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CHATTANOOGA (mocsnews.com) – With daylight savings time making the days shorter and the nights longer, there is no better time to revisit the issue of on-campus safety. According to USA Today, on-campus crime has been rising steadily with an 8% increase from 2019 to 2022. With this increase, are we seeing more crime on UTC’s campus? If so, what measures are the on-campus police officers taking to keep students safe? Additionally, how are they keeping students informed and updated on active situations?
The annual security report, released on October 1st 2024, lists the reported crimes on campus for the 2021-2023 years. The supposed increase in crime is not reflected by these numbers, with rape instances decreasing from eight in 2021 to four in 2023, fondling from twelve to six and aggravated assault from eleven to three. The instances of robbery have stayed the same from one in 2021 to one in 2023 and burglary has also stayed the same from sixteen to sixteen. The only increases in on campus crime are arson from zero in 2021 and three in 2023, and motor vehicle theft from five to six.
UTC’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Safety and Chief of Police Sean O’ Brien emphasizes the importance of being alert: “first and foremost, we encourage students, staff and faculty to maintain situational awareness when it comes to their safety. In other words, pay attention to what is going on around you. When walking across campus, it is important to not be distracted by your cell phone.”
UTC offers many different safety precautions for students on campus, some of which include providing a 24-hr police service that can provide after hours escorts upon request, and strategically placing blue light phones across campus that connect students directly to campus police. Sean O’ Brien also stated that UTC Public Safety also provides educational programs to students on a variety of different safety and crime related topics.
“I generally feel pretty safe on campus, but I try my best to be aware of my surroundings” stated UTC student Kinslee Greene when asked if she thought there was any increase in campus related crime and if she felt safe.
The UTC Police department keeps a mandatory sixty-day rolling crime log to keep the community informed of what is happening on and around campus. From September 15th to November 14th there have been fifteen days where a crime was not reported. This means that out of the 59 days recorded, a fourth of them (roughly 25.4%) were free of reported crime. Only 13 instances out of 102 resulted in arrests and most of the crimes were nonviolent with only eleven being violent (rape, assault, domestic violence, and dating violence). That amounts to only 10.7%.
To conclude, UTC’s campus has seen a general decrease in on-campus crime despite the overall national average increasing. Additionally, the on-campus police department provides multiple different resources to keep students safe that include blue light phones and a 24-hr. escort service. While there have been 102 instances of crime reported in the last sixty days, the percentage of violent crime is very low (10.7%) and the percentage of days without crime is high (25.4%). Below is an additional resource that students can view in reference to on-campus safety.
