UCF is plagued by major crimes

[bullwark]

Crime is falling at the University of Central Florida, but the campus led other Sunshine State universities in the number of violent crimes for the second consecutive year in 2004 and ranked 18th among colleges nationwide.

University police reported 22 violent crimes last year, three less than in 2003, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports released this month. ***** accounted for almost a third of those crimes.

When calculated per thousand students, the school's crime rate ranks fourth in the state and in the top 25 percent of the 533 U.S. colleges and universities that reported their crime statistics to the FBI.

The agency categorizes violent crimes as murder, ****, assault and robbery.

"That seems kind of shocking to me," UCF freshman Chris Olson said. "You don't see that much around here. I feel pretty safe, to be honest."

UCF reported one murder, seven *****, 12 assaults and two robberies in 2004. The 22 crimes put it three ahead of the University of Florida and four ahead of two other large state universities: Florida State and Florida International.

That works out to a little more than one crime per 2,000 students. Analyzed that way, crimes occur less frequently at UCF than at several of the state's smaller schools: Florida A&M, Florida Gulf Coast and West Florida.

Overall, Florida schools have a higher rate of violent crime than other states. When looking at the rate of violent crime on campuses throughout the country, nine of the state's 11 public universities are in the top half of the list.

"There's so many things that have an effect, you can't conclusively say what's causing crime at UCF," university police spokesman Sgt. Troy Williamson said. "The only thing we can do is keep fighting it."

As with the crime statistics reported annually for cities and counties throughout the nation, it is hard to tell whether the crime numbers reflect the actual volume of crime or the quality of reporting by police agencies.

Because crime reporting varies so widely, experts said they're hesitant to say UCF is any more dangerous than any other college in America.

"We usually shy away from any kind of horse-race analysis," said Daniel Carter, vice president of Security on Campus, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit that promotes campus safety.

"If a school aggressively pursues reporting crimes, they're going to look more dangerous than a school that does not encourage reporting," he said. "But for student victims there it might be less safe, but it doesn't show up in the statistics."

For example, UCF's seven reported ***** in 2004 were the highest in the state and 10th highest in the nation. The school's **** rate of almost one per 5,000 people is second highest in the state and in the top 20th percentile in the nation.

"That could be due to the success of UCF's victim-advocate program," Carter said. "That's something not all universities have."

Carter said the numbers should serve as a reminder to parents and students that they aren't immune from crime.

"They need to take common-sense precautions to avoid becoming a victim," Carter said.

Williamson said that the number of sexual attacks at UCF is a problem, but one that is improving. The school had nine reported ***** in 2003.

Since then, university police have been more vigilant about targeting house parties and underage drinking because excess drinking is a factor in most of the sexual assaults, Williamson said.

"We're serious about this," he said. "The university does not want to be in the limelight of sexual battery. When you take alcohol out, you eliminate sexual battery."

Student attitudes toward campus safety were evident Thursday at UCF's crime-prevention fair, where law-enforcement agencies and school groups set up on campus to give students information about everything from bike safety to drinking and driving.

Attendance at the fair was thin throughout the day. Some students stopped at the booths on their way to other places, but many just kept walking.

"Most of us aren't that worried," said UCF freshman Stephanie Lombardi, 18. "We've had safety drilled into our heads since kindergarten. It's a bit repetitive."

The number of violent crimes reported by UCF police has doubled since the school took over the off-campus Pegasus Landing and Pegasus Pointe apartment complexes in 2002, adding 3,750 students to the number of people living in campus-affiliated housing.

There are now 8,650 people living in dorms and other campus-affiliated housing. UCF's 50 police officers are responsible for ensuring their safety, along with that of the rest of the school's 43,000 students and the campus' 117 buildings.

As east Orange County has developed and UCF has grown, crime was bound to rise as well.

"At UCF there's a lot of traffic on the campus. It's close to the city," said Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Florida. For criminals, "It's an opportunity factor, there's more people to victimize."

Things may be improving. According to numbers released last week by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, UCF had seven violent crimes during the first six months of 2005, fewer than the UF, FSU, FAMU and University of South Florida.

UCF typically has more offenses during fall semester though, so Williamson was hesitant to be too optimistic.

"In the fall, we have a new batch of freshmen coming in," he said. "We have to wait and see where we're at. Now we're in a pretty good range."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-ucfcrime2905oct29,0,7931258.story?page=2

[DawgPound]

It's a crappy thing to say that we have the highest in.  Hopefully, things can improve.