Overall crime rates around the state fell 4 percent in 2000, according to the Michigan State Police, and MSU is seeing some of the drop.
A report released Monday said the university has seen a significant reduction in the number of burglaries on campus in the last two years as well as a continued drop in the number of reports of illegal possession of weapons.
Numbers for most other crimes remained stable.
“We always like to see reduction,” MSU police Capt. Dave Trexler said. “Over the last 10 or 12 years we’ve seen a number of them.”
The number of felonies on campus has gone down from 2,167 in 1987 to 675 in 2000.
Trexler said the department has changed crime analysis on campus to make it more effective. When they noticed an increase in the number of vehicle break-ins in past years, MSU’s Department of Police and Public Safety formed the Lot Watch program to protect cars.
By focusing on target areas, Trexler said the department can stop crimes before they cause large-scale problems.
“That’s one way we try to stay ahead of the game,” he said. “It’s a proactive type of way to deal with it instead of reactive. If you can take away the opportunity to commit crimes through education, you get crime reduction.”
Since implementing community policing at the university in the late 1980s, Trexler said the department has seen dramatic reductions in most crime categories. Additional changes in the demographics of the university may have helped reduce crime as well, he said.
“We have a little more control on a college campus through education of our community,” he said. “The staff typically are not transient, so it’s ingrained in them. We overcome student changes through constant reeducation.”
And community policing has had an impact elsewhere.
Lansing police Lt. Ray Hall said the city’s crime levels dropped when the department switched from a traditional police format to a community policing format.
The city saw a 12.4 percent reduction in crime in 2000, the third consecutive year of drops, Hall said.
“The community policing approach to law shows enforcement and good, solid police work,” he said. “We’re working harder and smarter today than we ever have.”
Although the 4 percent statewide drop in crime didn’t surprise Hall, he said the state should address the 12 percent increase in domestic violence and 9 percent increase in hate crimes.
MSU, East Lansing and Lansing all saw low, stable levels of hate crimes in 2000, or none at all. The levels of domestic violence in East Lansing dropped and remained low and stable at MSU and in Lansing.
“Both of those are disturbing trends,” Hall said. “We’re fortunate in the city of Lansing to have a large range of volunteers to work with domestic violence situations.
“Hate crimes poison the entire community. We’ve taken a zero-tolerance approach. It changes the way we feel and the way neighbors interact. It sets the wrong tone for the community.”
But Amy Alderman, a crime analyst for the Michigan State Police, said crime reporting systems have changed in recent years to include the statistics for both categories, but it is nearly impossible to get an accurate count, she said.
“I wouldn’t put much weight on them,” she said. “Agencies have to report them twice, often as an assault and as a domestic or hate crime. It’s difficult to track those numbers.”
But the overall decrease in Michigan crime follows a trend in the Midwest, she said. Crime levels in the South and Southwest have gone up, while the Midwest and Northeast have seen reductions.
“It’s amazing; almost everything is down,” she said. “Everyone has their different theories on why, but it’s hard to tell. I wish we knew, because then we could keep doing it.”
Jamie Gumbrecht can be reached at gumbrec1@msu.edu.
