The University of Oregon's annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report is now available online.
The report, posted on the UO Police Department website, is prepared every year to provide information on safety and security programs, practices and statistics. Known as a Clery report, the document is required under the federal Jeanne Clery Act.
Federal law requires very specific information in Clery reports, such as certain crimes reported to law enforcement or to university representatives and crimes on specific property owned or controlled by the university or in public areas that run through or immediately next to campus.
Also, the report must include crimes from these locations regardless of the victims' association to the university. It does not include crimes that happened off campus.
Because of the Clery Act's scope, no direct correlation exists between the report statistics and recent survey data focused on sexual assault from the Association of American Universities and UO professor Jennifer Freyd.
Sex offenses and related crimes are among the most under-reported, and there is wide acknowledgement that the crimes are occurring. Unfortunately, only a small number of survivors file formal reports.
Most statistics in this year’s report are similar to recent years. Liquor law arrests continued a decline, from 232 in 2012, to 125 in 2013, to 67 in 2014 and the 81 drug law arrests in 2014 are fewer than half of the 165 in 2012.
Law enforcement officials say possible reasons for the decline include the deterrent effect of the UO’s police presence on people not affiliated with the university, who in the past have frequented the campus for public drug or alcohol use, and the impact of student education and prevention programs.
Statistics in the annual Clery report are collected and presented by calendar year. The just-published edition includes statistics from 2014, as well as 2012 and 2013.
While the annual report also contains extensive listings of programs, services and resources for preventing crime or helping survivors, the most comprehensive and accessible spots for such information is safe.uoregon.edu and prevention.uoregon.edu.
—By Kelly McIver, UO Police Department