Relax, already. You're actually a lot safer than you think, despite what any MSU crime statistic would like to imply.
Frankly, it's been a bad year to be a criminal at MSU. Two high profile murders in downtown East Lansing dominated our headlines last spring, an office supply larceny ring was thwarted just this past June and most recently, the MSU police have reported increases in seven categories of campus crime for the year 2003. By all other accounts, it would seem our safe, secure college town bubble is in danger of being popped.
After we take a few deep, cleansing breaths, though, we remember just how random and jumbled those killings really were, how the office supplies were taken from university buildings only, and how MSU police wrangled up more officers to enforce the law, particularly traffic offenses. When considered that there were more police to enforce the law in 2003 than years prior, it's only logical that more individuals were arrested. More people aren't necessarily evolving into practicing criminals - more practicing criminals are being caught.
So, what does it really mean when MSU police report there were 73 more felony thefts in 2003 than there were in 2002? To be sure, it's always troubling to see more crime within our hometown, but consider what figure that trend represents before double-bolting the front door and drawing the blinds. Compared to the 940 larcenies reported in 1994, the 560 of 2003 don't seem very remarkable. Granted, it's still a recent increase in campus crime, but the 10-year trend paints a different picture entirely. Crime statistics may be on the increase, but rest easy, East Lansing - we've never been that vulnerable to danger.
Campus crime rates are simply not as strong an indicator of actual crime trends that municipal crime statistics are. MSU crime rates could spike as a result of more pleasant-weather football Saturdays than dreary ones. The addition of motorcycles to the MSU police force results in more traffic stops, which invariably result in more alcohol and drug offenses. Again, the level of criminal activity is not fluctuating greatly one direction or the other. The real indication within the 2003 boost in campus crime is that there were more police officers on hand to enforce campus law.
East Lansing will always hold the idyllic connotations of a fun-loving college town. With that reputation comes a variety of responsibilities that each student and resident is held to in order to maintain our overall safety. Poorly made individual decisions will always reveal themselves in even the safest of environments, but in no way, shape or form have those poor choices indicated a greater trend of the criminalization of MSU. Next year, that system will celebrate 150 years of efficiency, and there's very little to suggest a precautionary lifestyle is ready to take root.
Crime statistics from last year certainly show that some methods of crime have become more prevalent. But overall, there's nothing to suggest that those crimes have become an omnipresent danger to this campus.
