OPD's Annual Security and Fire Safety report has revealed that judicial referrals for students on campus dropped by about 40 percent from 2013 to 2014.
The report states that persons arrested for liquor law violations decreased from 14 to three compared to last year, while persons referred to judicial processes decreased from 61 to 37. Arrests for drug law violations on campus decreased 33 percent from 12 to eight.
OPD Chief Larry Banaszak and Deputy Chief John Petrozzi worked jointly to revise and update the security report.
“The students are starting to get the message and proactively comply. We’re doing a lot of education regarding alcohol awareness," Banaszak said. "OPD does education, student affairs does education and that might be one of the reasons for the decrease so kudos to our students for being proactive in that particular area.”
The reports are organized by category according to the type of location where they took place. Crimes "on campus" occurred in any property owned by the university and within a geographic range, "On Campus Student Housing Facilities" is student housing facility in the control of the university, "Non-campus Buildings or Property" is any property not located in the designated area of the university but is still owned by the university and "public property," which includes sidewalks and parking. OPD provided a map showing Otterbein property.
According to Banaszak and Petrozzi, any person in any building that is either "on campus" or in "non-campus buildings or property" is subject to Otterbein's policies. Greek property that is not owned by the university is under the jurisdiction of the Westerville Police Department, but students that are caught committing judicial violations in those houses are still subject to campus judicial.
Numbers from the report reveal that about 5 percent of judicial referrals for alcohol violations were issued for crimes committed on public property, while 25 percent of arrests for the same violations were made on campus.
The report, for the first time, gives statistics for all "unfounded crimes" --crimes where evidence is found that the original offense is refuted by evidence, such as a report of a theft of an item later found at the victim's dorm room. The number of unfounded crimes is listed in the report as 0.
In 2014, the OPD crime log, which chronologically lists incidents that could be considered crimes or judicial violations, contained 17 mentions of underage consumption, nine mentions of underage possession, seven OVIs (operating a vehicle under the influence) and 20 mentions of drug violations. In 2013, there were 21 mentions of underage consumption, four cases of underage possession, 17 OVIs and 24 mentions of drug violations.
The report also lists statistics for felonies committed on Otterbein’s campus of about 3,000 students. Reported forcible sex offenses dropped from two last year to one. One rape and one statutory rape were reported. One stalking incident was reported this year, the first reported in at least three years. The number of burglaries increased from three last year to eight. No cases of murder, manslaughter, incest, dating violence, domestic violence, fondling or robbery have been reported in the Annual Security Report in at least three years.
A joint investigation by the Columbus Dispatch and the Student Press Law Center in 2014 found that numbers on the required security reports filed by the more than 11,000 schools subject to the Clery Act may be inaccurate. The investigation found that colleges are rarely reviewed by federal and state agencies on the accuracy of their security report statistics.
Editorial Note: This article originally stated that arrests for drug-related offenses had dropped from 12 offenses to eight by a percentage of 50 percent according to the security report. The second paragraph has been changed to reflect the correct percentage drop of 33 percent. A paragraph detailing an investigation by the Columbus Dispatch and SPLC. Some paragraphs were moved in an edit.
