on the students, staff, faculty and surrounding community members.
“The reason our crime stats are low is because of the great people who work here, attend here and live around the community. It has nothing to do with us, we just have good folks who are attending school here and working here,” Coleman said.
