NEW REPORTING METHOD PAINTS ROSIER PICTURE OF CRIME AT UNC

CHAPEL HILL -- From looking at recently released campus security
statistics, it would appear that drug and alcohol use on the UNC campus has
dropped precipitously or campus rules governing use are rarely enforced.

In fact, neither case appears to be true. The university's method of
reporting the statistics to the U.S. Department of Education was tweaked
this year, lowering dramatically the numbers involving liquor and drug
violations on university campuses.

At Carolina, the number of liquor law violations on campus appeared to have
dropped from 22 in 1999 to two last year, while drug violations followed
suit, falling from 24 in 1999 to eight a year later.

But the numbers are deceptive. For the first time, UNC removed written
citations from the equation when tallying the numbers of drug and alcohol
arrests made on campus. Citations commonly are given by police to underage
drinkers and drug abusers on campus in lieu of making actual arrests.

This year, the statistics only count actual arrests made by police in which
they took a person into custody on campus.

"It is not that we didn't enforce it this year," said Derek Poarch, UNC's
director of public safety. "It's just that they interpreted it differently."

While he didn't have exact numbers, Poarch estimated that the statistics
from 2000 would have mirrored those of previous years if citations were
counted.

In addition, the liquor and drug violations recorded by UNC police don't
come close to telling the entire story. Many such arrests are made off
campus and are recorded by town police.

According to UNC's public safety Web site, Chapel Hill police reported
making 291 liquor-related arrests in 2000 and 331 drug-related arrests.
However, it isn't clear what percentage of those involved UNC students.

For the most part, there was little noticeable change in any categories of
crime at UNC from 1999 to 2000 reflected in the federal crime statistics,
which are gathered from campus police and other sources such as the student
services office. On-campus burglaries appeared to drop a bit, from 56 in
1999 to 31 in 2000, while motor vehicle thefts on campus rose from 15 to 22.

The number of forcible sex offenses on campus also increased, from three in
1998 to eight in 1999 and to 10 last year. This is a category that includes
rape and other levels of sexual assault.

It is an area the university addresses repeatedly at orientation and during
the school year, said Dean Bresciani, associate vice chancellor for student
services.

"From the first day of orientation through the semester, we do things
campus-wide and in individual residence halls. That is one of our highest
priorities," Bresciani said. "[However] one incident is too many,
particularly with a violent or forced crime."

The most common crime on the UNC campus is larceny, which takes a variety
of shapes. Police generally categorize larceny as a crime of opportunity -
a stolen laptop computer, purse or bicycle.

In 2000, 611 larcenies were reported to UNC police, an increase of 91 from
the previous year. The most likely areas for such theft were libraries,
gymnasiums and dining halls, parts of South Campus and the medical
buildings in and around UNC Hospitals.

In all, larcenies accounted for nearly 44 percent of all crimes reported to
UNC police in 2000.

Once released each year, the statistics can help university officials look
for otherwise undetected trends in campus crime, said Mary Sechriest,
associate university counsel.

"If we see something that just jumps out, we'll look into it," she said.
"If all of a sudden there are a lot of assaults, we'll study for common
patterns or increase our education efforts."

Links related to this article: Department of Education Web site for crime:
ope.ed.gov/security/