The Boston University Police Department released their Annual Security and Fire Safety Report Thursday, highlighting liquor law violations and burglary as the two most common crimes on campus.
The report provided statistics on crimes and fires that happened on the Charles River Campus and the Medical Campus for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.
According to the report, the most common incident on the Charles River Campus was burglary, which has shown a moderate decrease every year. The report noted 28 cases of on-campus burglary in 2012, 22 cases in 2013 and 18 in 2014.
The second most common incident, according the report, was liquor law violations. The number of alcohol referrals to BUPD has steadily increased since 2012 — up from 572 in 2012, to 701 in 2013, to 1,004 in 2014. In 2012, there were 18 arrests on campus for liquor law violations. That number declined to seven in 2013, but returned to 18 last year, according to the report.
BUPD Captain Robert Molloy said the report was helpful in showing the BU community as well as the community of Boston what has been happening on campus in the past few years in terms of safety.
“I think we’ve stayed pretty steady with our reported crimes and actually extending a little beyond the campus security report which handles only certain crimes,” he said. “Our biggest crime is theft and that has actually been coming down in the last few months.”
Molloy said students need to remain aware of their surroundings because crime can happen anywhere, despite if students feel comfortable in their living space.
“This is such a safe environment and we have very little crime here but one becomes accustomed to it being their home and they leave their property around in an office, or a desk or a classroom for half an hour,” he said. “Unfortunately, sometimes, it happens … that a laptop will be stolen or a cell phone would be missing.”
Molloy added that he encouraged the BU community to utilize the “blue-light” emergency call boxes if they are unable to use their cellphones to contact BUPD directly. The report stated that there are more than 100 boxes spread across both campuses.
“[The emergency call boxes] are used from time to time, and students are actually, when we interview them and meet with students during various meetings, they like having them there,” he said. “We are always interested in making that program stronger … it is a good feeling to know that if something happens and [members of the community] lose their phone, they have that for them.”
Several students said they feel positively about the work that BUPD has done to increase on-campus safety.
Maya Saint Germain, a senior in the College of Engineering, said she thinks BU is a safe campus and has never felt unsafe, despite the fact that BU is so integrated into the city of Boston.
“Our campus is pretty open to the public so you can easily encounter malicious people who aren’t affiliated with BU,” she said. “The most common on-campus problem is probably theft but I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily just students because we’re in the city.”
Colleen Kim, a freshman in the College of General Studies, said there are many systems in place for keeping the BU community safe.
“Campus is safe because there are a lot of blue light boxes around and there’s the escort service provided by BUPD,” she said. “Telling the difference between a college student and someone who is a college student who has bad intentions, or who isn’t a college student with bad intentions [can be difficult].”
Carl Lee, a freshman in the Questrom School of Business, said although he feels safe and secure at BU, he is concerned and always aware of the presence of non-BU affiliated people on campus.
“BU is integrated into the city … so anyone can come in to campus all the time,” he said. “So in terms of security, you also have to deal with everyone, not just those who go to or work at BU.”
