Wright State Police vehicle | Photograph by Soham Parikh | The Guardian.
From spring of 2019 to fall of 2020, Wright State University (WSU) has seen an overall decrease in financial losses due to campus crime with minor exceptions as well as a decrease in the number of crimes reported on campus.
Financial losses
The two most common crimes reported on the WSU main campus that show a substantial monetary effect to the university are theft and larceny.
For spring and fall of 2019 combined, $35,789.97 was the reported loss for all crimes categorized as larceny or theft (a total of 43 crimes); however, the combined dollar loss for spring and fall of 2020 in this category was $13,443.56 (a total of 23 crimes).
Spring 2019 when compared to spring 2020, rendered similar financial losses despite a gap of nearly 90 crimes from 2019 to 2020, with a $94.56 increase in losses from 2019 to 2020.
The difference between fall 2019 and fall 2020 is much greater, with a 209 gap and an over $19,000 loss decrease from 2019 to 2020.
In total, the overall dollar loss reported for spring and fall 2019 semesters was $36,289.97, a mere $500 coming from crimes unrelated to theft and larceny. For the spring and fall of 2020, a total loss of $16,486.56 was reported, warranting slightly more than a $3,000 loss increase when including non-theft and larceny crimes.
Rate of crime
Similar to the financial loss decrease, the overall total of crimes on campus has also decreased from 2019 to 2020. Spring and fall of 2019 consisted of 697 reported crimes, while spring and fall of 2020 had a total of 404.
Some areas of crime have remained in a consistent range across the last two years. For example, the sex-related crime rate has consistently remained below ten reports per semester, and assault reports have remained below five per semester as well.
Other areas of crime have varied more per semester, such as “non-criminal” reports. These cases can vary from fire alarm-related issues to mental health cases. Non-criminal crimes have varied from 233 reports in spring 2019, to 241 reports in fall 2019, to 172 reports in spring 2020 and ending with 103 reports in fall 2020.
It is important to note that midway through the spring 2020 semester, students were removed from campus due to the coronavirus pandemic and a limited amount of faculty and students were allowed to resume in-person activities come fall 2020.
