The total number of burglaries on the Foggy Bottom campus nearly doubled between 2014 and last year, according to new crime data released Friday.
Twenty burglaries occurred on the campus in 2015, compared to 11 burglaries the year before, according to crime data in GW’s annual security report. Only 12 of last year’s burglaries were reported to the Metropolitan Police Department, compared to the year before when all 11 burglaries were reported directly to the University Police Department.
The data, which the University Police Department releases every year, covers crime statistics from 2013 to 2015 on all of GW’s campuses.
The number of burglaries on the Foggy Bottom Campus dropped by 70 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to data released last year. Officials said the number dropped last year after UPD arrested an individual responsible for a string of burglaries in 2013.
UPD Chief RaShall Brackney said in a release Friday that UPD leans toward using the more serious term “burglary” when deciding whether to classify a crime as a burglary or a theft.
UPD added the Corcoran Flagg Building as a separate location on the report because it is far enough from the Foggy Bottom campus’s other buildings. There were no crimes reported in the building, according to the report. The Alexandria Graduate Education Center, Graduate Education Center Arlington, the Hampton Roads Center and the Hall of the States building were also added to the report.
On-campus drug arrests decreased by almost half last year, and MPD made all six of the drug-related arrests, according to the report. There were 11 drug arrests per year on campus in both 2013 and 2014: UPD made all of those arrests.
Disciplinary referrals for drugs on campus decreased by a quarter last year, according to the report. There were 152 referrals for drug violations last year, compared to 203 the year before.
The number of arrests for alcohol violations on the Foggy Bottom Campus rose from one to six last year, and the disciplinary referrals for the alcohol violations increased by about 7 percent. Eight additional referrals for alcohol violations occurred on the Mount Vernon Campus last year, according to the report.
The number of alcohol violation referrals increased last year because students are more aware of the dangers of alcohol, Brackney said.
“We’re becoming a more responsible campus in a lot of ways, and students have an increased understanding of the impacts of alcohol, both short-term and long-term,” she said.
Twenty-two rapes were reported on the Foggy Bottom campus last year, which is one fewer than the number reported in 2014. Eighteen of last year’s incidents were reported to non-police staff members, like the Sexual Assault Response Consultative Team, which is a group of administrators who respond to sexual assault survivors’ reports. A greater share of rape reports were directly reported to MPD instead of UPD, according to the crime data.
Three of the rape reports were made to MPD last year, and only one was reported to UPD. Two additional rapes on the Mount Vernon campus were reported to non-police officials, according to the report.
Students are increasingly aware of on-and-off-campus sexual violence resources, which is why more students are reporting sexual assaults to police and other staff, Brackney said.
“The more reports we can capture, the better we are able to educate and train to deter incidences of sexual violence and disrupt trajectories of crime on campus,” Brackney said.
There has also been an increase in the number of reported instances of dating violence on campus last year, with 10 reports from 2015 compared to none the year before and one report in 2013.
The crime report also includes statistics about on-campus fires and the total costs for each fire. The report shows that the fire on Fulbright Hall’s roof last September had total damages adding up to $21,000. All three of the fires in the building that academic year were caused by cigarettes, officials said last year.
