Jared Hameloth
Associate News Editor

With Millersville being ranked number fourteen in the top safest college towns, it is no wonder that there was relatively little crime in 2016 on campus.

Every year, the University Police department releases a security and fire safety report which details crime reports, arrests, and fire incidents that happen on campus. They provide this report in accordance to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, which requires universities to share these statistics with students and faculty.

The report is meant to highlight safety on campus and to help students gain the tools that they need to remain safe. Within the 36 page document there are outlines for safety protocols and numbers to call in emergency situations, as well as sexual violence prevention information and other educational resources.

The report also promotes campus wide emergency communications like MU Alerts. These are the text, email, and Millersville website notifications that students receive for safety concerns on campus like a crime, fire, or severe weather. The report also gives information about MU’s LiveSafe app, which students can download and use to text tips about suspicious behavior or crimes to the campus police.

But while a major aspect of the report is to promote Millersville’s methods of safety, a large part of the report is the statistics gathered on crimes from the previous year. This is how Millersville did in 2016.

Overall the trends for crimes were on a decline, but Millersville was already doing very well. There were 0 counts of domestic violence both on campus and the residence halls, but 3 counts of dating violence reported in the residence halls. There were also ten counts of stalking, all of which happened on campus. This number is up from 3 in 2015.

There were 3 counts of rape in the residence halls, which is in the same number from last year.

  • 3 counts of rape in 2016
  • 3 counts of dating violence

There was also a decline in arrests for drug and alcohol related incidents. In arrests for liquor laws the count was twenty-one  in 2015 and fourteen in 2016. Drug related arrests were twenty on campus and 9 in the residence halls, which is a decrease from last year.

  • 2 counts of aggravated assault on campus and 1 count in the residence halls
  • Burglary rose to thirteen counts on campus in 2016, up from 0 in 2015

Fire reports in the document are very slim. All thirty-five counts of fire reports were unintentional cooking or stove related, most of which from the Brookwood Apartments. Property damage from all incidents totaled $300.

There have been no reported hate crimes of any kind in the past 3 years.