2024 Security Report Released

Community Safety recently released the 2024 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report (ASFSR), which gives relevant statistics and policies about crime and fire safety on campus. Under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act), in effect since 1990, higher education institutions like Reed are required to release the ASFSR.  

The 2024 ASFSR reports crime statistics for the 2023 calendar year. This data comes from multiple sources: Community Safety reports, reports from Reed Campus Safety Authorities (CSAs), and local law enforcement agencies. Viewed as a whole, these statistics are relatively consistent with previous years, with a few notable changes. 

Reports of sex offenses have decreased slightly in the most recent report. The statistics for 2023 show five total sex offenses, which includes four cases of rape and one case of fondling. This marks an overall decrease from 2022, when there were 11 total reported sex offenses: seven cases of rape and four cases of fondling, and from 2021, which had ten total reported sex offenses. 

2023 showed a slight increase in motor vehicle thefts on campus. 19 total motor vehicle thefts were reported, including, as the ASFSR notes, “[One]... motorized unicycle stolen from inside a residence hall.”

There were two cases of arson for 2023, which the ASFSR explains as “[a] campfire was built in an undesignated area on campus” and “High schoolers attempted to set fire to a fire extinguisher in a grassy area near a residence hall.”

The number of disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations remained relatively constant in comparison to the past two years of data. In the 2023 calendar year, there were 70 disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations. This can be compared with 59 referrals in 2022 and 73 in 2021. No arrests were made for liquor law violations this year.

Disciplinary referrals for drug law violations showed a decrease from previous years. The ASFSR reported 64 disciplinary referrals for drug law violations in 2023, compared to 105 in 2022 and 75 in 2021. Again, no arrests were made.

The ASFSR offers a potential explanation for the lower number of disciplinary referrals for drugs. “As time has passed, the broader availability of cannabis products that allows for discrete [sic] possession and use, such as edibles, has increased. This has more likely than not resulted in fewer disciplinary referrals issued for underage possession and use for the 2023 calendar year,” the report states. 

What qualifies as drug offenses under the Clery Act and as reported in the ASFSR does not correspond to Reed’s Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) policy. As a result, the ASFSR reports data in this category that may not accurately reflect the disciplinary action in practice on campus in terms of drug use. 

Community Safety tracks its own data based on reports from CSOs, which are not published officially like the ASFSR. However, this information is available to any interested individuals upon request from Community Safety. 

Looking ahead, Gary Granger (Director of Community Safety) could not make any definite predictions, but speculated on the effects of the small size of the Class of 2028 on next year’s drug and liquor statistics. “In years when we tracked the data by class level, we saw not an unexpected trendline, which was [that] first-year students have way more [AOD] violations than third and fourth-year students,” explained Granger. He went on to state, “Since incoming students account for a disproportionate number of AOD violations, it might not be surprising with a noticeably smaller incoming class that we have fewer of those interactions. I wouldn’t be surprised if those numbers are lower.”

In general, Granger valued getting information from other sources than the ASFSR for a full picture of the atmosphere. He cited Medical Amnesty as important to the understanding of substance use on campus. “If I believe that the prevalence of use is probably about the same [and] if I see the medical amnesty calls coming in, it gives me some confidence that students are coming for help,” said Granger. 

The ASFSR statistics offer some interesting insight into safety conditions on campus, but the extent to which they can be seen to represent student experiences with security is limited. “Those numbers represent an accurate representation of what was reported. What was reported and what happened are not the same thing,” spoke Gary Granger.

The 2024 ASFSR is currently accessible on the Community Safety page of the Reed website, with paper copies available at 28 West for those interested.