Hunter Deiglmeier – Review staff writer. Compared Linfield crime statistics from the 2006-2007 school year and 2007-2008 school year show a slight increase in various crimes: forcible sex offense, burglary and drug and alcohol referrals for discipline.
According to Linfield’s 2008 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, there were five forcible sex offenses on campus versus the one sex offense that occured the previous year and four forcible sex offenses in residence halls in 2008 and only one in 2007. In terms of burglary, 12 cases were reported in 2008, versus the nine cases on the Linfield campus in 2007. In residence halls, there were six reported cases of burglary in 2008, compared with two in 2007.
As for drug and alcohol violations, there were 77 on-campus referrals in 2008 and 86 in 2007. In the residence halls, however, there were 58 liquor law referrals in 2008 and zero in 2007. There were 18 referrals on campus in 2008 and only 11 the previus year, and there were six referrals in residence halls in 2008 and zero in 2007.
However, the statistics may not be entirely accurate.
“One of the things we need to consider about statistics is that they are based on reported statistics,” Robert Cepeda, director of Linfield Community Public Safety & Security, said. “[It may] look like an increase, but [in actuality] more students are reporting.”
Jeff Mackay, associate dean of students and director of Residence Life, said that drug violations, such as marijuana use, have increased at Linfield. However, he said that this shift has also occurred on other college campuses. Since 2006, however, Mackay said liquor law violations have decreased in general.
In an effort to prevent crime on campus, CPS changed many of its policies to increase security. It also strives to educate students and McMinnville community members.
CPS works with the McMinnville police, Area Directors, Resident Advisors and Linfield students to promote education about campus safety. CPS has also begun to patrol on foot and by bike rather than by car and now provides notice slips to students or faculty when others believe there may be a possible crime, Cepeda said.
Mackay said improvements to the card-swipe system, RA rounds, security announcements and well-lit campus will also help to enhance security.