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University crime tops most Virginia schools

The University has one of the highest rates of reported on-campus crime among Virginia's major colleges and universities, according to compilations of last year's crime statistics.

In 1998, University Police received 367 reports of crime on Grounds, in addition to 160 alcohol, drug, and weapon violation referrals and arrests.

James Madison University received 273 reported crimes on campus and made another 293 arrests for alcohol and drug-related crimes. Virginia Tech reported 420 criminal incidents and 74 alcohol, drug and weapon arrests while the College of William & Mary saw only 186 incidents and made 103 similar arrests.

Types of crime reported included forcible sexual offenses and rapes, non-forcible sexual offenses, assaults, robberies, burglaries, arsons, vehicle thefts and, most frequently, larceny.

Officials said the different sizes of each school's campus and adjoining town is a partial explanation for the disparity in crime rates.

Charlottesville, for example, has a larger population than most of the other college towns, raising the influence of outsiders on campus crime, University Police Capt. Michael Coleman said.

Alan MacNutt, JMU director of public safety, said the JMU Police Department responds to reports made from on campus but not those that might come from their 6,500 off-campus student population.

"We have a mutual aid agreement with [Harrisonburg] city police, but we do not have concurrent jurisdiction with the city," MacNutt said. "The city handles off-campus reports."

Campus police departments throughout the state frequently collaborate through organizations like the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators and the Fraternal Order of Police, Coleman said.

But although JMU, Virginia Tech, William & Mary and the University all share programs like student escort services, safety seminars and bicycle registrations, each school also employs distinctive safety measures.

At JMU, police and school officials train and employ 50 students as police cadets to help patrol school grounds, ticket vehicles and secure buildings.

"They're more than an escort service -- they're added eyes and ears for the police service," MacNutt said.

In Charlottesville, University Police have a unique cooperative patrol agreement that allows them to patrol in about one-third of the city.

"Because the University is split up in different parts of the city, we have an agreement where if an officer sees something happening while driving between areas, he can investigate it," Coleman said. "The agreement has worked out well for both the city and the University."

Under this agreement, University Police frequently patrol and perform safety surveys in student-dominated neighborhoods like Venable and Rugby Road.

The most common agreement among campus police, however, was the importance of preventative action.

Phyllis Testerman, Virginia Tech crime prevention coordinator, said safety must be encouraged even in low-crime communities.

"The violent crime rate is very low [at Tech] as well as in the town of Blacksburg," Testerman said. "Of course, the potential is always there, and we need to be here because of it"

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