The number of burglaries on the Foggy Bottom campus dropped 70 percent between 2014 and 2013, according to new crime data.
Disciplinary action for drug and alcohol violations also decreased in the time frame, according to the data released in GW’s annual security report. The data, which the University Police Department releases each fall for the previous year, gives a comprehensive look at crime across GW’s three campuses.
Eleven on-campus burglaries in Foggy Bottom were reported to UPD in 2014, down from 37 burglaries the year before. On-campus burglaries doubled between 2012 and 2013. No burglaries have been reported on the Mount Vernon Campus since 2012, according to the report.
The data in the security report does not necessarily reflect every incident included in GW’s crime log, since GW must meet different criteria for including an incident in the annual report.
Five on-campus rapes were reported to UPD in 2014, the highest total in the last three years, according to the data. Twelve rapes in residence halls were reported to non-police, which could include the University’s Sexual Assault Response Consultative Team, a group of trained administrators and staff who work with survivors.
GW defines rape as “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
One rape was reported directly to the Metropolitan Police Department for the first time since 2012. Sexual assault is one of the only crimes where survivors can decide whether or not to report their attacks to police. All incidents reported to GW must be included in its crime log, under the Clery Act, a federal law that standardizes the process for colleges to report crime.
There were 15 reports of fondling on-campus or on public property in 2014, almost triple the number from 2013, according to the report. Six incidents of fondling – touching another person’s private body parts for sexual gratification without their consent – were reported in residence halls last year, with two incidents reported to non-police.
UPD Chief RaShall Brackney said in a University release that the report also updates the number of sexual assaults in 2013 from 21 to 25, the same number reported in 2014, to reflect incidents that happened between a boyfriend and girlfriend in 2011.
There was also a drop in the number of times the University took disciplinary action against students for alcohol and drug violations. About 200 students were referred to Student Rights and Responsibilities for a drug violation last year, down about 24 percent from 2013.
About 150 students were referred for an alcohol violation, a 64 percent drop from the 2013. Last fall, Senior Associate Vice President for Safety and Security Darrell Darnell said UPD officers were actively seeking out students who had been drinking, which led to an increase in violations that year. Alcohol violations dropped by half for the first two weekends of this school year.
“We would like to think it’s a combination of proactive efforts—that there’s messaging around alcohol and our low tolerance for underage drinking,” Brackney said in the release. “Between public service announcements and awareness campaigns and Colonial Inauguration, we are very proactive at discouraging those types of behaviors.”
There were stalking incidents on the Mount Vernon Campus last year, with no reported incidents there in 2013, according to the data. Ten cases of on-campus stalking on Foggy Bottom were reported to UPD.