Students, administrators and the OU Department of Public Safety agree that the OU campus is a safe place to live and learn. The 2000 OU crime statistics confirm that notion.

However, OU's crime statistics ranked behind Oklahoma State University in recent years.

OUDPS Lt. Bruce Chan said overall OU is a safe campus.

"Everybody should take the usual precautions, but nobody needs to be paranoid," Chan said.

The OU crime rate has been stable over the last year, Chan said. A total of 1,276 offenses were reported and OU police arrested 334 individuals during the year 2000.

OU Press Secretary Jeff Hickman said that the OUDPS does a good job educating students about safety, yet it is up to the students to make use of the tips.

OU ranks behind OSU, according to the Oklahoma Uniform Crime Report of 1999. Over the past three years OUhad a higher crime rate than OSU.

Chan said OSU has even made a public statement claiming they have the lowest crime statistics in the Big 12. In 1999 the OU crime rate was 14.85 crimes per 1,000 people, whereas OSU reported 7.1 crimes per 1,000. The University of Central Oklahoma showed 7.12 crimes per 1,000, according to the Uniform Crime Report.

Chan said even though OU's numbers are higher, one must consider that OSU is located in a smaller town, while OU is part of a large metropolitan area.

Hickman said in addition to the location issue, OU has facilities such as Lloyd Noble Center which brings many non-students on campus.

OU battles problems similar to other universities in the Big 12.

A large number of young people gathered in a university town often leads to trouble with alcohol and drug law violation, Chan said. Last year OUDPS investigated 185 alcohol-related offenses and 95 drug-law violations.

The OUDPS often deals with under-age drinking and driving under the influence. Chan said students need to understand that they endanger others when drinking and driving, besides running the risk of ending up in jail or being fined.

Also some students indulge in binge drinking and end up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning, ultimately hurting themselves, he said.

In addition, the police attribute many assaults, vandalism and other crimes on campus to alcohol consumption, even though there is no conclusive evidence for this theory, Chan said.

Chan said the drug of choice among OU students is marijuana, but there are cases involving other drugs.

He also said students involved with drugs on campus are more often consumers than dealers.

Besides the obvious law conflict, the health threat to students is an important issue to the police when dealing with drug law violations.

Chan said OUDPS has taken several individuals to the hospital because of drugs.

He said he remembers an incident in which three students were rushed to the hospital because of LSD overdoses in one night.

He said in the year 2000 four rapes were reported; however, two of these turned out to be false.

In addition, 21 sex offenses were reported. Chan said rape and sex offenses are a complicated subject.

The offenses are underreported because of shame or threats and at times turn out to be false.

Sociology senior Michelle Phillips said hearing about rapes on campus bothers her but she doesn't feel any threat. She said that people need to be more cautious, especially while partying in college.

"People who live on their own and may come in contact with alcohol or drugs aren't as cautious as they should be," Phillips said.

On a campus where a large body of people from all ethnic and racial backgrounds are brought together, hate crimes are an issue.

Eleven hate crimes, which are all crimes against religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, disability or ethnicity, were reported in 2000.

Chan said he credits the university's efforts to promote tolerance and cultural understanding with this relatively small number.

"As a university community, OU promotes diversity in a positive manner. That initiative may reflect in the hate crimes statistics," he said.

University College freshman Stacey Washington said she's had good experiences at OU as a member of a minority, however she feels more can be done to promote tolerance.

OU reported six hate crime cases in 1999. Besides the University of Kansas, which reported one incident, all the other Big 12 institutions reported none. However, that does not mean that there weren't any hate crimes committed.

Instead, these crimes may have been reported as another crime or not reported at all, Hickman said. The reporting systems vary from school to school, he said.

Overall, OU's crime statistics are average compared to other schools in the Big 12.

It is difficult to determine a generic ranking system, because Big 12 campuses vary in student body size and location, Hickman said.

All universities have to report crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education.

A federal law called the Clery Act requires all institutions of higher education that receive federal funding to disclose their statistics. If a university fails to disclose the data funding can be withheld, said Chan.

The law was named after a Lehigh University freshman who was assaulted and murdered in her dorm room in 1986.

Starting in the year 2000, the education department was ordered to collect this data from the colleges and prepare a report for Congress. Before that change in law, colleges were only required to release their crime statistics to the public when requested.


For more information, go to www.ou.edu/oupd/.
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