May 20, 2004
Decrease in crime, absence of complaints leave police happy
Any campus or city report on crime statistics tends to carry both good and bad news. But the good seems to outweigh the bad in the UW Police Department’s annual report for 2003, released this week.
“A decrease in the crime rate was the big highlight,” Assistant Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said of the report. She said the fact that there were no complaints against officers that rose to a formal, reportable level also was a bright spot in 2003.
“Every police department gets a handful of citizen complaints so it’s very good, quite the feather in our cap to have gotten through a year without such complaints,” Spicuzza said. We were able to handle them at a level lower than the formal complaint.” There were five formal citizen complaints in 2002, and two in 2001.
On the overall plus side, the year 2003 saw a reduction in what law enforcement calls “Part 1” crimes — the more serious crimes against people or property. There were 1,002 such crimes reported in 2002, which dropped by 10 percent to 899 in 2003. Reported burglaries, too, dropped in that period by 45 percent, from 134 to 74. Total reports of larceny, the taking of personal property, dropped 8 percent from 827 in 2002 to 758 in 2003.
Simple assaults dropped by about 16 percent, from 52 in 2002 to 35 last year. Such crimes are not included in the Part 1 totals, but are noted in the report due to public interest.
Among traffic and parking enforcement actions by UW Police, there were moderate reductions from 2002 to 2003 in impounded vehicles and traffic citations and a 25 percent drop in bike accidents. Arrests for driving under the influence dropped by 64 percent, from 64 in 2002 to 23 in 2003.
On the downside, motor vehicle thefts — always a problem on college campuses and in urban environments — increased 26 percent over the year, from 35 to 44, though most of the stolen vehicles were later recovered, police said.
“There are a lot of cars on campus and people forget to lock their doors,” Spicuzza said. “Auto theft is really a crime of opportunity.”
Thefts other than of cars continued to be the most often-reported crime on campus, but saw little change over the year.
Many of the categories saw changes so small they don’t so much show statistical significance as the ebb and flow of events from one year to the next in a population of about 60,000 people. There were four reported arsons in 2003, for instance, and while that’s three more than in 2001, it’s one fewer than in 2000. In 2001 there were two arsons, but in 1998 there were seven and 10 in 1994, the farthest back the report goes.
Sadly, there were two rapes on the UW campus in 2003. And though there were none in 2002, there have been one or two during each of most years dating back to 1994, when there were five. In all cases, over all those years, every reported rape was by an acquaintance of the victim’s, not a stranger.
Spicuzza attributed the small overall decrease in reported crime to greater public awareness of safety issues by the public, and continued education efforts by UW Police officers.
“People are helping the police, and the police are helping the people,” she said.
