The number of burglaries recorded by university police dropped by nearly half between 2012 and the year before, according to crime data released Tuesday, with other offenses seeing small fluctuations.

GW logged a total of 20 burglaries in 2012 – down from 39 the year before and 75 in 2010. University Police Department Chief Kevin Hay said that steep decline is partly attributed to a more narrow definition of burglary adopted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation two years ago.

Hay also said GW’s move to install electronic locks in residence halls has prevented campus burglaries.

The University announced it would spend $1.2 million to install electronic locks in more than a half-dozen residence halls after a string of daytime burglaries in Ivory Tower, Fulbright and JBKO.

Campus police added 24-hour security to those three halls, which previously only had guards to monitor entrances at night. Student entrance monitors were assigned to 10 more halls last academic year, Hay said.

Drug law violations that passed through the University’s disciplinary system rose from 143 in 2011 to 162 last year, but arrests for drugs hovered around 20 for both years. The number of drug violations on the Mount Vernon Campus jumped from three to 10.

Liquor law violations have risen steadily each year since 2009, with violations increasing by a total of 12 percent in that time frame.

The number of sex offenses, which include rapes, has more than doubled since 2008. Six sex offenses were reported five years ago compared to 14 in 2012.

Universities are required to report campus crime under the Clery Act, which was passed in 1990 to lay out across-the-board rules for compiling data and issuing warnings.